For some time I’ve wondered how car transporter drivers know their vehicle height. They always look as if they’re taller than everything else and a few inches could make all the difference between striking a bridge or not. How are car transporter drivers confident that their vehicle height is safe?
ezydriver:
For some time I’ve wondered how car transporter drivers know their vehicle height. They always look as if they’re taller than everything else and a few inches could make all the difference between striking a bridge or not. How are car transporter drivers confident that their vehicle height is safe?
They have a large stick which they use to measure the height.
They actually do what every driver is supposed to do every time they change trailers or change load on a flatbed.
I followed a scrap car transport one night down the M6 and every bridge he came to he lit up as it was just scraping the top and no more.
Sam Millar:
I followed a scrap car transport one night down the M6 and every bridge he came to he lit up as it was just scraping the top and no more.
This happens with the bale blokes as well. One round here loads to 16’6’'. Following him you can hear the bales humming the bridges. Madness really.
When we used to carry Transits, we would go under a canopy where we had a ball dangling on a rope attached to a height gauge. You lowered the ball until it touched the highest point and then read the gauge…simple!
Back in the days when electricity was still being installed in rural properties we were contracted to take the contractor’s plant back to their depot in Bathgate from their last job near Ross on Wye.
One of the loads included a crane which was basically just a jib mounted on a Fordson tractor. Firing off up the M50 early on a Monday morning I was mystified to hear what I thought was the sound of a gong & kept looking in the mirrors trying to identify what was making the noise. I pulled in at Strensham services to investigate and found that the pulley on the end of the jib was just touching the underside of the motorway bridges. After I’d offered a prayer of thanks for my good luck I found that I had to start the tractor in order to lower the jib. Pat & Mick had taken the batteries off it in case they got nicked over the weekend so I had to take two six-volt batteries off my unit in order to fire up the tractor.
Since then I’ve been a bit careful when carrying high loads. 
Extending height stick that can measure every load, some depots have electronic sensors which trigger traffic lights at set heights, i.e red light is normally over 16ft. then you know to re adjust you running height. They are a pig to measure in the wind.
mikeshe:
When we used to carry Transits, we would go under a canopy where we had a ball dangling on a rope attached to a height gauge. You lowered the ball until it touched the highest point and then read the gauge…simple!
As sure as i am that the height is checked i have more than once pulled into lane two when following one of van transporters, shortly followed by some swearing. 
Yeh I use My height stick daily.If I’m 16’3 or under,that will do for Me.don’t ever go over that.My oid wagon had a bridge clear device installed.It worked of the satelites.You typed in Your height,then it beeped whenever You were close too a lower bridge than what You typed in.