A perfect machine to feed a Kleemann impact crusher and a perfect big rig to bring it to the job. A Caterpillar 374 tracked excavator, carried by a Nooteboom Euro-PX low loader, and towed by a Volvo powerhouse.
A textbook example of a European heavy-haulage tractor unit; a cabover with a tall sleeper cab, a short wheelbase, and an 8×4/4 drivetrain. The 2024 Volvo FH16-750 Globetrotter is powered by the truck maker’s 16.1 liter, inline-six D16 engine. With a curb weight of 13 tonnes (28,660 lbs), the tractor is anything but a lightweight.
This segment of on-road trucking is fully dominated by Volvo, Scania, Mercedes-Benz, and MAN. Those are the manufacturers that can offer Big Block Turbodiesels with (way) more than 600 DIN-hp. An ordinary 13 liter engine won’t cut it in this line of business.
The extendable, 2021 Nooteboom 2-bed-4 low loader comes with pendle axles and hydro-pneumatic suspension.
The detachable module between the gooseneck and the cargo bed is called an interdolly. (2x photo courtesy of Nooteboom Trailers)
The excavator is powered by Caterpillar’s 15.2 liter C15 engine with 492 DIN-hp. The operating weight of a Cat 374 is close to 72 tonnes (158,700 lbs). More cool Cats will follow.
I feel as if in America, the counter weight would be its own separate load. What a set up though!
I must say I’ve never seen an excavator’s counter weight being transported separately, regardless the weight/size segment. A heavier, long reach Cat on a Nooteboom trailer was also on display. It will get its own article, of course.
I haven’t either, but I just watched a video of a much-smaller 345B. It has a jack with a chain built right in. Six bolts on the rear, two 90 degree turn lugs, and a pintle on the end of the chain. Even without a built-in lift on a 345C it looks like a pretty simple deal, you just use crane(s). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaY4E6Sj6I and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxyI7GaIEP0 .
First link should be : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xpojEGvfgA Sorry.
Love the engineering! Another part of the trucking world that we do not see in The States/ Thanks.
Faymonville from Belgium/Luxembourg builds comparable low loaders and these are available in the US, as far as I know. Anyway, they’re building a production facility in Little Rock as we speak. Then there are the Broshuis (NL) battle tank trailers for the US Army. And I guess Scheuerle from Germany is also represented in the US?
The number and spacing of wheels required to support the load are dictated by the bridge laws of the USA and the EU, and the laws are different and that’s why we see different solutions.
The hydraulic excavator was invented by Demag in the mid-1950s. Prior to that there were cable operated excavators worldwide, cable meaning a block and tackle type arrangement.
Impressive looking rig and cargo.
You would also need more axles in Germany, for example. It would probably be a 3-bed-5 low loader there; same axle spacing, though. Crucial are the steering and counter-steering trailer axles, rigid axles in this trucking class are a no-go, anywhere in Europe. After all, machinery like that Cat is also brought deep into towns and cities. Just being ‘freeway-worthy’ is not nearly enough.
How do the rear axles steer? It can’t just be trailing, they must have some mechanism? If so, how do you control it from the cab? Thank you.
Have a look at this:
That’s a great link, thank you. There aren’t any axle beams, the wheels look like aircraft front landing gear. Looks like very little electronic control, conventional hydraulic valves with levers. My world. Thank you.
‘the wheels look like aircraft front landing gear’
Perfect!
Here in the Sierra foothills some truckers follow their GPS onto some tight curve roads and often get stuck. That rear wheel steer would come in handy. But better GPS for trucks or smaller trucks would probably be cheaper.
Right, but GPS doesn’t help one bit if all roads leading to the destination are curvy and are full of obstacles (which is the common situation).
Having stared at this for a bit, I cannot work out how that gi-whopping excavator got on to that trailer. If that low-loader bed it’s sitting on was on the ground, and the front and rear wheeled bits attached after, how the hell does that huge weight get off the ground?
Hydraulic lifts. They can be very powerful.
The hydro-pneumatic suspension does its job. There’s 600 mm of ‘stroke’ -that’s how Nooteboom calls it on their website- in each of those pendle axle units (twelve of them, in this case). For loading and unloading, the bed is decoupled at the front, right behind the interdolly. That interdolly is a detachable module, which means the bed can also be connected directly to the gooseneck, in which case you’re driving arond with a quad-axle low loader for transporting lighter Cats.
Got it, and the video helps. Can’t believe the available degrees of turn on each of those wheels, and their supermarket trolly castor hydraulic suspensions! What fantastic engineering all around. For all those unlikely and almost delicate-looking Transformers effects to be shifting and raising so much weight, the quality of stuff must be top-notch. This thing must cost in the millions.
In the top league of road transport, you need top league material. Go state-of-the-art or go home, so to speak.
That is impressive – what a sight it must be going down the street.
The high roof tractor is a contrast with US practice where heavy haul tractors usually have small cab height sleepers. The short sleeper helps with length and axle loading, and the low sleeper allows crane and excavator booms to overhang the cab. Casey La Delle’s YouTube channel has some good discussions of axle loading and West Coast regulatipns in the features on his Western Star tractor and 9 axle trailers.
https://www.youtube.com/@CaseyLaDelle/videos
A duo of low-roof Scania 10×4 heavy-haulage tractors.