Lawrence Schaffler

Features, Trucks

Driver’s health: Do you drive to a beat?

Music — it’s generally accepted — helps to relieve the monotony for lonely truck drivers. But does it affect performance? Is there a correlation between easy-listening and drowsiness? Heavy metal and road rage? Do truckies all listen to the same music? Lawrence Schäffler investigates.
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 Features, Trucks

Colossal Solutions for giant problems

Moving an extra-large, ultra-heavy load is a specialist job co-ordinated with military precision – and almost always executed in the dead of night. It also requires purpose-built, multi-wheeled trailers. Fortunately New Zealand boasts one of the Southern Hemisphere’s leading manufacturers of these unique transporters.
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 Features, Trucks

Maintenance: Driveshafts

Driveshafts aren’t a regular cause of breakdowns but this doesn’t mean they’re invincible. Sudden, excessive vibration is an obvious indication something’s amiss, and the root of the problem, more often than not, is poor maintenance. Lawrence Schäffler reports.
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 Features, Trucks

New tyres? Check the wheel nuts

While fitting new tyres is a standard safety measure, a sloppy operation could actually render a truck more dangerous. Improperly tightened wheel nuts may result in runaway wheels – and history shows the consequences of this are often fatal.
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