One of the events I want to visit this year is the annually held Truckstar Mack & Speciaaltransportdag. Middle-of-the-road trucks and combination vehicles are not allowed (and will probably be towed), only heavyweights are invited to the party.
The Spotting Channel posted a video on YouTube featuring multiple, rolling and roaring participants of last year’s edition.
The Dutch special and heavy on-road haulage market is largely dominated by the domestic low loader manufacturers Nooteboom and Broshuis. Some other renowned names in this line of business -offering similar products- are Faymonville (Belgium/Luxembourg), Goldhofer and Doll (both from Germany).
Just maybe the Broshuis company does ring a bell, as they signed a contract with the US Army to supply 466 battle tank transporters. Identifying the brawny tractor unit must be easy-peasy for the North American readers.
*) Beware! Swerves out. A warning you often see on semi-trailers in general and low loaders in particular. It’s a standard sign or text on the back of wheeled vehicles that steer/swerve to the outer side of the corner rather than taking shortcuts when turning. There’s plenty of uitzwenken going on in the video. Performed quite gracefully, all things considered.
Looks like a great show – I wish I knew of an equivalent here on the US East Coast.
Are those Broshuis tank transporters destined for North America, or are they for the US Army’s European operations? I wouldn’t recognize the trailer manufacturer unless I was up close, but I’ve certainly never seen a tractor & trailer combination like that hauling tanks. I’d love to catch one of those in action though!
And finally, I saw this VW here in Virginia recently – given the license plate, I’m thinking maybe the driver must like to uitzwenk a bit.
Website Oshkosh Defence:
https://oshkoshdefense.com/oshkosh-defense-selected-to-produce-enhanced-heavy-equipment-transporter-system-ehets-trailer-for-the-u-s-army/
Thanks — interesting partnership of Oshkosh for the tractor and Broshuis for the trailer. I’ll definitely notice if I see one of those on the highway (hard to miss, especially when loaded).
Here’s ours, the Broshuis semi low loader has an axle less though. This (heaviest) version is known as the TROPCO 650kN, that’s 65,000 kg payload capacity. The tractor is a DAF XF 6×6, 530 hp. These combinations arrived in 2005.
That VW is a great find!
The German equivalent:
We get a graphic in ‘Murica. Make of that what you will.
Great! That’s actually the opposite of “uitzwenken” : taking shortcuts (at least, that’s how I described it in the last paragraph).
I am curious, what does a semi truck driver earn in Holland? Are wages similar in surrounding countries? How much is the driver of one of the monster rigs paid? Thanks in advance for your answer, I rarely comment but always enjoy your posts.
Thanks!
Wages, right…You got some spare time? The next document (in English) applies to drivers who are on the payroll of a hauling company established in NL. So an employee/employer relationship (gross amounts, BTW). Enjoy!:
https://www.fnv.nl/getmedia/03bce2d1-9da8-464f-850f-ede6e2eeb9fb/498-beroepsgoederenvervoer-cao-2023-engelse-versie.pdf
An employer is always allowed to pay (much) more, of course. There’s a serious truck drivers shortage which will only get worse in the upcoming years due to retirement of older drivers combined with not nearly enough new, young drivers to replace them.
Gross/net amounts of wages never tell the whole story, as you have to take the costs of housing and living into account too. NL is not a cheap country to live in, you know.
In general, truck drivers wages in northwestern Euro-countries are much higher than in eastern and central Europe.
Regarding the drivers of the monster rigs : those are the elite troops of on-highway trucking, as simple as that. They won’t come as cheap as possible, and rightfully so.
That Broshuis trailer looks a very nice piece of kit.
Here in the UK, the British Army use the Oshkosh M1070F tractor combined with locally made King trailers. The tractor is a Euro compliant version of the base US M1070.
https://king.uk.com/king-trailers/
Neat! I didn’t know the British Army uses Oshkosh tractors.
They have done for years now. The Army and RAF also use the 6×6 Oshkosh as the tractor unit for the Close Support Tanker. There are water, fuel and aircraft refuelling versions.
https://www.joint-forces.com/features/42012-refuelling-british-armed-forces-oshkosh-tankers-pt2
Thanks for that link, an interesting combination for sure.