Can anyone identify what this trailer was used for?

[GMTruckGuy74]

See the topic title; here are the pictures to reference the trailer in question:

I have an idea what it was used for after doing some "brief" Internet research, but I'm not 100% positive that I'm correct. Seeing as how there's a ton of informative people here at C&G, I'd thought I'd post this question.

[Z-06]

Two purposes come to my mind:

1. Carrying a missile

2. Carrying a prestressed concrete girder.

[balthazar]

I do not know.

Observations: rear 'fenders' are extremely makeshift - homemade just for over the road transport?

From the front view- the rear of the trailer seems to be split from side-to-side, yet I see no evidence the trailer 'butterflies' open (and dual axles would make that impossible).

I see the 'cradle'-esque build of the Veed rear crossmember and the huge tires, but there is no corresponding cradle or ledge at the front.

The fact that the rear tires are HUGE has to be significant... but why I can't guess.

Looking forward to the answer...

[Robert Hall]

That's a type of what's called a 'lowboy', I think. Maybe a big electrical transformer or some piece of construction equipment.

[Sixty8panther]

Booster rockets for the Space Shuttle.

sure that was a serious answer...

[Camino LS6]

Something heavy in the extreme.

Some of the above guesses crossed my mind.

Maybe a huge track loader?

[HarleyEarl]

For transporting of missiles to the silo.

Edited December 5, 2008 by HarleyEarl

[HarleyEarl]

For the transportation of carnival ride equipment.

[Camino LS6]

For transporting of missles to the silo.

The more I look at it, the more I like this answer.

[Robert Hall]

Booster rockets for the Space Shuttle.

sure that was a serious answer...

Too small.. I did see the auxillary fuel tank for the Space Shuttle being trucked around at Cape Carnival once, though...huge.

[Sixty8panther]

You'd think the transportation of nuclear arms

would be the job of Pete 379s or Kenworth

W900s... not some lowly Mack.

[Robert Hall]

It must have been a widget that was lowered onto the trailer, I don't see provisions for a rear ramp.

It if had a 40s military truck cab I'd say it was used to haul UFO parts from Roswell to Area 51 in '48 (under a tarp, though)..

Edited December 5, 2008 by moltar

[Camino LS6]

Mega-heavy and fits into a vee just says missile to me.

[balthazar]

construction equipment may be out- the trailer deck is open and isn't even as wide as the tractor's track... unless it's for one of those machines who's wheels overhang the sides. Problem is, this is not a lowboy (you cannot drive over the rear tires) and it's not a detachable neck where you can drive up the front.

Rear tires are notably inboard of the tractor's track; wider would add stability if the weight was extreme.

Transport for non-wheeled cargo is a definite.... but what, and why so narrow ?

[Robert Hall]

Mega-heavy and fits into a vee just says missile to me.

Or a boat/yacht.

[Camino LS6]

I have seen structural concrete girders transported on an angle, which might account for the vee.

[balthazar]

Too narrow & no support for any sizable boat. The narrowness of it certainly is specialized & limiting...

Most of the girder transports I've seen have had independant rear trucks; the girder becomes the 'trailer frame'.

Edited December 5, 2008 by balthazar

[Robert Hall]

Too narrow & no support for any sizable boat. The narrowness of it certainly is specialized & limiting...

Most of the girder transports I've seen have had independant rear trucks; the girder becomes the 'trailer frame'.

I wonder if the truck that towed it originally was just as narrow.

[Satty]

Or a boat/yacht.

Seems too narrow to safely transport a large yacht.

[balthazar]

Cannot conceive of a reason to have a narrower tractor. Never seen one that narrow, either.

Unrelated, but had to post:

[Robert Hall]

Seems too narrow to safely transport a large yacht.

Maybe a sailboat...some of them are narrow.

[Robert Hall]

Cannot conceive of a reason to have a narrower tractor. Never seen one that narrow, either.

For the same reason as the narrow trailer..to fit on narrow roads.

[balthazar]

Assuming these narrow roads also have only gradual, sweeping turns ... OK.

[Camino LS6]

Cannot conceive of a reason to have a narrower tractor.

I can.

Sort of.

I remember tractors with Half cabs used to accommodate very long items - the nose cone of a missile for example. Though I've mostly seen them on construction cranes mounted directly to a truck with a continuous frame.

Just brainstorming a bit, I know what I suggest would be hell on right turns.

[GMTruckGuy74]

As I said in the first post, I thought I found the answer when I looked quickly on the Internet the other day, but now I'm not so sure (I'll share my find in a moment). Of course the easiest answer would have been to ask the Mack truck owner when I was at the show, but at that point I was running low on time and needed to cram in as much as I could before I had to get back on the road. I do know that if the truck & trailer are there again next October, I will definitely ask this time!

Here's what I originally thought it was: one half of a Dragon Wagon. Don't know what a Dragon Wagon is? I didn't until I saw a similar looking trailer picture in a magazine the other day with that caption and Googled it. A Dragon Wagon is a military tank carrier. Here's a picture I found of a diecast model:

But upon closer inspection, the rear wheels are too tall compared to the model pictured above and there is no way to unload the item being carried like on a traditional lowboy.

[Camino LS6]

...unless it has been modified.

Remember Balthazar's comment that the fenders looked home made?

[balthazar]

I also used to see a local steel company's non-articulated trucks with the half-cab, so long steel beams could be transported, but these half cabs were on full-width frames w/ full-width axles; only the cab above the deck height was narrower. I'm sure somewhere there have been narrower tractors for some purpose...

Roger- you of course noticed that the truck next it (apparently) had the same type trailer...

Dragon wagon is a full-width trailer with a deck close enough to the rear tires that a vehicle could be driven up onto it. I still think this one is for non-wheeled cargo...