whatcharterboat
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Hope you find this interesting. I know there were alot of questions raised about containerization once before so......
Went down to Brisbane to help with the loading of the RTW truck bound for South Africa. We were only there just in case of any technical problems. The loading was done by the professionals. Only thing was they weren't quite ready for the truck. Little communication problem between the guys responsible for the loading. Anyway we made a start to see if it was all going to fit even though they didn't have the tie-downs organised.
Firstly the overall length of the truck was only a couple of inches too long so it was always going to have to go in a "high cube" 40ft container instead of a standard "high cube" 20. Apparently 30's are pretty hard to come by but that would have done. Taking the spare wheels and the 2 extra tyre carcasses off and possibly stowing them inside might have seen it in a 20 if it was that important.
Originally we thought that the 4 x 19.5" wheels would have to be swapped for standard wheels with some old 7.50R/16 tyres to lower the height as the long travel suspension sees it sitting up quite a bit higher than normal. So we got 4 together beforehand in case.
Body clearance was OK but the mirrors only just made it. Reversing it in straight was much harder than we thought. It just would not go in straight. Very hard to drive it in looking through the mirrors when the truck just disappears into the darkness. No problem for the professionals though. They simply nudged the back of the container around with a forklift.
In the end we had to swap the front wheels only. It was either that or remove the roof rack. Only 4 bolts holding it on to the scrub bars but the comms guys hard wired and glued the sat antenna to it so it was easier to just swap the wheels and with a spare 20 feet in the box there was certainly an abundance of room to stow the others.
Note the pad made from wooden pallets. Again, made things easier to load as the truck went in very level. If you were wondering, the truck was pushed in the rest of the way. Actually it was pushed all the way into the centre of the container to balance the load and the guys slid under the diffs to tie/dog it down. When I slid under the diffs in a T-shirt I got plastered by splinters off the floor. Ouch. Worst thing was how hot it was on the day. I needed to lose some weight anyway.
Apparently the wheels were well tied down as was the body to eliminate any swaying movement. Not sure if they ended up using chains and dogs or heavy tiedown straps but I'm sure Robert will eventually have something in the diary on his website about this www.doubledutchworldsafari.com. A double ended container would have been handy for this but they can be hard to get too, and as we said, you can get by anyway. Just watch out for splinters.
Oh BTW the batteries were all disconnected before it was pushed the last bit of the way.
Went down to Brisbane to help with the loading of the RTW truck bound for South Africa. We were only there just in case of any technical problems. The loading was done by the professionals. Only thing was they weren't quite ready for the truck. Little communication problem between the guys responsible for the loading. Anyway we made a start to see if it was all going to fit even though they didn't have the tie-downs organised.
Firstly the overall length of the truck was only a couple of inches too long so it was always going to have to go in a "high cube" 40ft container instead of a standard "high cube" 20. Apparently 30's are pretty hard to come by but that would have done. Taking the spare wheels and the 2 extra tyre carcasses off and possibly stowing them inside might have seen it in a 20 if it was that important.
Originally we thought that the 4 x 19.5" wheels would have to be swapped for standard wheels with some old 7.50R/16 tyres to lower the height as the long travel suspension sees it sitting up quite a bit higher than normal. So we got 4 together beforehand in case.
Body clearance was OK but the mirrors only just made it. Reversing it in straight was much harder than we thought. It just would not go in straight. Very hard to drive it in looking through the mirrors when the truck just disappears into the darkness. No problem for the professionals though. They simply nudged the back of the container around with a forklift.
In the end we had to swap the front wheels only. It was either that or remove the roof rack. Only 4 bolts holding it on to the scrub bars but the comms guys hard wired and glued the sat antenna to it so it was easier to just swap the wheels and with a spare 20 feet in the box there was certainly an abundance of room to stow the others.
Note the pad made from wooden pallets. Again, made things easier to load as the truck went in very level. If you were wondering, the truck was pushed in the rest of the way. Actually it was pushed all the way into the centre of the container to balance the load and the guys slid under the diffs to tie/dog it down. When I slid under the diffs in a T-shirt I got plastered by splinters off the floor. Ouch. Worst thing was how hot it was on the day. I needed to lose some weight anyway.
Apparently the wheels were well tied down as was the body to eliminate any swaying movement. Not sure if they ended up using chains and dogs or heavy tiedown straps but I'm sure Robert will eventually have something in the diary on his website about this www.doubledutchworldsafari.com. A double ended container would have been handy for this but they can be hard to get too, and as we said, you can get by anyway. Just watch out for splinters.
Oh BTW the batteries were all disconnected before it was pushed the last bit of the way.
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