Whoa! look what I saw on my drive to work: 20 axles + 78 tires = 1 very big truck!!!

ScoobMaster

Platinum Member
Jan 17, 2001
2,528
10
81
I heard about this on my drive into work this morning (actually heard it before leaving the house) and noted that the route they are taking crosses my commute path to work. As luck would have it, I encountered the "BIG RIGS" and their entire escort! It is a good thing I had advanced knowledge, with all the emergency and utility vehicles with flashing lights, i would have thought some massive accident or something had occurred! The truck/trailer combos were HUGE!

20 axles + 78 tires = 1 very big truck
Two trucks, each 205 feet long and weighing more than 400,000 pounds loaded, will create a traffic spectacle -- and possibly some delays -- for many motorists today. The trucks, each carrying a compressor system weighing 215,000 pounds, are scheduled to lumber along Routes 17 and 17C and Interstate 81 in Tioga and Broome counties this morning on their way to Fairless Hills, Pa., northeast of Philadelphia.

Some fast facts about the trucks:

* Length: 205 feet; a typical 18-wheeler is 70 to 80 feet long.

* Truck's total loaded weight: 412,000 pounds

* Listed weight for each compressor, plus packaging: 215,000 pounds

* Number of tires: 78

* Number of axles: 20

* Height of the load: 15 feet

* World's largest land vehicle: 31.3 million pounds: the RB293 bucket wheel excavator, an earthmoving machine manufactured by a German company.

**EDIT -UPDATE**
I found the Trucking company's website: http://www.diamondheavyhaul.com/

Better PICS:

BIG Trucks!
They haul UFOs too?
One more pic
 

imported_Pablo

Diamond Member
Jan 20, 2002
3,714
1
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That's cool. We build cranes that pick up up to 250 tons, but they transport that kind of stuff on rail! I've never seen anything like that be moved on the road!
 

mcvickj

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2001
4,602
0
76
Neat. I wonder how fast they are allowed to travel. I'm thinking 40 MPH.
 

Megatomic

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
20,127
6
81
Cool, very cool. Reminds me of when I worked at a power generation plant. We had one of our 230KV stepup transformers go bad (traces of corona discharge found in the oil). A similar truck was required to get the transformer offsite and delivered to the GE plant in FL that rewound it.

The crane that was on hand to lift the transformer off it's pad and onto the truckbed was reported to be the largest mobile crane on the east coast. You can bet that every guy that worked there was on hand for that event.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
* World's largest land vehicle: 31.3 million pounds: the RB293 bucket wheel excavator, an earthmoving machine manufactured by a German company.
those germans always go huge! Biggest vehicle, most notorious dictator, biggest bellies (Haven't they overtaken the us?). Biggest speed limits (none!). OK I'll stop :)

That truck is impressive though!
 

Demon-Xanth

Lifer
Feb 15, 2000
20,551
2
81
http://www.diamondheavyhaul.com/images/Reactor%201.JPG <-- I think there's another engine on the back of this one. I think I see gas tanks.

I very rarely ever see a truck like that near here, they'd have too much difficulty making it up the 8% grades. But I did see them towing a transformer that took up two lanes with a truck that looked more like a tractor (it probably wasn't normally street legal), and had two other normal trucks side by side w/ wood stacked up for weight on thier 5th wheels to just stop the thing. They could only travel at night because they'd block whatever road they were on.
 

skyking

Lifer
Nov 21, 2001
22,740
5,893
146
That is the suicide car on the back. Most of the smaller ones get air from a long hose hooked to the tractor, and they have manual steering, I kid you not!
I've worked bridge jobs where the concrete beams come in on heavy haulers with suicide steer cars. We'd pick the beam off the suicide car, then I'd tow it out from under with another piece of equipment. It was totally free, no brakes at all. the crew would throw 6x6's under the tires to stop it when it got out of the way. Then the first crane would pass the end of the beam to another, with the truck backing up in low gear. It was quite the operation.
That suicide car is so big it probably has a diesel for the power steering and an auxiliary air compressor.
 

squeeg22

Senior member
Feb 28, 2001
381
0
71
Big Ben, this is Rubber Ducky . . .

We got a big ol convoy, ain't she a beautiful sight!

 

yobarman

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
11,642
1
0
hahahaha! HAVE FUN GETTING THOSE MOTHAFUCKAS AROUND IN FAIRLESS HILLS!

It's either a bunch of hills, or traffic out the ass.
 

Demon-Xanth

Lifer
Feb 15, 2000
20,551
2
81
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
Wow....I wonder what kind of grooves that's going to leave on the road.

That's why they have so many tires. It distributes the load evenly enough that a lady in high heels does more damage.
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
1,780
126
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
Wow....I wonder what kind of grooves that's going to leave on the road.

That's why they have so many tires. It distributes the load evenly enough that a lady in high heels does more damage.
I know why there are so many tires....I'm still thinking that a load over 400,000 pounds is going to do some damage.
 

Demon-Xanth

Lifer
Feb 15, 2000
20,551
2
81
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
Wow....I wonder what kind of grooves that's going to leave on the road.

That's why they have so many tires. It distributes the load evenly enough that a lady in high heels does more damage.
I know why there are so many tires....I'm still thinking that a load over 400,000 pounds is going to do some damage.

If we estimate that each tire has about 1 square foot of contact patch, and there's 78 tires, given 400,000 pounds, that's about 35 pounds per square inch.

Now a Geo Metro, we can estimate it's contact patch at about 4 inches square (16 square inches), 2000LBs, and four tires. That's 31 pounds per square inch.

So that truck has the same impact as driving a bunch of small cars at once.
 

Calin

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2001
3,112
0
0
Originally posted by: Skoorb
* World's largest land vehicle: 31.3 million pounds: the RB293 bucket wheel excavator, an earthmoving machine manufactured by a German company.
those germans always go huge! Biggest vehicle, most notorious dictator, biggest bellies (Haven't they overtaken the us?). Biggest speed limits (none!). OK I'll stop :)

That truck is impressive though!

They moved it once from some place to another - they made a "road" from oak logs, cut squarely in section. Even with that, at one place the excavator almost capsized