Question for Aussie road train fellas
Posted by Arthusamakh@reddit | Truckers | View on Reddit | 8 comments
I've been going around Australia for nearly 2 years now and have seen quite a bunch of road trains of varying sizes and trailer combos, and the prime mover/towing vehicle is always some cabover or T909 sorta truck (excuse my beginner ignorance for the proper terms). Now I'm wondering, could you make a reasonable roadtrain with the type of truck (heavy rigid?) from this specs sheet? Whether it makes sense or not is irrelevant. So let's say you take this truck in some sort of configuration as a tipper dump truck and then you add 3 full side tipper trailers to make it a B triple, for example. That should be 120T payload in the trailers I think plus 30 odd tons for the trailers I suppose, and whatever the heavy rigid + load weighs. Is the truck strong enough to pull that, can it even do ultra quad setup, or would double B or even AB be the maximum? Again, doesn't matter if it makes sense, as I haven't seen that anywhere yet the answer is probably no. What numbers on the specs sheet would I be looking out for to figure it out? Thanks
luddite86@reddit
Bulkhaul used to have what you’re describing
Rigid, Tri-drive Kenworths towing road trains
Can’t post pictures here, but here is a link to one on Google
Arthusamakh@reddit (OP)
ah yeah that looks nice. but probably a bit less practical than the usual ultra quad side tippers i suppose nowadays
Copie247@reddit
According to that spec sheet no. Its maximum gcm is 60t.
You can buy and spec a rigid for road train work, it used to be quite common to have a rigid + 2/3 trailers hanging off it, and even now you often see truck + 2 quad dogs behind it.
It’s not as common now because it reduces your flexibility for work and it’s cheaper to run as a prime mover rather then a rigid
Arthusamakh@reddit (OP)
So in theory with a better spec'd rigid I might be able to pull two trailers with let's say a forklift, a light sized excavator, a landcruiser and a skid steer on them, plus whatever the rigid can carry? But for proper road train business the rigid would need to be quite over the top, sort of?
No_Edge_7964@reddit
Road train driver here who drives triples and quads. Rigids with two trailers are typically specced to 130 tonne but can go up to 150. You can also build the rigid as Tri drive 8x6 instead of an 8x4.
Arthusamakh@reddit (OP)
What sort of model would the rigid then likely be, and what primary usage?
No_Edge_7964@reddit
Kenworth or Volvo most likely. I'm a fuel tanker driver and we use them a fair bit. Some sites may only allow rigids due to size or elevation restrictions. Very helpful for long distance multi drops. Construction work uses them but usually only one trailer.
Inside-Law4390@reddit
Not a truckie but been around enough military heavy transport to have some thoughts on this. Looking at those specs the GCW is only showing 40.5T which is pretty light for what you're describing - most proper road train prime movers are running 80-120T+ GCW ratings. The rear bogie weight rating at 16.5T tells you this thing wasn't really designed for the massive tongue weights you'd get from multiple heavy trailers.
From what I've seen in transport ops the engine torque and transmission are probably the bigger limiting factors here rather than just the chassis ratings. Those big road trains need serious low-end grunt to get all that mass moving from a standstill and this looks more like a city distribution truck setup. You'd probably max out at a single heavy trailer before the drivetrain starts complaining, maybe a light B-double if you're being optimistic.
The wheelbase options here are also pretty short compared to what I've seen on actual road train setups - you need that length for stability when you're pulling multiple articulation points behind you.