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Wickham-Poole Quick-Hitch system goes on the road
Page 64
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AS reported briefly in last week's issue the Wickham-Poole range of articulated transport equipment initially designed for off-road use with cross-country tractors has now been extended to cover both on-road and off-road use.
The first normal-goods chassis to be adapted is the Ford D800 tractive unit and the development has been carried out by Wickham Engineering Co. Ltd. with the co-operation of Ford's special vehicle order department.
The main feature of the Wickham-Poole system is the coupling between the tractive unit and semi-trailer. This consists of a hinged pintle mounted at the rear of the tractive unit behind the driving axle which locates in a gook-neck extension at the front of the semitrailer.
As the towing vehicle is reversed into the semi-trailer and the pintle locates in the extension housing, the front of the semi-trailer is raised from the ground to relieve weight from the landing legs and the pintle is then locked into position.
The name given to the coupling is the QuickHitch and the design is the same on the Ford as it is on farm and industrial tractors for which the system was introduced about a year ago.
A wide range of semi-trailer equipment has been developed by Wickham for use with the system and includes a concrete skip, concrete mixer, straddle carrier as well as various lengths of flat-deck semi-trailers.
The latest was shown at last week's demonstration—a flat-bed semi-trailer for loads of 6 tons and above. It has large-size tyres to give good flotation over soft ground.
Like the rest of the Wickham-Poole equipment this unit can be used to transport goods over roads and to difficult sites without trans-shipping the load from one vehicle to another.
On the demonstrations a County 4 x 4 tractor picked up the semi-trailer after it had beenclropped by the Ford tractive unit and delivered it on the last stage of its journey over fields impassable for a normal road vehicle. HAMBLIN'S Garage Rushden, has added mainly 5-ton dropsides its self-drive hire fleet.