Freighter has designed and built a B-double set with permanent half-moon bridging decks between the tag and lead trailers, resulting in an easy-to-use and time saving drive-through trailer combination.
The customer is WA-based Tri-State Transport which sends an average of six roadtrains each week across Australia, fully loaded both ways. The new Freighter B-double joins a large fleet of equipment that has reportedly been bought with performance considerations well ahead of price.
“We make sure that we order the most reliable equipment for each job,” said Tri-State’s Troy Day. “We negotiate for our new equipment of course, but price comes after quality and service back-up on the scale of priorities. The last thing we want is for our drivers to be broken-down in the middle of the Western Australian desert due to a piece of faulty equipment.”
Tri-State owner Andrew Scott spoke with MaxiTRANS WA northern region sales manager Mike Dawson after he and his team had decided exactly what they required in their new trailer set. The unit would be carting a number of different vehicles for the mining sector, so the company needed a B-double set with a drive-through capability.
The final design included bi-fold hydraulic ramps at the back, retractable ramps between the drop-deck sections on the tag trailer and Freighter’s purpose-designed half-moon bridging decks between the tag and lead trailer.
“This rig wasn’t bought as a lead and B-trailer – it will always operate as a single unit,” Mike Dawson explained. “The ability to drive a vehicle up the ramps, onto the tag, and then all the way to the front of the lead trailer makes these trailers a ‘built-for-life’ pairing and will save Tri-State a great deal of time in loading and unloading.”