I regularly see cutainsiders with the curtain stretched over a projecting load. Load projecting beyond the width of the trailer floor.
Is this legal and if so is there a limit on how far the load can project - other than how far the driver can stretch the curtain?
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Yes it is legal, Normal width limit for a load is 2.9m overall or 305mm on either side of the vehicle. There are exceptions, agricultral and indivisible loads etc which if exceed this limit they hace to have additional markers and inform the Police 2 days before movement etc.
Normally all that has happend is that the goods inside have moved a bit and fallen against the side, most curtains are re-inforced so it is not normally a problem (the same happens in a box trailer, you just cant see it), you may have also seen a curtainsided bulker carrying sawdust or the like, as they carry a loose load the side always bulge a bit.
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If it is a fallen load inside the curtains, the driver can be stopped by police andinspected.
if deemed unsafe, they can be stopped from driving further; not sure if can be prosecuted though, but would assume so.
Most decent drivers will refuse a load if its bulging excessively, and will stop if load falls.
I have known of instances where a lorry has been unloaded and reloaded in nearby place because of this!
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pallets move its the law of physics
would you want stopping if your shopping moved on your way back from tesco?
zed victor 2 vectra in front we reckon shopping moved in boot can we pull it over?
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Insecure lad in extreme cases. Big fine for driver and operator is the minimum, squashed cars and people at the other end of the scale...
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to be fair the loads are ratched down but can move due to the flat floors,i cant remember an instance where a pallet came out and killed (im not talking low loaders with skids on).
also its amazing what you can carry if you are a sensible driver and nothing moves (i moved a car 100 miles last week and i missed a big stone on the car roof, it never moved)
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There is a difference between moving pallets, and falling loads, and bad loading inside curtain siders.
They all cause bulges; 1 is unsafe.
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the bigger problem i used to see was trying to get forklift drivers to understand that each waggon has to be loaded differently so as not to overload an axle they mostly thought it didnt matter once it was loaded
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One of my neighbours was killed by a roll of steel coming through the curtain and squashing his car.
I make a point of never sitting next to a curtainsider going into or leaving roundabouts - I don't care how slow I have to go, I just don't do it.
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rolls of steel always were the worst to carry as they moved all the time.the company drivers were paid more than the going rate like petrol tankers
i dont understand why they were on a curtainsider though
to answer your roundabout theory nor do i i always let the trailer in front stay in front on a roundabout or stay behind........self preservation i call it
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There has been lots of trouble with securing rolls of steel on trucks.
An ex-colleague did quite a lot of research into the subject.
His findings were that in some cases, the means of securing the rolls of steel were too stiff. "Commonsense" had dictated that something as heavy as a roll of steel had to be tied down with chains. The problem was, that as soon as the load moved or settled, the chains became slack, and the load was effectively unclamped, and any further uncontrolled sudden movement would then snap the chain. As a technical problem, it's remarkably similar to the logic of using long, elastic, cylinder head bolts to maintain sealing load under gasket settling relaxation. He recommended that a compliant, but strong webbing should be used to secure steel loads - I don't know how widely this research has permeated into current transport practice; I suspect not far! Unfortunately, "commonsense" tends not to know the difference between strength and stiffness.
Number_Cruncher
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