Down through the ages, our rivers have brought us sand and clay, among others. So logically and historically, brickworks have always been situated on or nearby river banks. Consequently, our river delta -my neck of the woods- has also become the epicenter of the oh-so-Dutch heavy brick haulers in more recent times.
The main oh-so-Dutch characteristics are: a 500+ hp tractor, the rig has six axles (always with mutliple steering and liftable axles), tall dropsides, there’s a diesel powered roller crane aboard the semi-trailer and in daily practice, the GVM ranges from 50 to 60 metric tons when fully loaded.
Naturally they deliver bricks and other building materials to construction sites, but they might as well show up in front of your house if you’ve ordered a few pallets for your home improvement job.
Enough talk, I announced the article as a photoreport, so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
H. van Toorn & Zn.: 2018 Scania S 520 and 2017 Pacton.
Edwin Salari: 2015 Volvo FH and 2015 KWB (Kempische Wagenbouw NV).
Jakob Schipper: 2018 Scania S 580 and 2016 KWB.
Evert de Vries: 2018 DAF XF 530 and 2017 KWB.
Jasper Pellegrom: 2018 Scania S 650 (that’s a 600+ hp tractor, by the way) and 2016 KWB.
Marjo Salari: 2016 Volvo FH and 2012 KWB.
So, how does delivering bricks work in your country or region, river delta or not. It must be some kind of flatbed, but how about the (un)loading process?
Very interesting vehicles we never see here. What’s striking to these US eyes is how low to the ground the front bumper and cab structure is. Is this in service of safer interaction with smaller vehicles? Though no doubt the weight differential is not to be avoided, perhaps the European designs are more thoughtful in regards to that issue, so if that’s the motivation and it’s effective, I wish US truck designers would follow suit, as the disparity in height, both the cab front and at the rear of trailers, which are often at windshield height of modern cars in US trucks, is notable and it would seem that much more could be done to make them safer in their inevitable contact with the majority of vehicles, which are so much smaller and lower.
Yes, front underride-protection is required by law too. And then there’s also the aerodynamics aspect.
What I notice about the Dutch trucks (and trailers and places) is that they are all so clean.
American trucks (and American places) are very rarely as clean and neat as what I see in Johannes’ photos.
….well, it is a show after all.
Having said that, roads and yards are almost always paved, which helps a lot, of course. Furthermore, you’re supposed to keep your machinery neat and tidy (owner-operator or otherwise). Even dump trucks, concrete mixers, cattle haulers (especially those!) and such. Lumps of mud/clay hanging on or coming off a truck/rig? Not done!
Very few bricks in California due to earthquake-mindful building codes.
Bricks? What are those? Who builds with bricks in the US? 🙂
Seriously, bricks are such a small (and declining) part of US building that on the rare occasions when they’re hauled, it’s just pallets on flatbeds, as far as I know. Probably extra strong pallets.
Damn! I hadn’t thought about that…
Other building materials then? Like everything made of concrete, simply said.
Yeah bricks are not popular as a material for buildings, but we still use a few for facades, fireplaces/chimneys and walkways/patios. However we do use a lot of materials from the same family as in concrete blocks and retaining wall blocks.
So yeah a flat bed is used and it is off loaded by a fork lift, either from the destination or a piggyback forklift like these. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcWbyvFF41k
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcWbyvFF41k&w=560&h=315%5D
We still love our brick in the midwest.
Yeah, but all kinds of paving is done in the Netherlands with brick. Look at all Johannes’ posts, bricks on the ground everywhere.
Like when I went to England, looking at all these 400 year old exposed timber homes and cobblestone streets thinking “this wouldn’t last 5 years back home!”
Amazing what you can do in a mild climate 🙂
I remember very well that during my childhood, many asphalt roads, parking lots and such were replaced by brick pavement in the built-up areas. Much less repair and semi-sloppy patch-jobs and it’s easier to work underneath the pavement (cables, sewer pipes). Bricks out – do the job – same bricks in again.
“Old-school” paving bricks/cobblestones last a 1,000 years, if not longer. And no such thing as potholes after rain/frost/rain/frost etc.
“Who builds with bricks in the US?”
We in the midwest do! Not structural brick, mind you, but as veneer over other kinds of construction. Some of us got tired of looking at all of that awful unfinished concrete poured in the 70s. 🙂
The thought that always comes to my mind when seeing these posts is that 500+ horsepower in a flat country with an 80 km/h truck speed limit is overkill.
-50 to 60 metric tons GVM (110,000 to 130,000 lbs).
-the speed limit in real life is 90 km/h.
-go with the flow, accelerating from a full stop, merging into traffic, etc.
My opinion about overkill? A humongous engine (either gasoline or diesel powered) in a pickup used as a commuter car.
Most highway linehaul trucks here are H placarded (high productivity unit) and 500hp is really the lower limit 15% grades make em crawl 90kmh is max speed for heavy or towed vehicles at 94 the man starts writing tickets car get a 10% leeway on their 100kmh limit.
Owner-operators often opt for more grunt & power, as in 600+ hp, like the Scania S 650 in the article.
Apart from the 730 hp version, the current Scania V8s are SCR-only/non-EGR (to meet the Euro 6 emission standards).
And if I’m not mistaken, the 730 hp engine can only be combined with an automatic transmission.
Traditional building materials are based on what’s around in nature to build with.
In Sweden it’s trees, so many wooden houses, we Dutch always had to struggle to keep our feet dry, we did not have vast woodlands and the wood we had was rubbish to build houses from. We have no natural bedrock or any other rock, our soil mainly consists of soft sluggish sediment from a hughe river delta.
We built brick-bakerys in de floodlands of the rivers, the raw material was at your feet and in wintertime it was no problem if these factories were flooded by the expanding river, it was actuaĺly good as the river deposits were the raw material to bake bricks.
We actually settled there in those floodlands because they were extremely good for farming, cattle and crops.
Earthquake country here bricks are almost unknown timber framing on floating concrete ribraft foundation pads are popular, it just arrives on a truck and in a mixer truck some assembly required.