Red soil, gateways and drop spots — a South Burnett access checklist

When a delivery goes badly out here it is nearly always because the access was guessed at the kitchen table instead of measured at the gateway. This is the checklist we work through on the phone, in the order we ask it, so you can walk the block with a tape before you ring.

A tape, some paces and a look up

Gateway width, how far the truck can reverse in a straight line, and what sits above the drop spot. Those three entries let us choose the vehicle from a desk in Kingaroy. Leave one blank and the driver discovers it on arrival, which is the dear way to find out.

Width. A tilt-tray wants roughly 3.5m of clear width to work comfortably, and it wants it at the tightest point, not the average. That is usually a gateway, a pair of gate posts, a cattle grid frame or the gap between a shed corner and a water tank. Take a tape to it. "It's a normal gate" is not a measurement, and normal gates in this district run anywhere from 3.0m to 4.5m.

Run-in. A tilt-tray slides the container off the back of the bed, so it needs to reverse into line and then move forward out from under the load. Around 20m of straight approach is the working figure for a 20ft. A sidelifter placing a 40ft wants roughly 30m of room and has to stand on its legs on ground that will hold them. Pace it out. Twenty metres is about twenty-five long steps.

Overhead. Look up. Power and telephone on timber poles across a driveway, a limb from an established gum, a shed awning, a rainwater downpipe. A tilt-tray bed goes well up in the air during the slide and a crane truck goes higher again. Wires over the drive stop more South Burnett deliveries at the gate than anything else.

Before any of that: what the truck stands on

A loaded truck and a container put a lot of weight through a few tyres and, on a sidelifter, four legs. South Burnett soils vary from paddock to paddock, and several of them look firmer than they are.

Red basalt soil around Kingaroy, Coolabunia and Kumbia is superb country and terrible truck footing when it is wet. It goes greasy on top while staying firm underneath, which means a vehicle slides rather than sinks — a different problem, and worse on a grade. Give it a couple of dry days after decent rain and it is fine.

Black soil on the flats near Murgon and along the creek country behaves the other way: it holds together dry, then goes deep and soft, and a bogged sidelifter is a very expensive afternoon. Decomposed granite gravel around Nanango and the range country drains fast and is usually the best of the lot.

Freshly graded ground is a trap everywhere. It looks better than it is, because the crust that was carrying the weight has just been scraped off.

Tilt-tray, sidelifter or crane

The cheapest delivery is always the tilt-tray, so it is worth a bit of preparation to stay in that category — move the ute, take the gate off its hinges for an hour, trim the branch.

Blocks under the four corners

Hardwood sleepers or concrete pavers under each corner casting is the right way to land it, and setting them out takes a few minutes. It keeps the frame square so the doors keep closing, it keeps the underside out of standing water and long grass, and it lets air move under the floor instead of trapping damp against the timber.

Level matters more than height. A container that is out of square in one corner will fight you every time you open it, and the twist does not come back out.

Three photos instead of a site visit

Stand at the road and photograph the gateway. Walk to the halfway point and photograph the drive towards the spot. Then stand at the spot and photograph back the way the truck will come. Attach those to your enquiry and the vehicle is settled before the price is, not after.