170 tonne fuel tanker travelling from Geraldton to Wiluna across Western Australia. A brief description of what it takes to drive the worlds largest fuel tanker 1400km across the Australian desert.
I drive a 72 ton 9 axle King-B train fuel tanker here in Canada. I can't imagine pulling 170 tons...The road train drivers down under are a special breed. Hats off to you gents!
I from Canada and I live in western Alberta and I drive a 9 axle king b log train, and I haul 88 tons on some of the sketchiest roads in the world ! I would love to pull 120 plus tons !
@@paullangford8179 Texas is indeed huge, but at 2.5 times that Western Australia is insanely big for being only one state of one country. Into Western Australia you could fit the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Greece.
'cause aussie nor kiwi truckers don't give a fuck about their appearance, all the time they're sitting behind a steering wheel anyways so it doesn't matter, it's not like they're models lol
Used to drive for BP Amoco North America before BP retired the fleet. We had a poster of this road train on the shop wall. Always wanted to drive one. On the bucket list I guess.
WOW! Only a N14 @ 170 tons?! I assumed they would have some badass Australia-only spec 17-18 liter beast! I used to truck in Alaska pulling 2 45' trailers grossing 67 tons and anything less than a 15L was unheard of. ROCK ON!
God Dammit you're right Andy Knight here in South Africa you also get CUMMINS N14 engines but only up to 525hp.I really dont know the Aussie N14's are that strong to pull 170tons
Wynand Rautenbach if no hills (or even hills but very low speed up them) and not in a hurry then most important thing is transmission (and enough traction) rather than engine. Geared down enough even 1 HP could pull 170 tonnes... but you would be able to walk much faster.
Absolute beasts. Tough as and incredible to watch. If you ever come here to Perth and drive out of the city, use some caution and patience when passing these things though!
This is incredible. Here in Switzerland, we'd build a few houses on thoses road junctions! You couldn't even drive the tractor machine around our average roundabouts in one pull!
You should see the minesites. Picture four trailers, and the trucks themselves add a whole new meaning to the phrase "monster truck." The cab is the same size as a normal Kenworth, but they have earthmover-sized wheels. Their loaded weight is more like 200 tonnes
Respect to you from the USA, Leandro Machado, not all of us "Yanks" are idiots. We have our share, that's true but there's more of us Yanks who would much rather be over there in 'Stralia' than here, mate. Cheers
Job well done. It takes a true professional to properly operate a rig like that. That's probably the reason we don't have them here in the US. There are a lot of non professionals running semi's that have no business even driving a car. No disrespect to the professionals on the US roads doing there job seamlessly and unnoticed. Job well done to you as well.
If you look carefully at the trucking industry here in the U.S., you'll find of key determining factor that should be an indicator to anyone with average insight as to why things are as they are in regards to the quality of our truck drivers. The amount of money that truck drivers make in a year has been cut in half in the last 20 years. Now they're teaching teenagers to drive semi's. One because they will work for the wages paid and, two, they are much easier to be fooled by management. Can you guess where the money (that used to go to drivers) has gone?
The long range tanks on the truck itself give it a range from 1250 miles (2000km) to 3200km (2000 miles) It depends on the truck, its load, the terrain, and even the weather
This is NOT fake as some clown says. My son is a cop and his been in Mullewa for the past two year, then a week in Meekatharra and now Geraldton. We have seen this fuel tanker coming through Mullewa and off .load fuel to the BP service station. Once you are stuck behind one of these there is little hope of getting past unless the driver can find a suitable place to pull over and then let you through.How do people who have never been to Yalgoo, Mullewa and Mt Magnet think how they get their fuel. From this big tanker. AT Yalgoo there is a self service pump, where you insert your card into the pump and then key in the Dollar amount. The pump starts pumping until the dollar amount has been reached. If not satisfied, just re insert your card and key in the Dollar amount again. I have been up that part of the world for more times then I care to remember , but never ever in the summer time again. Mercury hit 50 degrees.Even the abbos wont come out in that heat.
Steinwaygrande You should not give out so much info on here,i know the comeagain,papertalk and merrits,you are an ol.e timer like me,remember it's a small world here.
Steinwaygrande Fake? Ffs. Moron suburbanites that have no clue about anything outside Perth. We both know there's 6 trailer cattle trucks going thru the centre.
Had to do a repair job at a mine called Harbour Lights many years ago, my directions from Perth airport were, quote 'head east on the highway, it's the fourth turn on the left, can't miss it'. 850 klm, later I was there, the mine was near Menzies(I think?), about 200 k north of Kalgoorlie, in Australia we tend to understate things a bit.
There are new train lines all the way from Mt Magnet to Geraldton and have driven the last section from Geraldton to Mullewa at night. Very strange to see night crews working on the lines.Now that the lines are finished, the road is inder repair as well . Long overdue.
A complet tyre replacement would financially cripple most companies. But I would like to drive one of these. Would be quite a difference from the 18 metre trucks I was used to...
Couldn't help but notice the screen on the lower portion of the windshield. Is that to protect the windshield from stones and rocks? Also why do all the trucks over there have two separate air intakes that are up by the roof of the cab?
@@dartanion0075 Thank you. That's what i thought but wasn't really sure. High water? Sounds dangerous! I wouldn't want to drive through high water. Could easily think of at least a few things that could go wrong. Not worth the risk.
@@waynemetevia7983 It's not about having water that high, its about not having the intake that low. Plus it looks cool, which is always a strong reason too.
"and he will take the truck up the road"........ yeh 1400km's up the road. I love Australia. I live in outback NT and I see these monsters everyday. You have to treat them with respect.
Wow thats amazing. My standard military truck had a Cat 14.6 liter engine in it. Fastest truck in Europe. Its amazing to see a tractor with the same power range pulling 4 loaded trailers.
my dad drove a 72 white and a 75 cabover international transtar in the late 70s and early 80s for griffin oil in Suffolk, VA. his name was charlie wilson sr.
just curious? Are those trucks that pull the "trains" specially designed for Aussie roads? What kind of engines do they have, how many cylinders or Horse powers? How long would it take to stop the entire train if it goes all out?
Didn't watch the show did you... :) Depends on the model, Either turbo straight 6 or 8 cyl or it's a V8 turbo. It's all torque, they only have like 400hp, but that's why they have 21 speed gearbox, it's all about low/mid/high range. as for stopping. don't pull out in front of one or play chicken haha... you won't win :p
@@beetlejews the actors name off wolfcreek is mick Taylor. Plays a serial killer by the name of Ivan millatt, who killed a shit load of back packers and I think a cab driver too. The cunt was off chops in the head my uncle Ben was locked up in Sydney 15 yr ago is the same jail as him and told me he was fucked in the head. Always been something wrong with that family, even his yo7nger cousin Matt also at 17 chopped up his mate in nsw on his birthday because he idolised what his family member had done
Worked for the great firm 1970 ..till ..2005.they knew how to look after the workers .it was at kingsbury, nr tamworth UK. We as a family were proud to belong ,lovely uniforms .great canteen 5p. 3 course meals .great kids presents at Christmas. My wife's father also worked for shell Mex and BP at Nottingham. Till they moved to atherstone warks 1968 .later on the two firms split .and her father and I worked for BP. The meals stopped and became wife's sandwiches, not quite the same.john x linda Bellamy UK
Does anyone know the preferred method of unloading a number of tankers like this. Would it be last tanker working yer way up to the cab or the other way around.. My audio is on the fritz and I apologize if I missed it.
Surprised when i saw it is "only" an N14 Cummins, but its likely beefed up. Like many larger operators, their choice of motor is often governed by their own in house diesel mechanics/experience plus ease of access to parts. Plus its a rather flat route. Really cool vid, thanx. Hellova load. Be nice to see more of the truck specs but some great insight from the driver.
No mention of whether any of the intermediate axle sets are powered. Seems like I saw that on similar-size ore trucks, some sets are powered and have Cummins/Allison (or similar) powered - -
Definitely alot bigger than my 2x32ft cans... we gross out at 63500kg too.... but man I would love to try my hand at that and see Australia from a driver seat. I can imagine it's a pain in the ass to load all those compartments especially if theres arms down on the racks. How does the grounding system work there? Is there multiple plugs?
how old is this clip? 90's? It seems quite old to me cause the pc monitors and the music at the end of the clip. ;-) Also the N14 Series seems to me quite old. But i don't know for sure cause i am european and all american trucks look to me quite similar from the 80's to now. ;)
its from the early 2000's with that paint scheme it could be as recent as 2005 they don't replace these trucks to often as to replace this truck it would cost about $1 Million AUD+
Great video, it takes alot to live and work in placers that can only be supplied by trucks this big I suspect. But people are adaptable and so are trucks.
Look at the topographical maps: thereis a lot of hilly country. Plus there are little enjoyments like fire, cyclones (like a hurricane but reversed) and floods. All of these need power to deal with. A gusty wind can slow a road train from 100kmh to 60 in a second. Makes for active driving.
@@StuFletch68 I know, I lived there for 8 years in the 1960s. I enjoyed it, but it was so far from the things in which I was interested that I left in 1970. I 've been back a few times since then. Came back in 1979 from London to Perth to drive an escort vehicle for a series of trucks taking uranium mine fixtures to Jabiru. Cubic loads which caught the wind badly. We ran into the edges of a dying cyclone and it was still gusting strongly enough to slam the 'Wide load' sign down flat on to the cab of the ute I was in. Then hot as buggery from the Sandfire Motel to the Ord river. Then back to London in winter. Took my eyes 3 months to get rid of glare effects. Ah, memories.
Canada has as much distance for trucks to travel as Australia. However we do not have trucks anywhere like these. Our restrictions width 3.70m 2 lane highway 3.85m multi lane. 25m max length for transport. 4.26m max height and 63,500kg max weight. Anything outside those restriction require permits, police and safety truck escorts.
Truer words have never been spoken ... All the most laid back guys I know are the ones that you really don't want to piss off. I know a guy so laid back, he is almost comatose; until some numpty at my volunteer workplace decided to truly piss him off. He went from zero to thermonuclear in 6s. And although he was outside, you could hear him clear through the single glass paine windows. I swore you could have even have seen the glass move ... heck, our two office cats, whom don't normally scare easily, especally given all the hammering, drilling, and angle grinding usually going on, scrambled for cover ... Literally everyone stopped what they were doing to hear this guy; no, he didn't tear the moron a new one, rather he pulled everything in their abdominal cavity through the hole they already had. And apart from his screaming, you could have heard a pin drop ... But the most scary thing was after it was all over, he just quietly shuffled in to the office, sat down, took a sip of a mug of tea someone made for him, and with a wry smile, said in his normally soft voice: 'I rather enjoyed that ...' ... So, as the old saying goes:- 'These three a wise man dreads: A storm at sea; A night with no moon; The wrath of a quiet man.'
Came the suave reply. I've laboured thru' this video again, no mention of axle lifts and it is clear he returns empty as if he were full. Expensive on tyres
Bruh I just started hauling fuel yesterday and this video gives me the most anxiety just thinking about each compartment having a different fuel in it.
Sadly Mitchell got bought out by Toll. Not sad at the time because Toll was an Australian company, but a few years later Toll got bought out by Japan-Post. 😠
yes and toll switched to Euro trucks, better ride better safety better economy and not as tiring to drive, only dimm witted Aussies drive old tech USA stuff, American engines are good, in fact, I was employed as a field service mech by Cummins, but oh dear the rest of the truck is way behind
@@stuarth43 I know that in this day and age it is impossible, BUT, how great would it be if there was an Australian company that could manufacture trucks and parts designed in Australia for Australian conditions. Sad fact of life is that we will never be able to compete with countries that are SO overpopulated that they are allowed to pay their workers such low wages. Meanwhile the CEO's still get rich. Sadly, one day we will be owned by China, because we let them take us over commercially.
I agree with that comment posted by tru3b1u31 and gm16v149.It's just not logical to build all those expensive stuff when you can send a supply road train very 4weeks or so.That just works out cheaper than a pipeline or railway.
If by highway you mean dirt road, then yes. Red lights? Most of the roads are dirt, they haven't got traffic lights. They don't have traffic! The population of these towns is 3 blokes 1 woman and a dog. Did you miss the OUTBACK AUSTRALIA bit, population of 0.015 people per 1km² or 1.5 per 100km², how about 15 people per 1,000km², that's 15 people per 1,000,000 km.
Kind of funny mob, on the net. back in the early 1980's had the pleasure to drive from Broome W.A. to Katherine N.T. on the last 100 miles of 'natural formation' [unsealed road], when roadtrains approached, self preservation kicked in and you would stop as close to the side of the road as conditions allowed, The road was often a deep groove as the many tyres on the rigs blew the dust well away! Watch them approach steering at you, wiggle the prime mover, squeeze your butt cheeks together & stare in dis-belief as the trailors would follow untill dust hid the last few! Outback Aussie roads are often quite, few cars, these blokes know what they are doing!
