Traveller 8 Sputnik

Stand at the back of one and the difference is obvious: a rear door 1 330 mm high by 1 050 mm wide, opening into a 2 960 mm body with 1 525 mm between the walls. The Traveller 8 Sputnik is the point in the closed body range where you stop stooping to load and start walking crates in. TRAILERS SA supplies it braked, at a published 560 kg tare.

Who buys a Traveller 8 Sputnik trailer

This is a working trailer rather than a holiday one. Contractors move scaffold clips, mixers and consumables in it. Event companies run staging, cabling and folded seating. Plant hire yards use it as a secure store on wheels, since both doors are pad-lockable and there is nothing to slash or unzip. The 260 mm ground clearance and 195 x 14 inch six stud wheels keep it usable on site roads and farm approaches without pretending to be an off-road build.

Published specification

All figures below are the builder published figures for this model.

Standard equipment

• Body and roof in 0.9 mm corrosion resistant electro-galvanised sheet steel
• Sides stiffened by formed hat sections against drumming and vibration
• Pad-lockable rear and side doors on heavy duty hinges
• Heavy-duty coupler with brake
• Five floor-recessed heavy-duty tie-down rings
• Pad-lockable spare wheel holder, with a 195 x 14 inch spare wheel included
• Multi-function LED lights
• Adjustable eight inch jockey wheel and adjustable rigid support legs

Payload, GVM and braking

Published gross vehicle mass is 1 525 kg against a 560 kg tare, leaving 965 kg of legal payload. That is the number worth pausing on, because it puts the trailer firmly above the 750 kg line at which South African law requires braking, and the builder answers that with run-in brakes and a coupler designed to actuate them. Check your tow vehicle rating too: a braked towing limit is a separate figure from the unbraked one, and the lower of trailer and vehicle governs. The rules sit in the National Road Traffic Act and its regulations, so read them against your own licence rather than relying on a sales counter.

Access, height and loading

Side height is 1 650 mm and overall height 2 200 mm, which is the practical limit for most domestic garages and a figure worth measuring before you order. The side door at 1 280 by 650 mm is not merely decorative: it lets you reach mid-load stock without unpacking the tail, which is what makes this trailer work as a mobile store. Five recessed floor rings keep freight strapped down rather than sliding into the doors on a gravel corrugation.

Where the Traveller 8 sits in the range

It is one full step above the Traveller 3/4 Ton, adding 270 mm of body length, 310 mm of side height, a heavier 1 800 kg axle, a twelve blade leaf pack and 215 kg more legal payload. Above it the Traveller 10 keeps the same 1 525 kg rating but stretches the body to 3 610 mm. The whole family is on the single-axle closed body trailers archive.

Against the budget range

Our cheaper closed body trailers run at roughly half this price and suit lighter, occasional duty. What the extra buys here is measurable rather than cosmetic: a braked axle rated at 1 800 kg, a twelve blade leaf pack under a 965 kg payload, galvanised sheet through body and roof, and plated tare and GVM you can take to a weighbridge and defend.

Delivery, warranty and ordering

Buy online or call the yard. Delivery is free on orders over R20 000, and collection from Hartswater in the Northern Cape is open to you if you want to measure the doors against your own load first. Areas and terms are on the delivery page. TRAILERS SA is a retailer and not the manufacturer, so the trailer carries the builder warranty, which we administer on your behalf, as explained on the warranty page. For fleet quantities or a fitted interior, use the quote form.