Pickup towing a trailer towing a chipper????

[b101uk]

This is a huge hole in the law, just like ag combinations only being allowed to weigh 24t. a decent sized tractor weighs ten, put a decent trailor behind it and you could easily (and safely) double that with todays kit. Still illegal though.

 

true, but you would still have the same idiots doing in excess of 20mph which is ware it ALL falls apart with normal tractors - they are NOT by any stretch of the imagination safe above 20mph with big loaded trailers or implements behind them, they often don’t have the required minimum weight on the front axel, if you lose hydraulics you lose both steering and hydraulic brakes and in some cases servo boost on the tractors brakes, if you stall on a hill you have then just lost the trailer brakes and effective steering so hopefully the tractors brakes will hold, tractors for the most part are totally devoid of failsafe which every car or truck and most other forms of transport have if they exceeded the magic 20mph.

 

If they were to attach speed limiters to all the tractors restricted by law to 20mph then it would be very little problem to implement higher GTW wile making things much safer than they are now just with the addition of the speed limiter.

[renewablejohn]

The fasttrack and mog are the only two "tractors' that can legally go faster as they're the only ones that could comply with the law for LGV's (wich is what you are when you want to go faster than 20.

Technically it's only legal when registered as LGV though.

 

This is a huge hole in the law, just like ag combinations only being allowed to weigh 24t. a decent sized tractor weighs ten, put a decent trailor behind it and you could easily (and safely) double that with todays kit. Still illegal though.

 

I always thought the MB Trac was the first tractor which complied with LGV having sprung suspension and air brakes.

[Daniël Bos]

Are they still being made? I'm just a young'un but I thought production of those had stopped in the eighties, hence no mention of it. You might well be right though.

[RobRainford]

As said in another thread, it seems to be the time where technology is outraging the law, tractors are made with 50k boxes and I know a contractor who pulls an 8t spreader behind a low loader trailer with a bobcat on, does it often, all at 50k and has no problems.

 

Even tractors with 40k boxes are still over 20mph when flat out, normal ag tyres they hit 25/6mph and turf tyres on ours makes it 23/4, the 50k hitting 33/4, which really does take some stopping on a downhill!

 

Our 6330 is plated at 32t max towing, but rarely comes close to towing a quarter of that, it doesn't like an empty 18t trailer weighing 6t empty. Although it will still pull the above mentioned two trailers fine!

 

Trailers are built with air and hydraulic suspension now, some are adapted from wagons, so why wouldn't a new trailer with Hgv spec brakes be safe with a tractor capable of pulling it and supplying the brakes well with air and hydraulics?

[b101uk]

I always thought the MB Trac was the first tractor which complied with LGV having sprung suspension and air brakes.

 

the rear axel was fixed on most MB-Trac so lacked rear suspension.

 

However it was the Unimog that was technically the first as it started out as a tractor for German farmers post WW2, given they couldn’t afford both a tractor and a car or a lorry hence the Unimog, it only went into production because it was granteed that they wouldn’t be put into military production which is why the earliest ones from late 1947 had 3pt linkage and PTO’s, because of there speed they always conformed to suitable regulations as per lorries of there day.

[b101uk]

Are they still being made? I'm just a young'un but I thought production of those had stopped in the eighties, hence no mention of it. You might well be right though.

 

the manufacturing rights etc for the MB-trac were sold to "Werner Forst und Industrietechnik" who were the people who made all the Werner winches and forestry equipment who were/are one of the official suppliers of preferred equipment for MB-Trac and Unimog.

 

The MB-trac became the WF-trac of which the early ones looked just like MB-Trac though they normally had all the forestry guarding and which etc as they were mostly sold into forestry or for utility/line work, the new WF-Trac has moved on a bit but ist still mainly for forestry.

 

 

werner-trier.com - WF-Trac

 

Merc still make most of the parts for MB-Trac given there are lots of them in full time use around the EU.

[woodland]

the manufacturing rights etc for the MB-trac were sold to "Werner Forst und Industrietechnik" who were the people who made all the Werner winches and forestry equipment who were/are one of the official suppliers of preferred equipment for MB-Trac and Unimog.

 

The MB-trac became the WF-trac of which the early ones looked just like MB-Trac though they normally had all the forestry guarding and which etc as they were mostly sold into forestry or for utility/line work, the new WF-Trac has moved on a bit but ist still mainly for forestry.

 

 

werner-trier.com - WF-Trac

 

Merc still make most of the parts for MB-Trac given there are lots of them in full time use around the EU.

Love the look of that, pity they dont make the original MB trac anymore though. loved the sound of them roaring past

[b101uk]

Trailers are built with air and hydraulic suspension now, some are adapted from wagons, so why wouldn't a new trailer with Hgv spec brakes be safe with a tractor capable of pulling it and supplying the brakes well with air and hydraulics?

 

In most cases of farming with modern equipment its not the trailer with fail-safe twin line air brakes, suspension on every axel/wheel and 80kph >50% efficiency brakes holding things back from a legal point of view, it’s the piece of crap you attach at the front that tows the trailer that’s holding things back!

[Daniël Bos]

In most cases of farming with modern equipment its not the trailer with fail-safe twin line air brakes, suspension on every axel/wheel and 80kph >50% efficiency brakes holding things back from a legal point of view, it’s the piece of crap you attach at the front that tows the trailer that’s holding things back!

 

 

I beg to differ sir!

 

I have heard of a fair few dealers who are having to replace tractor brakes of big new tractors under warranty due to early failure. This early failure is usually caused by insufficient trailer brakes. In a recent test, it was found that only about 1 in 4 of properly specced trailers were actually within the 25% braking efficiency required by law.

[treequip]

I beg to differ sir!

 

I have heard of a fair few dealers who are having to replace tractor brakes of big new tractors under warranty due to early failure. This early failure is usually caused by insufficient trailer brakes. In a recent test, it was found that only about 1 in 4 of properly specced trailers were actually within the 25% braking efficiency required by law.

 

Assuming the dealers aren’t just saying that because their kit isn’t man enough for the job, I wonder if that would change if the trailers (and the rest of it) were subject to test?