Quick-load trailers for the pinta round
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• For carrying crated milk bottles a special version of the Tautliner curtain-sided body for heavy trucks has been developed by Boalloy Ltd, Congleton. Cheshire. The first three, on 40+ft-long York tandem-axle semi-trailers, have gone into service with the Lancashire group of the Milk Marketing Board's dairies division.
The MMB is the first organization to use trailers of this length for the distribution of bottled milk. Their 39+ff inside length affords room for 936 crates of milk bottles—over 17 per cent more than the previous biggest trailers would carry.
The whole object has been to get the
fullest load possible within the 32-ton gross legal limit. To do this with crates of milk bottles meant having a deck at least 39+ft long: anything longer would be beyond the 15. metres overall length limit.
Essential requirement for these long trailers was that loading and unloading could be done easily by fork-lift trucks, which needed access anywhere along the length of the trailers. The Board also wanted weather-proofing and quick loadsecurity.
To weatherproof and secure the load the Tautliner curtains are pulled closed, made taut lengthwise by turning a tensioning roller, and then pulled tight vertically by straps of nylon webbing. These straps, being behind the curtain, keep the load in place as well as fastening the curtain along the bottom.
To prevent load-shift between the stacks of crates they are divided into two rows running down each side of a steel partition on the centre-line of the trailer. This partition also acts as a central supporting spine for the one-piece roof.
In the rear bulkhead are two detachable doors so that the trailer can be unloaded from the back in an emergency. For hygiene, the trailer's floor is of reinforced plastics, kin. thick, laid directly over the trailer chassis.
Complete, the outfit weighs 5.97 tons. The body has a list price of £1250. The weight of each complete articulated vehicle, which has a Scammell handyman Leyland-engined tractive unit, is 10 tons 16+cwt.