US Style detachable goosenecks in Australia.

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . I don't see many detach goosenecks running up here in Queensland

What about down South? . . . and if they are not common why do we not need them when they seem to be almost universal in the 'States?

Personaly I just can't see the point except for very specialised applications . . . but then as you know I'm stuck in a time warp. LOL.

Any comments?

Cheers.

 

[Plant Fitter]

I have never seen one. I can't really see the point of them either. A pair of ramps seems better to me.

 

[johndeere123]

What is the max overall height in AUS?

 

[RocksnRoses]

Scrub,there used to be quite a few folding goose neck trailers around, Steco is one that comes to mind, I think the army had quite a few of them. There would be some advantages, lower height, easier loading for track machines. Some of them had the pivots welded up and were converted to rear load, in later years. The problem with the folding goose neck, was that you needed a winch to lift it up again. Swishy, down in Melbourne has detach and folding goose neck trailers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW-tpJWMv78&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwgaNLd1f7s

RnR.

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . RocksnRoses

Scrub,tower height, easier loading for track machines.

Yes mate. Guessing that's a typo and you meant lower height.

I get that but I still don't understand. Even with those US style low decks it seems a lot of complexity and B/S just to avoid having to walk a machine up a set of ramps and forward over the trailer wheels. . .when they're alive.

For special applications like recovering dead ones I can see that they'd be handy . . . but you hardly ever see them set up with a recovery winch mounted on the back.

Cheers.

 

[Tiny]

Scrub , If you don't mind put up some pics of what you have for trailers . Company I work for had a smaller tandem axle trailer with ramps for a while . Rubber tire stuff it was ok but steel tracks made it spooky .

 

[johndeere123]

It can be dangerous tracking over the rear, especially is the winter. If the trailers not level its nothing for a dozer to slide off the side and roll. Its safer and easier to just split the trailer. It might take an extra 5 minutes. Where i work you're considered lazy if you don't split the trailer and extremely lazy if you side load.

 

[willie59]

I have loaded machines on both beaver tail trailers with ramps and de-tatch as well. Splitting a de-tach is no big deal at all, really not a lot of trouble. And I would much prefer loading something like a 400 size (or bigger) excavator on a split de-tatch as opposed to walking it up ramps. jmho.

 

[CM1995]

Well Scrub the simple answer is it's a max allowable height issue. The States set the max height allowed without special permits. In most States is 13'-6" and some allow 14'6", in Alabama it's 13'6".

No federal vehicle height limit is imposed. State standards range from 13.6 feet to 14.6 feet.

Federal reference - http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/sw/overview/index.htm

Alabama regulations

(2) HEIGHT. – No vehicle or semi-trailer or trailer shall exceed in height 13 1⁄2 feet, including load.

Reference - http://www.dot.state.al.us/maweb/doc/Title32Chapter9.pdf

There are a lot of fixed neck rear ramp trailers in operation in the States, I know several local guys that's all they use. The rental houses have folding hyd tail trailers as they haul a variety of equipment but when it comes to heavy haul, a detach trailer is the most popular option. A detach gives you the extra height leeway to haul different types of equipment.

Say you are hauling a Cat 725 artic truck, it's 11.25' tall - that doesn't leave much wiggle room on the height of the trailer and keep it within the 13.5' max height regulation, if one is moving it in my area.

A detach gives the heavy haulers a more versatile trailer to haul different kinds of iron and help stay away from permits.

 

[OzDozer]

Scrub Puller - The issue is one of design to meet local conditions. I've never seen a detach on Australia, and I see no need for them. Here, we largely have newer infrastructure with plenty of clearance - apart from some of the earliest-built parts of inner Sydney and inner Melbourne.
America appears to have large amounts of infrastructure that consistently has severe restrictions on height. The Americans need to haul items with tracks nearly dragging on the road. We have very little infrastructure where there's serious height restrictions.
In the 1960's and 1970's, nearly all overhead wiring here in Australia was relocated to 16' as standard height. This gives us the ability to use trailer decks with 3' to 4' height with no major problems, with most equipment.
A rear loading trailer with ramps is very fast to load and unload, but it requires skilled operators on the part of the truck driver and the machine operator to ensure that the trailer is level, and care is taken with loading and unloading.
You haven't had loading fun, until you've driven up and over the ramps of a U.S. military trailer, that's fitted with 14.00 x 24 tyres, with an armoured D8H, in the tropical rain and mud!
It's at least 5 1/2' to the top of those ramps, and you can't see your tracks, at any time! Talk about seat pucker factor!


http://i50.tinypic.com/2cngl0g.jpg

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . Tiny. These folks make a decent trailer http://www.draketrailers.com/ pretty typical of what we use in Aus.

I ran one of their early four axle units behind this truck https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/showthread.php?24431-Scrub-pulling-tractors in about 1965 . . . the trailer you can see me slightly overloading was configured with two rows of eight which used to bend the unsupported centre section of stock grids . . . didn't make for good customer relations with the cockys and we replaced it with the Drake

OzDozer. I hear you about the operators and I think thats one of the reasons the detaches or folding goosenecks are so popular . . . they are probably seen as being "safer". To be honest I've never had a major problem with loading. I would imagine it may be a little different with snow and ice . . . I can't remember any issues in my one sojourn to the high country though.

Don't quite understand the ramp set-up on that Army float. Why so high? Some of the Freighter drop centre floats had ten hundred twenty's on the back with about six inches of tyre projecting above the deck and we just used to walk over them with the grousers, never seemed to hurt them.

johndeere123. As far as I can see the maximum legal (I suppose non-permit) height in Queensland is 4.3 meters or in Google speak 14' 1"19/64th's. As OzDozer mentions above though we have the advantage of being a younger country and much of our infrastructure is relitivly new.

Thanks for all the responses and Cheers.

 

[Tiny]

Scrub , If most of the trailers there are close to the pics on that site , Its the deck height that would kill it for us . Getting a permit for over 15 feet 4 inches takes an act of congress almost .

 

[Tiny]

An updated , Company just got the bid on a bridge repair job . They are going to have to section repair a bridge girder on the Kansas turnpike (eastbound I70 just west of Kansas City)
. A gent with a load on a lowboy hit the bridge and rolled the beam . bridge is closed for now , 14 feet 6 inches

 

[OzDozer]

You'd trust the powers that be, that control the bridges in the county, will have enough brains to install high load, early physical warnings, such as the horizontal pipes on chains, well ahead of the bridge on I70, to ensure that even the most switched-off trucker, gets a wake-up call, before he slams another load into the bridge, causing another $500,000 in damage.
We have one low bridge over a local suburban rail line - about 13' 6" from memory - and it got hit pretty regularly about every 6 mths, mostly with van body trucks.
Then came the day a trucker slammed into it with something so solid, it took a heap of bridge beams out (I never saw what it was). The authorities closed it for about 4 mths for major repair, and installed early warning pipes on chains.
Those pipes get hit about twice a month at least, often hurling the dangling pipes up and over the support beam. It sure wakes up a lot of the dozy drivers. But the bridge has never taken a hit again in the 5 or 6 yrs the early warning has been up.

 

[PhilDirt]

Over and over again - http://11foot8.com/

 

[OzDozer]

Phildirt - Yeah, I remember seeing that bridge video site. A classic! Maybe there's a need for an electronically-actuated, hammer device in the cabin, that whacks the switched-off drivers around the head, so they get back into into "switch-on" mode! LOL

 

[caterpillarRy]

the lower the center of gravity the less likely the trailer will tip simple as that

 

[Tiny]

How low can you go ??

 

[Tiny]

Thought I would updated this thread . I mentioned before that the company I work for had a bridge repair job on I70 , Major east west interstate
through Kansas ( actually runs from Utah to Maryland ). The pics will give you an idea why the detach necks trailer are a requirement . They sectioned the outside beam .

 

[Lee-online]

We use them so we can save every inch of height. 13'6" is max, 14'2" need a permit and over 14'2" needs a pole car and survey.

We can squeeze a 773/775 on a lowboy and just get it under 14'2" the park brakes are left off so when the truck leans and the tire touch they just rotate. Some overpasses are still too low so the truck has to exit and drive straight over and back on to avoid going under it.

Similar to this google pic. We sometime have to pull the front wheels. The rears stay on because they use the beam trailers and it fits between the rear wheels