Trailers/Towed items.

[little ed]

In my opion a test would be a great idea and just last month i was stopped at a vosa weigh bridge and they went over the chipper more than my van, odd i thought un till i asked the question to which the answer was 'your van is up to date with all nes tests but trailers dont have tests so we like to examine carefully all that we stop' only thing he picked up on was fog light on light board didnt work. and yes he issued me a pink form saying i had one week to sort it.(mind you no one has checked)!

am i right in thinking that lorry trailers have to have some form of test carried out.

[PeteB]

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Trailers/

 

There you go!

[Ian Leach]

I know in sweden they put mot s on trailers, If not you can only travel 20mph everywhere. Test is good sometimes you forget about checking things. suppose test is better than a fine and points for a bold tyre. There are some dangerous looking trailers about tho.

[Mike]

You have to remember. Most trailers / chippers / towed plant are not like modern vehicles. The brakes need to be manually adjusted. I would say we adjust up the brakes on 90% of the machines that come through our workshop. We see machines where the brake shoes are not even coming into contact with the drums.

 

Wheel bearings are another issue. Again we adjust and replace plenty. Had machines in here that we cant explain why the wheels are still on and the customer had no idea there was a problem.

 

In this modern age where manufacturers are trying to make machines lighter where do you think they can loose the most weight the wont be too noticable. By fitting lighter axles and chassis components this is an easy way out to loose weight. This again means those components will require more maintaining.

 

All to often we see that chassis components are neglected until something snaps or breaks. I've seen £10,000 + bits of kit rolled over and wrecked because of a £50 bearing not being adjusted. Does'nt really make sense does it.

 

If all the chippers being used today in the UK, and thats alot. How many would pass a simple brake test? My guess is under 30%.

 

A test or inspection can only be a good thing.

[penfold]

surely its not a bad thing if this governments throat is slit:goodnight: