The Jan van Dam (John Vandam) company is specialized in transporting all kinds of heavy machines, covering the Netherlands and pretty much all other European countries. That includes removing said machines from a building and bringing them (in)to an other location. Going way beyond moving household furniture in a humble box truck, so to speak.
Their 2018 Volvo FH16-750 8×4/4 tractor with a 2019 Faymonville 1-bed-3 low loader brought a fascinating piece of rolling equipment to the heavy haulage event, held in October last year.
This 2016 Volvo FM 8×4*4 crane carrier. So far so good. Nothing spectacular, yet.
Until you see what it’s actually carrying, an Erkin (known as World Power Erkin) ER-300.000 LK-4 knuckle boom crane. And to think the Turkish manufacturer also offers a similar crane with the number ‘600.000’ in its model designation…
The whole construction is well-thought-out, the end goal was to keep its total weight under 32 tonnes (70,548 lbs) so that the vehicle is allowed to drive through Europe without special permits.
Usually, such a massive crane is mounted on a five-axle chassis, but obviously the plan was carried out with a four-axle truck as a starting point.
Work in progress, an example of an inside job with the Volvo-Erkin combination as an outsider.
Several of Van Dam’s machinery transporters were also present, like this 2023 Volvo FH 4×2 tractor, coupled to a 2014 Dinkel semi-low loader/curtainsider with five axles.
The semi-trailer itself has a legal gross weight rating of 47.5 tonnes (104,720 lbs), whereas the German trailer manufacturer guarantees 54 tonnes (119,050 lbs). The completely standard, 510 hp 4×2 tractor (19 tonnes/41,888 lbs GVWR) is perfectly capable of towing such weighty matters.
Multiple Jan van Dam videos can be found on YouTube, this one covers the company’s whole fleet.
You know that I look forward to your essays. This is what we call in the U.S. a heavy hauler. Thanks for the treatise.
Still got plenty in stock from last year’s events Tom.
That knuckle boom crane is a fascinating piece of engineering.
Great pictures and information as usual! Way more sophisticated (and clean!) than I am used to. Attached is my what I work around, from 2009. A Challenger with a lowbed loaded with a Cypress 7280B grapple yarder (moving bring logs from the forest to the road for loading onto logging trucks. Going to the woods there will also be a pusher truck, either another Challenger, a Hayes, or something similar. Taken at Gold River, BC. Sorry about the dust being kicked up.
Semi From Hell! Surely not allowed to drive on public roads (never mind the freight’s height)?
Speaking of ‘clean’, there’s quite a difference between forestry and the on-highway transport of machines.
These are allowed to travel on very specific public roads on Vancouver Island, notably Highway 28 from Gold River to tide water, about 13 kms. The road and bridges are built to handle the weights these can carry. But mostly they need a special permit and have to be empty to travel other roads.
Clearing power lines is a significant challenge and there have been several fatalities over the years when the heights were not respected. For the company I work for the crossings are all signed with the allowable height, and we work with the local hydro authority to make sure we can manage properly. Oh, and we have higher equipment that this Cypress too, and length (and swing) are an issue as the boom lies down flat and sticks out the back a fair bit. The lowbed drivers are our most experienced. Bringing something like this down a 20% (or steeper) grade is not for the faint of heart!
Thanks for the info (and the picture, of course).
For oversize and overweight loads you need permits in NL and the rest of Europe just as well. Yet unladen, the combinations aren’t taller or wider than the usual on-highway big rigs. See Volvo FH in the first and the last picture.