Navigating the perils of house work
TREES, signs and disgruntled drivers are just the usual ‘‘daytoday headaches’’ in the life of a transportable home delivery driver.
But with the help of other roadusers, it can be a relatively straightforward affair.
A 228sq m transportable home, built by Big River Homes, hit the road after being showcased to about 250 people at an open home event last weekend.
It travelled from Balclutha to Momona on Thursday night on the back of a truck courtesy of McNeilly Heavy Haulage.
The home is the largest the company has built, measuring 25.5m long by 8.8m wide with a 3.5mhigh ceiling.
Big River Homes codirector Mark van Asperen said transporting the dwelling came with its challenges, but it arrived at its destination ahead of schedule and ‘‘in good nick too’’.
Aside from traffic, Mr van Asperen said trees and signs could pose an issue.
‘‘A lot of the time we’ve got a fourinch gap between the house and the signs each side, so it’s extraordinarily wide,’’ he said.
‘‘I guess from time to time the guys will take a sign down, but there’s always a tailend Charlie at the back who puts them back in again.
Mr van Asperen said a tourist in a rental car once tried to drive underneath a transportable home after getting frustrated.
‘‘As that happened, the contour of the road came down
. . . and long story short the roof of the rental car got crushed.’’
The tourist was OK and remarked he usually did not bring the whole house with him when moving homes.
Mr van Asperen said a series of hydraulic jacks mounted around the perimeter of the home were used to simultaneously lift it into the air as a trailer backed underneath.
To prevent the home from buckling under its own weight midtravel it needed to be built stronger than typical homes, and tethers were put in place to tie it down to the truck.
Travelling at night reduced the disruptions to traffic, and with an ‘‘extraordinary sized’’ home nearly 9m wide, there were naturally very few parking spaces available, Mr van Asperen said.
McNeilly Heavy Haulage owner Mark McNeilly said transporting the home, despite its size, was a straightforward operation.
The company delivered about 50 homes annually.
Mr McNeilly said signs and trees were ‘‘a continual problem’’ to drivers, and some roadside vegetation could do with a good trimming.
‘‘Just our daytoday headaches that we have,’’ he said.
‘‘Any normal challenges that something that’s 10m wide that can pose — most state highways are 7m wide.
‘‘We need the road and a bit more, but with good management, skills and cooperation from other road users, it’s actually quite straightforward.’’