SSA Marine is a marine terminal and stevedoring company operating at over 250 sites on five continents. Their terminal, located near Vancouver, British Columbia, handles forest products, steel, grain, break bulk, automobiles, cruise passengers, and project cargo.
Heavy drawbar application at SSA Marine
Kelly Williams of SSA Marine commented, "The Terberg is a significant upgrade from the farm tractors currently in use, and from an operations and maintenance perspective will provide significant improvements in uptime and reliability, thus reducing fleet size requirements. Our operators say the ride is smooth and the cab is comfortable".
For certain break bulk operations (steel, pulp and project cargo), SSA Marine uses drawbar trailers rather than goosenecks. These used to be pulled by agricultural tractors, which are now being replaced by customized YT223 tractors. Normally, the load on the fifth wheel exerts enough downward force on the drive axle to provide good traction. Instead, in this hitch application, the required force on the wheels is provided by a ballast block carried on the fifth wheel.
The ballast is easily parked on a stand for maintenance or for use with gooseneck trailers.
