John have you ever heard of a company called standard container? i think they were located in port elizabeth. JB from Casey told me they almost bought Casey's beam buisness in the late 70's. i was wondering if anyone had pictures of there trucks

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TimT..never a truer word spoken and as Bob stated ...a very good and entertaining post..

Here is some great heavy stuff from Europe..luv the Euro stuff..http://www.ditzj.de/html/en/trucks/daf/liebregts95xf.html

and another with AC 650 bits....http://www.ditzj.de/html/en/trucks/daf/dekil95xf430.html

John,
I need to see pics of the 13 axle trailkings please!

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We rally round the family, with a pocket full of shells.....

Here is a pic of the two M45s from Hallamore taken by Mark Redman and posted on the Hanks site. Truck on the left is number 330, formerly owned by Standard Container. On the right is #230, originally owned by Gerosa.

http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/mark_redman/mar2003/hallamore_mack.jpg

Somewhere on Hank's site there is also a photo of one of A.J. Ross's 1950s Autocars, but I cannot seem to find it. Standard Container also bought out Dandignac Trucking of Staten Island, who was a player in the heavy haul business in the 50s and 60s.

John

You're comparing apples to oranges

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- Andy

Quoted right out of the article you posted the link to.

"Minnesota officials were warned as early as 1990 that the bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River was "structurally deficient," yet they relied on patchwork repairs and stepped-up inspections that unraveled amid a thunderous plunge of concrete and automobiles."

If it was structurally deficient, weights should not have been restricted across it, the whole thing should have been shut down. I don't believe this has anything to do with what you are saying.

Currently, NJ State law allows heavy haul vehicles using "S Plates", or specialty weight tags, to gross up to 800 pounds per inch width of tire. This is a special registration for the trailer only and you get a different sticker for your license plate each year with an "S" over the year. You have to get a separate permit for dimensions, but you currently do not have to have approved routes or anything. The wording of the law is rather vague, and to my knowledge, it does not say anything in regards to actual manufacturer's rating of axles, suspensions, tires or rims, Manufacturer's GVWR, or trailer rated capacity.

This is all about to change drastically as NJ has already informed owners of specialty weight registered trailers that the end is near and soon you will have to submit complete applications for permits including axle spacings and weights, routes, etc. The 800 pounds per inch formula will be gone as well, believe they are going to something like a 25,000 lb per axle limit.

It should be interesting to see what happens. I would say 75 % or more of the NJ based lowboy operators run without permits everday of the week. Not uncommon to see 1 chain per machine or none at all. The company I work for gets permits for everything, and we are forced to compete with many people who do not. Hopefully they will also lean on the dump truck operators as well, who are usually well over 100,000 on a tri-axle dump truck.

John

First, I have to say to John at Conforti, and Lil Danny, I have the utmost respect for what your guys, and the companies you work for, do to make a living. There is nothing wrong with doing what you do, so long as you follow the states guide lines. My "boot legger" comment was not to accuse anyone of boot legging. My words came out too harsh, and I am sorry for that.





The bottom line, is that the American Interstate bridge infrastructure is severely deteriorating. This has been clearly noted in the Obama Stimulus plan! Bridges that were designed and built in the era of the constrution of interstate highways, were not designed to last as long as they have, with the volume of traffic that they carry in todays world. Especially at the speed that todays vehicles travel.

The modern day bridges, with the longer spans, over wider highways, cannot handle high amounts of concentrated weight. This is why todays trailers are designed the way they are, to distribute weight. A modern day 19 axle, with a 30' bed, is approx 180 feet long. Now if you do the math, a 19 axle crossing a 4 lane interstate, with a center support column, only exerts about 50% of it's gross weight on a single span of the bridge.

Also, speed restrictions are becoming pretty severe with extreme weight. It is one thing to cross a brige at a crawl speed, it is a totally different ball game in physics when you cross at highway speeds. The impact of a truck hitting a bridge at 55 MPH vs 5 MPH can cause up to a 50% increase in weight exerted on the bridge. This is due to the bounce that you get from the initial impact. Hey just ask Diamond Heavy Haul about that one.

A few years ago, Diamond lost thier Permit rights for the state of NY for one year. Thhis was do to the fact that NY state has remote impact recorders on some of thier "low impact" (crawl speed) bridges. The state, in fact, recorded impacts that exceeeded the design rating of three structures, due to the drivers lack of following orders by the state. This was proven through impact recorders what type of shock is exerted on a bridge when it is hit at a highway speed, with nearly half a million pounds.

Bridges are designed in the same manor of the trailers we use. They are rated to carry X amount of weight, in X amount of area. Over time, high tensile steel does lose it's eleasticity. Example. I have a Diamond 9 axle in my fleet that had 8.25 inches of camber when it was new. Now, it is nearly 4 years old, and has had upwards of 100 loads on it. Now it only has about 7.5 inches od camber, and has never been overloaded.

I saw a T800W with a 3x3x3 trailer setup here in Wayne this week. Hauling a PC650 without counterweights & bucket. Sweet rig. It was from NY somewhere. Looks so out of place in NJ. And of course I didn't have my camera

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- Andy