Merriworth 's new VP trailer
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• The variable purpose semi-trailers made by Merriworth (Engineering) Ltd., of London Road, Stone, Dartford, Kent, have been redesigned to provide higher payload capacities.
The VPs, as they are known, are designed to be able to carry general goods or containers. The differences in the latest designs are that, instead of the units being built as container carriers and then being decked over to permit general loose goods to be carried, they are primarily constructed as general goods vehicles, specially reinforced for container carrying. An example of the saving in weight from the new design of the 40ft-long version, for instance, is in the region of 4cwt, while approximately E30 is taken off the cost.
Although the units are lighter than their predecessors, they are still amply strong enough to carry densely loaded 20ft containers, placing high-load factors over a relatively short length of the deck. Cross beams, which run the full width of the trailers at the points supporting the corners of containers carried, are some 50 per cent lighter. Instead of using heavy box-section bearers, featured on the skeletals, the new models have I-section beams picking up on the full depth of the main frames and tapered away to the twist lock pads.
For the present the new designs are available with payload capacities of from 16 to 24 tons. It is expected that a 30-ton payload version will be available shortly.