Clip-on platform body makes skeletals more versatile
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TO enable container-carrying semi-trailers to be used for general freight, Highway Trailers (Great Britain) Ltd., Southampton, have produced the Switcher Body, following prolonged prototype testing.
The innovation represented by this development is that the body is designed to clip on to a container-carrying chassis through the twist locks at the four corners of the semi-trailer, thus converting it into a standard platform unit.
Measuring 8ft 2fin. wide, the Switcher Body has a length coinciding with the dimensions of ISO containers 1A, IB and 1C. With an all-welded framework, it has 4-in.deep pressed-steel cross-bearers at a 2ft pitch. Highway cold-rolled steel side raves are obtainable either raised or flush.
The floor is of 11-in. nominal hardwood, laid longitudinally and there is a forwardbraced 2ft-high capped and radiused headboard with no-intrusion side irons.
Four special gussets are fitted to the corners of the flat with holes conforming to ISO corner casting dimensions. Four lifting rings on the platform enable the flat to be lifted off the semi-trailer when empty.
Mr. Frank Saville, Highway market development manager, commenting on the introduction of the Switcher Body, said last week: "It provides a practical answer to the objections raised by fleet operators when confronted with the problem of whether to invest in container-carrying trailers which, normally, cannot be used for any other type of work."
He added that the Switcher Body should not be confused with a Lancashire flat which was a flat platform designed to be lifted fully laden and, as such, incurred a weight penalty when used unladen.