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Tank transporter for the cromwell


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hi fella's

 

i have been toying with the idea of getting a tractor and trailer unit to carry the cromwell to various shows, trouble is i need to do it on the cheap which is where things need to get creative. ideally i would buy an ex army tank trailer and seddon atkinson from withams but i'd be looking at about £20k and i don't want to be more than £6k. so i was thinking of buying a skelly trailer and modifying that to take the tank as it would be within the weight category (cromwell weighs around 24tons) and they are about £1500 so i'd have enough to buy a 10 year renault tractor unit for about £4k which is great in theory but i'm not sure how to go about insuring the truck and trailer, also i don't know if it's legal to modify a skelly trailer to take a tank.

has anyone else had the same problem with transport or come up with a good solution other than to keep paying everyone else to do it !

 

cheers

 

rick

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something like this

 

Surely plenty of old low loading trailers about, one with a detachable swan neck would be ideal

Plenty being used by traction engine owners and better than modifying a skelly

Would have to be tested and plated but could be run as private lgv and have a word with Walker Midgley for insurance (again used by the traction engine boys) My beavertail is insured through them

Edited by Brooky
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I am very curious, as we have had this discussion in our shop concerning the haulage of big lumpy vehicles over here.

 

If you say you have 20k GBP why wouldn't you do without the aggro and hire someone to move it around as and when needed? No looking after the rig in between, no insurance or annual inspections required. No storage in between usage under cover.

 

Just curious as to why you feel the urge to spend that kind of money?

 

Robin

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i have the storage and licences and would rather do it all myself.

One thing John was looking at was to buy a tractor unit and hire a low loader trailer when needed was an option. What we do currently is hire a unit and trailer this can be a bit expensive but with contacts we have is not to bad the plus side is that the unit and trailer has the correct testing requirement and you don't have a unit and trailer sat around in the yard only being used maybe once a month during the year.

 

Al

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As Brooky says the traction engine boys are all over this. A decent tractor unit and slightly modified tri-axle stepframe trailer would be ideal. Without checking I think you would need a tri axle tractor too depending on how the tank sits on the trailer (and therefore loads the axles) but there are plenty about at a decent price. The last tri-axle unit that passed through my hands was an ERF with a Rolls engine and it was bought for £2k. I recently sold a stepframe with ramps for £2.5k.

 

Taxed as Private HGV the road tax is a couple of hundred a year, the insurance not a lot more and I even have breakdown/recovery cover for another couple of hundred.

 

Annual testing requires a bit of work and you have to be on top of the reams and reams of legislation, but overall it is the only way to go!

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If you purchase an ex-military tractor unit, you can insure it with your other military vehicles.

 

I have the Scammell S26 tugging a 99 tonne 4 axle for the Chiefy.

 

The weights I move are classified as STGO so unfortunately I have to stump up STGO road tax.

 

A normal low loader trailer can be brought for as little as £5K and a tractor unit around the same.

 

You can get cheaper but you get what you pay for.

 

Hiring trailer and rigs can be an issue.

 

For a start, firms don't like hiring their low loader trailers out and they normally ask for an operators licence to hire a tractor unit out.

 

I know what you mean about wanting to do it yourself though.

 

Markheliops

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al

i know john's lad works in haulage which is why he can get the wagons for a good price but if i turn up i reckon i'd be shown the way out fair quick ! when they ask what experience i have and i tell them i passed my test 26 years ago and haven't driven hgv1 since.

 

paul

that's the kind of money i am looking at spending, so if you hear of anything on the grapevine can you give me a nudge. cheers

 

mark

i'm lucky with the cromwell being such a small load compared to a chieftian, once you go bigger than a comet everything gets complicated. ideally i'd buy an s26, infact john riley lives just up the road from me and has one but he won't part with it, i've offered to share but i think it fell on deaf ears :)

 

i'll get there i just don't know how or when

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When we went down this route for our CVRT transporter, we found Trucktrader http://trucks.autotrader.co.uk/used-trucks

to be useful. Getting private HGV taxation can be difficult; we got the dealer we purchased our wagon from to do it as he was an exporter so did things like that on a regular basis. The bigger issue was insurance; we somehow ended up with the wagon under a classic policy with one of the well known MV insurers. Surprisingly NFU and some of the other companies dealing with classic vehiciles wouldn't even quote on it. Its far easier to insure an ex MOD wagon and if we get another transporter in future, this would be he route I would go down.

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al

mark

i'm lucky with the cromwell being such a small load compared to a chieftian, once you go bigger than a comet everything gets complicated. ideally i'd buy an s26, infact john riley lives just up the road from me and has one but he won't part with it, i've offered to share but i think it fell on deaf ears :)

 

i'll get there i just don't know how or when

 

A good S26 is going to set you back around the £7000 mark -

 

I's sell mine for £7500 but only to upgrade to a heavier unit.

 

You could probably find an old 6x4 Foden for around the £3000 mark but it's not going to be all that, especially if you have to get a ministry ticket on it.

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When we went down this route for our CVRT transporter, we found Trucktrader http://trucks.autotrader.co.uk/used-trucks

to be useful. Getting private HGV taxation can be difficult; we got the dealer we purchased our wagon from to do it as he was an exporter so did things like that on a regular basis. The bigger issue was insurance; we somehow ended up with the wagon under a classic policy with one of the well known MV insurers. Surprisingly NFU and some of the other companies dealing with classic vehiciles wouldn't even quote on it. Its far easier to insure an ex MOD wagon and if we get another transporter in future, this would be he route I would go down.

 

Getting Private HGV taxation is simply a case of sending the V70 form ( https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/364271/V70_180914.pdf ) Although it does not say you need one it is worth sending it with a covering letter making quite clear what you are going to use it for. It really needs either doing when the truck is due tax or else SORN then re- apply - either can cause a delay so make sure you don't want to use the thing in a tearing rush.

 

Walker Midgley do an excellent "hobby" low -loader scheme - readily available and surprisingly modestly priced; remember that some of the classic/military vehicle schemes assume that the vehicle will be used unladen.

 

Autohome do a "hobby" low loader breakdown scheme.

 

I will keep my eyes peeled Rick - best pm me your phone number just in case something pops up on the horizon!

 

Like I say - have a look at any traction engine rally - there will be a field full of transporters of all shapes and sizes and lots will be taxed and insured as I describe.

Edited by paulbrook
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thanks fella's

guess i'll start getting the money together. i don't have any shows until may, so i've a while to look around but i know how these things are, you think you have all the time in the world and then it suddenly creeps up on you before you know it.

cheers

 

rick

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We (Burnt Tree now Enterprise rental) haven't required to see O licences to rent our tractor units out for a number of years now. I don't know whether that's come from our insurers, law makers or company policy. They typically rent for £360+vat per week / £72 per day but you need an account with us. As an aside, we've been instructed to run on our 'older' units (61 plates) as the used market for units is very depressed at the minute. I did see one of our units at w&p a few years back.

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Quick search suggests 30,000 kg but you're firmly into STGO cat 2 territory with the Foden at 25,338 kg plus your vehicle before even adding the trailer weight, assuming it's not classed as 'recovery'. There's a similar thread about this somewhere on here with a Mili Mk3 & trailer with tracked vehicle. Might be simpler to do the private HGV low loader like the traction engine blokes.

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