Running on diesel fuel and transporting diesel fuel, given the numbers on the orange front and rear signs. A trio of identical Volvo FM 4×2 tractors, each towing a tridem axle, LAG tanker semi-trailer. On-highway, full-size oil tankers. From a Dutch point of view, anyway.
Van Kessel’s 2023 Volvo FM Globetrotter (raised roof sleeper cab) is a classic example of a regional distribution tractor. Just like the other two, it’s powered by a 12.8 liter turbodiesel with a maximum power output of 469 DIN-hp. And with a GVWR of 20.5 tonnes (45,195 lbs) they are as heavy-duty as any long-distance, top gun 4×2 tractor unit.
The Swede teamed up with a Belgian, 2023 LAG O-3-43 semi-trailer. LAG was founded in 1947 by Lambert and Arnold Geusens. Developing and building tanker bodies, trailers, and semi-trailers is one of their specialties.
Parked next to the fairly new semi was this 20 years old LAG O-3-43 PT, still spick and span!
A ‘koffervorm’ (suitcase-/box-shaped) tanker body. According to LAG’s website, they only offer this type of fuel tanker semi-trailer in the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg) these days.
The 2018 tractor at the front, a previous generation FM Globetrotter 4×2, driven by Uncle Hank.
The combination in full view, as posted on the owner’s FB site. The five compartment tanker body has a total capacity of 46,000 liters (12,152 US gallons).
The shape of the semi-trailer’s fenders indicates that both the second and the third axle are counter-steering axles, but you’ve already noticed that in the picture further above.
Thanks to the LAG’s widespread tridem and the Volvo’s heavy front axle, the rig is rated at a gross weight of 50 tonnes/110,000 lbs, our national limit.
The last one, partly hiding, a 2023 FM Globetrotter with a 2009 LAG O-3-40 PT (3-40 as in three axles, 40 tonnes GVWR).
And now for something completely different, commercial vehicle-wise.
Until 1990, LAG also built buses and coaches, like the Panoramic-series from the eighties.
The last achievement of LAG Bus was the EOS 100 coach, introduced in 1989. The year after, Van Hool -also from Belgium- took over LAG Bus and EOS became both the division and the brand name.
Sadly, Van Hool went bankrupt a few months ago. Their bus and coach division ended up in the hands of the Dutch VDL Group, which means it’s still a member of a family business.
Hauling fuel is one of the few “good” trucking jobs left here in the USA. Pay is good, home every night, heck I bet you even work set hours once you get an assigned route.
Dangerous work though. I will never forget about 10 years ago the bridge blew up in Franklin TN. Goose creek exit, they were expanding that interchange and for whatever reason a fuel truck went thru the barrels and did a head on with the bridge support. Luckily it was like 3am and the driver was the only fatality/injury. Sucks cause the driver was like 65, over 2 million miles, no accidents, just a few months out from retirement. Speculation was heart attack/stroke/diabetic attack, etc but dude was healthy, trim and fit.
Well that massive fireball burned so hot it destroyed that brand new 8 lane overpass that was about to open. Snarled traffic like none other cause now you couldnt cross the interstate there. Will give the highway dept some credit they had a rudimentary 2 lane bridge open in 2 or 3 weeks
There’s a serious shortage of professional truck drivers here these days, which will only get worse in the next decade, as many very experienced guys will retire in the near future. Luckily, more and more (young) ladies behind the wheel.
You reminded me of another fuel truck explosion from New York that occurred over 25 years ago. I lived a few towns over and often drove on the road where the explosion occurred.
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/10/nyregion/thruway-bridge-is-ruined-as-explosive-crash-kills-one.html
Interesting to see that Mijnheer van Kessel adopted the British Petrol color scheme for his truck and tanker.
Looks great !
Is there a relationship with BP ?
From their own website: …’een belangrijke factor daarbij zijn onze samenwerkingsverbanden met de merken BP, Castrol, TRAXX, Argos, Total en Mobil’.
In short, working together with the brands mentioned above is an important factor.
Are all European tractor trailers that clean all the time? It’s unusual to see one so freshly detailed in the USA. There are truck washes at most major truck stops, though, and of course you do see some clean ones too. I would take my RV on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis through the tractor trailer wash on long trips, and they would do a good job for a reasonable price for something that small.
FWIW, this is at a truck show.
…with the Van Kessel company as the host (show held in their yard).
Can’t tell for other Euro-countries, but a dirty truck/rig must -I don’t mean legally required- be cleaned ASAP in NL. Truck washes are all over the place, many larger hauling companies use their own.
That makes me smile, because the (plentiful, post-war gen) Dutch folk in our area when I was a kid absolutely had a name for fastidiously clean houses. My mum could never get over her friend Tillie washing the inside walls once a year, and especially, cleaning along the skirting-board-to-wall corner for dust with a pin. I don’t think dear old mum got that close a skirting-board in her life till the day she died!
To be honest, she didn’t ever really get that close to a vacuum cleaner either, but I’m digressing.
Ahem, my grandmother on mother’s side used to unscrew the wall outlet covers (those ‘thick’, old-fashioned ones) to clean them on the inside.
Quite harmless, be fair.
I would certainly rather haul diesel fuel than gasoline, which is so much more volatile. In the US I have not seen a tanker trailer with steerable rear axles, and I give a big salute to the guys who can maneuver those things in and out of some of the tighter locations, usually inside of older cities.
These big ones don’t drive into cities. For tight spots (farm yards, for example), they use something like the straight truck below, with a steering pusher axle and a counter-steering tag axle.
Hang on, a rigid truck with steering axles either side of the fixed driving one? Putting aside that the forces must be immense, how does that possibly work? Two axles say “we’re turning”, and the dual-wheel one says “well, i’m not”, and there’s no bendable bit where a trailer joins. That’s beyond me!
Actually, the forces would be immense if those axles can’t steer in a tight turn. Never mind the pavement/asphalt horror (especially on a warm/hot day). It works like this:
Steering axles are normally passive (done with caster angle) so the point of rotation ought to be the rear diff.
The steerers just follow the cue from the drive axle, which follows the actively-steered front.
It saves a fortune in tyre scrub and understeer. And asphalt, as mentioned.
The reduced cut-in means drivers can throw these round tight turns as if they were a Supermini…
The LAG Panoramic bus is quite interesting to me. First because passengers are seated so high and get a completely different and dramatically expanded view of everything. Second because the driver is seated so low that it must improve driveability in its much more compact native euro city environments.
Contrast that to our Greyhound busses with drivers seated higher up for improved highway and interstate visibility. Except for the occasional Canadian tour busses with the driver sitting low and passengers high one doesn’t see them very often here in the Midwest. Always interesting whenever they do show up though.
As I just found out, LAG Bus had a division in North America, LAG Motorcoach:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAG_Motorcoach
Thanks for the link.
The LAG Panoramic has surely got the world windscreen crown? I can imagine driving home, a bit tired, and coming round a bend, and “HOLY SHIT, THERE’S A SKYSCRAPER COMING THE OTHER WAY!”, before regaining my composure.
If it doesn’t win the screen prize, it certainly wins the prize for the most front wipers of any machine ever on CC.
I do wish it’d had headlight wipers….