Try driving in rural Australia, B-doubles are very common: Prime mover (cab unit) plus short articulated semi trailer pulling a closely connected full sized semi trailer. Will travel at anything upto and beyond the 100kph speed limit.
Alternatively on both sealed and dirt roads in western NSW, Queensland and NT or SA you might be unlucky enough to meet a road train, prime mover with up to three (length is the limiting factor...50metres IIRC) trailer units all moving at 100kph. Cars not surprisingly give way under all circumstances. Never saw one in reverse mind you!
Ian L.
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From what is stated appears to be an unlawful combination.
A heavy motor car is allowed to pull 2 trailers if one is a towing implement and part of the other is secured to or either rests on or is suspended from the implement. ( i.e. artic unit, its trailer and another trailer)
One trailer in any other case
(Reg 83 Con and Use Regs 1986)
Whereas a locomotive can pull three trailers (Fairground wallahs)
DVD
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Could the horsebox be concieved as a circus / showmans locomotive. If they can find an excuse that it is a performing animal.
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Enter Ringmaster to roll of drums and flashing lights..
Liedies und Gentlemens your haytension pleeze
Locomotive is a mechanically propelled vehicle not itself constructed to carry load other than equipment for propulsion, loose tools and loose equipment.
Light loco: UW more than 7320kg and not moe than 11,690Kg
Heavyt loco: UW exceeding 11.690kg
Hey thenk yew.
DVD
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Please Mr Ringmaster, is the heavy locomotive different then from the heavy motor car in your previous post? You said it could pull 2 trailers. Surely a motor car can carry things other than tools etc - passengers? And how heavy is a heavy motor car?
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Cliff
There are as many definitions of the various vehicles in Con and Use as there are fivers in HJ's wallet and it bulges I'm told.
To answer your query a quick run down other than 2 wheels:
Motor car - not being an invalid carriage, motor tractor, motor cycle and constructed for carriage of passengers or load u.l.w. not exceeed.
More than 7 passengers 3050 kgms
Goods or burden 3050kgms
Any other case 2450kg
Heavy motor car not being a motor tractor,locomotive or motor car
constructed to carry load or passengers ulw exceeds 2540 kms.
Motor Tractor not constructed to carry load other than equipment for propulsion, loose tools and equipment ulw not exceeding 7370kgms
Light and Heavy locomotive - already dealt with. Heavy motor cars cannot be locos as they can carry load or passengers.
Does that help?
DVD
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Thanks DVD. So although a heavy motor car could technically pull 2 trailers, one would be very unlikely to encounter anything like that because cars are not designed to have any weight resting on them, cf the front bit of an artic?
I suppose some bits of agricultural or industrial equipment might come into that category, where the weight rests as much on the towing point as on the wheels. I've seen LandRovers moving balers with trailers attached, and a mobile pump with its pipes etc in a little trailer behind.
Not normal car stuff though, even though my ex-army trailer does have a hook on the back for coupling on another!
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Yup
met a road train at speed in WA, loaded with sheep headed for Freemantle docks and then to the middle east (the smell of the sheep ships is like nothing on earth!)
It was on a red top (thats WA red dust) road - the only place to go is in the ditch. (they have BIG ditches - wide and deep enough for a car - a ford laser in this instance)
Its not unknown for the drivers of the road trains to be driving all night relying on errr "certain medications" to stay awake.
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RF,
We caught up with one in NW Queensland, decided that getting within
400m was inadvisable due to the dust thrown up and passing would be impossible/suicidal so pulled over for a break and let the road train get ahead. Because the trailers are not closely connected like a semi, but doubly articulated (towpoint and pivoting axle) the trailers can suddenly move sideways due to the road conditions add that to the grit and dust overtaking is not a safe option.
The Queensland strip roads are also fun....dirt road is prepared 3 trucks wide but they only seal (tarmac) the central third which everyone drives down. Two cars passing tend to slow down and pass
half on the tarmac, half one the dirt. But in the case of the road train and car, the car pulls off onto the dirt and stops and lets the road train take the crown of the road without even slowing down.
In one petrol stop (next town 880km) we watched four road trains pull off in formation and park alongside each other. All full of cattle, the noise and stinck was unbelievable.
The Oz authorities are trying to crack down on overnight truck drivers...too many make it from Sydney to Perth in a little over 48 hours!
Ian L.
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Road trains aren't that bad. You get used to being on the same road as them. You just have to allow a bit more overtaking space when you want to pass them and don't even think about it on a dirt road.
They would be fine on your motorway system. I am surprised your road transport operators aren't pushing to bring them in.
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Expat,
ISTR that road trains are only allowed on certain roads, mainly rural and major highways. They would simply be incompatible even with Australian towns and roundabouts.
Even B-doubles are not allowed on all minor roads although they cope with roundabouts ok.
The issue in the UK is an upper weight limit (not the axle weight which I think would be ok) and the accessibility to very long vehicles of most roundabouts and junctions (even on motorways). Also the prime movers used in Oz are about twice the size of a standard cab unit in the UK.
I agree about getting used to road trains and overtaking on two carriageway sealed roads, my comments were really reserved for strip and unsealed roads.
regards
Ian L.
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You are right about needing permits for overlength vehicles, b doubles, road trains, etc. However the Main Roads Dept here in WA seem to hand them out like lollies. I live in a small town on the Great Eastern Highway between Perth and Kalgoorlie. We used to get all the interstate trucks coming through our main street until a couple of years ago when they put in a bypass. The b doubles went right through the town, shopping centre and all. The road trains were supposed to hitch on the second trailer just east of town but we saw plenty of them driving through. You would need to have a depot near the turnoff from the motorway to form up the trucks and separate them again afterwards but nothing I have seen on pommie motorways would faze a road train driver. Yes you would need bigger prime movers to haul a road train but Volvo and competitors would soon offer them if they thought they would sell. You don't have to have three dog trains you know. They are mostly used way out in the bush. Two dog trains are used on major roads on the outskirts of Perth. I admit roundabouts would be a problem.
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WA has signed and approved road train routes when you get to the Perth/Freemantle areas.
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I lived in rural NSW, just outside town on the Newell highway was a truck layby and a sign indicating that road trains were permitted on this road towards Narrabri but no further towards c***abarabran.
Similarly from Gilgandra westwards towards Broken Hill there were signs saying that road trains now permitted and a layby for eastbound trucks to leave a trailer for later collection. Not many road trains eastwards of the Newell highway, but plenty westwards.
Ian L.
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