Weight balancing hire car trailers.

In my experience of hiring trailers for carrying cars is that they are all made extremely heavy in an attempt to reduce the chance of damage to them, which impacts on their carrying capacity. Most wouldn't be legal with an 88" Land Rover on them, as the maximum weight is 1990kg unless they are fitted with electric brakes and a breakaway brake. I considered fabricating my own car trailer, but unless you have good lifting gear at hand they are heavy work when it comes to flipping them over etc. I considered a few second hand ones, but most were either junk or made of unobtainium if the were any good. I ended up purchasing a new one from a mob in Melbourne, probably cheaper than I could have made one for, and so far so good. I mainly cart 88's on it, with motors, without motors, and sometimes with Holden motors in them, so the weight distribution varies. Occasionally tractors too. I have spray painted marks on the floor so that I know where to park the vehicles for their best position.

As for transporting that 109 I agree it would have been more comfortable reversed onto the trailer and reduced the amount of diaphoretic moments your palms experienced.


Slightly off track, but if ever transporting an early diesel tractor on a trailer or truck, ensure the shut-off is tied in the "off" position.
A diesel tractor in low gear, rocking to and fro on a trailer, can easily start. Last thing you want to see in the rear vision mirror, is a tractor negotiating the "A" frame of the trailer. ;)

Cheers, Mick.

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Originally Posted by mick88

In my experience of hiring trailers for carrying cars is that they are all made extremely heavy in an attempt to reduce the chance of damage to them, which impacts on their carrying capacity. Most wouldn't be legal with an 88" Land Rover on them, as the maximum weight is 1990kg unless they are fitted with electric brakes and a breakaway brake. I considered fabricating my own car trailer, but unless you have good lifting gear at hand they are heavy work when it comes to flipping them over etc. I considered a few second hand ones, but most were either junk or made of unobtainium if the were any good. I ended up purchasing a new one from a mob in Melbourne, probably cheaper than I could have made one for, and so far so good. I mainly cart 88's on it, with motors, without motors, and sometimes with Holden motors in them, so the weight distribution varies. Occasionally tractors too. I have spray painted marks on the floor so that I know where to park the vehicles for their best position.

As for transporting that 109 I agree it would have been more comfortable reversed onto the trailer and reduced the amount of diaphoretic moments your palms experienced.


Slightly off track, but if ever transporting an early diesel tractor on a trailer or truck, ensure the shut-off is tied in the "off" position.
A diesel tractor in in low gear, rocking to and fro on trailer, can easily start. Last thing you want to see in the rear vision mirror is a tractor negotiating the A frame of the trailer. ;)

Cheers, Mick.

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Great advice but it begs the question, how do you know this [bigwhistle]

I have to hire the trailer to take a Fergie to NSW at some stage so I'll put the Series III on again round the other way and see how it handles.

I need to rebuild the suspension on the Disco as unladen it drives with the same feeling you get driving a DAF cab over where it feels like you're wobbling all over the road.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mick88

Slightly off track, but if ever transporting an early diesel tractor on a trailer or truck, ensure the shut-off is tied in the "off" position.
A diesel tractor in low gear, rocking to and fro on a trailer, can easily start. Last thing you want to see in the rear vision mirror, is a tractor negotiating the "A" frame of the trailer. ;)

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Thanks for the tip. They do start very easily. [bigwhistle]

Weeeelllll.
I've finally had time to look at the forum (after putting the popcorn on) to find I'd maybe opened a can....
I just stated what happened to me in 2016 when my deefer was tilt trayed to Pt Augusta in SA. As I stated, the coppers pulled him over and fined him somewhere in the vicinity of +$800 for not having the load properly secured.
That's what happened - I was there.
Was it correct interpretation of the law/legislation/guideline? I have no idea, but I wish I had at the time; I really felt sorry for the truck driver who, went out of his way to help us that day and imo, my truck was well secured.
If that copper was working off a guideline (whilst teaching a rookie) old mate should have been able to get off the fine.
Wish I'd posted this earlier!

Anyways, there's always something new to learn isn't there?

Col

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Originally Posted by Colmoore

I just stated what happened to me in 2016 when my deefer was tilt trayed to Pt Augusta in SA. As I stated, the coppers pulled him over and fined him somewhere in the vicinity of +$800 for not having the load properly secured.
That's what happened - I was there.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Colmoore

Apparently the law in SA states that you must overstrap each wheel down to the deck when towing.

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Two completely different things in the eyes of the law.
One is general in method and the other is specific in method

Quote:

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248 Load restraint requirement
(1) The following requirements apply to a vehicle that is carrying a load—
(a) the load must be secured by a means that is appropriate to the vehicle and the nature of the load; and
(b) the load must be placed and secured on the vehicle in a way that prevents or would be likely to prevent, the load or any part of the load from—
(i) hanging or projecting from the vehicle;
or
(ii) becoming dislodged or falling from the vehicle; and
(c) the load must not be placed or secured on the vehicle in a way that makes the vehicle unstable.
(2) In proceedings for an offence against the Act in respect of the contravention of a load restraint requirement, evidence of non-compliance with the performance standards recommended in the Load Restraint Guide, Second Edition 2004, published by the National Transport Commission, is admissible in evidence.

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Considering how many bits and pieces you see hardly tied down on the back of utes and 6x4 trailers you'd wonder if the Police actually cared how things are tied down.

Only last year I had to swerve out of the way of a dining table that came off a ute on the Princes Highway. Fortunately it was on a dual section but was incredibly hard to spot until it was almost too late.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LRT

Considering how many bits and pieces you see hardly tied down on the back of utes and 6x4 trailers you'd wonder if the Police actually cared how things are tied down.

Only last year I had to swerve out of the way of a dining table that came off a ute on the Princes Highway. Fortunately it was on a dual section but was incredibly hard to spot until it was almost too late.

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Passed a funny one last night. A Holden ute shell on a tandem. Two straps over the body. Tub of the ute shell was full of miscellaneous items. Driver was out of the car readjusting the straps. About a km up the road, there was a police car that had a white van pulled over. My guess is the fellow towing the trailer had passed the police car and was attempting to make his load appear more secure in case the police car decided to turn around.
I guess the police would have been interested had something else not taken their attention.

A few years ago I had to brake heavily to avoid a wheel barrow that fell off the tradies ute in front of me. Had I been in my ute at the time, I would have scored a rather good wheel barrow.

Reminds me of a funny scene I saw today. An officer sprinted down the road shouting, "You can't park there" at a man. The man pointed at the sign and said, "Yes I can. " The officer looked at the sign, shook his head and said, "You're right, you can. " And walked off.

Having built my own car/plant trailer after hiring ones that weren’t suitable. Either deck size or weight rating, normally both. It did take a while to build it as we were only doing it in free time.

But I ended up with an awesome trailer, 3500kg rated with dual 12” electric brakes, 6m x 2m deck, Hydraulic tilt.

Having the 6m deck length means I have always been able to shift the load to the perfect spot on the trailer. I do as Slunnie suggested measure the coupling height, also do the front wheel arch height before loading, and look at the overall layout. Then load up and move the load appropriately. My D2 has SLS and pumps the back end up when you start up but having the front wheel arch height you quickly verify if these is too much towbar down force.
Always towed beautifully just taking the bit of extra time even with short trips.

I have attended a number of FATAL traffic accidents due to incorrectly loaded trailers swaying out of control and taking out other innocent road users, just because someone was too lazy to load their trailer correctly. So take your time and don’t be lazy, if you cant do it properly pay for a tilt tray etc.....