I haven't found any updates online yet about this behemoth load, but it left out of Knoxville this morning headed for power plant in Virginia. Here's the news article about the massive load. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/jun/18/1000-foot-long-convoy-starts-journey-today/
That's pretty cool ATCOEQUIP.Hope they have a safe journey to Virginia.It's amazing what people can accomplish when they put their mind to the job & work together:thumbsup
Yes it is 25c. I hope to find some more info and pics about this move. It started its journey just about 10 miles from where I am. I would love to have stationed myself on the route and taken some pics but I had to work today. :Banghead The thing about events like this is the media doesn't give details that we are interested in, it's just a news story to them, move on to the next. I would like to know where the generator unit came from because I'm certain it wasn't built around here. It could have come from anywhere in the world and would have been floated up the Tennessee River on a barge. The Forks of the River area here is the last point of barge navigation on the TN River. It's where the Holston and French Broad rivers merge to become the Tennessee River. I would also like to see the equipment used to remove it from the barge.
Keep us posted ATCO,thats very interesting.At the first look at the article I assumed the generator was built in Knoxville.But....who knows where it came from? It's still a very impressive moving job.We need more Barnhart type people in this country. http://www.barnhartcrane.com/index.html
I'm still looking 25c. Thing is, I believe it's one of those events that the media just didn't put much into. Their perspective; it's a story, report it, move on to next story. No details. Grrrrrrrr :Banghead I'm confident the unit was not built in Knoxville, just can't say for certain. I'm more inclined to think it was hauled up the river on a barge. I would love to see more info, and pics, about this haul. To move something that weighs 803,000 pounds is, quite frankly, a big event. It would take a very lot of engineering and planning to do it. I'm sure Barnhart will eventually post it on their website, I'll keep looking. BTW, Barnhart bought out the crane company here that I worked for back in the 80's to obtain a branch in the Knoxville area. A couple of my former buds still work there.
Here ya go ATCO...leave it to the guy from Jersey to have pics of it...
more....
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.as ... d_mostread YouTube - Wide Load YouTube - Wide Load II
Tonka, I knew if anyone could find pics of this thing...it would be you. Great job bro! Thanks. :notworthy That's right where Straw Plains Pike junctions with I-40 at exit 398, just about ten miles from me. That's a pile of iron.
LOL.....i didn't find them pics they were sent to me...as well as the videos...
Well, yah, I guess that's what I meant to say...I know you have connections. You've drove by exit 398 a plenty times yourself. Where they were at in the vid, once the convoy started rolling again, in just about 1/2 mile they would have turned up the entrance ramp to I-40 eastbound, proceded across the eastbound lanes onto a temporary gravel road in the median to cross over to the westbound lanes. Procede across the westbound lanes to the exit ramp of I-40 westbound to Straw Plains Pike. Procede down ramp, and hang a right on Straw Plains. Quite a process moving something like that. :yup
Cool pics. Do those trailers have some sort of central inflation system on them for all the tires, or is that Sulair compressor in pic #4 strapped on only for the air brakes?
Hey ATCO, if you here about one of those red tractors going up for sale let me know. I think it would be cool to pull my backhoe with.
The sulair is for the air brakes mainly. but can be used for checking tires. I seen this setup a couple of times before this one and just realized their using regular house moving Dolly's. I would think several lines of goldhoffers would be much quicker but what do i know.
May have something to do with cost.
Good photos of this rig. What brand are the tractors pushing & pulling? In our area, usually stock 600hp Macks or Kenworths are used and running on 32 rows of axles. Below is some info on Lamsons shifting a similar sized load last year here in Oz. It may have to be blown up a bit to read the text. John
Very cool ATCO I wonder why they couldn't assemble it on site?
Air unit is also for changing tires, if you look at the first video you can see a sticker on the one new tire as it comes to a stop.
It looks like an Autocar and an Oshkosh on each end.Ron G
Come on, are the "oversize load" signs REALLY necessary at that point?
First and Last trucks are Kenworth C500's the red trucks do look to be Oshkosh prime movers
Good thing your not trying to make it thru our county... the DOT dork here is a real pain...He would have pulled out the scales and done a full inspection... on everything
I'LL bet you the state smiled when they came in to get there permits. For sure pretty cool operation.
Actually, this was a co-ordinated effort with TNDOT and VADOT. Six months of planning went into this move. 2.5 million dollars were spent just for permits, road improvements, and other related costs. Some bridges were reinforced, wires had to be raised, and all the bridges and culverts along the route were inspected prior to haul. Once the load began moving, DOT bridge inspectors checked every bridge and culvert as the load was passing and after it passed to insure no damage was done to the structures. I'd be curious to know just how many people were involved in this move.
lol TNDOT is in the pics... LOTS of ppls involved in this move!
Thanks for sharing the pictures & video tonka,pretty cool stuff:thumbsup
I'll second that 25c. :notworthy
anytime fellas... i have some great friends in the trucking businesss, they all know i love heavy hauling and trucks...
If you come across any other pics of the progress of this thing, please do post them. Thanks.
A little history side note. The generator destination is the steam electric generation plant in St Paul Virginia. St Paul is in the southeastern part of Virginia, on the Clinch River. The Clinch River flows out of southeast Virginia into northestern Tennessee. Near LaFollette and Lake City TN is Norris Dam, on the Clinch River. Norris Dam was the first dam built by the newly established TVA (Tn Valley Authority) during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration in the 1930's. Completed in 1936, the dam project provided much needed jobs at that time, and still produces electricity today from the waters of the Clinch River. So shall the Clinch provide southeast Virginia electricity with the generator that is slowly moving down the road today. The Clinch plays an important role in our lives in this area. http://www.tva.gov/sites/norris.htm
John, The Tractors in order are; KW, Oshkosh, Oshkosh, KW (Boom Truck) The KW's would be Cat powered, and the Oshkosh's are V-12 Detroit Powered. I had that Lampson article sent to me just after it was done last year. Another impressive company doing what they do best.:drinkup
Leaving Jefferson City... not sure if its related but could be
Well I'll be, that first pic you posted tonka, you can see two bucket trucks following the load. I looked at those two trucks, they looked familiar. Sure enough, the Ford Super Duty bucket truck is a buddy of mine named Gary. I used to work on both those trucks when at a former employer. Small world ain't it.
This is one grade that load would have pulled along the route, as well as an equal grade going down the other side. US 25E crossing Clinch Mountain between Bean Station and Thorn Hill TN. I installed some horizontal drains on this grade when they made the road a 4 lane back in the 90's.
I just can't imagine how to coordinate the drivers of the second pulling truck and the pusher trucks. How do the drivers figure our how much speed/power is needed. Also, since the non-lead trucks are all connected with tow bars, do the drivers let the trucks steer themselves?
I found out a few things yesterday. They plan to make delivery this Friday if all continues to go well. They they went up and down that mountain at 4 mph without touching tha brakes. One of the requirements from both states was that they have as much "jake" braking horsepower as they had pulling horsepower. That's where the Perkins rental push trks come in.(They switched the order around, 1=pull and 3=push trucks) They have worked on this project for 6+ months. It was loaded 2 months ago. They have 2 loads of spare tires along. So far they have only needed a few of them.:drinkup:drinkup
Thanks for the update rigandig. :notworthy Sadly (for us), there's just nothing in the media about this move. That's a heck of a route they took, going 25E to Cumberland Gap, then 58 through Virginia. Some of those towns along the route would have been a challenge to get through. It seems taking 11W to Kingsport, then north on 23 to Big Stone Gap would have been better. I guess they didn't want to tie up US 23 that far.
Here's a decent vid of the load going through Jonesville Virginia. Jonesville is a small town, and US 58 Alt goes through the middle of town. The buildings of the town give a good perspective of how big the rig and load is. It looks like the whole town came out to the sidewalks of the street to watch. I would like to see how the rig manuvered through Big Stone Gap Virginia because 58 Alt makes a right turn in downtown Big Stone Gap. I've read the generator unit was made by Toshiba in Japan, so it would have been transported to Knoxville via barge as I suspected. YouTube - Barnhart Heavy Haul - Generator in Lee County, VA (Town of Jonesville)
Man a live thats a cool move Atcoequip , dose all the axles steer under the load ? For sure it would be a rewarding job to be part of a move like that :usa
Don't know anything about the rig myself Autocar, but I'm certain the axles would have to steer or you couldn't corner the outfit. If you look at the drawbar that's attached to the pull truck, you can see a chain fall chain going from the drawbar to a tongue on the lead trailer axle. I'm thinking as the pull truck turns a corner, it pulls the drawbar to one side, thereby pulling the chain that's attached to the trailer axle tongue and would pull it in the direction the pull truck is turning and would steer the axle in that direction. That's as much as I can see.
Yes all the axles steer...
How does it work with one truck pulling another?
We had a heavy move in our area in 2009. It was a transformer and came by rail on a special car that can shift the load side to side. Then it was unloaded onto a Goldhoffer for the 2-3 miles to the substation. Video of the train going thru the rock cut at the top of the notch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9h9eIbzvWs&feature=related
I like the oversize load signs on the trailer. seems a bit redundant dont you think.
What gov't regulations aren't redundant...
Actually, folks that drive cars are more like sheep or cows than anything, dumb as dirt. The shop that we use to paint our machines is out in the country down a twisting two lane country road. Recently, our driver had a scrape with a Chevy Blazer is a sharp curve. Since then, we decided that I would escort the lowboy down this road with beacon lights on service truck flashing, didn't seem to slow drivers a bit. I reckon they just thought I was driving down the road with these lights flashing and no consequence to them. Since then, I put a yellow Oversize Load banner on my front bumper with lights flashing, now I see brake lights in my mirror when they pass by me. Gotta herd the sheep and cows.
I think the cop cars have more of an effect to the motoring public than the banners. considering they are legal size and still 10 ' apart and theres 2 of them on the front and back of the trailer. I get what your driving at though. A couple years back i was hauling a 14' wide module on the lowboy with a pilot car escort. I was making a right hand turn with my pilot car bull fighting and some idiot in a civic cuts between the tail of the trailer and the front of the pilot car and tries to squeeze by on the inside. Thankfully he was quick on the radio and i stopped in time to avoid catastrophe. I think after he was pinned between the pilot car, the curb and the trailer for the 5 min "speach" he received in both windows of that little car, he has a new found respect for truck drivers and large men in trucks. He wasn't threatened with violence but he wasn't NOT threatened either.