adr:
Hi Dennis, can you explain why for you the sums didn’t add up? It would seem a cheaper option to up-grade/weight a trailer, why didn’t you think so when so many others went down that road? I do agree some of them looked, shall we say odd afterwards though! Regards Chris
I agree that a lot of operators just “stuck” a third axle under the trailer,sometimes not even an identical or compatible one at that,so they ended up with a 12 wheel bag of ■■■■■ that was just about worth scrap value.However,if you were to embark on a proper refurbishment of at very least a decent tandem chassis which included sand blasting and painting to-gether with 6 new mini super single wheels and tyres,from memory of the costings you had spent about 4/4500 K and you still had an older ex tandem chassis that wasn’t worth a great deal more than it’s value prior to the conversion.Also you ended up putting enormous strain on an aged chassis not built for the new payloads as well as causing problems on the bogie which was only on narrow track axles.So to sum up,lets say you had 4 grand in cash (which you had to have as you wouldn’t get finance for that sort of conversion!) you could put the 4 grand into a new state of the art tri-axle,which at that time in '83 I was buying for £6250 so put your 4 grand into a new 38ton spec trailer and finance the £2500 over 2 or 3 years and at the end of the pay back you still had an up to date piece of equipment for years to come.Well that was my route for 38 ton but no doubt someone will hold the opposite opinion which I will respect ! Cheers Dennis.
Lawrence Dunbar:
0Well we convereted our tanden to a tri, IIRC It cost about £800.00, & That included 6 new Mono springs & 2 new brake chambers for the used axle we fitted that was purchased for £120.00. from Jimmy Coats at Felling, There was also 2 new mudguards & flaps & of course we already had plenty of wheels with boolas on . So at the end of the day when it sailed through the notifiable test it was money well spent as It could carry 26T. Then outlay was soon recovered, Regards Larry.
Fair comment Larry as I have said but we had approaching 100 tandems at the time so it would have been an absolute nightmare to have even contemplated what you did ! Gives me the shudders just thinking about it and i haven’t had um er my large night cap yet !!! I can feel a ■■■■■■■ nightmare coming on to-night 
Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
adr:
Hi Dennis, can you explain why for you the sums didn’t add up? It would seem a cheaper option to up-grade/weight a trailer, why didn’t you think so when so many others went down that road? I do agree some of them looked, shall we say odd afterwards though! Regards ChrisI agree that a lot of operators just “stuck” a third axle under the trailer,sometimes not even an identical or compatible one at that,so they ended up with a 12 wheel bag of [zb] that was just about worth scrap value.However,if you were to embark on a proper refurbishment of at very least a decent tandem chassis which included sand blasting and painting to-gether with 6 new mini super single wheels and tyres,from memory of the costings you had spent about 4/4500 K and you still had an older ex tandem chassis that wasn’t worth a great deal more than it’s value prior to the conversion.Also you ended up putting enormous strain on an aged chassis not built for the new payloads as well as causing problems on the bogie which was only on narrow track axles.So to sum up,lets say you had 4 grand in cash (which you had to have as you wouldn’t get finance for that sort of conversion!) you could put the 4 grand into a new state of the art tri-axle,which at that time in '83 I was buying for £6250 so put your 4 grand into a new 38ton spec trailer and finance the £2500 over 2 or 3 years and at the end of the pay back you still had an up to date piece of equipment for years to come.Well that was my route for 38 ton but no doubt someone will hold the opposite opinion which I will respect ! Cheers Dennis.
Very interesting, many thanks for the feedback, from both yourself Dennis & Larry, both well balanced opinions from the men who had to pay the bills! Regards Chris
I agree with Dennis, to convert one or two trailers then fair enough but anymore and as Dennis says it wasn’t cost effective. The trailers I recall converted that way went through front axle tyres too often and also had spring problems, now this could have been down to drivers doing a 360 turn when out of the gaffers radar but still it wasn’t a good fix and the noise from the running gear, it belched and clanked like an old steam roller especially with older multi leaf suspensions. It wasn’t long before super single Tri-axles became the norm and anyway most drivers would hook up to one of them instead of the older twin wheel tri’s if given the choice in the yard. The conversions did fill a gap at the time for some, it was an uncertain period then, manufacturers of trailers and units couldn’t decide which way the wind would blow concerning 38 tonne regs. That CF trailer quoted as a York does look as if it has cut outs in the frame but when the pic is magnified (apart from seeing the CF badge better) it is the light reflecting off the rope hooks that gives the impression its daylight showing through the chassis, an optical delusion no doubt! Franky.
Talking of trailers this Guy Warrior has a fair old load on it’s back!
Bewick:
The Boys Own:
Bewick:
The Boys Own:
Bewick:
The Boys Own:
Just found this one with a diamond cut chassis YorkSorry but that is a Crane Fruehauf trailer and not a York SL “castellated chassis”
Bewick.
Sorry Mr Bewick you are correct as it wasn’t one of our trailers!!!
At that time the ole chap ran nothing but York and a few old BodensAs a kid all I can remember is how slow York landing legs are!!!
I’ll just go and get me coatNo need to “jack in” TBO ! everyone makes mistakes but don’t let it happen again eh!
Standing in the corner of my yard is the last York father brought
1978 SL34 I think
Diamond cut chassis mono leaf springs
Was sent to York at Watford for conversion to tri axle but remained on 11R22.5 twins
Then to Lawrence David Peterborough to be turned into a tautliner
Overall height was 13’ 3 1/2" Dad cited must be able to run the Blackwall !!!R K Browning Leighton Buzzard had the sister
He did exactly the same except changed to super singlesThere was no way I ever contemplated converting a tandem axle trailer to tri-axle the sums just didn’t add up and you just ended up with an abortion IMHO.Other operators held the opposite view ! Cheers Bewick.
I would agree regarding the sums and it was the only tandem to be converted
As I have stated the conversion was carried out at York’s own Watford depot using a genuine new axle and other parts
I would not go as far as to declare it an abortion !!! IMHO 
Well before we went into converting ours I got in touch with Swansea & spoke to a fellow there who was very helpful Indeed I gave him the chassis No etc & he gave me all the gen that I needed to do the convertion, And it all worked out no probs, Regards Larry.
In 1977 I aquired two 1968 26ft single axle Boden trailers which were part of an own account fleet belonging to a paper mill we worked for.I sent these two trailers to York Trailers at Hawleys Lane Warrington and had them stretched to 40ft and fitted with York curtainside bodies.The idea was they would haul Bowater Scott products ex Barrow into Lancashire and reload new 45 gal drums out of Liverpool to Whitehaven,the idea,in theory,was fine but after a while the drums made little 'nicks in the curtains which was no good for carrying tissue paper.So,back to the drawing board,I had the two single axles made into a tandem bogie and I had Yorks fit a new bogie under the other chassis,we ran them both for a while afterwards but they sure wern’t Boalloy Tautliners !! 
Cheers Dennis.
I’ve followed a number of these twelve wheeled monstrosity’s around roundabouts when they started to appear in '83 and boy they did leave some rubber on the road as well as emitting terrible groans and loud cracks from the running gear,sorry but that was not the 38ton route I wanted to follow!! Cheers Dennis.
adr:
GUY Big J, powering its way to the front!Regards Chris
As this thread is headed Guy and not “trailers”,looking at the rate of knots that this Guy is charging along at,I propose that it is 240 Gardner powered■■?
Head down while Dennis digests this!!!
David
5thwheel:
adr:
GUY Big J, powering its way to the front!As this thread is headed Guy and not “trailers”,looking at the rate of knots that this Guy is charging along at,I propose that it is 240 Gardner powered■■?
Head down while Dennis digests this!!!
David
More like it had the AEC 505 engine David,just like the one you drove at SOM !! Dennis.
Bewick:
I’ve followed a number of these twelve wheeled monstrosity’s around roundabouts when they started to appear in '83 and boy they did leave some rubber on the road as well as emitting terrible groans and loud cracks from the running gear,sorry but that was not the 38ton route I wanted to follow!! Cheers Dennis.
Hiya,
When working for Killingbeck’s in the 60s a lot of our work was for Northern Ireland Trailers
from Preston Dock and even at that early date they ran some tri-axle jobs double wheels all
round but the rearmost axle floated for travelling purposes but had to be manually locked
at the delivery point to enable reversing onto your tipping point a simple enough job but it
did mean crawling under the backend and you had to make sure you pulled up in some sort
of straight line, can’t for the life in me remember who produced them but did pull them on
the odd occasion.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
Bewick:
I’ve followed a number of these twelve wheeled monstrosity’s around roundabouts when they started to appear in '83 and boy they did leave some rubber on the road as well as emitting terrible groans and loud cracks from the running gear,sorry but that was not the 38ton route I wanted to follow!! Cheers Dennis.Hiya,
When working for Killingbeck’s in the 60s a lot of our work was for Northern Ireland Trailers
from Preston Dock and even at that early date they ran some tri-axle jobs double wheels all
round but the rearmost axle floated for travelling purposes but had to be manually locked
at the delivery point to enable reversing onto your tipping point a simple enough job but it
did mean crawling under the backend and you had to make sure you pulled up in some sort
of straight line, can’t for the life in me remember who produced them but did pull them on
the odd occasion.
thanks harry, long retired.
I believe they would have been Italian Cecsi self steer axles “H”,good idea,ahead of their time,but they still needed further development hence you had to do a bit of crawling about in the ■■■■ (did that bit really bother you that much “H” as you often landed it “meterphorically” like in your early years )to lock the wheels in place so you could reverse.Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
5thwheel:
adr:
GUY Big J, powering its way to the front!As this thread is headed Guy and not “trailers”,looking at the rate of knots that this Guy is charging along at,I propose that it is 240 Gardner powered■■?
Head down while Dennis digests this!!!
David
More like it had the AEC 505 engine David,just like the one you drove at SOM !!
Your right in one respect Dennis,they did have some AEC’ engined guy’s with 6 speed Brown boxes,woeful machines,no good on night trunks,never make Maddiston and back in a night,IIRC Manchester had some on OOCL contract along with some 150 Gardner Guys,again woeful machines,when it came for retesting they had to return to Maddiston,loathed the night when one was sat in the yard waiting for the allocated night man to drive it up there,on a few occasions,I was indeed “that night man”!!
David
Bewick:
harry_gill:
Bewick:
I’ve followed a number of these twelve wheeled monstrosity’s around roundabouts when they started to appear in '83 and boy they did leave some rubber on the road as well as emitting terrible groans and loud cracks from the running gear,sorry but that was not the 38ton route I wanted to follow!! Cheers Dennis.Hiya,
When working for Killingbeck’s in the 60s a lot of our work was for Northern Ireland Trailers
from Preston Dock and even at that early date they ran some tri-axle jobs double wheels all
round but the rearmost axle floated for travelling purposes but had to be manually locked
at the delivery point to enable reversing onto your tipping point a simple enough job but it
did mean crawling under the backend and you had to make sure you pulled up in some sort
of straight line, can’t for the life in me remember who produced them but did pull them on
the odd occasion.
thanks harry, long retired.I believe they would have been Italian Cecsi self steer axles “H”,good idea,ahead of their time,but they still needed further development hence you had to do a bit of crawling about in the [zb] (did that bit really bother you that much “H” as you often landed it “meterphorically” like in your early years
Hiya
Yes Dennis no bother to me I was always in it up to the “naffs”, I remember Billy Bowker
asking me if I knew were the wash was and I left him speechless when I told him no, He
walked away shaking his head.
thanks harry, long retired.
Another attempt to get this thread back on track! 
What are Tate’s vehicles doing in Bewick’s muddy old yard?
A rare ‘Boalloy Cabbed’ Guy Invincible tractor unit which was operated by Oldbury Transport Ltd
Retired Old ■■■■:
What are Tate’s vehicles doing in Bewick’s muddy old yard?
How did that press photographer manage to get past the Alsatian to get that undercover shot of the experimental Guy which we were testing on the fleet with the then prototype 8LXB engine,they fitted it into an Invincible unit prior to launching the Big J. I must really see about fitting some doors and windows to the workshop as it gives the wrong impression of my firm oh! and there’s nowt wrong with that surface it’s no where near the wellie tops yet. Mr.Bewick.