Tractors go for a stretch
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• With 16.5-metre artics due to arrive on 1 January, longer wheelbase tractors are becoming the order of the day, most recently from Volvo, Seddon Atkinson and MAN.
Volvo is offering its sleepercabbed FL7 and FL10 tractors with the option of a 3.8m wheelbase: F1O/F12 models with a 3.7m wheelbase; and the F16 with a 3.6m wheelbase option. A 3.8m FL10 tractor is on the company's stand at the Scottish Motor Show.
These options are designed for hauliers planning to run with semi-trailers up to 13.6m long. Volvo has produced a data pack with details on how to operate at the new lengths. It will also be staging a series of "16.5m Roadshows" between now and Christmas.
From next month all Seddon Atkinson Strato tractors with sleeper cabs will be available with a 3.8m wheelbase.
MAN is to offer a 3.5m option for its right-hand-drive F90 range. The longer wheelbase adds little more than 45kg to the kerbweight of an F90 tractor, says MAN, and, except for trailers with unusual kingpin positions, the 3.5m F90 will be able to couple up with most semi-trailers — including 13.6m models — within the 16.5m overall length limit. 1:1 Following the recent debut of a prototype MAN F90 highroof cab MAN-VW is looking to offer a production version in the UK on the right-hand-drive F90 before the end of next year.
Turning circle requirements for the 16.5m artic will not apply to outfits using trailers built or stretched before 1 April 1990, or to those of 15.5m or less.
Special rules will also apply to car transporters, whose maximum swing radius (from the pin to the corner of the forepeak) will be limited to 4.19m. The 12.5m outer and 5.3m inner radius limits must be met, but forepeak protrusion will be ignored.
Low-loadef artics built to carry abnormal loads, where the major part is on a platform that does not extend above the top of the tyres or between the wheels, will have an 18m maximum length. Swing radius, pin-to-rear and turning circle limits will not apply.
The existing exemption will continue to apply to combinations and trailers built specifically for carrying indivisable loads of exceptional length. Turning circle requirements will not apply to these outfits.