A showroom with a floor area of 10,000 m² (107,600 ft²), filled with all sorts of used, heavy on-highway vehicles. My idea of an indoor amusement park.
Two powerhouses in the showroom were parked next to each other. In plain sight was this Volvo FH16-750 8×4/4 tractor with a (disconnected) Broshuis heavy haulage trailer.
At first glance, this looks like a semi-low loader (wheels underneath the bed) with eight axles.
But that’s not the whole story, because it’s a modular trailer. What seems to be the freight is actually one of the modules, a bed that can be placed between the trailer’s front unit with three axles and the rear unit with five axles (it’s clearly visible where the two can be separated).
Just like that! After some searching, it turned out that the Broshuis trailer was originally owned by the Lubbers Logistics Group. The tractor in the picture must be a V8 powered Scania 6×4.
Partly hiding behind the Volvo, an awesome 2018 MAN TGX 41.640 8×4/4 tractor. Especially ‘awesome’ because the truck maker guarantees a maximum gross combination weight of 250 tonnes (551,000 lbs).
The MAN teamed up with a Broshuis 3-bed-5 low loader.
Three axles, then the bed, and five axles behind the bed.
As an aside, I had a déjà vu experience when I examined the pictures of this combination at home. Well, no wonder.
On the other side of the showroom -and the vehicle spectrum- was this duo. A BMW M240i Davytec (410 hp, curb weight around 1,300 kg/2,865 lbs) and a VW Transporter T6.1 2.0 TDI double cab panel van (150 hp, curb weight 1,966 kg/4,334 lbs). This must be the truck dealer’s idea of amusement.
Over half a million pounds max gross weight = Convoi Exceptionnel!!!
That is roughly the max takeoff weight of two fully loaded 757’s.
No MAN take-off for sure.
Wow, those are some heavy-haulers. Very impressive.
The elite of on-highway trucking.
So what is that giant blue turbine looking thing in the third picture???
What sort of things do these rigs normally haul??
Everything that’s big, long, tall, and mostly very heavy. Tracked and wheeled machinery, like drilling and piling equipment (80 to 100 tonnes weight). Booms, wheels or tracks often removed and transported separately. So transporting massive crane parts is another example. And battle tanks (the new Broshuis trailers for the US Army).
Click on link ‘no wonder’ above the BMW/VW picture for some live action (with a video featuring the MAN-Broshuis rig from the article).