Harris goes from pillar to postless
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• Harris Road Services, a subsidiary of the newly formed Harris-Reliance, Transport Development Group distribution company, has become the first customer for a new type of pillarless curtain-sided trailer from Don-Bur.
The Stoke-on-Trent based trailer and bodybuilder uses steel cables running inside special extruded cant rail sections to tension the roof structure of its Pillarless Palletmaster. A 75mm-diameter steel tube bows upwards along the trailer's centre line to support the roof panel from front bulkhead to rear door aperture. Additional roof strength comes from diagonal bracing tubes and 1.5mm-long corner gussets.
Don-Bur says the roof is strong enough, even without the usual support pillars, to withstand the stresses imposed by load restraint straps, which are hung from the 75mm centre tube.
The major advantage claimed for the new design compared with other types of pillarless curtainsider is that it can be built with greater internal height, because the roof is no deeper than with a conventional body.
The Harris trailer has a clear side aperture height of 2.93mm. Managing director Ken Broster says the 12.2m curtain sider was designed to be highly versatile. "Many of our customers find trailers with side support pillars interfere with their pallet loading operations. Similarly, other customers find that centre support pillars are equally disadvantageous," he says.