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Combitrailer's gam( of two halve!
Page 16
Page 17
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• Considering all the different sizes of containers and swap bodies in use, it's somewhat ironic to think that containerisation was meant to provide standardised loads. Faced with having to haul 20, 30, 40 or even 45ft boxes, flats or ISO tanks, never mind a 13.6m swap body, empty or laden, it's no wonder that inter-modal hauliers end up tearing their hair out.
Creating the perfect skeletal that can carry any combination of the above has prompted trailer makers to offer all manner of solutions including extendible, rolling-bogie and sliding-frame designs along with pull-out/fold-over twin position front and rear twistlocks for maximum flexibility.
Being able to haul a "heavy" 20ft box on a triaxle skelly yet still have easy access to its back doors is bad enough. But what if you're carrying two 20-footers? It's virtually impossible to load or unload both simultaneously at a loading dock.
Dutch trailer maker Nooteboom's unusual Combitrailer is effectively two semi-trailers, joined together by an extendible central box-section beam, that can be "split" between the central twist locks once a manual locking device is released.
Designed to operate at up to 44 tonnes GCW with either a 4x2 or 6x2 tractor, the four or five-axle Combitrailer can tackle a variety of boxes from two 20-footers up to a single 45-footer (with or without a tunnel) or a 13.6m swap body. And thanks to a 120mm neck it can also handle high-cube boxes.
The Combitrailer's rear portion is normally equipped wtth a triaxle Mentor bogie as standard with a steering r axle as an option. The front section hi lifting axle at the front and a self-trac at the rear which can also be raised.
To load or unload both boxes at same time the driver simply backs complete Combitrailer up to the 'oat dock, winds down the double landing I on the rear portion and separates it fr the front, thereby giving free acces: the front container which can unloaded somewhere else.
tithe tractor is needed for other w the front trailer can also be dropp once its swing-down parking legs are deployed. To reconnect the trailer the driver simply backs the front unit onto the rear, locks them together, joins the air and electric lines and is ready to roll.
The Combitrailer is sold in this country through Burscough, Lancashirebased Allen Munro Commercials-Nooteboom's UK multi-modal chassis distributor. Sales manager Bernard Hushion reports: "It's generating as much interest from owner-drivers as it is from the big fleets. The benefits to the UK market are that you can off-load or re-load two 201t boxes at two different destinations, hence cutting down on downtime. You can have it as either a four or five-axle."
Price for a five-axle Combitrailer, which tares out at around 8.2 tonnes with the two self-steering axles, is around 135,000. "It's more expensive than a single trailer but you get the extra flexibility." Hushion explains.
Pioneers
Felixstowe-based MJ Graves has been running a five-axle Combitrailer with a 6x2 Daf 95 Series at 44 tonnes for a number of months and has two more on order. Boss Martin Graves says: "We're pioneers with it—we had one of the first." The ability to load or unload two boxes at separate sites or even at the same place using the same trailer was a strong buying factor for Graves.
Up until the arrival of the Combitrailer the only practical way to do it was to use a drawbar. But Graves reports it's not