I was told that the 1960’s Boden trailers were the “creme de la creme” although Bill Boden sold out to Crane Fruehauf in around 1970 ( IIRC) The Boden running gear was always acknowledged to be the best and it was this Bill Boden designed gear that enabled C/F to become market leader in the 70’s but I always liked York SL’s ( castellated chassis) as IMHO the York ran smother and had better brakes than the C/F. But the gearing of the York landing legs was dismal and they either couldn’t or wouldn’t improve the gearing so I started buying C/F trailers in numbers ! Happy Days Cheers Bewick.
York were always my father’s favourite.we had a 40ft spreadaxle flat that was he liked best.it had twist locks and a removable headboard.The headboard was bent when we bought it so he removed it.
Oh dear ! dropped a clanger with this thread ! seems that trailers don’t appear to command the same level of interest as tractor units 
But when you ran a 250 + fleet of the B------s it concentrated the mind I can tell you ! 
So hopefully the thread should soon drop off the page and disappear into oblivion possibly into Bullys Truckstop 
Bewick:
Oh dear ! dropped a clanger with this thread ! seems that trailers don’t appear to command the same level of interest as tractor units
I think your interest was in trailers was great because you had so much cash invested in them, no? For drivers who use several trailers I guess it is hard to take too much interest in an appendage to “their” tractor other than whether they are user-friendly, such as the landing gear mentioned previously.
Did you ever have a trailer that, for whatever reason, proved a disaster?
not so much 33 or 40footers , but in the mobile home job, trailers were a constant source of head scratching . SBS/carrimore built us a 47 foot sloper absolutely spot on for the job, we went there, saw it on the design board ,did a couple of changes mostly to the overhang ,we changed it to something like 8 to 10 foot i think , and it was a good trailer, York built 5 50 footers for sunseeker , and they were a disaster , the single axle was about 3 foot from the back end with a short slope, they couldn’t get around any corner . when they gave it up as a bad job we bought 1 outfit ford 2014 plus yourk trailer , we shortened the trailer to 40’ but then it was too short , so the middle part that had been cut out was welded onto the rear end , making a trailer about 47 foot with a 9 foot overhang , sounds a complete bodge but it wasn’t and it did years of service ,weren’t many places i couldn’t get it into , but the brakes were always a problem , you had to near enough overload the axle to get the brakes through the mot.
Dipster:
Bewick:
Oh dear ! dropped a clanger with this thread ! seems that trailers don’t appear to command the same level of interest as tractor unitsI think your interest was in trailers was great because you had so much cash invested in them, no? For drivers who use several trailers I guess it is hard to take too much interest in an appendage to “their” tractor other than whether they are user-friendly, such as the landing gear mentioned previously.
Did you ever have a trailer that, for whatever reason, proved a disaster?
Good question although we never had a trailer that was a “disaster” per say but we did have a few issues with certain specifications which in my opinion were not up to the standard we required. 1) The low gearing of York landing legs compared to the gearing on the Crane Fruehaufs 2) “in house” C/F Propar running gear on the first two tri axle platforms I bought from C/F in '83 when I had specifically ordered ROR running gear which was our standard spec. This probably resulted in C/F losing ongoing orders for tri axle platform trailers to the tune of circa 150 chassis , and another problem we had mainly with C/F and to a lesser extent with York was the light weight fabricated/pressed chock rails which succumbed to damage from the heavy Dock lift trucks when loading wood pulp. I did manage to get C/F to build some 40 footer tandems with cast steel upturned chocks in the 70’s but in the main they came with fabricated chocks which consequently were “rippled” in service. I’ve got to say that when I got involved with TASK at their ■■■■■■■■■■■ factory they built us trailers to our exact spec which incorporated a substantial cast steel side raves so it was “damage free” from then on as they withstood , unmarked, the punishment that was inflicted on them at the Docks ! Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
Oh dear ! dropped a clanger with this thread ! seems that trailers don’t appear to command the same level of interest as tractor units
Not a bit of it! There appears to be plenty of interest in trailers on this forum. The slow take up on this thread may simply be because young drivers of the ‘70s and ‘80s may not have known (or taken much of an interest in) who made the trailers they hauled up and down the country. Operators like yourself had to know, of course. For example I can remember many of the older trailers having really tricky landing gear, especially before air-suspension but I can’t remember who made them. So it’s likely that folk on here who knew much about the 45-footers (13.6 trailers) they shunted around later in life, memories are a bit vague about the make of their 33’ and 40’ trailers. I notice that already the thread has picked up . It’s a worthy topic!
Bewick:
I was told that the 1960’s Boden trailers were the “creme de la creme” although Bill Boden sold out to Crane Fruehauf in around 1970 ( IIRC) The Boden running gear was always acknowledged to be the best and it was this Bill Boden designed gear that enabled C/F to become market leader in the 70’s but I always liked York SL’s ( castellated chassis) as IMHO the York ran smother and had better brakes than the C/F. But the gearing of the York landing legs was dismal and they either couldn’t or wouldn’t improve the gearing so I started buying C/F trailers in numbers ! Happy Days Cheers Bewick.
Hello Den
Hope you and Anne are both well ?
Best 33 ft…Boden great trailer, heavy but a bit narrow for its day, but followed well…loved 'em
Worse 33 ft, …Highway, very light, plywood decking alloy raves and headboard and super single tyres, bounced around empty or loaded, hated them.
Best 40ft …Highway spread axle with double wheels, (not the super singles), light, tended to flex a bit but didn’t bounced around like the 33 ft, pulled well, like them alot
Worse 40 ft… Tasker tilt, trailer running gear was ok, but it was the superstructure that was a pig to strip out, heavy awkward side panels and metal structure that bent easily and not well designed, it took ages and a big hammer to strip / rebuild the bl00dy things…still got the bruises today …
Fergie47:
8)Bewick:
I was told that the 1960’s Boden trailers were the “creme de la creme” although Bill Boden sold out to Crane Fruehauf in around 1970 ( IIRC) The Boden running gear was always acknowledged to be the best and it was this Bill Boden designed gear that enabled C/F to become market leader in the 70’s but I always liked York SL’s ( castellated chassis) as IMHO the York ran smother and had better brakes than the C/F. But the gearing of the York landing legs was dismal and they either couldn’t or wouldn’t improve the gearing so I started buying C/F trailers in numbers ! Happy Days Cheers Bewick.Hello Den
Hope you and Anne are both well ?
Best 33 ft…Boden great trailer, heavy but a bit narrow for its day, but followed well…loved 'em
Worse 33 ft, …Highway, very light, plywood decking alloy raves and headboard and super single tyres, bounced around empty or loaded, hated them.
Best 40ft …Highway spread axle with double wheels, (not the super singles), light, tended to flex a bit but didn’t bounced around like the 33 ft, pulled well, like them alot
Worse 40 ft… Tasker tilt, trailer running gear was ok, but it was the superstructure that was a pig to strip out, heavy awkward side panels and metal structure that bent easily and not well designed, it took ages and a big hammer to strip / rebuild the bl00dy things…still got the bruises today …
Hiya Dave, we’re both fine thanks and I trust Liz and you are the same ! Your right as I think those extremely lightweight Highway trailers that SOM had built were a “bridge too far” so I wonder how long they lasted before they bit the dust ?
This is an October 1970 shot of the second new artic I bought coupled to a new 34ft York SL. I had it built with a high headboard which was useful for loading the handball bundles of new paper sacks which was our main back traffic from Rochester up to the big Mail Order firms in Lancs & Yorks. The Yorks were nice smooth runners with good brakes but the low gearing of the landing legs was a problem as compared to the C/F landing gear but no matter how I pressed Yorks to do something about such a simple problem they just refused so I reluctantly voted with my feet and piled into Crane Fruehauf big time !
We acquired 5 Crane Fruehauf wide spreads along with a couple of normal 40 footers when I bought out McGuffie Transport in 1974 although I would never have specc’d wide spreads at Bewick Transport I was interested at the time to see how the wide spreads performed. They had a couple of plusses in that they had a 20 ton gvw bogie and secondly they rode very stable and the unit never experienced any “nodding” . The main draw back was poor tyre wear particularly the on the front nearside tyres it was cruel to put it mildly ! To a lesser extent the N/S front tyre on the tri axles in later years had to be swapped regularly otherwise wear accelerated a lot faster than on the O/S and the rear axle on both sides.
A small variety of Trailers here from a 1968 Comm Motor mag Artic edition. The Crane trailers with the ROR axles were without a doubt the best to service and work on and preferable to the York although the York was a reliable trailer. Many other makes and there were plenty during the 60’s also used the ROR or York running gear and some even the York casselated chassis. Boden was a strong choice for one of the Companies I worked for along with the CF 33 and 40 footers. The Scammell 40ft dual flat and container spread axle type that came out was a high trailer and well constructed as you would expect from Scammell. In the Northeast many firms used the local Arrow Trailers in the 33 and 40 ft Target models, not liked by some drivers as the bogie was right at the rear and the main chassis frame was along each side with a shorter rear frame inside for the running gear, but a very strong and solid make with good brakes. Many general hauliers in particular ran a variety of makes especially flats and mostly drivers didn’t concern themselves with the make but did know which to avoid for having sharp or poor brakes or floors that weren’t as strong as others. Franky.
The 5th Trailer by the way is the Pitt, dual type for Containers and Flat work, and had a removable headboard.
Frankydobo:
The 5th Trailer by the way is the Pitt, dual type for Containers and Flat work, and had a removable headboard.
You needed a removable headboard on PSKs but even with ordinary flats they could come in handy. Tri-stacking empty flats to ship out unaccompanied springs to mind.
IIRC, one of the Dutch manufacturers - it might have been Pacton - made PSKs with headboards slightly forward of the 12m deck, which meant they could be left in place.
having watched umpteen amount of chauffuers happily spin their 44 tonners around in our yard ,shedding umpteen miles of rubber , i wonder what they would make of the infamous Chris Hudson mono chassis , independant suspension , tandem axle tilt trailer affair/nightmare, do a quick 180 with one of them and see how you get on. not exactly the best trailer to get into a tight spot with, thinking now just how much turn can i put on this before the suspension buckles underneath the trailer.
tony
tonyj105:
having watched umpteen amount of chauffuers happily spin their 44 tonners around in our yard ,shedding umpteen miles of rubber , i wonder what they would make of the infamous Chris Hudson mono chassis , independant suspension , tandem axle tilt trailer affair/nightmare, do a quick 180 with one of them and see how you get on. not exactly the best trailer to get into a tight spot with, thinking now just how much turn can i put on this before the suspension buckles underneath the trailer.
tony
Reminds me of a driver who while waiting to load fruit on 102 berth, and a bit bored, decided he’d test the rear suspension limits on a highway spread axle with super singles and the single slipper leaf “spring” I told him I thought it was a bad idea, but he did it anyway.
He reversed the second axle right over the quayside, the suspension, never intended to be put it the reverse position of hanging down instead of 20 tons of pressure pushing down on it, shot the slipper springs out of the brackets, only thing stopping it disappearing into the drink was the handbrake cables…fail…He then asked me what I thought he should do, silly boy, I went off to the dock canteen and left him to it…
With Fergie mentioning single leaf springs reminded me of the decision I took in 1970 to order all the new trailers to include in the spec single leaf springs and tubeless tyres although I had specc’d tubeless tyres on the second new motor I bought in 1969. But as regards trailers I looked at it this way----- 8 wheels and tyres and 4 single leaf springs as opposed to 8 tyres 8 tubes & 8 flaps & 8 x 3piece wheel assemblies and then 4 multi leaf springs. Argh------ 
As far as I was concerned it was “no contest” plus their was a substantial ulw saving let alone the 99% reduction in tyre and spring trouble !! As I did buy a number of second hand 40 ft C/F & York trailers where possible during the early/mid '70’s although I had to continue running the 1000 x 20 wheels and tyres but I did start to buy single leaf conversion kits for the multi spring suspensions that were on the second hand trailers and the multi leaf springs removed from the conversions were used to replace the broken springs on the still operational multi leaf trailers that unfortunately continued to regularly plague multi spring suspensions. I can say that the only very isolated problems we had with single leaves was the odd locating pip shearing but only on a couple of occasions IIRC. Cheers Bewick
Hi Dennis,
Can’t remember if I’ve asked you before. Did you ever try an Arrow trailer? I remember Bill Keith telling me that the boss was a super salesman. Flew down to Flookburgh, Took Bill and his chief mechanic up to the North East in his plane and showed them round the factory. They were a bit odd looking, with the chassis on the outside and the wheels at the back end. I don’t think Bill bought any, I think he said that they were a bit heavy.
The trailer in question, couldn’t find a photo but this model shows the 33ft Target trailer from Arrow of Blyth, the three bigger Northeast haulage firms I drove for all had some of these in 33 and 40ft lengths, the hooks were located under the bottom of the main rails so a little awkward to get a good pull on the dolly but a good strong trailer and they were a little heavy but I’m sure we still got 20Ton payloads. Franky.
John West:
Hi Dennis,Can’t remember if I’ve asked you before. Did you ever try an Arrow trailer? I remember Bill Keith telling me that the boss was a super salesman. Flew down to Flookburgh, Took Bill and his chief mechanic up to the North East in his plane and showed them round the factory. They were a bit odd looking, with the chassis on the outside and the wheels at the back end. I don’t think Bill bought any, I think he said that they were a bit heavy.
Hiya John,
You bin in hiding or what ? Trust you are OK ! Never had 'owt to do with Arrow Trailers as what I gathered from the press at the time they were just a “flash in the pan” regional manufacturer but obviously they “I D’d” Billy Keith as a prospect, I wonder why ? Cheers Dennis.