This is a "B"Train grain hauling setup. Most of the grain haulers "up north" just have a shorter front trailer with a ring and pintle hitch for the rear trailer on a dolly (fifth wheel on an axle with a tongue hitch), but this one has a whole series of axles that act as one unit at the rear of the front trailer. This one did have a hitch of sorts separating the front and rear gangs, but it was a solid shaft that only allowed transverse swiveling - movement in only the vertical plane. There were five or six axles there, so I'm sure that's an advantage on rough terrain - if it were solid, the torque on the trailer would probably be excessive and it might crack. This way, stress is relieved.
I hate how my phone camera makes things seem further away - I had to put the thing down to keep control while pulling beside him. Literally, this was a last second shot, and I wasn't going much faster than he was.
And I was so wrapped up in trying to get this shot that I missed the northbound tank haulers coming at me! They weren't ours - who knows who they belong to. But, they're all part of a steady stream of tanks going up US 83 every day headed to the Bakken, which is where I went. The Montana version thereof, that is.
I passed a heavy hauler for a crane company yesterday. All the trailers and extra axles were stored on the main trailer.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling it was on the way to a local refinery, where they're in the process of finishing a heavy lift. The huge crane, which is probably around the 1000 ton variety will take weeks to disassemble and transport.
I've seen them on the road before - it takes a convoy to haul all the pieces of one of those big cranes.
ReplyDeleteThe construction crews putting up wind towers in the 'hood here had one of those - and they had to move it across a state highway. They planked the road and the sheer weight was enough that it crushed a dip into the highway anyways. We were all without power for a while as well, because there were lines that had to come down to do that.