Ive always liked these, anyone got any pics 
cheers
gaz
Nice subject for a thread…herewith one of the first twin-tyre three-axle which
started in the fleet of Van Steenbergen in 1975. LAG of Bree, some 20 miles from
Arendonk supplied these.
that’s the stuff Robert, keep em comin, hope to see ya at gaydon mate.
cheers
gaz 
tetragaz:
that’s the stuff Robert, keep em comin, hope to see ya at gaydon mate.
cheers
gaz
Yes, I’ll be there! Here are some examples I photographed in Egypt. Robert
They certainly used to rattle and bang in tight spots with the front axle bouncing about a bit these trailers and the tyres didn’t fare too well but they filled a gap for a little while as many were converted Tandems. Some companies were a little unsure how things would turn out regarding their fleets when the 38 tonne limit was on the horizon so made the most of their old stock. Despite the number of tyres I never had a puncture with one of these so they done the job. Cheers Franky.
Jim & Barry Squibb (Transport Services) Southampton had one, a tri axle twin wheeled tilt cancelled Greek order, best trailer they had with brakes to die for although did jump a bit on a tight turn as has been already stated, they also had the worst trailer which I hated pulling as did all his drivers and that was a tandem axle step frame tilt which blew tyre’s for a pass time, always had two spares and invariably came home with both of them used during the journey. Buzzer.
PS. I also owned one a Northern 40ft PSK which started life as a twin wheeled tandem and had it converted to a tri axle twin wheeler when the weights went up to 38 ton in 1983.
At Caravan, we ‘inherited’ - that is, didn’t sent back to the states - a number of Behring International (the American partner)ro-ro 20’ skeletals.
We also developed our 40’ trailer fleet in the same way. We decided to hang on to them until someone complained.
They had huge bar codes on the headboards, something we weren’t familiar with at the time, but it was explained by one of the septics that it was the new method for checking where the trailers were. As they entered a depot, the bar code was read and the trailer position downloaded to the company computer. Very advanced for the time!
I guess nobody read the bar code at Wilmington docks! Nobody in the States seemed to bother that the trailers didn’t go back, so we kept them.
We did use the 20’s as intended, but also cut the axles off several of them to successfully turn our American 2 axle 40’s into 3 axle trailers. Made them much sturdier.
Brother Andy’s photos. (Him and me starring!) He was still on overland in 1981 and always called in when passing.
John.
Obviously I can’t comment on the twin wheeled tri axle trailers used on trips to and around the middle east but I can honestly say the same configuration used in the UK, particularly when the weights were increased to 38 tons, were IMHO absolute abortions and how they could be justified was beyond me ! I think the subject has been well aired on earlier threads. We had plenty of late C/F tandems at Bewick Transport but I never dreamed of having them converted as no matter which way I costed the excercise you still ended up with a trailer that was worth less than the original tandem. I could go on but it was a “no contest” as far as I was concerned. Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
Obviously I can’t comment on the twin wheeled tri axle trailers used on trips to and around the middle east but I can honestly say the same configuration used in the UK, particularly when the weights were increased to 38 tons, were IMHO absolute abortions and how they could be justified was beyond me ! I think the subject has been well aired on earlier threads. We had plenty of late C/F tandems at Bewick Transport but I never dreamed of having them converted as no matter which way I costed the excercise you still ended up with a trailer that was worth less than the original tandem. I could go on but it was a “no contest” as far as I was concerned. Cheers Bewick.
To triaxle a 70s tandem like a poxy cf was a big job ,cutting the spring hangers off to get the axle spacings and flitching the neck for a start ,later 80s trailers such as a nice AHP was a lot easier .
We converted this York to a Tri, It was done in a couple of days , And yolked to the good old Leyland Roadtrain it could carry 26 Tonne, As far as I know it is still being used on internal work on a farm at Amble, Regards Larry.
robert1952:
tetragaz:
that’s the stuff Robert, keep em comin, hope to see ya at gaydon mate.
cheers
gazYes, I’ll be there! Here are some examples I photographed in Egypt. Robert
3210
3+3 twin wheel the best looking artic configuration.
Here is one that I dragged around for a while.
It was heavy but worked well on the job.
Same trailer new sheet.
Here is another one, a seller, I don,t know how It made it all the way to Doha !! Dave Reynolds knows though… 
Here,s one for Bewick, he loves this photo !
Bewick:
Obviously I can’t comment on the twin wheeled tri axle trailers used on trips to and around the middle east but I can honestly say the same configuration used in the UK, particularly when the weights were increased to 38 tons, were IMHO absolute abortions and how they could be justified was beyond me ! I think the subject has been well aired on earlier threads. We had plenty of late C/F tandems at Bewick Transport but I never dreamed of having them converted as no matter which way I costed the excercise you still ended up with a trailer that was worth less than the original tandem. I could go on but it was a “no contest” as far as I was concerned. Cheers Bewick.
The American trailers were different from ours Dennis. The double axles were right at the back of the trailers, so it wasn’t necessary to move them, it was simply adding an axle in front. I think this can be seen (just) on the 2nd photo. Our German mechanic, Jurgen Becker, was an artist at anything like this - we also added twist locks to all the trailers. Renee Valdez, the Philippino who was second in command was also a brilliant mechanic. He had worked at the American Clark airbase in the Philippines, and of course all the trucks there had ■■■■■■■ engines.
It might not have worked in Europe for many reasons, but it worked in Saudi. I should add that we didn’t mess with the the half dozen or so spread tandems that were bought from the owner drivers as they went home and sold up.
We were also lucky in that before about 1986, there were no weight checks of any kind in SA, so gross weight wasn’t important. It was a case of making the rolling stock suitable for the loads, as opposed to the British way of setting a gross weight and then letting manufacturers and hauliers try to make the units and trailers as light as possible. They did eventually realise that the Arab trucks, carrying 60 tons of steel on 5 axles, (or even 4 axles) on 24" wheels, were ruining the brand new roads and they were starting to clamp down on weights, but I left in '87 so others who were there later may know more.
Certainly it was possible to drive from Dammam to Riyadh hardly ever touching the steering wheel if you wanted, The grooves were so deep! As KB has pointed out previously, the M6 used to be a bit like that.
John.
thanks for the info & pics guys, keep em comin
cheers
gaz
When the weight was changed a lot of fridge trailers were converted to tri axle here’s one I used to pull.
I remember that a lot of (mostly small) operators used a whole load of different schemes to get their trailers from tandem to tri axles. There were those that went down the “proper” route, moving axles, re-positioning spring hangers, etc, in the process, as Dennis has said, spending more money on the conversion than the trailer was worth.
In contrast, there were the chaps who just glued on any axles that were lying around the back of the yard! I came across tandem axle trailers with two axles on multi leaf springs and another tacked in front on a single leaf, ones with twin wheels on multi-leaf with singles in front and behind, even one memorable abortion with twins on multi-leaf on the two rearmost axles and an air-lift Granning axle in front. If I recall correctly, a lot (most?) of these fell foul of the test station at their next appointment!
I had a Triaxle fridge that had an air suspended lifting front axle in front of two steel sprung (monoleaf) axles. Chassis wise it was a heap of junk to be honest, but the Lamberet box and the fridge motor were in good shape.
Tyre wear was all over the place and braking was a nightmare when part loaded, it seemed that the air ride front axle was either pushed into the road too much making the rear two axles lock up or vice versa. As I was pulling it behind a Transcon the lack of stopping power from the trailer was a bit of a concern as the unit brakes were a joke. I did Italy and Spain with it and there’s no shortage of hills there.