Low loader hire for your heavy duty transportation needs
Most firms dealing with industrial equipment and heavy machinery take advantage of low loader hire for convenient and efficient transportation. A low loader vehicle is a semi-trailer, which has two drops in deck height, allowing the deck to be very low compared with normal trailers. It also has an access ramp at the end of the platform.
This means it's equipped to carry taller loads and heavy machinery, such as cranes, bulldozers and excavators, for example. If you're looking for haulage and freight services, low loader hire is the sensible solution, especially if you're planning to transport abnormal loads. It has the ability to carry loads up to 3.66m (12ft) high, which other trailers can't do.
Effective uses for low loaders
Items commonly transported on low loaders include all types of construction machinery, such as excavation vehicles; road construction equipment; crushing equipment; road grooving machinery and screening equipment. Low loaders are also suitable to transport all the machinery associated with wind power plants, such as generators; tower segments; turbine blades; hybrid towers and rotor blades.
Other heavy loads that can be transported include forestry machinery, such as harvesters, skidders and forwarders; farming and agricultural equipment, such as tractors, combine harvesters, silage wagons and liquid manure tankers; industrial parts, such as vessels and crane-loaded goods; pre-cast concrete parts; boats and any bulky items.
Types of low loader
There are several types of low loader around today, including the latest, state-of-the-art models, equipped with hydraulic suspension, so that no matter what you need to move, they're equipped to transport it. Companies who deal with transporting heavy machinery find the low loader is the easiest, cheapest and most efficient way. There are many types of low loader trailers for hire:
Fixed gooseneck trailer: These can be manufactured with taper drops, straight drops, or low profile paver slopes to carry multiple pieces of equipment. Their frames are manufactured with pierced beam cross members from high-strength steel.
Hydraulic detachable gooseneck: This design is a gooseneck which disconnects from the trailer frame's front and remains attached to the tractor. Equipment is loaded over the trailer deck's front end, using hydraulic cylinders to carry out the detaching process.
Mechanically-detachable gooseneck: This is a popular mechanical trailer, which features a narrow neck design. It's normally lighter than hydraulic detachable goosenecks and is used mainly for long speciality hauls.
Mechanical folding gooseneck: With this low loader, the deck will fold down to ground level, providing a ramp for trailer loading.
The first low loader was introduced in the 1920s and featured solid, rubber tyres and a riveted gooseneck. The first detachable trailer was invented in 1958.
Suspension types
There are several low loader suspension types, including the spring ride, which is often the cheapest, but produces a rougher ride; air-ride, which offers a smooth ride and can be adjusted to produce a lower or higher deck height; hydraulic suspension, which is an an oil-filled system, allowing more axle movement, a greater steering angle and more stability, and finally, independent suspension, which features a double-wishbone.
If you need haulage and freight services, low loader hire is an absolute essential. Benefit from using low loaders, but without the headache or expense of purchasing and maintaining one.