OK for a (Dutch) pie what's this bloke doing and what's going on here...? (It's actually a very smart idea from those clever cloggies at Nooteboom Trailers.). Give up? Well I can tell you it's a trailer for carrying extra ballast plates for a big mobile crane... And once you've loaded (or unloaded) the ballast in it you can then do this with it...
Yep that's right, you can load a van or car on top of it... Now I know what you're thinking,why would you want to do that...? Well as Nooteboom says, just consider this. "The Ballast semi-trailer is a perfect godsend because now the crane operators can take extra ballast and their commercial vehicles altogether along to the building site, together with their 80-160-tonne telescopic cranes. Then once the work is done if the crane operator wants to go home or to a hotel, he doesn't have to clock up unnecessary, expensive crane kilometres. he can drive there in his van. After all, the crane is meant to be used for other purposes!" And let's face it too, how many B&Bs want a thumping great mobile crane parked in the driveway..?
And et voila...! As they say (and that's yer actual French) Here it is all ready to roll to the next lifting job... Neat eh? Now click through here to read more...
Nooteboom has chosen rigid stub axles for the Ballast Semi-trailer as this provides a flat loading space of 450 cm in length, 170 cm in width and 82 cm in height, where the ballast can be loaded. The low position of the ballast also results in a low centre of gravity which makes the trailer extremely stable. After the ballast has been loaded, the 'covers' are closed. Total length of the Ballast Semi-trailer is 7m x 2.75m wide. The top deck is approx. 120 cm metre above the ground.
What's more you can easily drive a car or van on the back thanks to long aluminum ramps and relatively shallow loading angle. Nooteboom's new Ballast Semi-trailer for telescopic cranes weighs approx. four tonnes but can take loads weighing up to a total of seventeen tonnes. And it's been developed in cooperation with Mammoet Nederland who already have 15! In addition to the functional advantages, Mammoet also opted for this concept specifically for economical reasons because its crane kilometres have been drastically reduced. and as Nooteboom says: "Considerable cost savings have been realised, which means the Ballast Semi-trailer will soon pay for itself!" It works for Biglorryblog!
In my days of trying to enforce the road traffic law, I regularly took mobile cranes and their ballast carriers to task. I would loved to have got my legal teeth into this transgressor. Wow what a cheeky thing to promote - they must know I've retired. Happy Days.
I remember seeing a picture of a Wagenburg Nedlift artic with a battered old Opel Corsa tied precariously to the top of a pile of ballast weights, this unit seems to be a far better solution. Am I looking at something wrongly but this looks more like a drawbar trailer to me?