The dedicated ‘agri-semi’ is an unknown phenomenon in the Netherlands, so I was glad I could finally examine such a combination up close. In short, an agri-semi is a 4×4 or 6×6 tractor unit with plus-size-super-single tires, towing a semi-trailer for transporting silage (though not self-loading). All set to work in the field and hit the road.
The combination’s front office is a MAN TGS 18.510 4×4 tractor. Truck maker MAN is an established manufacturer of heavy AWD vehicles with a 4×4, 6×6 or 8×8 drivetrain. All of them roll straight off the production line.
Just a detail worth mentioning, note how the driver can step and swing from the seat to the platform behind the cab and back safely without touching the dirty or muddy ground.
Are these super singles or what? Typical agri-business tires, some more info for the enthusiasts: Alliance Flotation Radial 885 580/65R22.5 on the front wheels and Vredestein Flotation Trac 750/45R26.5 on the rear wheels.
A ‘robust’ undercarriage, to say the least.
The front drive axle comes with long, parabolic leaf springs…
…whereas the rear drive axle has air suspension.
The letters EL on the license plates indicate that the creature resides somewhere in the Emsland district in Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony), Germany.
‘Being wired up’.
The Dutch Knapen company made the semi-trailer, they specialize in building trailers with a moving floor, like this KX 770. These days -and I quote- Knapen is a proud member of the Krone Group.
The number 770 in the model designation is a reference to the semi-trailer’s load volume of 77 m³ (100.7 yd³).
Peeking through the slightly opened grain chute in the hydraulic tailgate.
A run-of-the-mill semi-trailer it certainly isn’t, underlined by this factory video. Evidently, it can do a lot more than haulin’ grass.
Coincidentally I spotted this rig on the Waterfront in Plymouth, Massachusetts (America’s home town). 4×4 with a camper and German license plates front and rear. I’ve seen a few European registered campers in the USA over the years, but they are a rare sight.
What a great find! The motorhome has the standard size super single tires (for heavy trucks) on the front wheels and dual wheels on the rear axle. BTW, that specific segment of full-size (understatement) AWD motorhomes is a very rare sight here just as well.
That’s a great find! I’ve occasionally seen these types of European off-road campers in the US, but never on the East Coast. Looks like this one is an Action Mobil Globecruiser:
https://www.actionmobil.com/en/2-axle/globecruiser
I concur with the article you provided; the folks weren’t talkative. I suppose explaining this camper could get old quickly. I would have loved an interior tour! It looked like there was a small pass-through to the rear window of the cab. Thanks for the follow up info!
A bit of Internet searching brings up other sightings of this particular rig – this one from an English-language Mexican news site after a sighting on the Mexican Gulf Coast.
https://mexicodailypost.news/2024/04/12/german-family-arrives-at-miramar-beach-they-surprise-with-a-nearly-one-million-dollar-rv/
Very neat rig – I’ve noticed anything similar around here in the US (though there might well be an equivalent that I’m not aware of). Seems like a perfectly-designed product for the task. Great video there too, explaining it all.
Worth mentioning is that such tractor units can also work as a, well, farm tractor. Like the MAN 4×4 below, towing a self-loading silage wagon.
Stick another axle under the trailer and thats what I was towing on rubbish, Walking floor trailers are heavy so eat into the carrying capacity but certainly easy to operate, OSH would demand those grab handles be removed for safety, drives feet must stay on terra firma, Ive climbe along the side of concrete trucks before because the driveway Ive backed down doesnt allow the cab doors to open because some fool already put the fence up, that practice is banned now too many injuries,
Nice prime mover set up it would handle some slippery going, our bulk rubbish tipping was all on gravel clay mix as were the entry and exit roads an 8×8 would have been ideal, but no 8×4 was what they bought.
Rigid, dedicated agri-trucks are present in NL, owned by agricultural contractors (never by farmers) throughout the country.
The preferred choice is the Tatra Phoenix, like the one pictured below, an 8×8 ‘field worker’.
Yet the AWD farm tractor, mostly around 200 hp, still rules. Supplied by all usual suspects: New Holland, John Deere, Fendt, Deutz-Fahr, MF, etc.
That’s kinda of like a Super-duper Lettuce Truck.
But as in NL, the AWD farm tractor pretty much has displaced such specialized equipment.
Nothing can beat a serious, AWD farm tractor in ‘swampy’ conditions (quite common here during a wet autumn season). And if one is not enough, you just take two, chained together…
Lettuce truck did ring a bell!
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/fabco-automotive-1918-2017-a-san-francisco-bay-area-automotive-legend/
An American company offers kits to fit super singles front and rear on Sprinters, targeting the “adventure van” market. In addition to width and flotation (and of course looks) it’s a more versatile and durable alternative to rear duals on an HD van. I think Mercedes may offer rear super singles for the Euro market, but the American company sells a 17×8 rim with the right offset to allow the same large tire size at each corner while preserving the load capacity of the duals.
My dear fellow, I wouldn’t be at all surprised that if they added a double-cab and ute bed to this very MAN tractor it mightn’t well become the best selling vehicle in the US.
(I’m being facetious, but I was in a exxy hobby-farm rural-fringe area today where the RAMS and F-150’s – and they are $120-starting-point toys here in Australia that have absolutely no embedded role like they do in rural US and are just too big for the roads and driven accordingly – are quite common, and it put me in a mood to wonder what the end point of super-sizing will one day be!)
Learning new trucky things yet again from Our Man In Holland. The pic from under the front appears to show a dirty great anti-roll bar – I had no idea trucks used them. It also occurs to me that on a 4X4, it might inhibit the movement of the axle a bit over rough ground.
Yes, it is.