Mega trailer
A mega -trailer is a special design of a semi-trailer . In contrast to standard semi-trailers, a mega-trailer has a clear loading height of 3 meters.
The development of the mega-trailer goes back to the Dutch logistics company Ewals Cargo Care , which introduced a mega-trailer for the first time in 1990 to increase the efficiency of regular delivery traffic between continental Europe and the factories of the automobile manufacturer General Motors Europe in Great Britain . The design of the trailer was based on the dimensions of the transport boxes used by the automotive industry for vendor parts.
With the dimensions of a mega-trailer from the inside 13.60 m × 2.48 m × 3.00 m, 34 pallet spaces are available. The interior height of 3 m, for example, allows the pallet cages to be stacked 3 times high, which means a capacity of 96 pallet cages is available - 33% more than a standard semi-trailer. When used optimally, the loading volume of a megatrailer is 100 m³. A vehicle combination with a mega trailer is therefore a jumbo truck . As with other jumbo trucks, the greater interior height is achieved by a lower loading area. While the loading area of a normal standard semi-trailer is around 125–130 cm above the road surface, it is just under 100 cm for a mega-trailer.
As towing vehicles for mega-trailers, special mega-semitrailer tractors (so-called “low-liners”) with a particularly low saddle height are required. From a technical point of view, a standard tractor unit can also pull a mega-trailer, since both the fifth wheel coupling and the electrical and compressed air connections of a mega-trailer correspond to those of a standard semi-trailer. However, due to the higher fifth wheel of a standard tractor unit, the permissible total height of the vehicle of 4 m is exceeded. A standard tractor unit can be used through a recess on the underside of the trailer towards the vehicle (" gooseneck "), but the loading space then does not have the same height everywhere and is less than 3 m above the recess.
Due to the large loading volume, megatrailers are mainly used in the automotive industry, as the 3 m interior height can be fully utilized here due to standardized and easily stackable load carriers. But also in other branches of industry, such as the transport of paper rolls, the greater loading height is playing an increasingly important role. According to the vehicle manufacturers, the proportion of megatrailers has increased in recent years.
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.cargobull.com S.CS MEGA , accessed on November 9, 2012
- ↑ www.nieuwsbladtransport.nl: Cargo Care's magic word is Megatrailer (Dutch), accessed on November 23, 2017
- ↑ Data sheet of a mega trailer from the manufacturer Krone (PDF), accessed on November 23, 2017
- ↑ VerkehrsRundschau 24/2016, p. 76