A taste of 38 tonnes
Page 12
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OUR ENGINEERING EDITOR, Graham Montgomerie, has been through the Transport Secretary's announcement to examine the nuts and bolts of the proposed weights increase. Much fine detail depends on the Draft Regulations expected this week.
The overall length of a tractive unit/semi-trailer combination will be increased to 15.5m (50ft 10in) from the present 15m (49ft 3in). This is to remove the coupling problems associated with sleeper cabs rather than to increase the load space on the trailer.
To emphasise this point, there will be a limit applied for the first time to trailer length at 12.2m (40fit). At the moment there has been no strict definition of trailer length — will it refer to platform length, for example? — but there are already exemptions to this including, for example, car transporters.
Another first time dimensional limit is that applied to overall height which will be set at 4.2m (13ft 91n). By way of comparison the limit set for a double-decker bus is 4.6m (15ft 1n). Mr Howell said this would affect "heavier lorries", so until the Draft Regulations become available it must be assumed that this dimension does not apply to vehicles in current use including 32.5 tonne combinations.
As part of the overall aim of making the package as environmentally acceptable as possible, drawbar outfits exceeding 32.5 tonne gross are banned. This immediately puts a stop to operators who have been limited by volume as much as by weight switching from artic outfits to rigids and drawbars. As this would entail an effective increase in length from 15m to 15.5m to the drawbar limit of 18m (59ft) it would have gone against the overall policy that "heavier lorries" will not mean bigger lorries.
Although Mr Howell has specified five axles for 32.5 tonne-plus operation, there has been no definite indication as to where this extra axle should go, beyond a Department of Transport diagram showing a threeaxle trailer.
Other sections of the overall "package" aimed at making the lorry environmentally acceptable include regulations on noise, sideguards, under-run bumpers and spray suppression.
From April 1983, new vehicles will be limited to 88d8(A) compared with the present standard of 91dB(A) for vehicles having engines with power outputs greater than 147kW (200bhp). As expected, it is the intention to reduced the noise limit to 80d "by the 1990s."
Sideguards will be com sory for all lorries opera above 32.5 tonnes and for new lorries with a gvw of rr than 3.5 tonnes as from Oct( 1983, and used from April 1 No further modifications Ibeen made to the original cor tative document so it must bE sumed that the one to impact requirement "without formation" is still included.