stirring slowly, across the docks…
6am with a load of timber for Shoreham…
Your vehicle is the small w&d near the shoreline? Must be quite small load of wood… 
Kyrbo:
Your vehicle is the small w&d near the shoreline? Must be quite small load of wood…
Ho ho ho, very funny… 
Nice pic Mate!!! Gotta bit of Length there’ 
lovely pic 
Zetorpilot:
Kyrbo:
Your vehicle is the small w&d near the shoreline? Must be quite small load of wood…Ho ho ho, very funny…
You’re welcome 
But that’s about the nice composition in your picture and what I’d like to know is if you have familiarized yourself well with the outfit your driving? I’d be keen to hear your thoughts and findings when compared to the w&d you drove earlier (and have you got stuck much with it ).
Ok Kyrbo, Have I got stuck much with it? Now how would that be possible?
The w&d was of course really easy by comparison. This combination is ok going forwards, now that the worst of the snow and ice has gone. Reversing is more of a challenge than with the w&d. Although the basic geometry is similar, the paramaters are very different. With the w&d, the coupling is on a long overhang, and the a-frame is short. Therefore you can move the steering axle of the trailer a lot with just a small movement of the steering wheel, and everything stays nicely under control.
The artic & drawbar by contrast has a 13.6m “a-frame” if you see what I mean, and the drag’s coupling is right by the rear axle. Plus of course there is “negative tail swing” at the first bend as of course the pin is in front of the rear axle of the tractor unit.
To reverse around a corner, once the drag has started to make its turn, you need to shift the front of the semi-trailer across A LOT to keep it in control. This means that the tractor unit needs to be at a large angle to the semitrailer, so you can’t see where the rear trailer is going, and if you are following the curve well or if the drag is starting to jacknife.
Going straight back is ok provided you keep the steering movements small. Once it gets a bit out of hand you need to make enormous corrections to get it back under control again.
As far as going forwards is concerned, there isn’t much special to report. The second trailer does cut in a lot, however. This is very noticeable after driving the same length of w&d, where the trailer almost follows the same path as the prime mover.
Thanks for the comments about the picture. I was fairly pleased with it but felt it didn’t quite get the atmosphere. Another friend pointed out that there could be more detail in the sky, which is a very fair comment. This was taken with a mobile phone, which does appear to have some very limited control of the exposure. Next time I’m taking a photo into the sun like this, I’ll try a couple of shots at different exposures, and photoshop them together 
Thanks about your thoughts considering the handling. Can you say something about fuel consumption? Does this outfit run with less fuel than w&d you previously had?
Zetorpilot:
Ok Kyrbo, Have I got stuck much with it? Now how would that be possible?
Well, let’s say it was just a random though flying through my brains and I somehow ended up writing it into my post. Actually I don’t even understand why I asked that as it clearly is impossible for that vehicle to get stuck anywhere because it has such huge GVW.
Zetorpilot:
Thanks for the comments about the picture. I was fairly pleased with it but felt it didn’t quite get the atmosphere. Another friend pointed out that there could be more detail in the sky, which is a very fair comment. This was taken with a mobile phone, which does appear to have some very limited control of the exposure. Next time I’m taking a photo into the sun like this, I’ll try a couple of shots at different exposures, and photoshop them together
Yes, your friend was right about the overexposed sky, which is quite a common phenomenon with mobile’s cameras , which I suspect you used. I’d suggest you to take picture something like half an hour earlier, little before sun raises when sky and ground are evenly lit. Of course it’s somewhat difficult to be at the docks at the correct time as sky and ground are evenly lit only for few minutes at most
It seems to run at a few litres per hundred kilometres MORE. The best I could do was 35. It’s not a fair comparison though, as this vehicle only has a 400hp engine, so I have two or three more gearchanges on the hilly parts of hwy 26. Also the software on this truck doesn’t provide eco-roll, and I had found a way on the previous truck to invoke the eco-roll fractionally before the crest of each hill…
The photo is actually two taken several minutes apart at exactly the same location, and the best exposed parts of each have been layered together with photoshop. Some taken at a darker setting would almost certainly have helped.
I’ve just been told I’m back on w&d starting later this week, one of the motors is based in Imatra so it will be a much shorter commute 
Hauling quicklime as a backload though 