I have got my food tank trailers from Herpa. They are German models of a prototype that is not sold in the US or at least has the company has no sales office in the US.
My questions are:
1. Is there something I have to change mandatory to meet US standards, regulations etc. for food trailers?
2. The top one has the little 45° tilt rectangles for warning signs. Explosive etc. and a number identifying possible dangerous load. I think I saw similar signs in the US? Are they required for food too?
3. Most, even heavy, US trailers have two axis only. Should I remove one to match higher axis loads in the US?
4. US trailers have the axises often at the very end because more space is available for wide turns. Should I move the axis to the very end?

Thanks for your help in advance

Here's a start, but I'm by no means an expert on this. The single biggest change you'd need to make for a US trailer post-2000 or so is the conspicuity stripes. The photo below I think is a trailer for either milk or orange juice:[attachment=11312]It doesn't have hazmat placards. The bogies on US trailers are often adjustable according to the trailer's weight, but my guess is that the weight of liquids in a tank trailer is more predictable, so less need to adjust. As you can see in the photo, it has a 2-axle bogie set all the way to the rear.

But vehicle modelers can be as hot for accuracy as railroad modelers, and I'm just an amateur here. The two-axle bogie and the conspicuity stripes, though, would go a long way toward spoofing anyone into thinking it's a US prototype.

Here's a link to one explanation of the standards <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ehow.com/list_6779727_reflective-tape-regulations.html">http://www.ehow.com/list_6779727_reflec ... tions.html</a><!-- m --> Microscale makes HO decals for the red and white strips.

State laws affect how many axles. Here in Ohio, I believe the weight limit on the highways is constant whether you have 2 or 20 axles...so 2 is standard. Up in Michigan, I tend to recall the weight limit being tied to the number of axles...with some trailers looking like centipedes...at least into the 1990s.

I believe the placards are only required if you are hauling something hazardous, flamable, or such.

This would be a good thread for Trucklover - but I haven't seen him around in awhile.

Personally, I have never seen a tank trailer with three axles. The only trucks I see with more than two axles on a single trailer are some types of flatbed trailers used to carry oversize or overweight loads. I am sure there are exceptions, but if you want to bash a more typical US trailer, you are going to want to remove one axle.

Reinhard,

Have you tried looking in Hanks Truck pictures <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hankstruckpictures.com">http://www.hankstruckpictures.com</a><!-- m --> for ideas on the trailer. For the model, try 1-87 Vehicle Club at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.1-87vehicles.org">http://www.1-87vehicles.org</a><!-- m -->. Under the photo galleries they have an index, look under category for trailers.
In my area of South Jersey the tri axle trailers are usually construction equiptment haulers or sometimes you see them on dump trailers.

Bruce

Thank you all for your kind answers. I will not become a truck lover but wanted to change the "typical German" appearance to a more "typical american". To do so I will do the following modifications:

1. Is there something I have to change mandatory to meet US standards, regulations etc. for food trailers?
==> Yellow warning strips at the side
2. The top one has the little 45° tilt rectangles for warning signs. Explosive etc. and a number identifying possible dangerous load. I think I saw similar signs in the US? Are they required for food too?
==> No hazmat placards at food tankers
3. Most, even heavy, US trailers have two axis only. Should I remove one to match higher axis loads in the US?
==> Remove one axis
4. US trailers have the axises often at the very end because more space is available for wide turns. Should I move the axis to the very end?
==> Move axils to the very end

faraway Wrote:1. Is there something I have to change mandatory to meet US standards, regulations etc. for food trailers?
==> Yellow warning strips at the side

The standard DOT striping is red/silver. I don't think I've ever seen yellow, not even sure it is DOT approved.

Puddlejumper Wrote:

faraway Wrote:1. Is there something I have to change mandatory to meet US standards, regulations etc. for food trailers?
==> Yellow warning strips at the side

The standard DOT striping is red/silver. I don't think I've ever seen yellow, not even sure it is DOT approved.

May be both? jwb pointed be to that text:

The NHTSA requires that all trailers, whatever their size, have reflective strips. The rear of the vehicle must display at least two strips of red reflective tape as far apart as possible and between 15 and 60 inches from the ground. The trailer also must have similar strips on its sides as far back as possible. The regulations require two yellow reflective tape strips as far forward as possible on the side of the trailer.

Read more: Reflective Tape Regulations | eHow.com <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ehow.com/list_6779727_reflective-tape-regulations.html#ixzz1v8NOs48V">http://www.ehow.com/list_6779727_reflec ... z1v8NOs48V</a><!-- m -->

You would want a strip of the Microscale red-and-white conspicuity markings slightly below the centerline of the tank, horizontal its full length. You can see something like that in the photo of the tank truck I posted.

To be honest the trucks & trailers are so differant it would be hard but you could try??? I know I drive & own sum trucks.

kamerad47 Wrote:To be honest the trucks & trailers are so differant it would be hard but you could try??? I know I drive & own sum trucks.

Thanks for the serious warning. To be frankly I did not expect mayor differences for tank trailers. I am still hoping with two axles at the very end it will look much more like a US model at least for someone without detailed knowledge of that subject.

Two trailers lost an axis and the two remaining have been moved to the end. Hazmat signs are removed and the belly has been cleaned up. US trailers look slicker than Germans. The red/white warning stripes are on order from Microscale.

Reinhard, some of the states in the North East used to require extra axles on trucks in the spring time when the snow melted and the ground under the roads turned "boggy". That is extra axles were required if the company wanted to load to the maximum weight that they would run in other seasons. Basically many states have a maximum overall weight allowed, but also a maximum weight for each axle. I think Minnesota and Wisconsin have lower maximum axle weight allowed from February through May than they do the rest of the year. I'm not sure if these lower axle weights include interstate highways or not, or if those laws were changed by the federal government when they changed the laws for interstate commerce.

Historically there was a hodge podge of trucking regulations for length and weight with each state setting their own standards. It created major problems for trucking companies trying to move freight across the country. In 1976 the states bordering the Mississippi River on both sides limited the overall length of tractor trailers to 55 feet. I remember that one of the drivers for a company I worked for was stopped in one of those states and had to call out a mechanic to remove the dock bumpers from the trailer and cut off part of the steel around the bumpers because the rig was still 55 feet 2 inches long after he shortened it as far as the 5th wheel adjustment would allow.

I think in the 1980's sometime the federal laws were changed to override states laws that standardized truck maximum weight to 80,0000 pounds, and set maximum length to 65 feet overall. Later the length was changed to a maximum trailer length of 53 feet, but no regulation on the overall length of the rig. Individual states are free to allow longer maximums or heavier maximums, but not shorter or lighter weights.

That is why so many van and flat bed trailers have adjustable bogies as well as the tractors having an adjustable 5th wheel. My brother got an overweight ticket in Oklahoma on a rig. The truck wasn't overweight, but he forgot to slide the bogies and 5th wheel when he left the yard to get the legal axle weight, and when he went through the scales they wrote him up for one axle being too heavy.

Russ, thanks a lot for the valuable information. It is good to know the history.