Transporting an enormous mining truck in the Chilean desert - video

[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