Boden Build a 50400ter
Page 43
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ATANDEM-AXLE semi-trailer with a deck length -of -50 ft. has recently been completed by Boden Trailers, Ltd., Oldham, Lanes. The trailer was built to the special order of Ridings, Ltd., 60 Queen Street, Hulme, Manchester, who will be using it for carrying fabricated steel sections in long continuous lengths. Hitherto these fabrications had been carried on bolsters, with a separate bogie at the tail of the load. It had been found.
however, that this method sometimes caused damage to the load, therefore a continuous deck of 50 ft. was felt to be the only method of ensuring safe delivery.
The semi-trailer is unusual for one of this size in having no stringers or tie bars beneath the main frame section, and the length of the trailer accentuates this lack of under-framing. The main side members are ig-in.-thick high-tensile-steel pressings with flush, gusseted joints. The maximum depth is 15 in. and the flanges are 31 in. wide. These channel fabrications are stiffened by angle irons welded to the insides of the top and bottom flanges to form, in effect, a large C-section
frame. The angles are 3 in. by 2 in. by 1in., and those under the top flanges run the full length of the frame: the bottom angles extend from just behind the support legs to behind the bogie mountings.
The semi-trailer is designed for operation at a gross train weight of 24 tons behind a Foden heavy-duty tractive unit. It is equipped with 10.00-20 (16-ply) tyres, and the Girling two-leading-shoe camactuated brakes arc operated through a two-line air-pressure system. The brakes are 151-in.-diameter units and the linings are 6 in. wide..
The 50-footer has a Hendrickson rubber-sprung bogie, which offers several advantages over steel-sprung bogies, including low variation between laden and unladen deck heights, lack of need for lubrication and, because of the layout of walking beams and radius arms, reduced tendency for wheel hop to occur when braking.
The overall width is 7 ft. 6 in., and the semi-trailer has pressed-steel rave rails and a cross-timbered deck made with softwood planking. An S.A.E./S.M.M.T. fifth-wheel king-pin is fitted, and Baden vertical-screw landing gear is used. The complete semi-trailer has an unladen weight of 5 tons 7.1 cwt., so that it should be able to carry a legal payload of over 13 tons.