"In the beginning"

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The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views of the blog management, (on the other hand, they are not necessarily not the views of the blog management).

No effort has been made to stay within the bounds of the truth in this blog as it has always been the view of the management that the truth should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Road Transport in Australia.

Having just completed a long road trip the many variations of trucks
we had seen, as well as a few we hadn't seen, seems appropriate....

Its my blog and I'm interested even if you're not!!!




This is the Truck or Prime Mover.

This is a Semi-trailer which connects to the prime movers turntable.

This is a "Dolly" which can have either 8 or 12 wheels on it, a second
semi trailer connects to the turntable on this "Dolly" to make a road train.

This is the configuration described above.

This is very common on our highways now, its known as a "B Double"

This is the normal configuration for a 3 trailer Road Train, often has triple wheel
assemblies at the front of each trailer to give greater load carrying capacity.

This is known as a "Dog Trailer" the front set of wheels can turn as the vehicle turns.

This one is known as a "Pig Trailer" all wheels are fixed straight ahead, I'm guessing
its a PIG to reverse thus the name??

Road Train; Fuel carrier with 4 trailers

Road Train; The daddy of 'em all, used in mining areas to move iron ore, set up
with 6 trailers, this monster has 110 wheels on the road.

A slightly more conventional fuel carrier with 3 trailers.

JACK Fitzpatrick laughs when told the Victorian Government is considering allowing B-triple trucks and trailers up to 36 metres long on the state's roads.

"They're pie carts … now this is a real truck," Mr Fitzpatrick says, waving his hand at a Kenworth hooked up to three massive two-storey trailers, the longest vehicle allowed on Australia's roads. (Except for those 6 trailer ore carriers) "These monsters are 53 metres long and have a carrying capacity of 140 tonnes."

Mr Fitzpatrick is loading cattle at the Road Trains of Australia depot at Noonamah, south of Darwin. "Nobody turns a head when they see a B-triple up here … we don't regard them as real road trains, nowhere near it."

Note; for effect there is a prime mover parked alongside the rear trailer in this photo.



This is the B triple referred to above.

Some of the variations that have been used at Foster's Farm; a Semi-trailer tipper.

A rigid chassis tipper.

The current monster; A road train with 2 tipping trailers.

Different examples seen at Esperance WA; triple tipping trailers.

Same carrying capacity but with the short trailer in the centre instead of at the
front as in the photo above.









12 comments:

karisma said...

Ah yes we passed a few trucks on our trip the other day, however none quite as big as these ones! Did see one huge truck which was all shiny and new! Very nice! Hugs are on hold till you need them! Always welcome here! Love to Vicki xxxxx

Christina said...

Wow, we don't see trucks/trailers that big here in the States! Happy New Year to you, Peter.

Puss-in-Boots said...

Those huge trucks and road trains fascinate me, Peter and I really appreciated you showing the differences. At night they're lit up like battleships and are quite spectacular to see...as long as you don't suddenly come across one of these giants...gives me a hell of a fright.

How's Vicki doing?

Pamela said...

In Oregon we see triple trailers, but I don't think they are legal in the state of Washington.

I'm sitting here thinking about what a nightmare it would be to attempt to pass one of those.

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

Here in the U.S. I've only seen a semi with two trailers. Our town would all come to a stop if we ever saw a road train with six trailers attached....WOW! What a sight that would be.

Rachel said...

Sandy (Abandoned in Pasedena above) is so right!!

Reading your previous post...that road does go on forever!! 90 miles with no bends. That's amazing! Ahhh...nice new hair you have there too Peter!!!

Dave said...

HOLY COW!!! The triple gas carrier must be an accident waiting to happen on wheels!!

We have NOTHING like that here!!!

Cliff said...

Peter thems some big trucks. The biggest I've seen is two 42 foot hopper bottom grain tailers up in North Dakota. They would be arrested down here in these parts. That would be a payload of about 80 tons.

Jeanette said...

Happy new year Peter.
Alan and I saw a lot of those huge Road trains Thank heavens the roads went for miles without a bend so you could see to get past the BIG BUGGERS... going up the centre Of OZ,on our way to Darwin NT.

Walker said...

Holy crap there are some big long trucks there that I haven't seen before and I thought I had driven t hem all.
I don't know about the pig trailer one.
It looks like as the front was reaching its destination the end would be just departing from where it began

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Anonymous said...

Eu penso que o motorista do roadtrain tem 2 alternativas para inspecionar o Ășltimo reboque: ou vai de moto standby ou desengata o truck utilizando-o na longa viagem de retorno...:)