The process of expansion, specialization and professionalization of stock farming has been going on for decades, nothing new under the sun. Way into the seventies, the animal feed was delivered to the farms with a straight bulk truck with two or three axles. When the farms expanded, the dry bulk haulers also increased in size and weight.
For the time being though, they won’t get any bigger than this immaculate rig, as they’ve reached the Dutch national weight limit of 50 metric tons.
One major advantage of visiting a truck show is that you can take as many pictures as you want without, shall we say, raising suspicion. I caught this splendid Volvo-Welgro combination at the recently held 2019 edition of the WSI XXL show and I came home with so many (detail) pictures, I could probably write its manual.
Anyway, let’s start at the front, with the tractor unit: a 2018 Volvo FH Globetrotter 4×2.
The Volvo is powered by a 12.8 liter, inline-six engine. Its maximum power output is 420 DIN-hp, as it says on both sides.
The diesel fuel has to meet the EN 590 standards. Nothing special or a type of fuel that is hard to get, it has been the norm throughout Europe for many years now.
The cab suspension, rear right side.
Now to the business end, a 2013 Welgro dry bulk tanker with three axles. Welgro (short for the Wellink family from Groenlo, the Netherlands) was founded in the late sixties, the company is fully specialized in building bulk tankers for transporting animal feed.
De Valk (The Falcon) Wekerom is the name of the feed mill.
This falcon tells us that the rig’s payload capacity is around 70,500 lbs (“32 tons of quality!”).
The semi-trailer’s second and third axle are steering axles. They’re not there for bragging rights or to add complexity, the steering axles are a necessity for driving on the generally narrow rural roads, with many tight turns, that lead to the farms and for maneuvering on the farm yards. That is, without damaging the pavement (public roads and farm yards), roadsides, tires and suspension parts.
Here’s where the mechanical steering system starts to work, at the fifth-wheel coupling. A plate with a kingpin, turntable and a wedge is locked into the fifth-wheel coupling; then a sliding bar that goes through the steering wing. There’s another, smaller turntable on top of the wing.
On the left in this picture, the outer end of the steering wing on the semi-trailer’s left side. A long rod on both sides connects the wing to the second axle unit. When the tractor turns, the rods pull on one side and push on the other side.
The rod on the left side ends here.
On the right side of the semi-trailer, another rod connects the second axle unit to the third to make it steer too.
A proven and highly effective system that has been produced for many, many years.
The turntable of the second axle unit.
Ditto, third axle unit.
Loading the tank from above is quite easy, the animal feed goes down through a whole series of hatches (not visible in the picture) with the help of gravity.
The walkway alongside the hatches.
For reasons of safety and convenience, there’s a collapsible railing, pushed up and pulled down by this telescopic cylinder.
The tank is divided in multiple compartments, so that it can be loaded with different types of animal feed.
Now to the unloading process, more technology is needed. This is the PTO-driven air blower installation on the right side of the tractor’s frame.
Then the air flows from the tractor to the semi-trailer.
The tank compartments are kept under pressure from above…
….while the animal feed is literally blown out through this piping system.
Dicht (closed) to the left, Open (which speaks for itself) to the right.
The whole unloading process is operated from the unit in this casing at the back.
The hoses, the connection between the semi-trailer and the silo at the farm, are kept in here.
Another casing for all kinds of equipment and tools needed for the job.
A rear view backup camera, no frivolous luxury, I’d say.
The (un)loading process, old-fashioned style.
Mien leste, it says on the Volvo’s sun visor. That’s local dialect for Mijn laatste. My last one, in plain English. Something is telling me that a very skilled, experienced and professional truck driver is not too far away from his retirement…Till then, keep on trucking!
Wow. I don’t think we’re going to be able to back that thing into the hog barn like we used to. We’re going to have to cut a bigger door.
Just couple a few hoses and you’ll get there…
FYI, dry bulk tankers, regardless their size, never back into any barn/building here at a farm.
In an interesting recent article in the New Yorker magazine about agricultural automation and robotic harvesters, as well as vertical farming (a fascinating topic) , there was brief mention of the efficiency of a Dutch agriculture, and that the Netherlands is a huge global exporter of food. Even on the US West Coast, we occasionally see fresh Dutch tomatoes and I think mushrooms in our grocery stores.
Thanks for the tour. An impressive rig. And thanks for the details on the trailer steering mechanism; I’ve never had the chance to see that up close.
It says quite a lot about different attitudes that in Europe steering axles on trailers are required, and not in the US. I watch large straight trucks with multiple axles and trailers with 3-4 axles make turns and can see the very substantial stresses that are imposed on the tires and pavement. But I can’t see the US trucking industry lobby be willing to accept the higher costs associated with steering axles. For that matter, I doubt the government bureaucrats are even barely aware of the issue. In Oregon we still allow studded tires in the winter which cause a huge amount of damage (some $75 million per year) and yet voters complain about bad pavement as well as being against higher gas taxes to fund the proper repairs.
Different mentalities.
^ Agreed on many fronts here, Paul. I look at a vehicle like this and just see A LOT of cost and complexity relative to the vehicles that do this job in the US.
I chalk it up to EU regulation, there is just no other reason a $300,000 US rig is needed to haul animal feed…
Oh yes, blame it one the gubbernment!
Exactly how do the dry bulk haulers fill up silos like these in your neck of the woods?
See that farm yard, BTW? Fully paved and extremely neat. Again, the gubbernment’s fault!
It is about the roads there. And it certainly is not about reducing damage to the roads either, it is all about navigating those tight roads and pretty much just in forward with a forced steer set up like this on the trailer, unless it is set up to detach and lock in the straight position when you need to do some serious backing.
Fact is this kind of set up isn’t about reducing the stress on roads or tires, that front trailer axle is getting pushed sideways to make this thing work. That is why they need 3 axles with two forced steer, to insure that front one is sliding around the corner. A tandem axle or a tandem with self steering tag and/or pusher will put less stress on the road than a set up like this. In fact according to this https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjlzeTZn6HiAhV0CjQIHTt2BWQQFjAJegQIBxAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jpisla.es%2Fresources%2FDownload%2BJPIsla%2B20130106%2BPesos%2Bmaximos%2Bde%2Blos%2Bcamiones%2Bcomparativa%2Bpaises.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0Znj_9R-tZr_bhDVdvCTis, and I think Johannes has mentioned it before Netherlands is unique in europe allowing 50 tonne trucks while many other countries do 40 or 44 tonnes while in the US the federal regulations limit it to just over 36 metric tonnes. Yes there are states that allow up to 105,500 or about 48 metric tonnes but you will need at least 6 axles to do it in my state and possibly up to 9 depending on a number of factors. Those regulations are all about road and bridge stress and wear. .
A similar set-up with two axles, with the last one steering, is also highly common.
Mechanical steering axles are used on any type of semi-trailer with one, two, three or four axles. Just looking at tridems: the second and third can steer (like the Welgro in the article), the first and third can steer or only the third can steer. Whatever you want.
I remain fascinated with engines with a displacement of 2+ liters PER CYLINDER.
Love the positive rear axle steering set up thats quite cool I havent run across that type of set up here but truck and trailer rigs are dominant here not semis when it comes to off road type of work and muddy farm roads need a tandem drive truck with decent diff and power divider locking systems, just in case. Its interesting to see how other countries do things, thanx Johannes, Only 420hp lucky Holland is flat.
There are three types of steering: mechanical (rods, cables), hydraulic and electronic. Have a look here and enjoy:
https://www.tridec.com/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Flyers2016/2016_eng_SCREEN_KAFT2016.pdf
Almost all rural roads (no matter how narrow) and farm yards are paved here, so one drive axle will do the job just fine.
Fact, as an aside: they don’t even come to collect the milk if your dairy farm yard is a muddy/bloody mess with all kinds of crap lying around.
Ive been picking up apples in orchards for transport to packhouses and coolstores mostly it on gravel loading pads in fine weather often on dirt loading pads and when it rains the fun begins rarely have orchards got the machinery to move 44 tonnes if it gets bogged.
Now Bryce, let’s not compare apples and oranges, shall we?
Kidding aside, apples and other agri-products are mostly transported in a “kuubskist”. An open top crate that contains one cubic meter of the product; 1,000 liter, in other words. To be (un)loaded with a forklift, but that speaks for itself. You can stack them up really high, given the towers that I often see at the fruit growers’ yards right before the pluck-season starts.
This thing would never make it to the farm in many parts of the US. There just isn’t enough ground clearance for the roads it would have to traverse. No they are not paved in many areas because it would be prohibitively expensive. According to google the Netherlands is 16,412 sq mi. Paul lives in the state or Oregon which is not overly large in terms of Western US states at 98,466 sq mi or about 6 times. Montana which most of the time is populated by ~2.5 times as many head of cattle than humans is 147,040 sq miles, while California is almost 10 times the Netherlands at 163,696 sq mi.
So yeah we can’t pave every mile and certainly can’t be fixing the roads too frequently. So you want to get to the farms in the middle of nowhere Montana you’ll probably be running a straight truck under 50k lbs to meet the road regulations and the not really a road conditions.
I fully understand that “this thing” would never make it to many US farms, given its weight and the road conditions.
In the end, it’s all about finding the best and most efficient combination of legislation (axle loads/GVM/length) and typical local circumstances (distances/roads/yards).
That’s exactly the interesting aspect of global trucking. Mind you, Dutch big rigs (for national haulage) already differ from, say, German and Belgian ones, let alone from their counterparts on other continents.
NZ combinations truck and trailer 9 axles can go 58 tonnes but are limited to main highways 50 tonnes which covers most logging units go anywhere and most of our highway network is two lane blacktop, the tankers I drove in Dec-Jan ran at 54 tonnes an emergency stop from 90kmh takes a lot of room.
With enough axle spacing, like the Volvo-Welgro in the article, 5 axles will do the 50 tons-trick. But the tractor needs an 8 or 9 tons steering axle in that case. The rig’s maximum axle loads from front to back: 8 + 11.5 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 49.5 metric tons GVM.
That really is quite the beast, seemingly almost as much mechanism as load! Just needs a few more pipes and connections and it could surely process crude oil into petrol, no? Fascinating. As Bryce said, rigid trucks down in this corner of the earth stop well short of such sizing, as it’s all trailers by then.
That rear steering is one of those unobtrusive works of genius, as it seems obvious (and simple) in operation, which it must be: but to come up with the idea, to see the connection between the movements of the tractor and the trailer and use that for a mechanism for opposite steering effect is the thing. It’s basic and obvious only once someone else has thought of it. Wonder how long it’s been around?
Thinking back, this specific mechanical system as used on the Welgro must have been around since the eighties, when the first dry bulk haulers with two axles appeared on the road (like the Maatman semi-trailer I posted further above).
rigid trucks down in this corner of the earth stop well short of such sizing, as it’s all trailers by then.
This is not a rigid truck; it’s a tractor trailer combination.
That’s a very impressive rig. While I live in a farming and ranching area I never see anything that elaborate, Bulk feed appears to come in either dump trucks or live floor trailers. Also ranchers try to feed their cattle on grass, and supplement with hay which just comes on flatbed trucks.
This must be the type of truck, see below, that does the same job in the US. It fills the silo from above, through the pipe that is in a horizontal position on the truck’s dry bulk tank (not when the truck is unloading, of course).
My dad used to drive these (in a 4×2 straight truck configuration), a DAF and a Scania, in the sixties and seventies. The early seventies, that was when the “air blowers” started to replace them here.