Braking
Oh and the SA trailer is un braked. So even with 4.5 tonnes of AACO pulling it along....very slowly through the hills I might add...it was next to impossible to stop.
AACO's have air over hydraulic brakes and are usually too agressive on braking ( like everyone goes through the windscreen ), but with the 3 tonnes of carrier and 1 tonne of trailer, I had no chance of slowing it down in a hurry.
AND another thing. A carrier is already roughly 2 metres wide ( maybe not quite ), but nearly as wide as a modern truck and definately as wide as a Blitz.
With the design of these trailers trying to keep the carrier as low as possible for safety of loading and transport with a lower centre of gravity, the axles and tyres are outside the width of the carrier rather than beneath.
This means that with the size tyres required for the weight ( In this case I think they were 12.00 x 20" ) the width of the trailer exceeds the maximum permissable width for the roads here in SA / Australia - 2.5 metres. ( Albeit, only by a couple of hundred millimetres / a few inches )
Subsequently, it is considered a wide and dangerous load and as a consequence the trailer must be flagged on the rear corners, the truck must carrier wide load signage front and rear, have a flashing beacon on the roof of the truck and can only travel in daylight hours. So travelling to and from an event becomes rather difficult, unless time is no problem.
And, the trailers had no guards over the wheels, which causes the authorities these days to have a coronary episode.
Pedr
Picture show view up the side of the trailer past AACO towing tractor.
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