The WSI XXL event, held annually since 2016, gives you a good impression of modern heavy on-road vehicles in the Netherlands. There’s a wide variety of tractors, trucks and big rigs on display at the very well organized show. Many of them were in the CC-spotlight over the past two months, this is the event’s colorful finale.
2019 DAF XF 530 FTG tractor with a Broshuis double semi-trailer for hauling intermodal shipping containers.
2019 Scania S 580 tractor.
2018 Scania R 650 tractor.
2017 DAF XF 430 FT tractor.
2018 Volvo FH 6×2 truck with a hook lift system.
Climate controlled pig hauler, a 2018 Scania R 500 6×2 truck with a Cuppers trailer. Needless to say the roofs are down when the rig hits the road.
2018 Mercedes-Benz Actros 1945 tractor (19 metric tons GVM, 450 DIN-hp).
2019 Renault T-series tractor.
2017 Scania S 730 tractor, Scania’s current end boss model when it comes to power.
1995 Scania R 143 H tractor with a 2019 Vogelzang semi-trailer for transporting liquid cattle feed.
2019 DAF XF 480 FT tractor.
Paint it black, 2019 Volvo FH tractor.
Cheers!
2018 Scania G 410 6×2 flatbed truck with a Hiab crane.
2018 Volvo FH 10×4 flatbed truck with a Palfinger crane, 45 metric tons GVM.
2017 Volvo FH 10×4 flatbed truck with an HMF crane, 49 metric tons GVM (4,000 kg extra thanks to the heavier front axles and the increased axle spacing between the fourth and fifth axle).
2017 Scania S 580 tractor with a curtain side semi-trailer.
2013 Volvo FH tractor with a 2012 Schmitz Cargobull refrigerated semi-trailer.
From Belgium, a Volvo FH tractor with a liftable and steering (single wheeled) pusher axle. Very common on Euro-tractors.
2018 Volvo FH tractor with a 2019 Schmitz Cargobull refrigerated semi-trailer.
2018 Thunderdome XF 480 FT tractor.
2018 DAF XF 480 FT tractor.
Poultry hauler, a 2018 Scania S 450 tractor with a 2010 GS semi-trailer and Ravenhorst body.
2012 DAF XF 105 Brougham tractor, 510 DIN-hp. Note the old-school DAF steering wheel.
XF 105 is the model designation of the previous heavy DAF generation. Now it’s just XF, followed by the DIN-hp rating and the chassis-cab set-up.
2018 DAF XF 480 FT tractor with a 2009 Schmitz refrigerated semi-trailer.
Old soldiers never die, a 1976 Volvo F88 tractor. Volvo’s steady climb to global success in heavy trucking started with this legendary cabover model, introduced in 1965.
2015 Volvo FH16 heavy-haulage tractor, owned by the Nooteboom company…
…the manufacturer of this semi low loader. Semi in this case means not as low as a low loader, as the axles/wheels are underneath the bed, not behind it.
2018 Scania R 450 tractor with a 2014 LAG semi-trailer, carrying an intermodal tank container. Until 1990, the Belgian LAG company also built buses and coaches. That division was sold to Van Hool, another renowned name in the business.
MPGM stands for Maximum Permissible Gross Mass, tare is the weight of the tank container when empty.
2008 Scania R 620 tractor.
2017 Scania S 500 tractor with a 2014 LAG dry bulk tipping tanker.
2018 Scania R 650 tractor.
One Scania truck with a trailer, carrying three Scania tractors. And that was that for this year’s XXL event.
The first shot looks more familiar to my eyes. Living near the port cities of Seattle and Tacoma the roads are thick with cans on chassis, whether making their way to a warehouse in the Kent Valley or heading to and from the intermodal yards to catch a ride on the train.
Quite the contrast with the last picture that I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around. That has to be a seriously stepped frame on the tractor and with those tiny tires and wheels, I’m wondering how they got the engine down low enough so that the drive shaft can get under the front bumper of the truck on the back. I wish the hedge wasn’t blocking the view of the interesting trailer.
This shot from American Truck Simulator, of the Renton Kenworth Truck plant gives you a good idea of how trucks are typically delivered in the US. Something I’ve seen on the road many times over the years with the wife working basically across the street from the plant and having lived not that far from it when it was built. http://download-ats.com/news-ats/3035-kenworth-renton-assembly-plant.html (My son who is a fan of ATS was excited to see this expansion pack since it is local to us and it shows our area.
And a real life shot of the same set up. https://www.flickr.com/photos/granitefan713/45875817974
Regarding the last picture, it’s the Van den Brink rig below. I took this picture at last year’s edition.
Thanks, very interesting set up.
The truck on the back straddles the prop shaft, the deck is actually two ramps. Trucks here are typically driven in cab chassis form to their new owners from the dealer.
Cool trucks, there are four of those new 530hp DAFs in NZ for evaluation, all dual clutch autoshift, but I’d still like a turn in one.
Great assortment of rigs here. I’m particularly enthralled by the livestock haulers… both the pig and poultry trucks are impressive, but that ventilated pig hauler is something the likes of which I’ve never seen before.
Animal welfare regulations. Logically, the longer the distance (international livestock transport), the stricter the regulations.
Canvas-sided trailers seem to be quite popular in Europe. I assume that’s so they can be unloaded from the side in tight quarters?
They’d last about ten minutes on any street in America before being hacked to shreds and the cargo stolen.
We may shoot a lot more people but I don’t think that crime of that sort is any less common in Europe. Maybe there is another explanation.
Meanwhile, although cab-over trucks leave more feet (or meters) for the cargo part, aren’t they a lot less common here, at least on long distance trucks? The ride for the drivers is obviously much better when you are some distance behind the front wheels instead of being right above them – probably about half the vertical accelerations over bumps in the road.
Also those European trailers seem to have twice as many wheels as the ones in the US.
Regarding bumps in the road: modern top-segment cabovers have a triple air suspension system: all axles, the cab and the seats.
American twin steer conventionals are about the most uncomfortable to spend a 14 hour shift behind the wheel Ive even been in, the noise is constant and the ride appalling single steer six wheeler tractor units are better but you still have the noise and vibration, its tiring. give me a European cabover any day. DAFs and Kenworths share the same chassis but DAFs are quiet and comfortable KWs using the same engines are not.
Yes, curtain siders can be (un)loaded from three sides, and often also from the top. It’s especially convenient when transporting long loads, like boards, beams or pipes. Boxed semi-trailers have become highly uncommon, unless it’s a reefer or has a walking floor.
Only bigger companies have loading docks with ramps.
Long loads have to unload from the side curtains open and roof supports out, its done all the time though flat decks are better for that kind of freight. Curtains are heavyduty vinyl and often insulated if doing refridgerated freight there are also strengthening strips glued inside where the buclkles mount and are rated as a load restraint, yes they can be cut but not easily, it would be easier for thieves to simply undo the ratchets and slide the curtain open.
Ugly as sin. Give me a old school long snout truck any day of the month.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/39/d6/c739d6ca10d4b1b4eac3e36310c540b9.jpg
Absolutely beautiful rigs!.
The DAF’s “face” in the first picture reminds me of an antique japanese armor outfit.
As I said, lovely trucks and they look expensive too; what would the price be for any of the tractors without trailer or crane?
Jorge, I have no idea what a new chassis-cab costs. It very much depends on options, engine, transmission, the type of cab (a DAF XF with a standard, low sleeper cab or with a fully optioned Super Space Cab…), you name it.
Then there’s the difference between a factory 4×2 tractor chassis or a custom built 10×4 truck chassis, etc.
As always, Johannes, you impress us with your selection and your background knowledge of these trucks, and you certainly know your way around them.
Always interesting so see the differences in trucks which Dutch regs permit and operators opt for, and UK woudn’t. A 10×4 five axle rigid flatbed? Not here I suspect.
Thank you!
10×4 rigid trucks are common as dump trucks, concrete mixer trucks and flatbeds with a crane, as seen in the article.
10×8 trucks work in the on-/off road business. Recently, I read about two new Tatra Phoenix 10×10 (!) trucks that found their home here. These new Tatras are powered by a DAF engine and have a DAF CF cab. I hope to come across them sometime!