Moving plant, machinery and project cargo on a flatbed or step deck: deck height, point loading, ramp access and what we can and cannot build for you today.
A trailer rated for 34 t is rated for 34 t spread along its deck. That is not the same as 34 t sitting on four outrigger pads.
Machinery, plant and project cargo almost always arrive as point loads. The mass comes down through tracks, feet or outriggers into a footprint measured in tens of centimetres, and the deck underneath it either takes that or deforms.
The number to ask for is the concentrated load rating. On our platform trailer it is 30 t. If a supplier quotes you payload and cannot tell you the concentrated load rating, you do not yet know whether the trailer suits your load.
Spreading the load with timber or steel packing helps and has limits: packing distributes the load across the deck, but the deck still has to get it into the beam.
Two dimensions decide whether a machine gets onto a trailer at all.
Deck height sets the loaded height of whatever sits on it, and loaded height is what has to clear bridges, gantries and permit limits on your route. A tall machine on a standard-height deck is a permit problem before it is a loading problem.
Approach angle at the rear decides whether a low-clearance machine can drive on without grounding. A machine with 200 mm of belly clearance and a long wheelbase needs a shallower ramp than one with a short body and high clearance, regardless of what either weighs.
Both of these are the reason the heavy-haulage market runs low-bed and drop-deck trailers rather than flat platforms.
We build platform and container-carrying trailers. For heavy haulage that means a three-axle 13 m flat deck rated for a 30 t concentrated load, and container chassis in gooseneck or straight frame. Between them these cover machinery and project cargo that will load onto a standard-height deck and clear the route at that height.
We do not build a low-bed or drop-deck trailer. If your load needs a lowered deck to clear a height limit, or a beavertail and ramps to be driven on, that is not a vehicle we can supply.
If you are not sure which category your load falls into, send us the machine dimensions and mass and we will tell you whether a flat deck clears it.
Three numbers get an answer in one exchange: the mass of the heaviest item, its footprint on the deck, and its height once loaded. Add the tightest clearance on your route and we can tell you whether the load runs on a standard deck or needs a vehicle we do not build.
