Reaction To The World's Longest Truck (Road Train in Australia)
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- Опубліковано 9 жов 2024
- Reaction To The World's Longest Truck (Road Train in Australia)
This is my reaction to The World's Longest Truck (Road Train in Australia)
In this video I react to the road train which is supposedly the world's biggest train.
Original Video - • The World's Longest Tr...
I used to drive them before I retired. From Toowoomba to Darwin. A distance of 3300 klm one way. Maximum length then was 53.5 metres and 120 tonnes. Enjoyed the job , one trip had to change 8 tyres. Part of the job.
Interesting. What were you hauling?
@@SGW4K We used to carry mostly general freight. Anything and everything. Sometimes would haul fridge vans to Mt Isa. Katherine and Darwin. Then on the way back sometimes would go over to WA and bring produce back. We would carry 1800 litres of fuel on the prime mover and 500 litres under each trailer.
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!
It couldn't have traveled very fast.
That's crazy!! Try and reverse that LOL!!
@@toni4729maybe not, but it wouldn't be loaded fwiw 🤷🏻♂️
I live in Darwin Northern Terrirory Australia. Longest road trains on public roads here are called super quads with 4 full sized trailers and are 60 metres long
I used to drive that centipede 20 years ago at Mac Arthur River in the Northern Territory it's long gone now we use quads there now and pull the same weight the worst part of this job was hitting buffalo, cows and pigs then in the wet season you have to keep a eye out for 4meter plus Saltwater crocs lying on the road when the water comes over crossing they sit there waiting for barramundi to swim over
I live in Brisbane, my mum lives in small town in middle of my state Queensland (takes abot 11hrs to get there), pass road trains all the time. growing up here, you dont realize that this is not a thing elsewhere....wait til you have to overtake one, that can freak some people out
Even being passed in the opposite lane is scary enough.. widen the damn roads 😂
18 speed gearboxes are very common in trucks. Almost all trucks have them, not just the road trains but your average hauler - look up Road Ranger gear box.
The roads where they operate is mainly straight and not through city roads. My brother worked for IVECO and was part of a team who were developing one back before he died nearly ten years ago.🇦🇺
My brother and his wife went to england once. I remember them telling the story of when they would drive to another town in england their english friends would freak out over not being preped with food and all that. Here you can travel anywhere between 2-4hrs before hitting the next town, (the closer inland you go the further the distances are between towns AND it depends to what state you're in as well) but yea, we can typically have to travel double the distance to what some english people would be used to
I came up on one who was still getting up to the speed limit. Being much younger and more foolish than I am now, the road was clear so I started to overtake... and overtake... and overtake... I was only overtaking a single vehicle , it was just 3 times longer than a normal semi trailer!
Consider that the largest cattle station in Australia is the same size as Belgium. You only want to make one run out there so make a big truck. Rather than send three trucks to pick up the cattle, You send one truck towing three or four double storey trailers.
Mate, the 3 trailer combination is very common. There are freight companies that have permits to run up to 7 trailers on public roads. With that type of combination, it can take upwards of 8 hours to move the trailers through the small outback towns. Due to weight restrictions, one trailer through town, park it, go get the next one, couple them up, park, go get the next, ect.
When I used to ride motorcycles I always gave these a wide berth, especially when they carried stock eg sheep, cattle, horses or camels. I always ended up being covered in a mist of urine and manure and a dreadful pong! In some parts of Oz the speed limit is 110 or 130kmh. So to overtake you’d need to be up around 160 or 180 kmh OR take forever to pass them. Also the longer the rig the more trailers and the more they sway across the road. More than 1 person has been killed after a trailer has swayed into them. Also road trains don’t stop for cattle etc on the road and hit them frequently. It gets pretty exciting to get a pulverised camel thrown up at you when you’re behind them! At night it’s deadly and most car drivers avoid the roads at night because of road trains.
Some hire car contracts and car insurance policies demand that the car not be driven after sunset on these roads.
You might like to check out a few videos of the ore trains operating in West Australia. From memory the longest was 10 kilometres long. The longest nowadays are only 7 k long. An interesting video is a fully loaded ore train going downhill on a curve under brakes...it's scary AF
Everything's massive in the Pilbara
You see a lot of road trains in rural Australia. They are usually 2 trailers. There are some roads that don't have many towns along the way where they can get 3+
I was involved in the design and install of a truck wash to clean the Bulkhaul road trains coming out of the Tanami gold mine.in the Northern Territory The road train had 6 trailers. Trailer No. 4 had its own V8 motor and auto gearbox slaved to the prime mover. The beasts could travel at 90kph and had right of way, even when they didn't have right of way - you gave it to them
I remember that mate, was all about the Weed and Seed certificate. Viewers here wouldn’t know but we don’t let vehicles move between mine sites without a weed and seed certificate, to ensure weeds and seeds of invasive species of introduced weeds are not distributed between sites
That’s interesting mate , it always amazes me how many different types of machinery regarding trucks and heavy equipment in Australia we have , years ago I drove articulated loaders , tractors , fork lifts , tip trucks , semi’s , b doubles, and some of the different sorts of trailers is just absolutely mind boggling.
Yep, standard rules of the road - Give way to anything bigger than you :)
NEVER argue with a road train!!.
I worked on the Tanami and visited the Normandy Gold Mine.
Here in the Australian outback the distances are so far that these road trains are necessary in order to move minerals, livestock and general supplies to destinations not serviced by rail trains. Airstrips cost too much to be built large enough for cargo planes as there are so many destinations. In Australia we have an attitude of finding solutions and saying, “She’ll be right mate”.
I live in regional South Australia. We get all sorts through here all the time. Doubles, triples and quads.
On the Outback roads they rule. Most people who travel alot in those regions have a CB radio so they can communicate with the truck drivers for when either the truck wants to overtake them or they want to overtake the truck and one of them tell the other when it is safe to pass. if a truck is going to pass you, as he comes along side you you slow down a little to make his overtaking manoeuvre much quicker, then when his last trailer has passed you safely you flash your lights to let him know when to move back into the drive lane. He will then flick his indicators left right left right to say thank you.
Yep, common courtesy in the bush.
Yes the indicator thing I know of but the CB thing is long gone
@@James-kv6kb CB is still common lingo for what we now call UHF.
@@brianlee5702 I grew up in the carnivals I certainly know about CB'S but all I'm saying is that an average driver wouldn't have that set up to be able to talk to the truck to say they're coming past. I do remember my dad talking to The truckies as we were going past with all the sideshow caravans but didn't think they were very common for average motorists anymore.
@@James-kv6kb I can promise they are very common among drivers throughout our wide, brown land and those of us who do the miles swear by them. It's now called UHF, rather than CB, and all the truckies and many others are on the same channel so we can keep each other informed of what's happening on the road. It has saved many lives and avoided many, many problems.
Certainly there are pests who pollute the airwaves but the benefits of the 'road channel' far outweigh any down side.
Let's all keep our roads safe any way we can and our UHF is a wonderful tool.
I've driven road trains for a quid in the Pilbara of WA and elsewhere, ( now retired ). The longest I've driven ( on a public roads ) is 60 meters long ( 196ft ), super quad, 4 trailers and just over 200ton. On mine sites I've driven 53.5 meter trucks ( 175 ft ) long at 320ton. And yes they had 18 speed manual ( non sincro, or crash box's ) called road ranger gear box's.
Oh yes I can remember the old double clutch trucks ........... they are great these days - comfortable, air-conned homes on wheels - very different from the bad old days when you ate dust on dirt roads. From Charleville I had pre-arranged rides in a White [not around anymore], then a Scania in 1978 [to get to a Governessing position the other side of Thargomindah] and even way back then the Scania was like a little palace on wheels. The start of the amenities we are used to in trucks today.
yeah a road boss@@bigs1546
Wouldn’t wanna get stuck on a roundabout in one of these.
i doubt they would encounter any roundabouts as they have designated roads they are allowed to use. Anyway when they build roundabouts they make allowance for fire trucks to drive straight over them.
@@ianmontgomery7534 it was a joke, Joyce! 🙄
My brother has driven road trains and B doubles. ( Trucks with two trailers )
Yep, we do roundabouts. @@ianmontgomery7534
@@ianmontgomery7534 Some do encounter roundabouts. More specifically B-Doubles and Triples. Certain not 3+.
Road Trains are broken down in transfer/distribution yards before the longer road trains encounter more populated regions where roundabouts are an issue. They're then driven in B-Double combinations into Urban Centres.
Need to have plenty of room to overtake one of them because they travel on single lane highways. Mostly in Northern Territory. My dad in the 1980's used to have one of the largest single trailers in Australia to carry Earthmoving equipment and the largest loads needed the police at the front and back to control the traffic as the trailer could expand wide enough that it would take up 2 lanes.
My father drove roadtrains from Toowoomba to Darwin most of his working life.
My son drives a Kenwoth 760 HP 4 trailer road train in North West Queensland he drives for 12 hour shifts with 2hourly breaks
Australia is the leader of the worlds heavy transport in heavy truck manufacture and trailers to infrastructure, Kenworth Australia build its models in Melbourne unique to this country along with Mack and Volvo in their Queensland factory, as a small example you may have noticed the Kenworth Prime Mover hauling its four BP fuel trailers with tri-drive (three driven axles) and as far as the narrator talking about 18 speed transmissions well that is nothing new 18 speeders have been around for many decades and are manufactured by Eaton-Fuller as the Roadranger but also many truckies here in Australia especially back in earlier times before high horsepower truck engines of today a lot of them would modify their trucks by adding more gears again by installing Joey boxes and sometimes 2 speed diffs to give a near infinite range of gearing on hilly interstate runs so you could more than double that amount of gears again as some of the earlier trucks could have multiple switches to the gear stick and extra levers in the cab! As a partake example of trucks just count the drive axles wheels and tyres on our road trains and even standard semi trailers compared to your UK and euro where they are just about all single drive with singles on the trailer
I drove Road Trains on & off over a 30 year career. They’re great to drive and they can now be up to 56metres long & up to 130 metric tonnes
I've had to pass these on outback roads. The speed limit is 110 km/h but the only safe way to pass on a narrow road is at 140 km/h.
Anywhere there is a lot of desert 🏜 will have them. Lots of hot dusty country in central Australia. Thats why most of our population is along the coasts. Thanks for reacting. That centerpede is crazy 🤪 I wouldnt want to drive it 😂
Not so much desert as distance
Apparently the combined population of western Australia South Australia and northern territory is 5 million for all that land .
Anybody who lives in Australia and has occaision get out ov metro areas (outback) would come across these…sometimes three long trailers sometimes five… and thats not even WAY OUT IN THE FAR OUTBACK…where they get as big as the clips you saw… Oz is an enormous and largely empty country with enormous distances to cover… Australia Couldnt function without truckers ! Give a cheer for ALL the long distance trucks that keep Australia moving 👍
That's me in the 6 trailer (3 b double) Western Star, McArthur River mine to Bing Bong port in the NT. Over 25 years ago now.
Most of the trucks are 16 or 18 speed. Our fuel load was 4 tonnes of fuel. 2 tonnes on the prime mover and 2 tonnes under the trailers.
These trucks are only in the outback, not in highly populated parts of Australia because they take so long to stop. This is a common way to transport cattle over long distances. Usually three trailers with two levels of cattle in each. When you see one coming towards you, you have to hold the steering wheel very tightly as when they pass they can blow you off the road sideways.
When encountering these road trains, I stopped off the side of the road, got out my thermos and had a mug of tea and a snack. Truck has a place to get to with hundreds of animals on board, my journey wasnt that important.
Overtaking them requires a little speeding lets be honest :D
Sucks being stuck behind them on a motorcycle - especially on a dirt road.
Ive scared myself a couple of times when I looked at speedo and it's telling me I'm doing 140 150 to get past lol
@@spacedudey2k What really sucks is when a triple or quad gets stuck behind a camper van doing 70kph on a 130kph road.
They are intimidating when you're approaching one on the road, & even more fun overtaking one.
Most manual semis have 18 speed gearboxes.
Why does that look older mate? It's because the Country looks a bit TAN on that day, i suppose. 😮😮😮😮
Very common in central and western states of Australia
I just drove from Whyalla to Adelaide last weekend and every fourth vehicle was a bloody road train for some reason couldn't overtake took so much longer
@@James-kv6kbno chance to overtake them when towing a caravan or driving a motorhome whilst towing a car. They are beasts.
@@JayMills-zk1kq Normally they don't go over 80 anyway lol but yes you are right very difficult to overtake ,I remember in Darwin there was a pamphlet for the tourists saying you need a kilometre to overtake one
The train in the photo is a triple double deck cattle train. From memory you can get about 21, 22 head on each deck so that train could possibly carrying 140 head. Could be wrong about this because half a century has passed since I was involved in this
For 2-3 year old steers, that math works out. Dry cows might go 30 a deck, full size bulls 14-16 (top deck only).
the record-breaking road train stretched across a distance of 1, 474.3 metres
Was it a one off record breaker?
@@MarkJohnson-ro1ed Probably. Most trucks are less than 50 meters (legal limit) but there are special passes for trunks that have to big over width or over weight, so over length exceptions should be a thing, just not very common.
It was. It only traveled 50 metres i think. It was as long as a train. Empty trailers@MarkJohnson-ro1ed
They’re also not a ‘truck’. They are actually a Tractor. Semi Tractor Trailer. So we say Truck which is correct to the vernacular. But if you want to be correct it’s a tractor. I overtake them all day radio up on the UHF radio to get their permission to go around them, because they can see ahead of you, you can’t. Also newbies who get too close to the last trailer, most of these are driving on unsealed dirt roads by the way. But the last trailer whips around like a snake and can literally flick you off the road. So if the head Semi just swerves little bit around a pot hole the semi only swerves a little, but the last trailer whips across nearly the whole road
Sound like a American a tractor is what a farmer uses totally different pieces of machinery, semi when attached to a trailer, prime mover when bobtail or truck no trailer.
@@mtgoat1016you’re exactly right. I just checked with the husband.
Trying to overtake one of these trains is the most terrifying driving experience 😂
Took me 3 attempts once, you get halfway past it, then chicken out and back off, cause there's cars oncoming now.
Biggest reason to not have an anemic car. And just because it has power doesn't mean you can't baby it around if it is set up to cope with running as slow and gentle as that all the time. But it is an old story. If you have something and don't need it, you're better off than if you need something and have no way to get it. Except hoarding. That can just go away :)
Gotta get up to max speed before you even start to overtake. Just duck back in behind if there was someone coming. 😁
It's a simple economy of scale equation, the places these road trains go to don't have rail access, which would be a cheaper option if it existed but laying the track is costly (Australia has a lot of private rail tracks owned exclusively by mining companies as well). If you can carry the load of 3 trucks in a single load it's cheaper than sending 3 trucks, and our road system is pretty uniquely set up to allow for these super long trucks, at least in the regions where they're needed.
They are called B Double and BTriple road trains here in our country town - mostly 3 containers.. you can sit in Macca’s ( McDonalds)and watch them drive past every 2 minutes carrying grain to the Port
Road trains are all over Australia we see them every day
Your confusing a road train with a B-double. Road trains aren't "everywhere".
I'm sure it's the same in every other state but in South Australia they can only come so far down south they're not allowed to enter the cities .
@@James-kv6kb I did Melbourne-Adelaide 4 weeks ago (Feb 2024), and passed quite a few road trains (not B-Doubles). Triples, all of them. Easy to spot with the big Yellow and black sign on the back & front 'ROAD TRAIN'...
I've seen and passed lots of these. They are fun to pass.
provided you aren't on a dirt road and can't see past them- then you have to rely on CB instructions from the driver.
You're braver than I would be. Although there's probably not much other traffic out there 🙄
@Deblaw60 not a lot of traffic, the speed limit is 110 kph, and the road trains are limited to 100 kph, the roads (highway) are straight, flat and well maintained.
My brother has been driving road trains for about 10 years now. Usually to and from the mines in outback South Australia and sometimes Western Australia.
I used to travel PT Augusta on through Alice and up to Tennant Creek Five times a month for 18 months and would try always to find a nice stream spot behind the trains specialy at night. Start counting evaporating roos to the left, right and dodge the odd one spilling out the back from under. Got to know how to pass them.
This video is from a program called Exreme Machines, I have seen it in 1999 on pay tv (Austar/Foxtel) so it is pretty old.
The road trains of Australia end at about 2.35 on the video clip you're watching...the rest are from other countries.
Yes road trains are extremely common outside cities and in cities the b-double (one full trailer plus a half trailer) is most common.
I live in rural Western, Victoria (state). The Western Hyway, (Melbourne to Adelaide) passes on the outskirts of town and see alot of two trailer road trains, and BTriples
18 speed Road Rangers are common, drove them for the best part of 32 years.
My regular run was Adelaide to Darwin, 3000 km, one way.
Mostly Road Train on that run, doubles, triples.
I went to port Hedland from Auski Roadhouse in western Australia with a road train carrying chromite, i think from memory he had about 5 trailers. If he had been driving his Mack truck, he'd have let me drive as it was an automatic. I got back at 3am. Had a great time.
Long 'Road Train ' trucks apparently are also used in Sweden and Finnland for logging operations, moving many tons of logs from forest harvest sites to sawmill.
Seen up to 5 trailer rigs in Central Australia, but 3 trailers is probably most common. Are not allowed into major coastal cities, only remote open country highways.
The longest road train I have seen on the 'Outback Truckers' TV show was 2 x prime movers, and 6 trailers, all joined together to get up some 'jump ups'...
Road trains are cost-effective due to the unique road system in Australia, which allows for the transportation of long trucks in regions where rail access is lacking, and the cost of laying the track is high. Thank you for sharing😍✨
The "Centipede", I believe runs on the mine's private road but the road trains are on public, single carriageway roads. You mature quickly as a driver sharing the roads with them, especially in a 2l rice burner.
I follow a driver who does road trains. For 6 months he drove Brisbane Queensland to Perth Western Australia. About 4,000 k. Or 2,400 miles. We have Semi Trailers. 1 trailer, B Double, 1 and half trailers. The B trailer has a 5th wheel to connect A trailer. Then Road Trains. Road trains have restricted roads they can travel. The winning truck The Centrepede can not travel on public roads. Only on private mine roads, it has a second motor in the rear trailer. They use dolly's to connect each trailer. 2 or 3 Axel's with a 5th wheel and a draw bar to connect to front trailer. I have seen 2 trailer Road Train many years ago. B Doubles and Road Trains each have a special licence.
The distances in Australia are pretty big , even in the big cities you might see on gazzetted certain roads b doubles( 2 trailers) which are hooked up differently to out back road trains, and on occasion b triples ( not as common and even more restricted).
You wouldn’t see an out back style road train in the big cities though ( Melbourne or Sydney or brizzy either I don’t think).
There are two common ways in and out of many of the large cattle properties. Either light aircraft or road train. Can be surprising to see what travels on either one.
Try overtaking one that is doing 100km+ and is 55 metres, I was on the other side of the road for around 2 or 3 km. The driver was great he held his line and waved me through.
pass road trains daily, and I live just south of Perth, normally 2 trailers. have seen 4+ travelling in the outback
as for the Mammoet - I think you will find that is a European company that uses their tech world wide, not something Australian (although we do use them down here)
G'day mate. What do you do for a living in Malaysia? A bit of this and a bit of that, i'd reckon. 😊😊😊😊😊
Been driving them for years here is Aussie. 18 speed road ranger gears boxes are very common.
As you said, these trucks are engineering marvels.
The modular transport vehicle looks like something out of the original Thunderbirds series.
The video being commented upon is very old but true; however, it does not reflect the size of modern 'B doubles', B triples and road trains. On public roads in Western Australia ore carrying road trains have longer trailers and five of them. Similar to the one commented on in central Australia cattle transports can also be much longer. Tanker road trains tend to have three very long trailers.
The worst was being passed by fully loaded road trains while travelling on the great northern highway in Western Australia. No physical lane divider, just the standard white line. Worse at night as you'd only realise it was a road train the second you were being passed by it and if you were feeling tired before, you wouldn't be after 😂
Road trains are very common in Australia I live in the outback that first truck had only 3 trailers some have 4.
They dont go into the cities. They disconnect the extra trailers at truckyards on the outskirts of the cities. I see the 3 trailer trucks often on the highways in the NT. They can be tricky to overtake, you need a good stretch of clear straight road.
Yes, in my rear view mirror! Although I only drag 2 trailers.
I live in North West NSW. Plenty of doubles and triples around here.
Look for a TV show called Outback Truckers - it is dedicated to road trains and even larger stuff...
G'day to you,Well you've seen the size of our Spiders n Crocs so why not the Trucks
You should watch outback trucking
Last weekend i did a five our drive down to Adelaide and every 3rd of fourth vehicle was a road train it was a nightmare because they're so hard to overtake due to the length
The company behind the second vehicle is in the Netherlands.
in the UK a mini minor towing another mini minor would be classed as a road train EVERYTHING in UK is so small
There is a programme on telly called out back truckers
Road trains carry goods to remote areas in aus plus a lot destination's here 😊
I live South Australia 🇦🇺 Riverland we have them pass everyday. Usually 2 or 3.
Just normal trucks for us , people come unstuck trying to overtake them as unless you do it at a much higher speed than the truck is travelling youcan be on thewrong side of the road for a minute or longer and upto 2 km
That second thing is a thing of beauty. It’s brilliant.
No idea if it’s from Australia but who cares, it’s awesome and I want to drive one.
The fuel tanker? You want to make sure it's either completely full or completely empty. Having that much liquid slosh around on a corner can be hairy. 😆
@@SoMuchFacepalm yeah nah I mean the thing built of however many modules with wheels that turn any direction..
Operated by one guy with a screen or something. Sorry it was 4 hours ago and it’s nearly 4am but you saw it. That thing.
@@jessovenden Ah yes. I too would like to drift a freaking castle.
One more thing, I really don’t understand why the UK doesn’t have at the very least B-Doubles (essentially two trailers) even B-Triples on your major motorways say between England and Scotland as they share a lot of our roads and highways here in Australia, as this would be more efficient in your densely packed roads and really are no more intimidating to the average driver than a normal semi trailer and as far as horsepower and the equipment it’s readily available from here in Australia even our Prime movers are right hand drive
The Mammoth was developed in the Netherlands by the mammoth company. I can't recall the dutch name, but it is very much like the English word.
The gear change is just like a manual. these are better than Automatic boxes as they are more efficient and are
But where I work FIFO in WA 4 x trailers hauling Iron Ore is common to pass every 30 mins. At BHP where I worked no need for road trains as we have the longest privately owned Railway line in the world and the longest actual trains for Iron Ore. used to be 4.5 km long. Bit smaller since we duplicated the railway line used to be single. 22 x trains a day, 3.6km long, each train worth $20million Gross / $4 Million Net profit after royalties and tax. The largest holder of which was the Queen. Now King big ears I suppose. But trains are each: 2 x Diesel Engines - 90 Cars (Iron Ore Wagon) - 2 x Engines - 90 Cars - 2 x Engines - 90 Cars..
So you think our road trains are long, our actual trains are longest, and richest.
Its not unusual we see them all the time here in Australia
Road trains don’t slow down if they see you coming. Just get off the road and make sure your windows are closed. That worked best when we were living out there.
I drive a two trailer set up around Sydney.
They don't go round corners well. That's why you won't see them in the UK. Not very maneuverable it seems. But you don't see them in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane either.
HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN ROAD TRAINS
Road trains in various forms have been with us since the mid-1800s and development of Australia’s sparsely populated, but asset-rich, northern regions would not have been possible without the post Word War II derivatives.
Very common in the interior of Australia
Long distances, potentially inadequate population/industry to justify laying a rail line, terrain that may make laying a line difficult at best
can you imagine one of those on the M4 OR M6
They are not permitted on Motorways or near large population centres in Australia.
Wait till the wet season starts, they’ll be fucked, roads turn to mud!
5 or six are more the norm outback three closer to town but the centre peed has pulled over a hundredat once
I had Kenworth 15 gear split shift gearbox
I’ve overtaken many road train’s while driving- 🥶
Believe me from a person who has actually seen one it is remarkable
the huge thing not really mentioned, have you got any idea how many kms it takes for one of these to come to a stop? think once, think twice, think I’m not pulling out in front of that…...
Road trains have been and are common in the Land Down Under except in north america we are "p" and they scare us ! !
Stupid thing is the costs of road repairs are thrown onto the Govt , not the mining Company who make pure profit
The mining company who pays for the trucks? The trucks who pay taxes that is meant to repair the roads?