Australia, Land of the Giants

Hello Guys,
For those of you who Love anything truck or Machinery related and the bigger the better I'm starting a thread about the huge trucks and Machines I see everyday as part of my job as a Road Train driver in Western Australia. I little bit about me, those of you who have followed my M20Dreaming thread will know I'm A KIWI (New Zealander) with a passion for Can-Am cars and pretty much anything that makes a lot of noise and goes fast but I'm also truck and earthmover mad and Have been a Truckie for 40yrs in May 2023. before that in the late 70s up to May of 1983 I drove EarthMovers.
So lets start this thread.
I have started working in WA in a place called Port Hedland which is an Iron Ore port town in the Pilbarra region of WA. Its called the land of the Giants because everything here is on a huge scale. The longest and heaviest Trucks to run on Public road anywhere in the world (Quad Road Trains) the biggest Dump Trucks (CAT 797s at 325ton Payloads) the biggest Excavators (800ton Komatsu, Hitachi and Lebier) the list goes on. so I want to put up Photos of what I see out on the road being transported between Mine sites etc. I won't be able to show much in actual mines as they are pretty strict about camera use on site.
So I hope you all enjoy what I have.

Cheers Leon.
 
Lets start with some photos.

Its not just mobile plant that has to be moved but also the processing Plant the big load in the Photos is on its way to a new Mine some 300km from Port Hedland, Thats me standing in front of a 600HP MACK and a Quinn trailer Train.
 

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Larry L.

Lifetime Supporter
"...the big load in the Photos is on its way to a new Mine some 300km from Port Hedland..."

When you say "big stuff on the move" - you aren't kidding! 'Never seen anything like it on any road here in the States - even in Texas!
I'll hazard a guess there isn't an 'overpass' to be seen anywhere along that 300km route, is there. ;-)
'Truly astonishing, Leon. If I hadn't seen the photos I wouldn't have believed it.
 

Randy V

Moderator-Admin
Staff member
Admin
Lifetime Supporter
During the winter months, I live not far from huge copper mines in Arizona and from time to time I see some of this equipment! I am forever in awe as to the scale of things around the mines…. Resolution Mining has just bought the mining rights to a very large chunk of desert and I expect we’ll be seeing much more.
Those Road Trains are really something else! It would be quite a task to haul one down from highway speeds to a dead stop! Definitely NOT the truck you want to cut in front of with your mini-car…
Thanks for your posts Leon!
 
Hi Larry
Yes you are right there is no overhead obstacles on the entire Great Northern Highway for that very reason. the Great Northern stretches from Perth in the South right up to Darwin and is a round 5000km long.
Randy, you would be surprised how quick they pull up, lots of wheels and Brakes. The unit I drive has 98 wheels and 50 sets of Disc brakes on the road, thats a lot of stopping power.
I'll put up some more photos today and explain some tech details about the trucks.
I also hope others that like the content can add their stuff , there maybe guys who work in the mines or on big construction jobs that have interesting info and photos, it doesn't have to be just trucks and earthmovers, Cranes are cool too.

Cheers Leon
 

Randy V

Moderator-Admin
Staff member
Admin
Lifetime Supporter
Man - that is totally awesome stopping (and going!) power!!!!
 
Morning guys,

As you see I have no life, I'm a FIFO worker. I work 8 weeks on and 2 weeks off, the company supplies everything, a house a car and food they fly me home to NZ for my 2 weeks off, I'm doing 10weeks this trip and 3 weeks at home then back for 12 weeks but that gets me Christmas at home.
Back to the trucks, to give you all some insight about the loading weights. I mentioned Axle groups earlier so I will explain them. you see in the photos there are groups of 3 axles on my truck, each of those groups can carry 23.5ton and a 4 axle group 28.5ton. A STD Quad has 7 groups and a Super quad Has 8 groups of 3, An ultra quad has 3 x 4axle groups and 5 x 3axle groups and a Mega Quad has 7 x 4axle groups and 1 x 3 Axle group and the weights are 175, 195, 210 and 225 respectively. In the US the normal weight limit for a Semi Truck/Trailer is 80,000 lbs or 36.5ton each trailer in a super quad carries 103,400lbs or 47ton That 5.3 loaded US semi trailers for every RoadTrain.

The Pink thing is how NOT to secure your load this was about 1km from where it was loaded and just out of picture is the local supermarket so if it had come off 100m sooner it would have been in the carpark !! and I added a nice sunset to finish, every day is the same, they say you get "Blue Sky Fever" here and I can believe it I'm looking forward to going home to some rain and maybe some snow. It does rain here in the wet season which is from November to March.

Cheers Leon
 

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Ian Anderson

Lifetime Supporter
That is a beautiful sunset ..…takes me back to the Rhodesia /Zimbabwean morning skies.

The trucks look amazing, silly sort of question, how many litres per kilometre do those use when fully loaded? I bet filling the tank males the credit card cry!

Ian
 
That is a beautiful sunset ..…takes me back to the Rhodesia /Zimbabwean morning skies.

The trucks look amazing, silly sort of question, how many litres per kilometre do those use when fully loaded? I bet filling the tank males the credit card cry!

Ian
What comes out of those exhaust, we could still run 1 week from it!
 

Larry L.

Lifetime Supporter
"...I'm looking forward to going home to some rain and maybe some snow." :eek:

You have nooooooo idea how ridiculous that sounds where I live!

An aside (aka; dumb question):
Given that you and your fellow truckers are constantly traveling light years away from 'civilization', do you all carry satellite cell phones 'just in case'...or might the trucks be so-equipped? I noticed the truck with the 1GSF 699 'plate appears to have some sort of 'flying saucer'-looking antenna of some sort atop its cab. ('Looks more like a miniature marine weather radar unit for a yacht though. 'Have no idea what it actually is!)
 

Bill Kearley

Supporter
40 years and now retired. A standard load in northern B.C. is 140000 pounds on 8 axels. I used 4 tandem axles under the trailer and 3 drive axles with big rubber on the steering in order to get 20000 pounds up front.

Larry, the flying saucer is for your boss and the government to watch you from space.
 
Hi Bill, 140,000 lbs (63.5 ton) is similar loading to NZ we can go 60 ton on 9 Axles that is our max weight.

Larry, that is a SatNav antenna, we don't carry Sat phones in our trucks as the normal Cell phone coverage is pretty good but the guys that Go Bush do carry them. "Going Bush" in Australia has a whole new dimention, this country is so vast and there is a lot of nothing once you leave the main highways. The biggest station (Farm/Ranch) in the world is "Anna Creek Station" in South Australia, its 25,000 Sq KMs the biggest Ranch in the US is "King Ranch" in southeast Texas 825,000 acres, 3,340 Sq KM.

It does rain in the Pilbarra, that is the house I live in during the last Cyclone which are a common thing during the wet season. this was before I came here and the guys were stuck in there for a week, they had food and plenty of beer so it was all good.
I'm told the box on the transport weighed in at 500ton and the DT10 if it was in NZ would have to have the blade and Rippers removed to travel but not here, just drive her on and chain it down and your good to go, LOVE IT.

The photo of the highway is the start of the "Mungina Gorge" which is the longest climb on my 350km trip to the "Wonmunna Mine" I put that in there to show you its not all flat over here. The steepest hill is about 50km further on and is called "Area C "hill its not that steep (for a Kiwi) but if you miss a gear and stop you cannot get going again, at 195ton what seems like a gentle rise becomes a steep hill very quickly.

Cheers Leon
 

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195T I can understand.
I have a 40% grade that I’m signalling for at the moment. It’s currently classed as a momentum grade. Ie if the train has enough run up, it can crest the grade. There are no signals on the grade, so no reason for the train to stop on the hill. If I needed to put a signal on the hill for extra headway performance, it would convert the hill from a momentum grade into a ruling grade. This would then require every train to run with an extra locomotive. If the train was stopped on the grade it could then start again with the extra locomotive.
 

Bill Kearley

Supporter
I mostly run a 3.90 rear diff, and some times a dbl reduction diff / 2 speed like me. 48000 lb Eaton and an 18 speed trans, This will give me a 90K cruise @ 1250 RPM, that's it. It looks like you use a lot of planetary drive hubs, much better for over weight loads at slow speeds.
 
Hey Leon, This would be a familiar site for you. Driving from Adelaide to Darwin you'd see 50 of these on the road on any day, but driving my Raptor home that I just picked up in Melbourne, I came across this guy on his maiden drive in his Brand new rig and he was proudly taking photo's of it at the Devil's Marbles. I couldn't resist, and snuck in a photo of myself next to it. They must spend some money setting them up. Look beautiful though!
 

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Hi Leon
The old man use to cart cattle in the topend of the N.T back in the late 70’s and 80’s.
Majority of it was on dirt roads out bush. He added a 200mm thick concrete floor in the body crate to gain traction while empty going up dirt ‘Jump-ups’.
Not a giant, but big enough for bush tracks.

Clayton

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Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember when those rigs were King Of the road. SAR KW are rare in NZ only a few collecters have them now and the DCF 400 International was the mainstay of big rigs in the early 70s on NZ roads. I'm guessing that both those trucks had 71 Detroits in them, the DCF would have the 8V71 and the SAR probably a 6V92 they came with CATs and CUMMINS as well. Back then 350HP was BIG grunt now 600hp is the norm and the EURO trucks are up to 750/780HP. My Dad who turned 90 last month was a Logging Contractor most of his life (he only stopped working 3 yrs ago) and I used to ride around in the truck all day every Day during school holidays from the early 60s, when I was at Highschool I worked in the bush for him, he had a Felling Crew as well as a small sawmill. Great days. Now you can't take kids in trucks and I believe this is a big reason for the worldwide driver shortage, that and the fact you can't get a 19yr old to get out of bed at 3am and work 15hrs a day but that talk is for another time. Love the old photos more of them please and lets see where this thread can go. Cheers Leon
 
For todays instalment, I have talked about STD Quads, Super and Ultra Quads so I want to put up some photos so you can see the difference between them, they say a pictures worth a thousand words. The first pic is Cambells brand new Ultra Quad, note the 3 rear trailers have 4 axles on the back and a 3 axle dolly and they are 4 individual Trailers. 2nd is RIVETS Super Quad has 3 axles on the dolly and rear of the trailer but otherwise the same spec. 3rd/4th is a STD Quad all 3 axle groups, the first 2 trailers the same as the others but the rear trailers are a "B Double" and only has 3 axle groups for 2 trailers. So in summary the Super/Ultra's have 8 axle groups and a STD has 7 axle groups the TRI axles on the Prime mover are counted in this. the last 2 photos show the different coupling arangements, the first is a STD and the "Goose Neck" one is the Super Quad set up. Right that is clear as mud so we won't need to go through that again (a sigh of relief from my followers) cheers Leon
 

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