WHAT A LOAD OF BALLAST

I can always remember the late Siddle C Cook talking about his frustration with carrying ballast. The conversation we had was probably about 40 years ago but the point he made is still more than salient today: “What a waste of effort.” He did have a great idea to get round it which as I’ll explain was actually a development of what some box tractor users already did, but – so far as I know – it’s never caught on. As yes, the industry has realised you just have to lump it – as you can’t get anywhere without it.

Of course the boffins will tell you that it’s simply the law of physics that hauling tractors which pull loads of weight do in fact need themselves to be weighed down with ballast so they can keep a firm grip of the roadway. It’s not rocket science but what is a pain is the ballast carried by some heavy hauliers can mount up to 15, 20 or even 40 tons (or more) to ensure these vehicles can in turn haul 2, 3 or even 400 tons of outfit.

However – and this is the big one – it doesn’t mean that the way you carry this weight is something of an afterthought. Or if you are going to have a ballast box, let’s have a decent looking one at that. So while you might not be surprised to hear how the following appreciation will end up with what I think is the finest ballast box combo’ of a motorYes, this is heavy stuff.