Freight containers come in multiple shapes and sizes. Best known are the fully enclosed shipping containers, either 20, 40 or 45ft long. Yesterday, I shot this combination, carrying a fully open container. This type is called a flat rack container, which is suited for side and top loading, ideal for heavy and bulky goods.
An all green mean machine, this 2019 Scania S520 tractor. It’s powered by a 16.4 liter V8, the biggest diesel engine available on the on-highway truck market.
There’s a single side pipe on the left. The roof and side spoilers on the cab are standard equipment in this segment of tractor units, so are the full fenders and side coverings.
The Scania is coupled to a 2004 Pacton TXC.341 semi-trailer. The Pacton’s first and third axle are liftable. Better leave them down under the conditions as pictured.
I didn’t peek under the tarp, as I never touch anyone’s machinery when taking pictures. But given the cargo’s contours and securing, I’d say it might be a fine load of lumber.
This is the usual European big rig format, I posted many examples over the past years: a tall, 4×2 cabover tractor and a tridem axle semi-trailer with super singles.
Regarding European gross vehicle weights, things are getting confusing. In the Netherlands, this combination is rated at a legal maximum GVM of 46 metric tons (101,413 lbs); 19 tons total axle load for the tractor, 27 for the semi-trailer. In countries like Belgium, France and Italy, the GVM would be 44 tons.
But when driving this rig from the Netherlands to France, the GVM drops to a rather meager 40 tons, simply because that’s the EU-limit for international overland transport. By the way, Belgium is officially okay with 44 tons for a Dutch big rig, ditto the other way around. Hooray for harmonization!
And now for today’s bonus: a picture of the former post office, taken on last Saturday. Built in 1902/1903. Of course you can name the two curbside classics.
Looks like lumber all right, although I’ve never seen it on a flat rack. Around here we make our own lumber so not much gets shipped from overseas.
Nice post office too, gotta like re purposing classy old buildings.
I spend a bit of time in an older Scania lately a R500 manual 8×4 tractor unit pulling a quad semi trailer with self steering rear axle GVM 48,000kg the R500 though big gear in its woefully underpowered today we have another pulling a quad axle semi trailer tanker which is due for replacement it suffers from the same problem as an example I spent yesterday in a Euro5 700hp Volvo plenty of power on tap even grossing 54,000kg it goes well 85kmh up the Bombay hill in the passing lane laden 11th gear, the poor old Scania struggles in 10th at 60kmh 6 tonne lighter,
Scanias are nice to drive and ours are minus the side skirts but most of the rest of the kit is standard except for the row of utterly useless driving lights they arent needed anywhere and are actually a hazard mostly to the driver because when the headlights are dipped they go out and its like a black wall has been erected in front of the truck European trucks have excellent headlights best in the world bar nothing, American trucks the absolute worst.
The flat bed is interesting due to the wall at the front, presumably to protect the cab just in case. Is the assembly at the rear something that can be used as a ramp if some sort of insert or track is placed on it when folded down to street level?
Flatbeds are common here and so is using them for processed lumber but usually they’re just a flat skateboard with a couple of axles and a lot of tiedowns on the sides, i.e very similar to this except for the front and rear assemblies.
On North American semi trucks, a headache rack mounted to the tractor unit serves the function you describe. It is also useless as actual protection if a heavy load on a flat deck gets loose; they’re referred to as “door knockers” by some truckers as they give you a wee bit of advance notice that your load is about to make a trip through the cab. They can catch smaller debris and are also a handy place to mount tool boxes, chains, and other small items.
What you’re seeing (except the wheels) is not a trailer, but a shipping container with open sides, so the front and rear are key structural elements of the container, as they support the other containers on top of it.
It’s hard to see the actual trailer the container is riding on, as these have fairly small frames that are tucked under the container. The trailers don’t need to be very strong, as the container provides much of its own structural strength.
Ah, that makes perfect sense, I somehow figured what I was seeing was the trailer instead of a backbone frame (painted red here) just like what we have here with an open container (that seem to be rare here) on top of it (painted blue) even after reading the text a couple of times. Thanks!
What Paul says. Everything green is the Scania tractor, everything blue is the flat rack container (and the tarp…), and everything red is the Pacton semi-trailer. See below, that should clear things up.
Very nice, and distinctive truck… if somewhat excessively green. It’s interesting for me to see heavy trucks in operation that don’t have their doors plastered with letters and numbers. In the US, nearly all trucks (all engaged in Interstate transport, plus many others as regulated by states) need the owner’s official name, operator’s official name, USDOT registration number, etc., all in letters of a certain size.
It’s nice to see a truck without all that excess writing, but I’m surprised that something like that isn’t required in Europe, which has its own multitude of regulations.
Also, are those Michelin Men on either side of the Goedegebuure placard?
And beautiful (and beautifully preserved) post office building — thanks for including it.
The only required writing on the tractor would be the license plates, for the rest you can drive around completely “anonymous”.
And those are indeed Michelin Men! A highly common accessory, I must add.
Yes, these are Michelin Men
Don’t see them a lot these days
…I’m under the impression they’ve made a comeback in the recent past, especially among owner/operators and small fleets.
With the front and rear bulkheads that trailer is a bit similar to a center beam flat car rail car used to ship lumber in North America (minus the center beam).
A lot of international containers are now 48′, and there are also 53′ containers here that are strictly domestic (i.e they don’t fit on ships, truck or train only). The 63’s are also taller than regular containers, and are often used to consolidate cargo into fewer containers after arriving at a west coast port (LA/Long Beach/Seattle etc.).
For a really interesting history of the rise of shipping containers, you might want to read “The Box” by Levinson.
See comments above, the semi-trailer doesn’t have bulkheads. Such a semi-trailer to haul freight/shipping containers is -simply said- a frame with axles.
These big flat rack containers have gooseneck tunnels on both ends, see Pacton containerchassis below why that’s the case.