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With transport minister Stephen Ladyrnan expected to take a decisbn
Page 58
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within the next few weeks on whether to allow road trials of longer and heavier trucks in the UK, the collection of three dimension-busting rigs at the trials was particularly timely.
At 31m long with 11 axles and running at 82 tonnes GCW Stan Robinson's roadtrain was the biggest. but also the least sophisticated of the trio.
With a tandem-axle dolly hooked onto the back of the first trailer to support the nose of the second it has no steering at the back of the combination and so failed to negotiate the turning corridor to which vehicles must currently comply the cut-in of its second trailer clearly breached the inner turning radius of 5.3m.
Denby Transport's eight-axle 25m B-double outfit was more sophisticated with a second trailer towed via a fifth-wheel behind the shortened bodywork on the first trailer. It managed to stay within the corridor with almost half a metre to spare as the positively steered tandem axle bogie on the first trailer prevented excessive cut-in.
But the easy winner was the 18.75m artic featuring the innovative semitrailer from Silvertip Design of Richmond in North Yorkshire and built by Don-Bur.
Coupled to a Oaf CF85.430 6x2 tractor from supermarket chain Morrisons, the 16m trailer never threatened the inner radius thanks to the clever steering mechanism that steers the rear-most axe without any link to the tractor.
At 82 tonnes gross and with a payload of about 58 tonnes Stan Robinson's MAN TGA 26,530-powered roadtrain achieved 4.92mpg on the high-speed section of the BTAC trial. It used 54% more fuel than when running as a conventional six-axle 44-tonner, but carried twice the payload.
With its focus on cube rather than weight for these tests, the Denby rig ran at 33 tonnes COW with a payload of just nine tonnes. Its Scania 124.420 6x2 tractor achieved 8.85mpg a creditable figure for an outfit offering 21m of deck length on a single level and more than 140m3 of volume.
Also running at 33 tonnes GCW, the Mornsons Daf/Silvertip 16m trailer combination managed an impressive 9.75mpg. It is shorter than the Denby rig, but has fewer bulkheads, giving it an aerodynamic advantage. But if you relate fuel used to cargo volume, Denby's roadtrain has the edge.
The results from all three big outfits at BTAC must sound tempting as Stephen Ladyrnan ponders the merits of bigger trucks against a backdrop of spiralling global oil prices.