Loading extendable semitrailer
This article and Video is about the dangerous moment of oversized cargo transportation on the telescopic platform semitrailer.
The main difficulty
Recently we’ve got a new request at Crane-locator.com to transport heat exchangers. Cargo had the following dimensions 16 m long.
To transport 16 meters on the semi-trailer, we need extendable semi low loader trailer with telescopic platform 14-16 meters at least (some part of the cargo can be hanging, in different countries rules for overhanging are different).
The difficulty in transporting this kind of cargo is that heat exchangers are not self-supporting cargo. It has many support points, during transportation. All supports must rest, be supported, on the platform of the transporter. In this case, semi low loader trailer. Long extendability is a great advantage in oversized transportation, but technically, we can not use telescopic part of the semi low loader trailer to support cargo, at least it is very, very limited.
So what is the solution?
We need to cover extendable (telescopic) part of the trailer, distance from the platform behind a gooseneck to the middle of the main platform, with weight spreader, two steel beams can be used. The disadvantage is that loading height of our semi low loader trailer will rise from standard 900-1000 mm to 1250-1300 mm or even higher, it is depending on the spreader construction that we made.
This short video explains the wrong and right ways of long cargo transportation.
Entrust production of the spreader to professionals and please do not forget to fix your spreader and cargo well on the trailer - damage or loss of the trailer as well as the cargo does not worth to take any risks.