IN FOCUS / TRT
CRANE TRAILERS ARE NOT JUST TRAILERS ANYMORE To meet the specialised requirements of the crane industry, TRT has developed a range of purpose-built crane trailers as well as lightweight crane support trailers, designed to securely transport cranes, counterweights and other crane components. NO MATTER THE CRANE MAKE OR MODEL, TRT has a semi-trailer, B-double, skeletal or road train solution to suit. TRT has designed these specialist crane trailers to be light weight allowing the operator to optimise the payload per axle, and now with VersaLock, their newly patented and highly innovative load restraint mount system, the operator can be confident the payload is positioned on the trailer so that it is legal on the road, no matter the set up or where the crane is going. TRT has been developing and manufacturing trailers since the early 70s. Cranes and Lifting recently spoke to Bruce Carden, manufacturing director, to discuss recent developments to the product line up. “Predominantly, our business looks at building trailers for oversized items and to do that, the trailer itself is reconfigured as a low loader or low decker. In more recent years, we’ve extended our range and we now build a range called crane support
Bruce Carden(right) with his father, TRT founder and director, Dave Carden (left), in front of a TIDD PC28. 50 / CAL January 2020
trailers. This range is designed to carry a range of ancillary equipment a crane needs when it’s deployed. This can include counter weights, the crane base plate, the outrigger pads to spread the load of the outriggers when the crane is set up, it could be the hook block or the de-rigging box,” said Carden. TRT purpose build crane trailers to carry crane related items in specific locations on the trailers, and trailers deployed in a specific order to site for a number of reasons. “When a crane operator gets to site with all of their gear, they need to configure and mobilise the crane and get it to the point where it can conduct its first lift. With a standard trailer, this process can take hours depending on the size of the crane,” said Carden. “If the operator can get to site and have the gear turn up in the right order on the trailers, that’s the first step. From their customer’s point of view, they are hiring the crane for the job and he can see the operator has a system, that it’s a quick and efficient system and, because it’s all configured properly, its saving time. And from the customer’s point of view, they believe they are getting value for money,” said Carden. “As you can appreciate, large cranes have a very high hourly rate and if the crane can be configured efficiently this will significantly reduce cost in a job or improve competitiveness during a tender or quote process, that’s a real and tangible return on investment,” he said. According to Carden, there are a number of issues relating to safely securing loads of various shapes and sizes to the tailer. “When you put counterweights on to
the steel deck of a trailer and you don’t put rubber between the counterweight and the deck, you get steel on steel, which is very slippery. These counterweights weigh between 10t and 15t, so if the driver brakes suddenly, the counterweights can become missiles. And when you consider that 9 times out of 10 they are not tied down correctly when chains and dogs are used, the safety risk is extreme,” he said. Another issue relates to the correct positioning of weights on the trailer, says Carden. “If the load isn’t positioned correctly you won’t get all the axles to weigh correctly. Our purpose-built trailers are engineered with specific load restraints in exactly the right place, so all the axles weigh correctly, significantly reducing risk because no chains and dogs are required. So from a duty of care perspective, as the owner of the crane business, you are confident that when the trailers are deployed, the next phone call isn’t going to be from a problem, or worse, an accident,” he said. TRT has been building crane counterweight support trailers for more than eight years and over this period several clients have recognised the various benefits. “Over the years, we’ve worked closely with a number of clients. Borger Cranes, for example, has around 45 of our purpose-built crane trailers. They are realising genuine benefits in terms of safety and the deployment of counterweights on site,” said Carden. Carden explains the benefits of a system designed to make TRT crane trailers even more flexible. “In the past, trailers were designed and manufactured for a particular crane, www.cranesandlifting.com.au
