When you bitch about your local roads, spear a thought
I'm betting that those trailers were loaded with very small cattle. LOL
I’d give anything to go down under and drive a road train. I’m pretty sure my resume backs up my ability to do so!
Now Junkyard I didn't know you were a cattle puncher too. Truck Shop
Yeah nah Truck Shop, betcha they'll be full size off to market or meatworks. Most likely Brahman or similar.
I wasn't expecting the other 3 trucks.
Look to be Territory trucks loaded with boat cattle, so most likely around 350kg liveweight, 28 to a deck =56/trailer =168/truck =59 tonne/130000lbs per truck. They’ve obviously hooked the whole show together before attempting the river crossing.... if one loses traction the others are pushing/pulling.
Imagine the whining if we had those in the US. Just try dropping 5 mph below the speed limit when pulling a hill and see how furious the 4 wheelers get. I'm sure these rigs would struggle to make 10 mph on the hills around here. There'd be ditches full of wrecked cars trying to pass them. Plus Werner, Swift, and Prime would have their "graduates" running them off the road.
I don’t care what’s in or on the trailers. I just want to drive one and see that country.
The trucks belong to RTA (Road Trains Australia) and work throughout inland Oz.
I'm surprised at the open top trailers. I'd think with the heat you guys get they would want those cows in the shade.
I watched a TV show about them. They can't keep the cows on the trucks for very long, maybe 36 hours. There are stations along the route to let the cows off to rest.
Do the semis stay coupled throughout the trip or just through that wash? I remember a book about steam trains and the engineer describing double-headers and the need to listen/“read” your and the other locomotive so each was doing its share of the work. That looks like some serious driving. And, between cattle and dust, I’d hate to be the last truck Darryl
Just for you Junkyard and if you have heard the closing music before somewhere and it bugs you, it's the theme from Crocodile Dundee
Cattle in the north and west are mostly only handled and transported in the dry season, It’s just too hot otherwise. We are further south, and our trips a maximum of around 10hrs, so we sometimes shift cattle in hot weather but try to do it at night if possible. Those trailers are pretty much a standard design across the country and I’ve never seen one with a roof, except those carrying pigs. The trucks would only be hooked up to negotiate the crossing, particularly the dry sandy riverbed. In the wet season, I reckon that “river” would be raging torrent, 100+ metres wide
I love those movies. However true they may or may not be. “I don’t need a gun, I’ve got a Donk.” Haha
That is so cool. How appropriate that AC/DC plays when the road train shows up! Show me where to sign up!
One other thing you fellers up on the top side may not know is that the front axle sets on the trailers are hooked by fifth wheel. That way all the trailers can be towed individually or any combination. The good drivers can back that set (which is called a dolly) with 2 trailers already coupled under the third.
Having backed a bunch of different multi-axle setups I think (fingers crossed) with a little practice I might just be able to do that
I grew up in a town with a bunch of livestock haulers, trailers are pretty standard here too (its just a different standard). All are aluminum (saves weight, and the manure doesn't eat them up). Holes down the side that you can plug/cover up in the winter to keep them warm. They have small panels that fit in the vertical slats closing them. The holes stay open in summer to keep them cool. But they all have a "roof" completing the box shell, keeping the sun off the cows also. Partial plugs- they only put in most of the slats (for semi cold weather) Full plugs
Oh, I could back ‘em....just not very far! Currently run a tractor and a set of tanks. Can get about a full length back.....with a little pullin’ forward occasionally to adjust. Still workin’ in increasthe distance. I respect those that can. Darryl
How do they load and unload those trailers? I didn't see any side-load gates and it looked like there might have been some sort of a gate mechanism on the front and the back of the trailers but I can't imagine trying to hit a chute with one of those rigs.
The videos I have seen show them loaded from the side with double decker ramps.
From my memory, they call the kind you show a "possum belly" and they are used for cattle and pigs. There are also trailers that do not have the "belly" in front of the axles, but they are mostly just for hauling smaller critters like pigs and sheep. I've never seen a livestock B-train, but I'm sure you could do it. In my area, they try to keep moves as short as possible, usually just a few hours on the truck. It's tough on the critters. Lots of stock trailers on the road here. There a hog facility in the area that can slaughter 12,000 hogs a day. And apparently it's not that big compared to others.
My first thoughts on the aluminium trailers is how they would stand up to some of the crappy roads we have here. Modern trailers have evolved from having a big heavy chassis to a more monocoque design where the crate itself provides much of the strength and many do have aluminium side sheeting,but retain a steel frame. We are fortunate to have a weight exemption for livestock trucks, so trailers are generally designed for durability before weight savings. A single (two deck) trailer is limited to 40ft loadable length and requires 3 axles, but we can legally carry whatever livestock will fit in there, provided that the truck's weight rating isn't exceeded. Add an A trailer, and load 600kg bullocks, you would have a payload of almost 40 tonnes. The road trains are all side loaded through gates on the rhs, you can see them on the rear of this b double. Gates on the front and rear of each trailer open and fold down creating a walkway between the trailers allowing cattle to walk the full length of the combination from the rear. Where an external double deck ramp isn’t available, 30% of the rear top deck can be lowered hydraulically, creating a ramp. Because of the volume loading exemption, there is no load space lost to the ramp, every square inch is utilised.
Stock trucks here have no roofs. Occasionally when following one, you'll see a steer stick his head up over the side. Also, the drawbars are sliding, so when the truck backs up to a loading ramp, the driver can pull a pin and back hard up to the trailer, so stock can be moved right through the combination.
I know that there are plenty of semis and b doubles in NZ but live stock trucks seem to be exclusively, what we would call, truck and dogs. Must be a weight/length reason. Here, there are quite a few rigids with trailers but they only ever have single decks.
I think it's mainly because it's just what's necessary. There are many, many country roads here where a B-train, or semi, just would not go. The truck and trailer tracks a lot better around corners, and often, the trailer will need to be left somewhere as only the truck will fit. In this situation, the trailer will be left somewhere as close as possible to the destination, and stock will be transferred between the trailer and truck, which may be a couple of trips.