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. :) :)
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
@@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
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....
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.
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 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.
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.
@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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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).
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 UA-cam 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.
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...
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.
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.
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
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.
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!🙏
@@nukelie8920 Actually they're nearly equal, as per below. Ton, unit of weight in the avoirdupois system equal to 2,000 pounds (907.18 kg) in the United States (the short ton) and 2,240 pounds (1,016.05 kg) in Britain (the long ton). The metric ton used in most other countries is 1,000 kg, equivalent to 2,204.6 pounds avoirdupois.
Have a look at Outback Truckers on 7mate it's a TV show they take their semi trailers or 18-wheelers as you call them down four-wheel drive tracks and out in the desert these trackers are Legends in Australia without trucks Australia would not survive
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
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 :)
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.
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 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.
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.
@@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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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)
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.
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.
Seen many massive modulated buildings etc moved on these Mamout SMP systems. Theyre awesome. Road trains 3, 4, trailers very common, tricky to pass driving a buss full of workers.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
I use to builld those trailers , first time I saw one rolling out , it had to go round the building and carpark 5m wide! 6 trailers to go round 2 corners, from front to back only 200mm difference , its like a centrepede!
In WA, They go between point a and point b. A nice straight stretch runs north south. Point A , heavyily secured depot, receives loaded trailers from city, road trains pick them up and head straight north. They are about 50m long, and not allowed anywhere else.
Try passing one. Very hard work. And to have one come the other way is just a hail of rocks, costing me a windscreen. And that was 3 trailers. In more 'civilised' routes we have B Doubles, 2 trailers and they will be a round a 100-120 foot. Bloody dangerous things, for the number of them they are involved in a LOT of accidents. A 'normal' semi is generally a 42 foot tri axle trailer
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.
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.
Two for that mine !!! Trucks here in NZ and AU, we count axles not wheels, other wise you might add spare wheels to. So you have a 4 wheeler, 6 wheeler and 8 wheeler etc.
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
in the city trucks can now have an a double configuration weighing a total 90 tonnes on general roads. these trucks commonly haul two 40 foot containers
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.
Roadtrains here have mimimum 2000 litres fuel. We run double 40 foot trailers around major city roads now. Once the truck is moving at 80 kmh there is not a huge difference in fuel consumption with one or two trailers, or if you have 3 or 4 trailers. 25 years ago in Aus we were running 500 hp with triples, now its 600 to 700 hp with quads or more.
There are plenty with three travelling at 100kmh. If you overtake on a windy day do it at your risk. The trailers can snake like a whip with no warning. I almost got flicked a few years back between Adelaide and Whyalla.
One Metric Tons is equivalent to one thousand Kilograms. The tonne (SI unit symbol: t), commonly referred to as the metric ton in the United States, is a non-SI metric unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms; or one megagram (Mg); it is equivalent to approximately 2,204.6 pounds, 1.10 short tons (US) or 0.984 long tons (imperial).
I’ve got lots of pictures but there’s no way of putting them on the site I often passed the centipede on the run from Ceduna SA to the Minesite west of town called Nundroo then they disappear up a haul road And yes there is a lot more centipede’s now than there was when that video was made send me through an email address and I will send you some photos
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.
yes we drive on the same roads. the truck you watched are one company we have trucks with f and 5 trailers travelling at 130 Kms/hr a regular trip would be darwi to adelade some 5000 kms. big trucks long distances
Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory have three trailer road trains as common as yellow cabs in New York City. In some of the biggest iron ore mines in the world, quad side tipper trailers get around the haul roads four at a time. They are allowed onto public highways in more remote areas, and they are paved roads. They're restricted to 90 km/h (57 MPH) Hazards these drivers have to look out for: Cattle Feral Camels Kangaroos Emus Wedge Tailed Eagles Tourists I used to do long haul driving in Western Australia, and between Newman and Port Hedland, they have quad tipper trains.
The Centrepeed is, from what I understand only on a private mine road. As others have said 3 trailers are most in general one will see. On certain areas 4 are alowed. There are restrictions, and the drivers know these roads, and regulations. However it gets complex as each state has its own rules. Yes a lot of these larger road trains operate on some of our worst roads. It takes a good driver, and at times they have to repair the truck, as these roads are tough on the prime mover and trailers. For some operators a ton of fuel would not be a lot. Cattle and sheep haulage is an example. Some properties may be 600 to 700 km from no where. They have "Belly" tanks under the trailer. Leave with these full. Load cattle, and pump fuel into main tanks. Also interstate drivers, find cheap fuel, they fill up. Diesel is over $2 a litre. $9 a gallon. 20 or 30 cents can mean, a big win or a big loss. So if it is cheap, they need to be able to fill up. Of course the down side, it is that much less pay load also.
Imagine trying to pass one of these, knowing that the midles trailers can sway outwards by as little as 6 feet in both directions. The recors for Road train length was established in my old neighbourhood. Most of these "Roadtrains" operate on "Red Dog Roads".
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 longest legal truck combinations for public roads in the USA is actually 3 28ft trailers. UPS and FedEx use them a lot but they are limited as to where they are allowed to take them, for obvious reasons. They're mostly seen on the interstates. The maximum capacity for legal loads (not counting specially permitted oversized loads) in the USA is 52.5 tons but there a particular requirements for going over the 40 ton limit set for 18 wheelers. Additional axles need to be added to keep the load legal and there are weight limits on each axle or set of axles which depends on the number of axles and the distance between the first load bearing axle and the last load bearing axle. I drive a single trailer truck that is allowed a weight of 51 tons. The tractor has an additional axle between the steer axle and the drive axle. it has two additional axles on the rear of the trailer. These additional axles are what are called 'drop axles' or 'tag axles'. They can be raised or lowered depending on whether or not the rig is loaded or empty in order to keep the rig in legal compliance. 1 ton of fuel is equal to about 250 gallons. That's not much different to what the OTR long haul truckers have on full tanks. Typically, OTR truckers have 2 x120 gallons tanks on the tractor. A gallon of diesel weighs a little over eight pounds. It's simply not possible to back up a combination like that. After a few feet of backing up the trailers will start to in opposite directions and you'll end up with a mess like a train wreck.
Road Trains (semi's) are approx 55 metres long.......it helps to have a 2way radio to talk to the drive is you want to overtake them.....Road Trains have certain routes to be on......& 2 trailers are called Double "B's" which are allowed to drive metro/country
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
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
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
🤣😂🤣
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.
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, "????" 😅😅😅
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!!
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
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....
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
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 🙂🇦🇺
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.
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.
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 👍
Normal traffic drive on the same roads that Road Trains use, it’s the joys of living in this fantastic country.
@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
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.
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
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
I overtook two road trains when I was on my learners permit. The scariest feeling ever
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
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
In Australia we also call 18 wheelers Semi Trailers
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.
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!
As a retired Aussie truck driver, I am entertained by your bewilderment.
In Dubbo mid western NSW they allow B triple or three trailers , most other towns and cities in the area only allow B doubles.
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.
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
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.
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
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
Hey there dudes , The average Aussie trucks in the whole of Aus and city's are the B Doubles trailers !
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
UA-cam 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.
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...
That one nicknamed the "centipede" is on a special restricted route. Obviously some bridges couldn't take that weight.
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.
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.
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
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.
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!🙏
You have to also take into account that 1 Metric Tonne is equal to approximately 2.2 Imperial Tonnes. Australia uses metric units
@@nukelie8920 Actually they're nearly equal, as per below.
Ton, unit of weight in the avoirdupois system equal to 2,000 pounds (907.18 kg) in the United States (the short ton) and 2,240 pounds (1,016.05 kg) in Britain (the long ton). The metric ton used in most other countries is 1,000 kg, equivalent to 2,204.6 pounds avoirdupois.
Have a look at Outback Truckers on 7mate it's a TV show they take their semi trailers or 18-wheelers as you call them down four-wheel drive tracks and out in the desert these trackers are Legends in Australia without trucks Australia would not survive
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
40 tonns is nothing in Australia, even in city areas.
Most doubles carry up to 65.5T
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
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 :)
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
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 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.
Close guys he's doing about 60 miles an hour or 100 kilometres per hour kph
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
I’ve known about Australian road trains since I was less than 10 years old.
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.
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
My uncle drove the centipede for a few months. Said it was an absolute beast
We drive on the same roads, not a lot of choice in the out 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)
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.
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.
Seen many massive modulated buildings etc moved on these Mamout SMP systems. Theyre awesome. Road trains 3, 4, trailers very common, tricky to pass driving a buss full of workers.
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.
If only you guys would visit Australia and it's vastness...the drivers are amazingly talented.
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
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
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.
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.
I use to builld those trailers , first time I saw one rolling out , it had to go round the building and carpark 5m wide! 6 trailers to go round 2 corners, from front to back only 200mm difference , its like a centrepede!
These truck drivers can reverse them. Absolutely amazing to watch.
In WA, They go between point a and point b. A nice straight stretch runs north south. Point A , heavyily secured depot, receives loaded trailers from city, road trains pick them up and head straight north. They are about 50m long, and not allowed anywhere else.
Try passing one. Very hard work. And to have one come the other way is just a hail of rocks, costing me a windscreen. And that was 3 trailers.
In more 'civilised' routes we have B Doubles, 2 trailers and they will be a round a 100-120 foot.
Bloody dangerous things, for the number of them they are involved in a LOT of accidents.
A 'normal' semi is generally a 42 foot tri axle trailer
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.
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.
Two for that mine !!! Trucks here in NZ and AU, we count axles not wheels, other wise you might add spare wheels to. So you have a 4 wheeler, 6 wheeler and 8 wheeler etc.
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
in the city trucks can now have an a double configuration weighing a total 90 tonnes on general roads. these trucks commonly haul two 40 foot containers
In australia there travel mostly with 2 or 3 trailers interstate.
Minesites have quads four trailer and some up to 5 and 6 trailer .
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.
Roadtrains here have mimimum 2000 litres fuel.
We run double 40 foot trailers around major city roads now.
Once the truck is moving at 80 kmh there is not a huge difference in fuel consumption with one or two trailers, or if you have 3 or 4 trailers.
25 years ago in Aus we were running 500 hp with triples, now its 600 to 700 hp with quads or more.
The normal trucks are called road trains so 3 to 6 full length trailers.
And yes they do expect drivers to reverse them
There are plenty with three travelling at 100kmh. If you overtake on a windy day do it at your risk. The trailers can snake like a whip with no warning. I almost got flicked a few years back between Adelaide and Whyalla.
Also a side note, Australia uses the metric system, so an Australian metric tonne is 91kg than the US ton, cheers
One Metric Tons is equivalent to one thousand Kilograms. The tonne (SI unit symbol: t), commonly referred to as the metric ton in the United States, is a non-SI metric unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms; or one megagram (Mg); it is equivalent to approximately 2,204.6 pounds, 1.10 short tons (US) or 0.984 long tons (imperial).
I’ve got lots of pictures but there’s no way of putting them on the site I often passed the centipede on the run from Ceduna SA to the Minesite west of town called Nundroo then they disappear up a haul road And yes there is a lot more centipede’s now than there was when that video was made send me through an email address and I will send you some photos
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.
yes we drive on the same roads. the truck you watched are one company we have trucks with f and 5 trailers travelling at 130 Kms/hr a regular trip would be darwi to adelade some 5000 kms. big trucks long distances
Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory have three trailer road trains as common as yellow cabs in New York City. In some of the biggest iron ore mines in the world, quad side tipper trailers get around the haul roads four at a time. They are allowed onto public highways in more remote areas, and they are paved roads. They're restricted to 90 km/h (57 MPH) Hazards these drivers have to look out for:
Cattle
Feral Camels
Kangaroos
Emus
Wedge Tailed Eagles
Tourists
I used to do long haul driving in Western Australia, and between Newman and Port Hedland, they have quad tipper trains.
The Centrepeed is, from what I understand only on a private mine road. As others have said 3 trailers are most in general one will see. On certain areas 4 are alowed. There are restrictions, and the drivers know these roads, and regulations. However it gets complex as each state has its own rules.
Yes a lot of these larger road trains operate on some of our worst roads. It takes a good driver, and at times they have to repair the truck, as these roads are tough on the prime mover and trailers.
For some operators a ton of fuel would not be a lot. Cattle and sheep haulage is an example. Some properties may be 600 to 700 km from no where. They have "Belly" tanks under the trailer. Leave with these full. Load cattle, and pump fuel into main tanks.
Also interstate drivers, find cheap fuel, they fill up. Diesel is over $2 a litre. $9 a gallon. 20 or 30 cents can mean, a big win or a big loss. So if it is cheap, they need to be able to fill up. Of course the down side, it is that much less pay load also.
Imagine trying to pass one of these, knowing that the midles trailers can sway outwards by as little as 6 feet in both directions. The recors for Road train length was established in my old neighbourhood. Most of these "Roadtrains" operate on "Red Dog Roads".
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.
Much the same as “ Bus” is short for Omnibus.
The longest legal truck combinations for public roads in the USA is actually 3 28ft trailers. UPS and FedEx use them a lot but they are limited as to where they are allowed to take them, for obvious reasons. They're mostly seen on the interstates. The maximum capacity for legal loads (not counting specially permitted oversized loads) in the USA is 52.5 tons but there a particular requirements for going over the 40 ton limit set for 18 wheelers. Additional axles need to be added to keep the load legal and there are weight limits on each axle or set of axles which depends on the number of axles and the distance between the first load bearing axle and the last load bearing axle.
I drive a single trailer truck that is allowed a weight of 51 tons. The tractor has an additional axle between the steer axle and the drive axle. it has two additional axles on the rear of the trailer. These additional axles are what are called 'drop axles' or 'tag axles'. They can be raised or lowered depending on whether or not the rig is loaded or empty in order to keep the rig in legal compliance.
1 ton of fuel is equal to about 250 gallons. That's not much different to what the OTR long haul truckers have on full tanks. Typically, OTR truckers have 2 x120 gallons tanks on the tractor. A gallon of diesel weighs a little over eight pounds.
It's simply not possible to back up a combination like that. After a few feet of backing up the trailers will start to in opposite directions and you'll end up with a mess like a train wreck.
Road Trains (semi's) are approx 55 metres long.......it helps to have a 2way radio to talk to the drive is you want to overtake them.....Road Trains have certain routes to be on......& 2 trailers are called Double "B's" which are allowed to drive metro/country