Hampshire-based Andover Trailers has solved a major problem affecting construction and plant hire operators across the UK and Ireland after designing and building the industry's first lightweight centre balance drawbar machinery trailer to overcome the increased weight of the latest generation of Wirtgen W150F tracked road planers.

The first example of the new trailer, which has an unladen weight of 4,460 kg, has entered operation with Dublin-based Streetsweep Ryan Road Planing Services which purchased it specifically to enable them to transport the new machine behind a 6x4 tipper.

Designed to ultra-specific weight tolerances, its lightweight design affords a payload of 20,540 kg, allowing the new Wirtgen W150F to be transported without exceeding the maximum design weight of the trailer. The W150F weighs 20,530 kg without the canopy, water and with a half full tank of diesel.

This significant achievement highlights the skill of Andover Trailers' technical team and drawing office, which only two years ago became the company to build a similar trailer to carry the smaller Wirtgen W100FK tracked road planer, which weighs 19,600 kg.

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Ivan Collins, Sales Director at Andover Trailers, explained: "There is an incredibly fine line between designing a lightweight trailer and designing one capable of transporting a road planer weighing in excess of 20.5 tonnes.

"We worked very closely with Wirtgen to meet the challenge and it drew upon all of our technical skills and experience.

"It's not a trailer which can easily be copied as the key is utilising a careful blend of different steels to combine an ultra-low unladen weight with one offering utmost strength. The fact we achieved it with just a 10 kg tolerance is testament to how tough this project was.

"Over the last few months we've had enquiries from firms who have been delaying purchasing the new planer until they were confident we could build a trailer which would enable them to transport it behind a regular tipper.

"Now that we have – and so far as we know we are the only people to have met the challenge – we're gearing up to produce many more of these bespoke drawbars."

At 10.15m long, the new CBDBCLLT 25 trailer has been designed and manufactured by Andover Trailers using a unique blend of lightweight steels. It features special hydraulic single section steel ramps to suit the W150F, together with a drop-in conveyor support, manual steady legs, SAF axles and air suspension with raise/lower control.

Other features include Obeche timber used in the floor to reduce the unladen weight in comparison with a regular plant trailer, three pairs of lashing points, aluminium wheels and Knorr-Bremse EBS brakes with auto slack adjusters.

For information on the heavy haulage and specialist transport solutions provided by Andover Trailers, contact Ivan Collins at Andover Trailers Ltd, Unit 75, Columbus Way, Walworth Industrial Estate, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 5NP. Tel: +44 (0)1264 358 944 or e-mail: [email protected] Website: www.andovertrailers.co.uk