Artic trailers for Milk Board
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• The Milk Marketing Board for Northern Ireland is experimenting with two Volvo 4x2 tractive units coupled to single steered axle semitrailers in an effort to replace its fleet of tri-axled and tandem-axled rigid tankers.
Its tankers are usuallly operated for eight years before the stainless steel tanks are remounted on new chassis for a second life. Using articulated tanker trailers for longer periods would eliminate the high cost of remounting and refurbishment.
A larger (15,000-litre) tank provides a 1,360-litre advantage over the three-axled rigid chassis, while the articulated combinations are proving to be just as manoeuvrable.
With the Clayton tanker trailer on the Capper and Lamb steered axle (coupled to a Volvo FL616 unit) or the Wincanton trailer on a Hendrickson Norde axle (with an lveco Ford Cargo 3224 unit) steering is automatically controlled via connecting rods from the fifth wheel coupling to reduce cut-in on tight turns.
Both vehicles are equipped with anti-lock braking systems and the tanks are equipped with baffles, allowing the milk to be drawn by an hydraulically driven vacuum pump into the front section. This puts the weight over the drive axle to increase traction.