The Brouwer haulage company from the Netherlands is a third generation family business and is specialized in city logistics. More specifically: transporting king-sized, tracked machines deep into built-up areas and collecting them after the job. Something like this 85 tonnes (187,000 lbs) drilling rig, carried by a Nooteboom low loader with the assistance of a Volvo tractor unit.
The front man is a 2015 Volvo FM-540 10×4*6 tractor with an I-Shift automated manual transmission. The factory cab roof has been lowered behind the doors, which is an aftermarket job.
Next in the line-up is a 2016 Nooteboom Euro 132-25(P) low loader with a payload capacity of 95 tonnes (209,000 lbs). Heavy-duty, you say?
The low loader’s gooseneck is coupled to a tandem axle jeep dolly, the whole ensemble is towed by the Volvo. The gooseneck is equipped with a diesel engine driven hydraulic power pack. Also visible in the picture is the Volvo’s big fuel tank, mounted on top of its frame.
Here’s the tail end of the combination. The Nooteboom’s bed can be widened to 3.26 m (10’8”) and besides from the front, it can be (un)loaded from both sides.
‘Nil nobis absurdum’ means something like ‘nothing is too absurd for us’. The Latin expression was originally used by the special haulage unit of the Dutch Army.
This is how the sleeping monster on the bed looks when fully awake. It goes by the name of Woltman THW 7528-D, tamed and owned by Verhoef Funderingstechnieken B.V.
You can see for yourself what ‘deep into built-up areas’ means. The video shows an other Brouwer combination, a Scania R730 10×4*6 tractor with a Nooteboom 3-bed-6 low loader. That’s from front to rear: three axles, bed, six axles. The detachable front unit (between the gooseneck and the bed) with the three axles is called an interdolly. It’s also interesting to see how the drilling rig places and folds itself on the low loader (though the other way around).
More Hefty Metal will follow. The only drawback of visiting a special haulage event is that every standard ‘big’ rig you see afterwards is a bit of a letdown, size- and especially weight-wise.
Jonannes’ posts are easily among my favorites on CC. I’m not aware of a truck show culture here in the US. I live near a medium size state capital and you’d think if there was we’d have something going on. It all makes me a bit jealous actually. Perhaps I’m missing something and these are trade shows not open to the public and Johannes is in the industry. That would make sense. Some of us never outgrew our Tonka Toys!
Thanks HD! I’m not in the industry, but apart from the winter season there are truck shows/events/exhibitions/open house days all over our (tiny) country in the weekends. Open to the public, many of them free entrance.
On-road transport is (a very) big business here, crucial to the economy and society. Heavy trucks, buses, coaches, trailers, semi-trailers, truck bodies and all the equipment that comes with them are all designed and made here. Not to mention the rest that comes with the whole sector (haulage companies, warehousing, dealerships, aftermarket truck conversions, truck stops, magazines/websites, etc.etc.)
Truck shows are definitely out there in the US bur need some searching. A lot are large regional shows or combined with county fairs or equipment shows. In oregon we have several events around the truck museum at Powerland near Salem
That is one heavy hauler! Love it!
It is really something to watch that video – to watch that long, complex rig maneuver is impressive.
Certainly, I also like how the two yellow ‘worker bees’ are constantly buzzing around the jumbo rig, guiding and managing the whole operation once the circus has left the construction site.
Wow – that is some truly impressive driving in that video. The part where the driver make a sharp right turn by first turning into the oncoming lane, and then zig-zagging in reverse to get in the correct travel lane is an amazing display of skill.
And I love the Nil nobis absurdum phrase. I happen to have read this first along with my daughter, who’s just starting Latin classes, so we were both surprised to see a Latin phrase on the rear of a Dutch truck. Thanks for the explanation of the phrase’s history too.
Here you go.
Id imagine in Holland where Johannes lives there is A LOT of oversized/heavy equipment to move around. The Netherlands are in a low, swampy, flood prone part of the world. Altering the landscape to mitigate flooding takes some serious engineering and earth moving. Bunch of large machines that need to be moved between job sites. Love seeing these huge rigs posted up here
Yes, especially piling equipment (like the article’s drilling rig) gets moved around a lot. These machines have a few things in common, apart from the tracks: all of them are very heavy and all of them are very long (when folded down).
I know nothing about trucks, but I always enjoy these entries. The vehicles seem much more sophisticated than the ones I see here in Canada. I retired about 10 years ago and I had the good fortune to spend my last 3 years working on a project for a Dutch company, so I got to spend lots of time there, and I admired the trucks then.
I also enjoyed the Latin on the back of the truck. My mother studied classics (Latin and Greek) at university and taught Latin in high school for several years, until she decided teaching was not for her. It did mean that I was exposed to quite a bit of Latin as a child. Whenever we saw anything in Latin, she would translate. It was usually a slogan on a coat of arms. I still know the first couple of lines of Virgil’s Aeneid in Latin (and English). It is amazing what sticks in your memory.
Building a low loader with an impressive payload capacity (say around 100 tonnes or more) is one thing, yet the real challenge is to design and build something that can reach the destination, all the way.
In NL, the domestics Nooteboom and Broshuis rule this market. Examples of other manufacturers that build similar low loaders are Faymonville (B/L), Scheuerle, Goldhofer and Doll (all from D).
The drivers ability to maneuver this big beast in such close confines reminds me of a Jedi Master. Do these drivers workout everything in their head or are the angles calculated before hand? Surely they must be aided by GPS telemetry or some such device?
Before hand, possible obstacles are examined and, when necessary, removed. Furthermore, there’s a remote controlled steering system on such low loaders.
Note that the guys in the vans have a crucial task in such an operation, certainly when the whole rig is still in a built-up area (like watching/warning/guiding other road users, cyclists included).
All in all, this is the Premier League of on-road transport.
What does “Nooteboom” mean ? “Nussbaum” ?
In German, yes. In this case, it’s also the family name of the manufacturer. Old Dutch spelling, actually, the modern spelling is notenboom.
All in a days work, that’s impressive. I had drill rigs in the fleet I managed but they weren’t any where near this size.