New Tipping Trailer

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( why is it that the axle for the trailer in your post is located so close to the centre of the bed )</font>

I've always understood that the main reason was to prevent too much tongue weight on the towing vehicle and to allow tighter turning in small spaces. You may notice that travel trailers as well as utility trailers, even 5th wheel travel trailers, have the axles pretty far forward since they're frequently pulled by smaller trucks and cars often driven by drivers without much experience in towing trailers so if the axles were farther back, they'd overload the towing vehicle, run over curbs on turns, not be able to back into tight parking spaces, etc. while trailers built to be pulled by big trucks will have the axles farther back because they want more weight on the truck. And of course a lot of the 18-wheeler type trailers have axles which can be pretty quickly and easily moved forward and backward by the driver for proper weight distribution.

 

[rlk]

Nigel, this is a very interesting way to build. I have read about it, but have never seen it first hand.

What do you use for interior finish? Is there timber framing on the inside to which some type of drywall or paneling is attached, or are the interior walls plastered directly over the masonry?

How are electrical and plumbing installed? Is the house on a slab, basement, or crawl space?

I priced concrete interlocking tiles for a roof once, but found it to be so expensive that we backed off. A few companies are experimenting with lightweight concrete roof tiles. The good thing with lightweight tiles is you don't have to beef up the roof framing as much as you do with regular weight concrete. We already have steel shingles available, but they are quite expensive now.

Both the lightweight concrete and steel tiles should be good for 50+ years, but most of us do not stay in the same house that long, and very few people want to pay the increased price for this type roof.

 

[voodoo]

Bird,

Guess you and Harvey are both right. Likewise, all utility trailers for cars and pickups here are also centre axle, exactly for the reasons you are mentioning.
It seems only to be agricultural trailers that have rear positioned axles, seemingly for the reasons I have mentioned.
/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
Variety is what makes each of us unique /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Nigel

 

[voodoo]

Bob,

Houses here in the UK are designed to have a minimum life span of 60yrs+ and most construction methods are traditional construction which has the historical evidence to prove it.

The interior finish is of a sand cement base coat to the masonry wall panel, finished with a thin gypsum plaster top coat. This is the more traditional method. Increasingly popular is the drylining method where plasterboard sheeting is plaster daubed to the walls and joints filled and taped. This is much quicker and avoids wet trades.
Non structural internal walls are formed in timber studwork with plasterboard sheeting to the facing. A construction you will be more familair with /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

All electrical is generally carried in the core of the first floor timber joisting and then tracked / chased down walls to electrical sockets.
Most plumbing is buried in ducting in cement screeds at ground floor and again carried through timber joisting at first floor.

The foundations are actually concrete strip founds under all loadbearing walls. The cavity wall strips are 2' x 1' and generally about 3' dp to avoid frost damage. Depth is very dependent on soil types as with any found, and becomes too expensive more than 6' in depth.
There is no slab foundation involved. The floor construction is basically a concrete ground bearing slab, levels being made up in consolidated hardcore.

Cedar shingles used to be used on some properties during the 1960's and 70's, but lost popularity because they did not have a sufficient life span. With our mild, temperate climate [see the definition of wet /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif], the cedar shingles would deteriorate due to sweating and mould.

Nigel