Q While travelling recently in Switzerland
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I noticed how popular the rigid eightwheeler hauling an eight-wheeled trailer had become and how small were the tanker bodies fitted to both the vehicle and trailer by British standards. Why is this?
AThe reason why eight-wheeled tractors
and eight-wheeled trailers are so common in Italy is that each is allowed to gross 22 tons so making 44 tons for the combination. In contrast, artics are limited to 32 tons, a three-axle chassis to 18 tons and a twoaxle chassis to 14 tons.
However, most of the eight-wheelers in use are conversions of fouror six-wheel rigids and not even Fiat produces a complete eight-wheeler.
We are surprised that you found small tanker bodies usually fitted to such combinations because this has not been our experience in Italy. It is possible that some heavy liquid is a common load in the area you happened to be in possibly bitumen or similar. Alternatively, it could have been that the tanks you saw were pressurized.