Another visit to the open house and 35th anniversary party of the Schoones hauling company, held in September 2025. Today’s episode features two comparable heavy haulage tractors, low loaders and articulated wheel loaders. Comparable, but not quite the same.
Starting with a 2024 Volvo FH16-750 Globetrotter tractor with a 10×4/*6 drivetrain. The diesel fuel tanks and custom-built lockers are hiding behind the cab rear side wings.
Sitting on the low loader’s narrow bed, a Caterpillar 988 XE wheel loader, powered by the manufacturer’s 18.1 liter C18 engine. The operating weight of a complete machine is around 53 tonnes (117,000 lbs).
The low loader is a 2010 Nooteboom Euro-110-05(P) 2 bed 5 combination, that is from front to back: gooseneck, detachable interdolly with two axle lines, bed, rear unit with five axle lines. As per usual, steering pendle axles with hydro-pneumatic suspension all around.
Another top league on-highway tractor, this 2017 Volvo FH16-750 10×4/*6 with the standard (as in low) sleeper cab.
The emperor of the road weighs 14 tonnes (30,865 lbs) and comes with a 750 DIN-hp, 16.1 liter inline-six. By the way, I would like to have such a wall cabinet -the lighting included- in my living room.
The Volvo L350H is operating in the same wheel loader segment as the Cat 988 XE. Unsurprisingly, Volvo Construction Equipment (aka Volvo CE) is part of the mighty Volvo Group from Gothenburg, Sweden.
Here’s the back end of the 2014 Nooteboom Euro-122-15(IFP) 1 bed 5 low loader, its registered payload capacity is almost 90 tonnes (198,000 lbs).
Now saying that Volvo is Schoones’ preferred tractor supplier is an understatement. But as is often the case, there are some exceptions to the rule.
Like this one, a 2020 Mercedes-Benz Actros 3363 6×4 tractor. With its 625 DIN-hp, 15.6 liter OM 473 engine, it’s the most powerful diesel Benz on the market.
Seems almost counterintuitive to have such a cargo suspended between the trailer axles. I’ve noticed trains over here carrying rolls of sheet steel have them over the carriage axles with nothing on the tray between. What stops the trailer bowing and hitting the ground, or is it just that the payload is not that heavy?
I think the correct term in English is ‘prestressing’ (as in to avoid a bowing bed under load).
Does that mean it’s bowed in the opposite direction before receiving the load? Which also gets me to thinking; is the rear section also bowed so the rearmost axles are still touching the ground?
…and in the meantime, I found this video. The trailer’s pendle axle units -there are no beam axles- have 600 mm of stroke (vertical travel), this applies to both the interdolly ahead of the bed and the rear section.
A lot of flatbed trailers here are made of aluminum and because it’s apparently more flexible than steel they have a very substantial prestress; their upward bow when empty is very noticeable.
Indeed! (courtesy of Great Western Trailer)
Just for clarity, we usually translate Pendelachse or Zwenkas to swing axle.
But nobody’s concerned about vicious oversteer under these circumstances, even with 600mm travel!
Nick, the trailer manufacturers (like Nooteboom and Broshuis) call it a ‘pendelas’ in Dutch and a ‘pendle axle’ in English. But essentially there are no axles; those are all single units with independent suspension that go up and down and turn. Two wheels per unit.
Slightly off topic but I have noticed newer wheel loaders don’t have steering wheels. They have moved to joystick controls like a skid steer loader. This makes some sense since the the operator can use one had to control the vehicle and one for the bucket at all times, I also think some operators are transitioning from skid steer loaders so have the muscle memory.
There are several subdivisions in my area so lots of excavators loaders and rock trucks during site prep, folowed by telehandlers and smaller machines to actually build the houses
Speaking of ‘steering’, wheel loaders driving on public roads are a common sight here, just like wheeled excavators and farm tractors. Though those loaders are not as big as the ones shown in the article.