A heavy-duty truck with its own crane and a hooklift system, carrying an open top container with a dropside on the left. This 2020 Volvo FMX must be the trucking equivalent of a Swiss Army knife. The driver/crane operator was unloading palletized pavers with the truck’s Hiab crane. A load of sand was also aboard.
Besides the crane, the chassis is also equipped with a Hiab-Multilift hooklift-system. This means that the Volvo can be used as a straightforward dump truck too. Whatever the task at hand is, it can be done.
The same 510 hp Volvo, everything completely folded up and ready to hit the road. Thanks to the wide spread rear tandem, with a steering rearmost axle, and the 10 tons front axles, the truck is rated at a GVM of 43 metric tons (94,800 lbs). That’s the absolute legal maximum gross weight in my country for an 8×4 configuration (photo courtesy of BAS Truck Center).
Present at the same job, a Zetor Forterra 95 4WD farm tractor with a Veldhuizen lowbed trailer. Usually, such a full trailer is towed by a big panel van or an SUV-van conversion, like a Toyota Land Cruiser 150-series.
Zetor hails from the Czech Republic. The Forterra 95 was built from 2009 to 2012 and is powered by Zetor’s own 4.2 liter, inline-four diesel engine, turbocharged and intercooled. I hadn’t seen a Zetor for many years, at first sight I thought the tractor was just another Massey-Ferguson.
Good to see that such manufacturers are still around, in today’s world of globally operating conglomerates!
Cool stuff, Johannes! Thanks.