American Reacts to Crazy Outback Road Train Clips 

A few years back there was a drought in the Eastern States and a whole lot of truck drivers got together along with farmers to get hay across to feed the stock in those areas. It was quite an impressive operation.

Shoutout to all the awesome Truckies who keep Australia running.👏🏻❤️🇦🇺😊

Trucks are so important in Australia. The criminal negligence and incompetence of Australian governments makes it ridiculously expensive to transport anything, which of course feeds into the unsustainably high cost of living. All those costs are passed on.

My husband used to escort the wide loads for the mines. The wheels for those dump trucks come on their own semi, they are so huge.

When you have to overtake a road train, the truckie will often give you a heads up when it's safe. All they ask in return is a thankyou wave👍

My dad used to drive roadtrains in Western Australia back in the early 70's hauling cattle. We lived in Northampton where he would pull up and rest the lead trailer on the lamp post out front of my grand parents place on the main road. This was to stop the cattle from rocking the truck too much while he slept. To this day you can see the mark on the post. RIP DAD !!! It wasn't the only mark you made 😘

Just completed a lap of Australia towing a 3T van with a Jeep GC . Road trains are a fact of life in the outback I make sure that I give them plenty of room. These guys work hard trying to make a living while we are retired travelling the country and enjoying life - I do my best not to hold them up.

The record for the longest road train is 1,474.3 m (4,836 ft 11 in) where a single Mack Titan prime mover, driven by John Atkinson (Australia), towed 113 trailers for a distance of approximately 150 m (490 ft) in an event sponsored by Hogs Breath Café, in Clifton, Queensland, Australia on 18

Great cap, being from QLD I'm very happy to subscribe to your channel. I'm an old truck mechanic and some of the stories I've been told might surprise you, like my late father in law hauled trips and quads out of the Gulf of Carpentaria carrying prawns and watermelons in a B61 Mack no air con, no power steering then getting flooded in for 1-2weeks during the wet and having to eat what you were carrying. It's a big unforgiving country and I don't think alot of people know what our truckers have to do to make a living. Keep the posts coming.👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Truck drivers (truckies) will usually use their indicator to tell you when its clear to pass. It's also quite common to have your vehicle fitted with a UHF radio in remote areas, and all interstate trucks have them, so they'll give you a heads up over the radio if its clear to pass. They'll also have a gab with ya.

The river crossing bonus, the cattle or sheep received a quick bath! 😄 Always check your brakes regularly! 🧐 Look out for the red dust too! 😵 Real Australian Heroes! 🤗👍

You'll notice that a lot of cars passing in the opposite direction to a road train will slow down slightly and hug the shoulder. This is because these trucks carry with them a tonne of wind which you can feel as they pass by, and it can get quite unnerving feeling that wind pressure pushing you away.

Mate when you make it to Australia youve got to drive across the Nullabor its insane how big we are and how desolate it is. Its amazing. Keep up the good work.

As I am Australian watching this it goes to show how proud to live in this wonderful country of ours

I could be wrong but that first clip looks like Cahills Crossing, on the East Alligator River in the NT between Arnhem Land and Kakadu National Park. It's a tidal river and when the water is over the road at the change of tide you can see dozens of crocs on each side waiting for a feed of fish.

I did a road trip for work in a Hilux some years ago for a week only a bit out west of here and when you get out there seeing the road trains was wild. It feels other worldly compared to the stuff I'm used to. I remember stopping in a big petrol station (yeah I'm from the UK) having breakfast and just watching them come and go and the size of them is crazy up close. Was also flat out just intimidating is on the long stretches where you see one in the distance approaching. I very quickly learned that I didn't want to share these narrow roads with them and pulled right off to let them past.

The river in the first clip went from 150 metres wide to 50kms wide last wet season , also full of crocs ....

Passing a road train in Australia takes patience, a little planning and a long straight stretch of road ahead. If the road train driver knows you are behind him, he will keep to the left as much as he can safely. And because he has a higher and clearer view ahead, will often signal that it is safe to pass by flashing his right indicators twice. Remember that in Australia we drive on the left. And when passing a road train you don't take your time to look at the scenery, ('cause there isn't any).

there was a series shown in the UK called outback truckers. Documentary series about Aussie truckers in the outback. Definitely worth a watch buddy

You really don't want a road train sim game. Every time you log in you have to check every tire...😁

I should add, usually in the bush if you come up behind one of the road trains, they will communicate with you via 2 way radio or indicate right a few clicks to let you know its clear up ahead to overtake

Yes they are dump trucks that are for mining. My husband drives them for work. He will write the stats below as I know you like that: We run Hiatachi EH5000 Dump trucks. They weigh 200 tonnes empty. Fully loaded they carry 338 tonnes. They have a 65 litre, quad turbo V16 that makes about 2700 horsepower. That charges the batteries. The drive is electric. Nice to drive. Also have them as autonomous so self driving through a GPS computer software system.

You’re ability to say Australia sounds almost perfect !! Well done Mate 🎉

Ian, when a truck is built in Brisbane (so Mack or Volvo) or Melbourne (Kenworth) for a dealership on the other side of the country there are a team of drivers who deliver them. Usually solo, but sometimes piggy-backed. These guys then jump on a plane back and do it all over again.

11:15 the "red" along the edge of the tarmac is actually iron rich gravel which is what a lot of our road bases are made from.

I lived in mining country for many years. There’s plenty of heavy haulage carrying massive dump trucks as shown in this video.

Forget the every half hour, I drove for six hours and passed one car ! going through outback NSW. Once your vehicle has been out in red dirt country you will be finding it in your vehicle for years. Most modern vehicles have cab filters to eliminate the dust. I went out to Birdsville for the Horse races and had my clothes in plastic bags inside a case in a sealed camper trailer and the dirt got in!

😂😂 10:05 that's me! In the triple yellow steak hauler comin down bridgers hill 😂👋

We pull double 53 footers, or close to 50', here in Canada accross the prairie provinces. Its quite common actually in that area.

Ian, you may like "Garn." & "Yorak Hunt". 🎉 😂 🇦🇺 _Yorak just dropped a 10min hilarious one today, "What makes Australia so dangerous?"_

Those big dump trucks you saw are typically used on the mines and there are plenty of lady drivers those mines are deep. Back in the 1960s there were a lot less rules and the Darwin to Alice Springs fuel guys could leave with 11 fuel trailers dropping them off at service stations and the stations unloaded them for the driver to pick up on the way back. The mine trucks coming in to Port Hedland were Leyland Hippos pulling 120 ton that took an awful lot of stopping with tyres popping from 30 mile out. As for the big Macks with a five speed main and a four speed joey that took two hands to change gears putting one arm through the steering. Just to make life interesting High 1 was higher than low 2 so it didn't pay to miss.🤩

I used to live just off WA’s Great Northern Highway, lots of road trains. The more escort vehicles, the bigger and wider the load, you can judge whether you just need to slow down and pull over a bit or whether you need to get right off the road and stop by how many escorts there are. In either case you slow down and be ready for anything if you see an escort because it means the load is very wide and probably heavy as well. We got stuck behind a pair of them one time that didn’t go over 20 kph., it was very slow going until they got to a spot where they could wave us all past them. If you make it to Australia Ian you have to travel around WA, SA and the NT, it’s your kind of scenery. And make sure you get to the Superpit in Kalgoorlie to see the big mining trucks in action, looking like ants in that ginormous hole in the ground.

Good tip for driving at night/dusk/dawn, get behind a road-train and that way they clear the track of roos, cattle and camels. Just make sure you're back a wee bit, no fun get pureed animal all over the bonnet.

Most people travelling in the outback areas have a 2 way radio. They'll talk to the trucks when they're behind and wish to overtake. The trucker will let them know when it's clear to overtake. The worst are the casual 4wds with caravans, who tend to panic and slow down when a truck approaches from any direction, which results in serious accidents. As the truckers then have to break severely because the caravan is breaking. Just go the regular speed of what is dictated. The trucks sit on 90 kilometres an hour. The 2 way radio is also very helpful in change of traffic conditions and maybe the odd animal herd and cars which seem to be oddly behaving( drunk or tired). If you're doing regular country driving buy and fit a 2 way radio. Even call for help when broken down. Lifesaver.

You should check out some of the videos of the Pilbara ore trains. particularly the loooonnnngggg ones...and going downhill under brakes

I've seen 5 trailers in the NT. bloody big rigs.

When I was a child my mum and dad and I travelled from airforce base to airforce base by car when my father was posted to a new base, because my mother was always violently ill with air travel, which was long and slow. We crossed the Nullarbor Plain a couple of times during the 60"s when it was just a graded dirt and limestone road. ( limestone I think due to it running parallel along the top of the Great Australian Bight limestone cliffs and having limestone water basin caverns beneath it ) There were many pot holes filled with white limestone dust so the road looked smooth and no pot holes could be detected. Also a lot of white glare as the sun glare hit it all. So drivers had to maintain a certain fast, steady speed to not jar down and up and down in every surprise pot hole. Therefore the car travelled skipping across the rims of hidden pot holes like a speed boat skipping across wavelets on water. It was a smoothly undulating, swift and fun ride....for hours. In those days there were trucks called Pantechnicans that had canvass sides and vehicles about to pass an oncoming one had to slow and be steered away over their far own side of the road as far as possible away from these passing trucks. As the canvas billowing sides could suck the vehicle in close to it making steering straight difficult. Inexperienced drivers would be sucked in against them and spin out crashing. Some had the same problem trying to pass them from behind. The truck driver would slow down if he saw "Some bloody clown" trying to pass but often the passing vehicle was obscured by the thick clouds of white dust the truck created around itself in the blinding glare mix. Those pulling caravans (trailers) suffered worse. The side of the road was littered every so often with smashed open caravans with the side peeled off and it's contents scattered far and wide. Sometimes the smashed vehicle that was pulling it was much further along the road often with evidence of having rolled.

I use to sandblast those dump trucks 250 tonnes when they came from Japan when finished in brissy they took some power lines down to get them on the free way i believe they go up to 550 tonnes these days and the 250 tonnes dump truck tires cost 8k each we sandblasted and painted them the bucket had to be cut in half and rewelded back together to got through customs

When they transport the dump tray for tthose dump trucks, they take the full width of the road. You need to play ATS, now has a lot of DLC. Also ETS2 has a lot of DLC also

Hi Ian, hope all is well with you all. If you get a chance you should follow up on those trains. The trains in Queensland carry coal and sugar cane and are incredibly long, the last one I saw was about 100 cars and took ages to get past.

Great clip. For your infomation stck trucks {sometimes called floats) have total right of way on the roads because of the stock moving when a truck sways and they can become top heavy, they cannot travel on the shoulder of the road so other vehicles have to give way on the highways.

Oh yeah, it’s nice to have about half a mile of road that you can see is clear when you overtake a road train. Bit easier in the Territory where you’ve often got a 130 km/h limit so you can give it some beans and get back on the correct side of the road a bit quicker.

The last clip was a QR train which stands for Queensland Rail. They run narrow gauge or 3.6ft, New South Wales is American gauge track, 4'8ft, standard gauge, and you also have Vic gauge which is 5.3ft, broad gauge, and you get the 2.6ft up in the cane district in Qld and 3.6 narrow gauge in parts of SA and WA, so the rail system is quite complicated here. There's a standard gauge to every major city however, but standard gauge doesn't go past Brisbane or north and south of Perth.

We were stuck in Longreach Qld. Because of floodwaters. When we were allowed to go, we overtook 16 roadtrains on our way to Camooweal

I drive Australian B-Doubles mostly interstate but also into the capital cities of Sydney Melbourne Brisbane and Adelaide. Basicly all over the eastern half of Australia. B-doubles are just 2 x trailers. 26 meters long that is 85ft and can weigh up to 64.5 tons. We typically pull them with 600-700hp trucks with 18speed roadranger gearboxes up front. These things will sit on the speed limiter at 100 km/hr (62 mph) all day. They carry enough fuel to do around 2500 km (1500 miles) between fuel stops.

For me personally, when I overtake a road train, it's flat out. But here in Australia, if you break the speed limit you can get fined, nuts!

NT has the best views when driving on the HWY Used to love doing it every year for winter

The truck crossing the water at the start possibly had a jump up on the other side. A jump up is a short steep rise in the road where he needed momentum to get over it. common in Aus.

I live in Darwin u see alot on a daily basis up here coming into the industrial estates. Love seeing them. scary on the motorcycle passing them.

goin on 4yrs ago, i did a lone santa run on my kawasaki 1500,tinsel n fairy lights and all, thru the outback of nsw, criss crossing to the coast n back at times when the massive bushfires were on, and i rode a LOT of dirt roads, in searing heat a massive dust storm, running into big herds of goats, mobs of roo's, some emu's but the scariest bits were coming up behind and trying to pass road trains.....but after 1 hairy experience with an oncoming one, i learnt not just to pull over as far left as possible, but to also slow right down, even stop cos the wind blast was incredible that i almost got blown off the bike!

all the trucks and road trains over here are on channel 40 on there UHF anyone can have a radio and talking with these guys makes it a lot easier, either to pass them or let them pass you. we were on the Gibb river road one year and overtook a road train on gravel road a heap of dust no visibility but the driver just talks you through. amazing to pop out right beside the tractor unit in clear air

Love the Aussie road trains. I have a lot of road train videos on my channel.

At the water crossing in the beginning, it is said for every Croc you can see there's 10 you can't.

You should see these guys on the road - it will a whole new look on trucking...

Got to watch out for the crocs😮

He just cooling the cows off Ian LOL

Drivers of road trains actually do allow other drivers to pass them by slowing down or signalling to overtake. 😘

Thank you for another great video. I could send you several things of my father driving a 7 ton truck mainly on local work. The one crossing the river, the drivers know these crossings. At times they need to keep a pace up so not to bog if it is a mud crossing. Yes they need a lot of fuel. The live stock trailers have a flat tank buit under the trailer. Once they load they empty the Belly tank into main step tanks on prime mover. Often a faster rod train will pass a slower one. They call on two way and lead one gives him OK or hold off reply. A special skill and trust that they learn. The over sized load was mining trucks. Around 300 plus to 400 ton carrying capacity. The vehicles you thought were spotter vehicles. They are mining vehicles. The numbers represent a Mine or such.

Years ago I was driving back to Adelaide from Coober Pedy. There was torrential rain, and at one point I had a road train coming towards me with a tsunami behind it from the water it was shucking away. I gripped my wheel extra tight and held my breath as I passed it, hoping was stupid enough to try and overtake from behind it. After being blinded for a second from the water, I saw there were about half a dozen cars following it - from a distance, so they wouldn't also be blinded. At least with our major highways, they're mostly straight and flat, so once a truck has gotten up to speed you don't feel like you're losing time if behind one. Heck, sometimes they'll overttake you, probably muttering under their breath about you making them lose momentum 😂

That's quite true, Ian, parts of our country are similar to the US, especially when you compare Australia's north-west and the south-west in in the US. Whilst they are unique in their own way, they share many similarities in terms of arid/semi-arid climates (although Australia's north west is overall wetter due to monsoon in summer and south west US has more temperature extremes in the many higher elevated regions), geological landforms and wide open vistas, flora and fauna specially adapted to harsh conditions. I my opinion both of them are just spectacular.

I pride myself on being able to drive almost anything but road trains are next level not only are they incredible drivers but they also need to be good mechanics there is no roadside assistance hundreds of miles from civilisation and our outback roads are often miles of dirt track which is very hard on vehicles and the driver. We have a TV series called Outback Truckers and what these guys and girls do never fails to amaze me.

As a holder of an ‘MC’ licence (multi-combined, licence to drive a truck with more than one trailer), you have to appreciate that most of these guys can not only drive these trucks on the sort of roads that many people wouldn’t even take cars on, but can also reverse them ! Think about that for a second, reversing a car is a skill that some people struggle with. Reversing a car with a trailer is something that many average drivers struggle with, but is a requirement to get a semi trailer licence, that is,you need to be able to reverse a semi trailer to get a semi trailer permit on your licence. For Multi-Combined you need to be able to reverse a B-double, that is, a truck that has 2 trailers, not jus5 straight back, but you need to be able to parallel park it within a few feet of defined marks without going over the lines … Trust me on this, it is multiple levels of more difficult than Parking a car with a U-Haul trailer. I would suggest that every trailer you add not just multiplies the level of difficulty of reversing, it increases logarithmically. Then you have these guys. They can not only drive these trucks on these outback roads, but they can reverse them safely, and park them inside the lines and without hitting anything. 3 trailers, 4 trailers, up to 6 trailers in some areas. Hats off to these masters of the wheels.

Not many Australians actually see them. Thanks IWrocker!

Passing these road trains takes a bit of a logistic leap - they are so long you have to readjust your usual thinking about what’s ahead. But it’s a totally different thing when they are coming at speed towards you. The amount of air they displace even at speeds of 80k/h can knock your car around a bit if you are not prepared.

you haven't lived until you've overtaken a road train on a dirt road on a motorbike.

The pilot vehicles use cb radios so everyone is aware. CB in outback Aus is a must.

There is a truck sim in development called Truck World Australia. It let's you get out and secure the load, connect airlines and raise the landing gear etc. Not sure about road trains, but I'm keeping my eye on it.

The first road train in this clip was rushing over that river crossing because it was fully loaded with cattle and needed a run up at the other side of the river bank to get up it. When a truck and three loaded trailers can gross out at around 120 metric tonnes, you need every little advantage you can get. Failing to drag all three of those trailers off the river crossing isn't an option!

That river crossing, the logs on the side were not logs. They were crocodiles, and if he had had to stop halfway across. Well, I'll leave it to your imagination 😂

That first clip you watched. My grandfather use to manage Hampton Transport in the goldfield region some time ago and a road train like that went off the road and rolled with full trailers of cattle. The driver was fine luckily, but a lot of the cattle was lost due to injury and a lot made a run for it into the bush

tne shear amount of gear changes is nuts...

A little known fact that on some cattle Road Trains that the 2nd & 3rd trailers sometimes carry fuel underneath the floor , for when your caught short given the price of diesel this makes good sense , hundreds of "K's" from any servo again very practical indeed .

I've seen the first video a few times, no room to stop, the river was actually teeming with crocs

The reason he hit water so hard is push water away from wheels as it grabs the wheeks and the more wheel the stronger the grab So if go slow the wieght of water around the trailers wheels is like quick sand and will stop the truck So they use momentum and dispersing the water away as much as they can and if to much drag the truck will start spinning the wheels and they are literally bogged in water instead of mud So need to be pulled out or separate trailers so less drag but normally croc infested waters and takes hrs to separate and connect again You need to look up out hack truckers Its a Aussie tv show that a camera man goes with them through the outback to show what they go through Done same as ice truckers in canada but Aussie outback youll enjoy it Cheers mate 🦘🇦🇺👍

The brakes are all wet and he has to get the rig and cargo up out of the river bed on higher ground. The trailers would be over sixty tons. Any stoppage and everything goes backwards into the river. Nothing to stop it. So he gives it all it has. Road trains only shine on level land. Those drivers are heroes.

There are often Crocodiles in those rivers too. Big ones. So don’t stop in the middle.

Bet the cattle on board enjoyed a cooling refresh from the water in the first scene.

The Truckies go through tyres like they do water. This is alot of rubber to replace & the drive tyres are always new - the best they can afford. With the price of fuel going through the roof & most of them owner operators they live from hand to mouth. Mob I worked with ran B Doubles who would pick up a 3rd trailer to get the best mileage / dollar. Hard life & they deserve every dollar they earn.

My late husband was a road train driver. If they get stuck in the middle of nowhere and need help they’ll burn a tyre to get attention from the cattle stations, and they will come and help or take them back to the station if there is a delay for their trucks. . Australia.

I saw your video and the river crossing in the thumbnail; the truck has to cross like that because it is carrying livestock and has to care for the animals who aren't good with stability. If he brakes downhill and goes slow, the animals fall over, and could be horrendous injuries to deal with. The driver picks a mid-range speed, appropriate gear (including being able to ascend at the far end) and commits 100% to smoothing out the ride for the loaded animals.

Ian you have to watch Outback Truckers - you are in the cab with the driver. You get to see what can and does go wrong in the outback as well as meeting some really amazing characters.

That video was taken at Myroodah Crossing approx 100km’s south east of Derby, WA. Not far from Looma Aboriginal Community. Lived in the Kimberley for many years and used to go there a lot fishing.

My husband over took 3 road trains on a very narrow road, I held my breath and closed my eyes.

Ian there is a ' Australian Road Trains' simulator on steam, but it looks a little tame and doesn't really look like Australian outback to me, but you might want to take a look.

There are few australia maps for american truck sim as well as few road train trailers and iconic trucks most are paid unfortunatelly but for free the project stralya map is amazing as well as the kenworth k100 from the workshop and i think there are free road train trailers

Howdyyawl from the land down under. Trucks are the way to move olat of produce. Without trucks, Australia stops. Gotta give the driver alot of respect, alota weight, wheels & responsibilities. If you want stuff delivered, you need trucks. Keep on tricking😊

Checkout the number and size of fuel tanks on these rigs, long distance between drink's also these rigs will have potable water tanks of some size for driver use and safety.

Boy, did that bring back memories of my time in the Territory in the late 80's - early '90's. I had a bit if difficulty in readjusting to over taking short one trailer rigs, they were just too short.

Mate those river crossings are waaay more crazy in croc country, especially the massive saltie's who just love sunbathing on the river crossings. You really don't want to have any mechanical problems with your rig or any other vehicle while crossing.

The red dust, is called bull dust, it's why the trucks like to stay in the centre of the road, to avoid getting stuck and stranded 😉😎

The reason for some speed thtough the river crossing is the drop then high dirt road slope after driving through the water, with the mass of weight carried you need to keep momentum to pull up the slope without tyre spinning or bogging that can happen at lower speeds in order to get over the hump.

The reason he hits the river so hard is because of the clime out the other side. That RTA stock crate probably has near 100 ton of cattle on. Grose =160 t. or there abouts.

mate .. not even lying .. that hat needs to be blue haha. just quietly though, that truck you said was your favourite, was pulling out of jindara station, one of the main suppliers of beef to our aldi stores.

The original road trains started in the north west of Australia hauling trailer loads of ore to the waterfront. An old friend of mine had an engineering shop in Melbourne whose son was also a mechanical engineer. The father was approached to build steam traction engines to haul trailers across unmade roads. The wind covered the roads in sand and no road was visible They had the knowledge to design and build the traction engines but no money. Later his son [ also a friend of mine] designed and built a steam powered unit for motor vehicles. Being an external combustion unit it was the lowest emission engine in the world.Took it to America, demonstrated it in California to Senators from Washington and all the major motor mfrs.. Wonderful. What did they do about it? Nothing. I could be excused for believing those given the task of reducing emissions had seen what happened to Ralph Nader and that wasn't going to happen to them. The Whitlam govt. in AUST. gave them $300K. to build three engines. One on the road, one on a dynamometer, and one for spares. Change of govt. and they took $200K. off him. The engine he designed and built didn't have enough money left to be tested. Otherwise all the vehicles in Aust. would be powered by steam. Instead they are powered by internal combustion engines that are simply dirty scrap iron jungles.Also at that time G.M. was getting $750K. and Ford $500K. Did they take anything off them? Also around that time the German govt. gave a company 100 MILLION euros to build a steamer. It was a lemon, and only from memory, V.W. I think, bought that technology because they knew what was ahead and it happened. Anybody with guts or brains are considered dangerous by Aust politicians.

7:25, yes absolutely we need this. In good quality if possible.

I spoke with a road train driver once and asked him how many horsepower his truck had. He told me 650hp, carried 2,000 litres of fuel and fuel economy was 60 metres per litre. He said he had another truck for heavy loads, 750hp & 350 metres per litre.

The vehicles in front of a wide load are a pilot vehicle, to warn oncoming traffic. Extra wide loads have a police escort as well

When coming into outback towns they have signs requesting the trucks to stop so they will drop their dust before continuing

my housemate here in Australia has both Euro and US Truck Simulatorgames, he prefers the US one more, he has a steering wheel and pedals connected and finds both to be good but the US one he likes more than Euro....

At 8:45 those are dump trucks. They transport the wheels and tip body separately to make the oversize move easier.