Krone Mega City trailer steals the show for events specialist

Event Ground Support (EGS) has added a new 11m Krone Mega City Dry Liner trailer to its fleet to save costs and reduce its CO2 emissions.

The company was looking for a new vehicle to navigate urban areas with good capacity and manoeuvrability. The new addition, photographed here behind a Mercedes-Benz Actros, will be used to move cameras, screens, lighting and audio equipment to concerts, festivals, inner-city theatres and other entertainment locations. 

MD Kevin Webb, said: “At the time, we were looking for an 18-tonne rigid for urban areas or a 9m urban trailer. Krone’s area sales manager, Alan McKee, came along and said, ‘We have an 11m Mega with the rear-steer lifting axle,’ and I thought, ‘That’s a big trailer to be getting into those places,’ so we tested it.

“What swung it was that we could get the City Liner into places where you wouldn’t dream of putting a trailer. A real test recently was when a customer requested a 26-tonne rigid to load from the rear entrance of The London Palladium. We felt this would be a great test for the 11m urban. To gain access you have to dodge sleepers, flowerpots and posts. Our experienced driver drove the trailer in with ease and reversed to the rear doors. Leaving was a different situation and required a little more patience with the driver making a few shunts and raising the trailer to clear the posts. Once in, one of the crew at the Palladium said, ‘How did you get that round there?’”

Thanks to the Mega City Dry Liner’s front lifting axle and rear steer axle, it can access sites rigid vehicles are unable to while maximising capacity. The body is 2m longer than a standard 18- or 26-tonne rigid and has a nearly double the payload at 19-tonnes. 

Webb said: “We have a show booked in where the client wants four 18-tonners. We’ve got it down to two 18-tonners and the Krone trailer. The customer receives a better service as you are loading/unloading fewer vehicles, saving drivers, fuel and running costs, not forgetting the reduced emissions. We’re looking closely at the environmental side of things now and, from that point of view, it’s one less engine on the road. Your CO2 emissions and impact on the environment are much lower – and you’ve only got to load and unload one truck, not two.

“Because it has an 11m loading space – and 18-tonners are about 8m – you add an extra 3m and being a Mega the volume gain is invaluable. You also go from 18-tonne to a 30-tonne GVW, so your actual capacity is much greater. It gives us so much more flexibility.”