Americans react to the world's longest truck ! | Roadtrain | Australia
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- Опубликовано: 8 мар 2021
- We have had a few people in our Discord ask us to take a look into Australia's "Road Trains", and this is definitely insane!
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I am a truck driver here in Australia, we do not call them lorries, We call the semi's or semi trailers.
Lorries are British word
A 'Lorrie' in Australia (I think Britain, too) most often refers to Dump trucks/Tip trucks.
Prime Movers are called Semis (Sem-ees).
The only time us Aussies call trucks lorries is when our little toddlers are learning to talk and they mispronounce truck at full volume, at church. :) No son, it's lorry. :) :)
@@philbox4566 Haha That's true :-)
Since when did Australians call them semis, they’re called trucks, road trains or the actual classification, B double, truck with dog etc
The rule in the outback when you see a road train coming towards you is that you never play chicken with them. You get well off the road and stop and wait for them to trundle past and for the dust to blow away. They have right of way.
Otherwise referred to as "Right of weight"
Damn right
Bush rules give way to the guy with the bigger bullbar. Or play chicken with them if you want. If there doing 90 they won’t notice you going under the tires.
@@grumpycarlsworld funny cos it's true 😁
The catapilla doesn't use a ton of fuel like your thinking. It carries a ton of fuel in iron ore. Yes it is prity spectacular to see. When this big guy is coming towards you. Even if you're in a road train yourself. You give way to them. You need to watch OUT BACK TRUCKERS. You'll get a better idea what these blokes go through, and what a road train is all about.
Commercial road train in Aus normally can haul up to 150 tons and reach 175 ft long. 4 trailers are max. 3 trailers are norm. They are are restricted to approved routes/ road. Speeds are mostly restricted to max of 90km/h in most states. It could take 162m to stop from 90km/h.
With special permits they can go up to 6 full size trailers, one of the mining companies had a set of B6 trucks that pretty much ran non stop for quite a few years. I am not sure if they are still in operation.
The hosts comment about off roading, is not quite true, in Australia their are a few national highways that are not paved, notably in West Australia, and the Northern Territory.
Try 190t.
Been seeing triples around in the Hunter Valley lately.
Some times if they come in 450 ton it takes 1km to stop
The Australian Centipede is called the 3B. In the Australian version of English that equates to Bloody Big Bastard.
Just 3 B-doubles with converter dolly's.
Never ever called a 3B
🤣😂🤣
Road trains are very common up the north west of Western Australia, usually 3 trailers and yes the roads have a lot of caravans and tourists that travel the same routes
Im Aussie, and i tell yu when you overtake a roadtrain its nerve racking,your on the oncoming side of traffic for a long time
What's more nerve racking than that is when one overtakes you!
What is really scary when you meet one on a narrow road
Absolutely nerve racking either way. You play it over in your head whether to go or not.
I travel northern territory roads regularly the road train drivers are the best drivers i have ever encounted all over aus there patient and nothing to worry about its the dumb arses with caravans that are dangerous the bigger the setup the dumber the driver.
@@Yoda-em5mt
Doesn’t matter where you drive, people with caravans are the worst. They drive slow when you aren’t able to overtake, then as soon as you can they floor it, I swear they love tormenting other road users.
That one nicknamed the "centipede" is on a special restricted route. Obviously some bridges couldn't take that weight.
Nothing like overtaking a road train new underwear will be needed after your first time 🇦🇺🇦🇺
I've overtaken a few road trains in my double and it's not that scary
Try being on a tiny 2 lane road in a 1980's Suzuki sierra with stuffed suspension and having a four trailer train go past at 90, mate thats when you know you need new jocks.
i remember my dad over taking two at one time when i was a kid/teen and my mom telling him he was an idiot and not to do that again. i was surprised she didn't hit him when we finely stop for a rest lol i sure would have. i should say we were moving at the time and had a trailer full of stuff on the back and were on a 2 lane road.
It was scary for the first 2 times when I first drove a Road Trains here 32 years ago, over taking a Triple Road train with my Road train, after that, piece of cake....
You have to reverse it 75 metres to get your licence in the N.T.
With a Darwin Stubbie in one hand :-)
@@raygale4198 GOLD lmao, But also rolling a smoking too.
@@adamjones2025 And eating a pie at the same time ! 😂✌️
@@aussieguy3689 YEP!!
The size of the mining trucks will blow their minds
Their wheels alone is mind blowing.
I may sound ignorant but don’t they have mines in the USA?
@@ThisZombieBitesEverything They do but in open cast mines they use CAT 761 big rigs
@@TheMotorman1981 I know the Trucks they use in Kalgoorlie are huge, same up out at Tom Price
Not unique, they are American made by Caterpillar and used in the States.
Maybe have a look at Outback Truckers, it's the Australian version of Ice Road Truckers, it might give you a better idea of you'll typically come across if you travel in the Australian outback, cheers
Except that half ( not all ) of the drama is bs and the super truckers give the average driver a bad name
The outback truckers ep where they cart cattle from Cape York was pathetic! The camera crew were setting up when my mum and dad come down the jump up with six decks on each truck and they started taking pics of my parents... those 'outback' truckers only had 2 decks on
I sometimes think that US citizens have NO clue how BIG Australia really is lol.....and how much is the Outback :D..... truckers are mostly respected here, except for the 'cowboys' using stimulants and/or not maintaining the safety of their trucks. Just like car drivers really. We would be lost without our trucking industry. I live in a small country town with one food supermarket. Without trucks delivering, we would have nothing lol
I think Americans generally have no clue what's going on outside of their own country. Their education system is geared towards America only
When you first realise that from Townsville to the NT border you can be driving for more than an entire day, that's just one state. It never seems that large until you need to drive there and find a servo to fill up again.
In Australia farms can be the size of European countries, farms the size of France
@@stevenatkinson2393 LOL. No where near size of France....
@@somethingelse9535 I agree with this our biggest cattle property here is about 30,000 square kilometres and france is over 600,000 square kilometres , But it is the biggest property in the world ! 😁
Hey so I used to work on cattle stations up north in western Australia and yes they do reverse the 4 trailer rigs up to a ramp to load cattle. The doors on the trailers must meet the race on the ramp precisely. It takes a bit but the truckies are good at it
USA trucks also are usually 18wheels on a standard truck trailer with one trailer
Australia standard truck trailer is 22 wheels dual axle prime mover and tri axle trailers
Omg. This explains so much. I heard someone in the industry calling them 18 wheelers and I'd count the wheels all the time and be like, "????" 😅😅😅
We build things big here in Australia! We breed our truck drivers tough as well, and YES they have to know how to back their rigs up!
The Newell highway goes though our town (Parkes NSW) and it is the main thoroughfare from Brisbane to Melbourne, we get a lot of very oversized loads come through here and I’m always amazed at how well the drivers handle the load. They do their job well and deserve more pay imo.
I'm married to a interstate truck driver and watching truckies reverse a b double or a road train is spectacular 🙂🇦🇺
We call them semi-trailers in Australia, except for road trains of course.
Single, double and road trains
@@invictus3075 Saw a quad running through Narromine last year
Single. B double. Double/pocket. And triple or quad roadtrains
@@HJZ75driver thank you
Three trailers is the usual. The more remote areas are where you’re more likely to see more than three trailers because there are fewer other vehicles to contend with and it reduces the number of trips. It’s usually only the major highway that is sealed in those remoter areas, although some remote highways aren’t sealed either.
In Perth, Western Australia the maximum through the metropolitan area is two trailers. There are Road Train Assembly Areas on the outskirts of the metropolitan area where extra trailers are added on or taken off.
Wide and oversized loads are escorted. If you’re driving along a WA highway and see one escort coming the other way you pull over a bit to the side of the road but keep travelling. If you see two or more escorts and flashing lights you move right over well off the road and stop and wait for it to go past
From QLD here, when you're travelling up the coast it's common to see signs entering and leaving towns saying "No Road Trains Past This Point', have to split them up and come back for the other trailers later. They normally come from out West and turn at the coast for the bigger towns to load up.
In Western Australia suburban truck routes three trailers is legally 👍
Backing up YES. A lot of vehicles have extra fuel tanks for longer range. My own ute has a standard 80lt diesel tank + and additional 130lt tank. Range 1,800km. Most fuel stations outside the metropolitan areas have two different diesel pumps one with a 3/4" hose or the high volume 1 1/4" hose. 4 trailers are max on main roads but on private roads (Cattle stations) you name your limit.
And you always fill from the high flow fuel nozzle cos ya go faster. :)
High flow pumps are fantastic but still takes a long time to pump 800 litres
In Australia we also call 18 wheelers Semi Trailers
I overtook two road trains when I was on my learners permit. The scariest feeling ever
Normal traffic drive on the same roads that Road Trains use, it’s the joys of living in this fantastic country.
I work in the mines in Western Australia, 4 trailers are normal, when the big loads and being moved the SPT are used and there is no limit in how long they can be.
The origin of 'lorry' - The meaning originates from the verb, 'lurry' - meaning to lug or pull about. ... The word, was first used in Britain to categorise a low-loading trolley, pulled by a horse-drawn vehicle to carry other vehicles and large loads. was also used to describe a freight carrying rail car.
We taught our little kids to say Lorry as when a child with a minor speech defect says "truck", it does not always come out right.
Google is a wonderful invention all kinds of info there ! Lol
The top gear boys has tried to overtake this during the aussie episode, they had quite a hard time with cars like GTR, Continental GT and BMW M6 to overtake the roadtrains. Imagine to do this with a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla lol
Then we slap on a turbo and push near blowing engine power on them!
In the areas, where you encounter those long trucks. Most people have a CB radio, You call up big wheels tell him you want to pass. he will tell you when he has it under control and no oncoming cars. It is that simple.
that is usually suicide, safer to just get the hell off the road and let it pass before getting back onto the road again. I have seen footage of a car narrowly being missed by the swinging rear trailer, but the caravan it was towing turned into literal match sticks. It simply went pop and vaporised.
@@theghost6412 i have done it plenty of times. he will even slow down for you IF you tell him that you wish to pass. I HAVE DONE IT PLENTY OF TIMES. Not suicide.
@@hardyakka6200 yeah if you let them know. but many do not and risk trying to pass them. Not everyone is as prepared and has a CB
Also remember we have wild life here that can tear a truck apart like a camel an water buffalo an smaller animals can also do alot of damage like wild horses kangaroos an even the wombat ( known as a rolling road block for a reason )is dangerous . So we have alot to deal with out here .
Kangaroos are of course dangerous if you hit them, but ive driven a stretch of highway here that was littered with literally hundreds of dead kangaroos... Might not have been the largest variant, but enough to say that the drivers of the big trucks (of ~2 trailers in that area, not roadtrains) arent all dying or getting injured from hitting a roo.
You don't wana be following a road train when it hits a roo if your lucky you won't get damage but your guna have a lot of roo bits and blood to clean of your car it's nasty
40 tonns is nothing in Australia, even in city areas.
Most doubles carry up to 65.5T
@5:40 he's probably doing 100ks, most rigs carry a tonne of fuel and being diesel it doesn't explode.
Some stockies have custom built crates that have extra fuel tanks built into the trailers
centipede isnt the longest... the Guinness World Record for hauling the longest road train still stands. The record was set near Clifton on the Darling Downs in southern Queensland by Brisbane man John Atkinson, who drove a single Mack prime mover 140m in 50 seconds, pulling 112 heavy haulage trailers. Joined together, the record-breaking road train stretched across a distance of 1, 474.3 metres, that’s a truck and trailer combination measuring almost 1.5km long.
Yes, I stood near it when he did that pull, they acquired trailers and dollys from all over the area around Toowoomba.
The record for the longest road train is 1,474.3 m (4,836 ft 11 in) where a single Mack Titan prime mover, driven by John Atkinson (Australia), towed 113 trailers for a distance of approximately 150 m (490 ft) in an event sponsored by Hogs Breath Café, in Clifton, Queensland, Australia on 18 February 2006. This length is the equivalent of 156 London buses!
I live in the Northern Territory I am 60 years old and I drove my FIRST roadtrain it was two trailers as I was in Darwin at that time due to a particularly narrow and hilly winding road North of Katherine ONLY two trailers were allowed to be pulled when I was 18 years of age, (1978) noting that I am NOT a professional Truck Driver but I am a Tradesman Automotive Diesel Mechanic. The Typical road train that can travel on most normal roads legally is Prime Mover with three trailers rated at 115 tonnes (metric tons) (126 tons) these travel at a Maximum speed of 62 mph (100 kilometres an hour). With a Maximum length of 53 metres (175 feet), Now the Centipede is built specifically for specific roads in Outback Western Australia, they are only allowed to travel on specified roads. There also Private mine roads in the Northern Territory where even longer trucks operate over long distances. You ask how long before refuels, one ton of fuel doesnt go very far and the distances are vast In the NT the Stuart Highway travels from the southern Border to the Sea in the North a distance of over 1800 Kilometres A truck would normally fuel up in Darwin and drive 1500 Kilometres (close to 1000 miles) South to Alice Springs and Fuel up there, before Driving another 1500 Kilometres south to Adelaide. 1 ton of fuel roughly equals 270 US Gallons and that would be used. Of course some trucks use more or less and carry more or less.
As a retired Aussie truck driver, I am entertained by your bewilderment.
In australia, the truck itself is called a prime mover. Used to move all sorts of trailers, a variety of distances. We have a 6 day drive top to bottom of our island, side to side is even longer. Road trains drop off the other trailers outside of town, and move them singly to their destination, or to the other side of town, to couple them together and continue the journey.
Here in Australia every time I see semi-trailers in the road I avoid them as much as I can ha ha ha, truckies are king of the Australian roads, so stay away from them if you want to live lol...
FYI guys : the speed limit on most road in the northern territory is 130km/h (80 Miles/h) but the some parts have no limit at all
In Australia trucks are limited in certain areas by height, width, weight and length. You will commonly find a B-double in built up areas, excluding city centres for the most part. Road trains are limited to rural roadways outside larger towns, where they have drop off points to break up their load of 3 or 4 trailers to 2 trailers, and then they can go through town and drop off, then come back for the rest. Toowoomba is a decent example, a couple km from town is a large open patch of land that's used as a rest stop or a place to break up your haul. But Toowoomba also has a bypass with a 6.5% grade about 20km long, I can be in 5th and coast the whole way down at 90km/h. It's great for road trains because if they don't need to go into Toowoomba they can completely avoid it, saves about 30 minutes.
How you doing guys ?
I have just watched your video on road trains in Australia,
I used to drive road trains
Until I retired from work
Last year (may '20 )
Yes that video was old
When you reacted !
In most states of Australia
Now if you don't see several
Two trailer trains on major roads and rural areas
Your driving with your eyes closed !
Some of the mining companies in Western Australia have private highways and regularly
Run 6 trailers !
Also in Oz truck stops
(Road houses)
Have hi flow fuel pumps ,
We don't call our
Trucks ( lorries )
We have semi's
Pronounced ( semEEZ)
IN All states of Oz
Are speed limited to
100 kilometres per hour
Or 62 miles per hour !
As all Aussie truckies
Are respectful of the
Hypocritical crap
The regulators layout !
PLEASE DETECT
SARCASM IN THE ABOVE
STATEMENT !
With hi flow fuel pumps
It takes around 20
Minutes to 1 tonne
( 1000 ltrs) keep an eye on
RUclips as
Aussie truck set-ups
Change almost daily !
When you drive in the bush (outback) near mining areas, it's common to meet up with 4 trailer road trains and very common to meet them on unpaved gravel roads. If they are coming toward you, best you get off the road somewhere and let them past. I travelled to Lawn Hill for a day trip in my VW campervan (travelling at around 80k/mh) and on the way back, I could see in my mirrors a cloud of dust... luckily this road had a spoon drain (dry at the time) on each side, so I got off on the side that would keep me out of the dust as it passed. Got a nice honk from the driver and a "thumbs up". I don't think it's uncommon for them to be 32 wheels on these mining trucks.
I’ve known about Australian road trains since I was less than 10 years old.
I've seen some big loads, 3 trucks front, 3 in back, I've seen a double engine with 50+ trailers, they move some big stuff here in Australia, or alot at once, I've seen whole towns shut down just to get load throu.
Aussie here, we just call em trucks, our pick ups are Ute's (utility vehicles) , most my family are truck drivers and road train drivers through out the outback and south of Australia
You have to also take into account that 1 Metric Tonne is equal to approximately 2.2 Imperial Tonnes. Australia uses metric units
Just so you know that video is from 1997
It was the best video to react to. We looked for something newer
For reference, (and it depends on whether they're using metric tonnes or imperial tons) 205 tonnes/tons is 452,000 - 460,000lbs and the "tonne of fuel" would be approx 1200 - 1220L or 317 - 322 gallons (US).
was wondering what the conversion Aust/Imperial to US weights were. thanks
Also backing these things is surprisingly easy, classic and simple case of turn and chase. As long as you can get that last trailer moving where you want it to the others simply follow. It is harder to back a single axel 4x4 trailer.
That second one they use Jacks to jack up buildings and drive it underneath and let the building back down on top of them.
In Australia truck drivers are called "truckies". But the term "truckers" is creeping in because of too much American TV messing up the local vernacular.
That is what we do. Screw things up. Lol
Close guys he's doing about 60 miles an hour or 100 kilometres per hour kph
My uncle drove the centipede for a few months. Said it was an absolute beast
Hey there dudes , The average Aussie trucks in the whole of Aus and city's are the B Doubles trailers !
Yes 3 or 4 trailers are normal for carting supplies to the remote parts of Australia. The 3 trailer in this video was a stock truck for sheep or cattle. The 4 trailer you saw was what we call a fuel truck (gas) petrol or diesel or both.
So, in some places in Australia, the largest road trains are a prime mover and 4 trailers but two of those trailer will then be what is known as a B double which consists of two shorter trailers semipermanantly connected
I used to watch stories about road train in Australia when I was a kid back in the UK in the late 60s and you guys have just discovered these now. I though the education system in the UK was bad! My bother in-laws used to drive the 3.2km (2 mile) long iron ore train to port headland from Newman WA for years. I remember talking him into going back to driving trains (mainly wheat but others) after he stopped for some ten years which he did until he retired some years ago. These heavy haul road trains are for short hauls or less than a thousand kilometres where it’s uneconomical to build private rail lines. I remember trying to explain to a female bartender in Tipperary 🇮🇪 when he was sitting next to me what he did for a living and they could not comprehend it! Before you ask everyone here is crazy 😜 in a good way. NSW inOz
On 18 February 2006, an Australian built Mack truck with 113[44] semi-trailers, 1,300 t (1,279 long tons; 1,433 short tons) and 1,474.3 metres (4,836 ft 11 in) long, pulled the load 100 metres (328 feet) to recapture the record for the longest road train (multiple loaded trailers) ever pulled with a single prime mover. It was on the main road of Clifton, Queensland
We drive on the same roads, not a lot of choice in the out back.
when they go past you in the opposite lane it can sometimes make this weird air phenomenon happen, its like a fighter jet engine was just pointed at your car lol
I worked in the town that was near that mine for the centerpede trucks. That movie is OLD early to mid 80's. There were, when I worked in the town (late 90s), 6 trucks. They had increased the weight of the trucks to 350t & extended the trailers, so the entire vehicle is 85m (280ft) long. They travel at speeds up to 110km/h (65miles/h). Due to increased weight the Prime Movers (hauler) has a 1200hp engine & uses 1.6 tons of fuel per 12 hour shift, carrying 3.2 tons of fuel. With the pumps used to fill mining dump trucks, it takes approx 5-6 minutes to fill the tanks. When they are driving, THEY HAVE RIGHT OF WAY, in other words you get out of the way. It can take them up to 1.5km (1 mile) to stop safely or 450m in an emergency.
Okay in Australia, when travelling outback we will pass massive long road trains all the time. Also dirt roads out there are a fact of life and the locals, tourists and companies all need to access their destinations on the same roads. Gravel, dirt or bitumen, you still have to drive on it, pass road trains on it and get to where you are going. Once you have done a long distance trip out there once you know to have your game on and pass respectively of those road trains and other road users. It’s how everyone out there stays alive. Thank you for sharing this, it was wonderful!🙏
Off-road is normal in the outback, 100kph
Well, it’s a road, but it’s unsealed
You wouldn't get to 100km per hour on unsealed roads in north Queensland
@@crazilyrandom97 you can, and you do
@@vandemanferretstasmania.ni9576 yea you have fun with that mate, don't call me when you roll one
@@crazilyrandom97 that’s ok I won’t. Probably no trucker I know would call you either. Most outback truckers can handle it fine, it’s interstate drivers that don’t know what they are doing. I worked rescue and recovery. All the truckers I met were fantastic and actually helped us do recoveries.
In Dubbo mid western NSW they allow B triple or three trailers , most other towns and cities in the area only allow B doubles.
A truck with 2 trailers is called a dog and 1 pup here.
Lorry is only a British name. Truck is used by most other English speaking countries. Here in Australia, an American style “18 wheeler” is called a “Semi trailer”. Two or more semi trailers behind one rig, is a road train. Those rigs drive all over the outback and designated routes into cities.
In the northwest of Western Australia, it is very common to see road trains with four trailers and they’re generally just called a Quad.
Roadtrains are typically three and sometimes four trailers, but you will occasionally see up to eight trailers on some routes
When a roadtrain is coming towards you, pull over, put your hand on your windscreen to stop the rocks shattering it.
When driving a truck, be prepared for the RT to aim at you before swerving to the side just before it hits you. This stops the trailers being sucked towards each other in the low pressure zone between the two trucks as they pass. Scared the crap outta me the first time and I nearly drove off the side of the road trying to avoid the RT as it kept coming at me over the centre line.
I'm currently a Road Train driver in Western Australia, I drive every day with 3 trailers at 53.5 meters in length and up to 130 metric tonnes.
In Western Australia this is pretty standard, yes we also reverse Road Trains, when necessary, in our test's for our licence we have to reverse at least a b double (1 x prime mover 1 x 20 foot trailer and 1 x 45 foot trailer) a distance of 70 meters.
Much the same as “ Bus” is short for Omnibus.
Truck or Semi is probably the most common name. “B-double” also refers to a specific trailer configuration and is commonly used to describe trucks.
Also, we have trucks and semis the same as you guys do, they travel on our busy highways and stuff. But these road trains cover the remote routes through the largely empty outback on mostly unsealed roads
Generally road trains aren’t allowed within city limits. They generally ship stuff from regional cities out to mines and smaller communities and back.
As some additional info to what other Aussies have mentioned, semi's will haul only one or two trailers within towns and cities. You will sometimes find road train assembly areas outside the town/city limits (not every town/city however) and the longer road trains operate in the more sparsely inhabited areas of the continent - places where it's too expensive to maintain a railway for what amounts to a minor load (in terms of what a railway can haul).
The other name we give to such trucks (the truck itself, not the trailers) is prime mover (as mentioned in the comment by rattie bowd)
Lorries is a British word. My husband used the last one with all of the wheels. He sent it up a narrow, winding mountain road. I think he was building a mine. He built big things.
The normal trucks are called road trains so 3 to 6 full length trailers.
And yes they do expect drivers to reverse them
I live in a town where road trains of two to four trailer lengths travel often on the normal roads in and out of town. I have overtaken them on the way to work.
Something you guys may not realise is that outside urban areas the Northern Territory has no speed limits, so yes, the truck WAS probably going at 80+mph / 130km/h ... but only if empty. He'd never reach those speeds with a full load. BTW, it IS impossible to REVERSE a 'Centipede', but it CAN be done by hooking a towbar to the rear trailer and using another prime mover to tow it backwards. Realistically though, there's nowhere this truck goes that has a need to do move backwards, as the loading and unloading stations are all drive through.
Wait until they see the iron ore trains haha. A lot of the time road trains this size usually have escort vehicles with signs telling people to pull over or to not try to pass just because they’re so huge.
Road trains dont have escorts. Oversize loads have escorts wide loads.
People need to give way to road trains. Especially caravans and tourists, they can easily turn it into a dangerous situation.
A tonne of diesel is 1140 litres (250 gal)
The triple road trains in this video are roughly 53.5 metres long, which is 175 feet. In Australia on public roads you can get combinations up to 62metres which is 203 feet. Your typical driver can be expected to reverse 2 trailers + a dolly but you can also find drivers who can reverse those triples.
With the 4 trailer set up, the half size trailer is called the A trailer and is that size to be able to get around corners, and carry anything from around 95 to 105 ton cheers boys and I am in your dDiscord now too :)
My dad drove trucks for a living in Australia for years and he drove from Toowoomba to Darwin in 7 days and back with four trailer this was in the 90s and 2000s
Guys in Western Australia you can drive 3 trailers a bdouble and a dog in and around the city. It is 36.5 meters long and 128T up hwy and freeways through the city. Then heading north we hook up to our 3rd or 4th trailer out side the city that is 60meters long and up to 200t depending on your axles and permits.
I Live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and I have at the least 40 Quads going past my front door every day. A Quad has The Prime Mover then four trailers, connected to each other with 3 dogs so that makes 96 wheels and 2 steer's up front. Total 25 axel's with 98 wheel's all up. Load capacity 88 ton.
'If I take my foot off the accelerator, it'll take us about four kilometres to stop,' says Matt Langley, the Australian captain of the Centipede,
Texas eat your heart out over this truck, yonks ago when I've lived on a cattle station we had one chap with a road train 5 trailers until Oz government changed the rules for only 3 trailers
We get these trucks (though typically only 2 or 3 trailers) operating on single-lane roads, so to overtake or when meeting one coming the other way, both drivers have to have their left wheels off the tarmac on the gravel. Some of my scariest driving experiences have been doing that.
The worst enemy of this truck...make a u turn,round about
my uncle has a photo of a road train carrying cattle from one of the western Queensland stations , it has 12 trailers all full of live stock. he also owns a 1300 acre property with 600 odd head on it. most of the time the cattle eat trees lmao its dry af
As far as I'm aware, and the guys will tell me if I'm wrong. To get your MC licence in Australia, you have to be able to reverse a 3 and /or 4 trailer road train
You only need to reverse a b double
You have to keep in mind often these road trains are the only thing on the road out there for the most part. Road trains are quite common outback.
Get behind one of these on a straight road doing 100km/hr. If you're daring, get into their slip-stream, a small to medium car gets partially "air-towed" along.
If you watch your tachy-metre, when in the slip-stream, it drops down.
Australians take EVERYTHING to the next level
The regulations and practices with trucks are pretty similar to the States and B Doubles are a semi trailer (what we call 18 wheelers) and another full sized trailer.
Once you get about 250-300 miles inland the road trains operate. The really huge ones generally operate further out and can have a lot of trailers attached.
They are a pretty common sight when you are a long way inland and get out of the way of you see one coming as they don't stop or pull over.
I've passed a mining road train truck with 11 trailers - way way longer than the one shown- however they can only drive on specific roads connecting the mines to the coastal shipping ports ... these roads are normal roads however, and anyone diving them will pass MONSTER trucks. By the way I read up about them - most have automatic gearboxes that connect to an engine driven trailer every third trailer , so on an 11 trailered truck I passed it would have The Main prime mover engine drive plus 3 additional engines of the trailer train. All up 11 trailers behind the primemover with 4 engines pushing it.
Triple general Freight driver here. We have heaps of regulations here too. Three full trailers is limited to certain routes, four even more restrictive.
That said, between Newman and Pt Hedland in Western Australia, the amount of four trailer tippers has increased to the point where it adds a half hour or more to the journey over that 5 hour leg. Though they operate further south, it's less normal.
And it's very common for our prime movers to be sold rated at 120ton or able to be updated to that for triple work as it can make them more valuable when trying to sell them or if you're wanting to be able to do that work when needed.
Never met one of these, but hey, we have highway protocols and use signals to indicate intention. A trucker will always give a two flash of the indicator when it's safe to overtake.
The longest road-trains in the world are approx 100metre long and operate in the Tanami Desert at a gold mine called 'The Granites'. Thats a 6 or 7 trailer roadtrain, with TWO engines, carting large blocks of granite to be broken down and processed for gold. They are driven by idiots. My job used to be to overtake them, at 110kph, in a large bus containing 50+ mine workers. It was the funnest part of my day.
I am old enough to remember when trucks where still called lorries in Australia but it died out in the 60's or early 70's. I see a few people making the comment that 18 wheelers are called semi-trailers. It is very rare to see an 18 wheeler, occasionally for small local runs you will see a duel axel trailer (18 wheelers), but no serious transport is done on an 18 wheeler. They are almost all 22 wheeler - tri axel trailers. But yes we call them semi's, - not to be confused with the euphemism for...I'll leave that alone. As the holder of a Road Train licence and the brother of someone who drove one for many years I can answer your question about stopping time - long. One of the cool stories my brother tells is coming over a rise to see a caravan (trailer home) nicely parked in the centre of the road about 2 km away. He hit the brakes and managed to pull up about a metre short of the offending vehicle. Almost all trucks have their front end guarded by massive bull bars, there is just no way to stop for wild life so you just have to clear them out of the way. Drive behind a Road Train for awhile and you will see roos and emus cart wheeling down the road behind them.
Yes was following one back down from Newman Western Australia. When to my surprise out came a cow, which I then hit with my ford sedan and dismolished my gear box.
I live in South Australia, and you can drive in a straight line for a couple of days and still be in SA. They say the roads between some outback towns are a further distance than travelling to the earths outer atmosphere.
If only you guys would visit Australia and it's vastness...the drivers are amazingly talented.
I haul 75' long super-b flat in Canada, 70tons(62.5)without permits is my max. Hauling heavier and longer is just a matter of getting the necessary permit and the Trailer(s) having the required amount of axles by Regulation to put the load on.
Those dirt roads are a breeze compared to some Forest Service Rds I've driven on into remote Construction sites, I've stuck my head out the window and stared 200' straight down a cliff more than once.
Filling those tanks takes about 1/2hr, probably 500l each.
Just something to add when driving at speed a quick yank of the stirring wheel the back end trailer can whip lash and move as much as a meter. So if to road trains pass each other to prevent trailers hitting each other u slow down once crossing each other power on will straighten up. Most road train drivers will only be to happy to help get around them, different culture in the outback
It’s an old video, that “Centipede” no longer exists and the company shut the doors years ago. They’ve been replaced with normal 175 tonne quads trailer road trains. They run 200 tonne “super quads” in the north-west of Western Australia which are 60 metres (197 ft) long. There’s a lot of bullshit talked about how fast they can go, you’d be lucky to hit 90 km/h (56 mph) on the flat with all that weight. By the way, a ton of fuel is nothing, most road trains carry double that or more.
The Fortescue road haul trucks have engines in each trailer. (The same engines used in Sprinter trains).
Look up Kalgoorlie roadtrains
I passed a truck coming out of Darwin years ago with a low slung trailer that had about 100 wheels, carrying what I think was a 250t generator unit. 3 prime movers, 2 in front one behind.