Transporting an enormous mining truck in the Chilean desert - video

[Jon]

Transport of a Caterpillar 797 mining truck near Antofagasta in the Chilean desert.

1:16 video:

Previously:

Huge mining dump truck being transported - GIF
6 trucks transporting a 300-ton generator - GIF
Moving a 750+ ton continuous catalytic regeneration reactor - photo
Moving a massive petrochemical splitter - GIF and video
Translift for moving homes - video and photo
Enormous wind turbine blade transported over stone arch bridge - GIF
Heavy-lift ship transporting USS Fitzgerald - video and photo

[bruce.desertrat]

Maybe this is a really silly question, but why didn't they just drive it there?

[sossol]

Maybe this is a really silly question, but why didn't they just drive it there?

Maybe because the road truck uses less fuel.

Neil

[bruce.desertrat]

Maybe because the road truck uses less fuel.

Neil

Bur it's certainly doing far more damage to the road, by concentrating the weight in a smaller area//

[ranald]

Bur it's certainly doing far more damage to the road, by concentrating the weight in a smaller area//

Interesting thoughts Bruce, but the weight is spread over about 50 tyres isn't it? & generally they are not registered for road use & require police & pilot escorts while being transported. Imagine looking for stop/turn lights 2 stories up.LOL. I'd imagine the steering would screw up asphalt roads also.I'm no expert but just a bucket on a semi appearing over the next hill is daunting when travelling at 60 mph and the road is one lane backroad.

[sossol]

Bur it's certainly doing far more damage to the road, by concentrating the weight in a smaller area//

I'm not so sure about that. Those super-mega-multi wheel trailers really spread the load over a large area. They'd have more contact area than the mining truck's tires do. I counted at least 12 axles under the lowboy section, and at these usually have least 4 tires per axle, and it looks like the center 6 or 8 axles are wider than the trailer, so another 4 tires for each of those That's at least 72 tires - assuming that there aren't any down the center as well, plus however many are under the dollies at either end.

I'm just speculating and assuming that this trailer is like the the ones I've seen that weren't blurry and shaky.

Neil

[Frank S]

Maybe this is a really silly question, but why didn't they just drive it there?

Its really not a silly question. At first glance it is easy to form the conclusion that the load would be spread out over a larger area due to the size of the tires. However the load would actually be far more concentrated due to the dump truck having only 2 axles. On a packed earth road this is not a problem but on a concrete or asphalt road surface all of that weight would buckle or crumble the road surface. There is at least 1 highway in the world that this would not happen. The highway from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is both wide enough and thick enough to land heavy aircraft. It was designed to be an emergency runway.
Actually they are lucky they are in Chile instead of the USA since they are utilizing a single lane width modular trailer having 8 tires across on short trunion mounted axles even though there are probably 12 of them Normal maximum overweight permitting in Chile is 14,000 Kg per axle with 8 tires An axle is considered qany line of tires across from side to side no matter if a single beam of multiple modules . So 12 x14 would be 168 t But that truck by itself weighs more than that.
According to Chilean transportation any load of a cargo over 120 tones the contractor must put up a 70.000.000 bond in doing so he takes full responcibility for any surface or structural damage to either the roadway or the bridges.
Here in the USA we have similar restrictions but a load of that size would be required to be supported on a vehicle or vehicles encompassing at a minimum of 2 lane widths with no single tire exceeding the maximum weight rating per tire.
Years ago we moved a large vessel from Ohio to Arizona on 13 axles total including truck and trailer our bond and class L supersize permit stated maximum of 62,500 Lbs per 3 axle group the normal maximum per tridem group at the time was 46,000 lbs with a 5ft 2'' spread

[12bolts]

These vehicles are not designed for pavement. The width of the tyres means that between the inner and outer wall the speed differential when turning will chew out the surface.

....why didn't they just drive it there?

And as others have pointed out the contact patch is small enough to cause surface overloading

[ranald]

so thats why they are replacing solid delineator posts with flexible ones! ha ha.

[owen moore]

The driver of the mining truck got a DUI so he is not allowed to drive on the hi way. Only off road. LOL