The Italian take on a wagon and drag:
Usually a 6X4 or 8X4 rigid (mostly it was a Fiat) coupled to a “A” frame drawbar trailer. The trailer had either 2 or 3 or 4 axles. These things operated at 44,000Kgs GVW.
Note: a 5 axle artic was also 44,000Kgs GVW in Italy at the time. 
Historical note: we’d only just put the 3rd axle on a trailer and gone to 38,000Kgs GVW at the same time.
I took these pics on the Italian A22 (Brenner to Emilia Romagna) From the landscape I’d say the pic was taken somewhere just North of Trento.
I’m looking for another pic from this era (temporarily mislaid 
) It’s one of the same, but both parts are petrol tankers. I remember it being a good quality pic. I’ll post it when I find it.
Surprised to see you being overtaken by the second one Dave, the ones I used to see up in the mountains (RHD mostly) seemed to have only a few, (very low) gears and would grind up at a snail’s pace. Can’t imagine that would have given them much speed on the autostradas.
Spardo:
Surprised to see you being overtaken by the second one Dave, the ones I used to see up in the mountains (RHD mostly) seemed to have only a few, (very low) gears and would grind up at a snail’s pace. Can’t imagine that would have given them much speed on the autostradas.
Yes Spardo, you’re right on all points. I’d gone past that guy and realised I’d like to get a piccy so I slowed and let him overtake. You’ll know what I mean when I say those old RHD Fiats had a sound all of their own. Whilst I worked in Italy I asked my boss about the large number of RHD trucks. His answer was that, at one time in Italy, all commercials <3,500 had to be RHD.
I used to have to take my turn at doing locals, and for this I was given an RHD twin-steer Fiat tractor unit of a similar type to the rigids in the photos. Twin-steer with no power steering through the Turin traffic Locals was delivering and collecting trailers to/from Turin customs (near the football stadium) hopping over to Modane to do a trailer swop or local tip/load groupage. I enjoyed that job. Distance work was UK, Scandinavia, Germany and the odd Yugo. The boss had a Fiat contract.
The company was:
CO.GE.TRA T/A Sant Ambrogio Trasporti,
Via Antica di Francia, 13
Sant Ambrogio di Torino (TO)
It was on your way from Susa to Turin on the SS25. Turn right just before the dog-leg that took you over the railway, next right, then it came up on your right.
My understanding of the RHD thing was that it made for more precise manoeuvring on mountain roads with a nearside drop . Was that not right then, and if not, why?
Spardo:
My understanding of the RHD thing was that it made for more precise manoeuvring on mountain roads with a nearside drop . Was that not right then, and if not, why?
You’re spot-on again Spardo.
My boss told me about the reason for the requirement for RHD, and you have it exactly right. He also said that it was because the normal (ss) roads were so narrow way back then. I remember thinking that it was a really good idea. From a driver’s point of view, I could see that there was much less of a chance of knocking off each other’s passenger side mirrors.