Bigger trailers..
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"WE HAVE a different type of heavy haulage over here," says Mr R. Hyde. "If we want to carry over 25 tonnes, the units have to be much larger. Most of your rigs are two and three rows of twin tyres on the trailers. Our trailer has hydraulic suspension giving about 20kg equalization between each row of eight. It has a deck length of 33ft and a width of 10ft."
Mr Hyde is a transport manager of Ground Work Ltd, earth-moving and demolition contractor, Wellington. The company has two large contractors and a quarry to back up the contracting side of its business.
The fleet consists of: Two 2632K Mercedes tractive units doing around 52,000 to 59,000 miles annually. "These lorries, landed in New Zealand, cost around $40,000 as a tractive unit. For us to purchase after the Government has put the tax on costs us approximately $98,000 as a tractive unit only," says Mr Hyde. "We are finding it cheaper to do all re-powers ourselves than to buy new." Two 1319 Merc lOyd units — both pull tipping trailers One 1418 Merc 10yd unit — air-lift axle at the back; One 2223 Merc with Tipulator Bathtub-type trailer built by Domett Frauehauf; carrying capacity 20yd; 2624 Merc with similar trailer plus 10yd trailer behind the semi unit.
Three Paystar 5000 Internationals which pull1Oyd tipping trailer behind the semi. Not as good on off-road work as they have only a power divider unit.
Tandem drive is a must for getting on and off construction sites in the wet. For a recent. contract, 1,000,000 yards of earth were moved five miles in 18 months: seven units worked 11 hours for five days and eight hours for the sixth. The average daily number of loads per unit was 30 tips carrying 13m.
"A lot of heavy hauliers, over here, use an axle combination of one row of eight, an air bag type, with the other two rows of eight walking beam-type; this combination does not always work out for equalisation as the air bag axle does not share its weight of the load. It has been shown by the Ministry of Works that the hydraulic type suspension is the best under present National Roads Board conditions.
"I designed the trailer we now have. It is the only one in our area in which the deck height can be raised and lowered 6in to allow self-unloading, such as transformers, etc."
Mr Hyde has sent CM a copy of a booklet issued by the New Zealand Ministry of Transport on Metric Weight Limits (see illustration).
"If," he says, -the weight to