I’ve seen lots of heavy road movements with numerous tractors hooked together inline, but I’ve never seen anything like this: two tractor-trailers hauling one large heavy load, side by side. Now that takes some coordination. And I rather suspect there was a bit of moaning and groaning when they made a turn., like at that T intersection back there.
Wait until they turn onto the Interstate!! (as if they legally could) The weigh station is going to make them go thru twice!
Once upon a time I was an Operating Engineer. You could always tell the old guy who use to work on cranes because he was the guy missing part of his finger. I don’t know why but they all were missing the end of a finger from pushing through boom pins like the ones used on the lattice boom crane above.
This is a great picture
-Nate
4200’s or are they 4300’s? Our 4300’s had a longer hood than the 4200’s. 43’s had 3406’s and the 42’s sported screaming 8V-71’s.
In 2002 a disassembled tunnel boring machine was transported on several double wide loads from Duluth Minnesota to Minneapolis. The machine was used to bore two tunnels under the airport for light rail line.
I’m not sure. That’s what the caption said.
Fabulous photo. I am glad that I am note doing this assignment. Thanks, Casey, for the information about crane operators. Tom (I’m in season – Tom Turkey)
I’ve seen a giant transformer with one tractor pulling and a second tractor pushing, but I too have never seen them side by side like this.
I initially assumed this was some sort of specialized trailer designed to be pulled by two tractors, but after thinking about it I realized it’s probably two trailers side by side.
TwinTurbo.
Any idea where this was taken? The cargo, combined with the scenery, leads me to think northeastern Pennsylvania; the “mountain” in the background looks like a culm bank – think a combination of shale and bits of waste coal too small or difficult to separate from the shale. These have been all over NEPA’s anthracite coal region for many decades. They do eventually get covered by trees; this picture looks like it was sometime between the late 1970s to the late 1990’s.
Additionally, the state route sign over on the left looks to have a keystone-shaped outline, which also suggests Pennsylvania.
I was thinking Montana — the highway sign looks like the arrowhead used for Montana’s secondary state highways… example below.
But I’d love to figure out exactly where!
Does anyone have a clue where this photo was taken? As soon as I saw it, I thought “Montana”, for no reason besides having driven on most paved roads in the Treasure State. In the lower left corner is an arrowhead shaped secondary state highway marker confirming that guess, but it’s too low res to read the actual number. Other possible clues might be the mixed lodgepole pine and Doug fir forest, and what looks like pumice or similar volcanic soil.
Okay, that strays from the true subject of the picture, which is tandem semis pulling a single massive load. Q- are there twin drivers (with ESP!) as well, or is there some sort of throttle linkage between the two tractors?
I just saw your comment after I left mine above — I agree it looks like Montana.
Also, what looks like the dried seed shoots of mullein (the spiky looking weeds), which grow all over mid to western Montana. If I had to guess, I’d say anywhere between the Belt range west toward the Bitterroots. Also, late in the year, just before the first snows hit. Someone into Montana roadside geology should be able to pinpoint it. Another wild guess is those tracks are the old now-defunct east to west “Milwaukee Road” rail line.
Back in the fall of ’76 me, dad & uncle Sam (yes I had a real-life uncle Sam) were traveling to a farm show in SW Minnesota. When a guy in a pickup, flashing beacon on the roof, driving down the center of a 2-lane highway waved us off the road. Before I could ask what’s that crazy man waving us off the road, two trucks came over the hill side by side hauling a crane. Dad figured they were doing at 50 mph. My mind was blown.
Easier to coordinate two trucks cruising in top gear than at slow speeds just set the cruise control to identical rpms and steer
That looks like two trailers side by side behind the tractors, I’ve never seen that before but I guess this predates wide usage of modular trailers.
The crane is chained to the two trailers so the crane is basically a brace to keep the trailers parallel. The tractors would work together much like a corn chopper blowing into a silage truck, but much more careful. This would be a low speed operation. The pedestrian in front is probably outpacing the trucks.
Last time I participated in an on-the-go unloading from combine to wagon, we were going a whopping 5.4 MPH. Felt a lot faster.
So was there a recent landslide on the mountain? Seems so given the steep slope, powdery look of the ground, and the sparseness of the trees.
Montana is a more likely guess than Pennsylvania, given the fact that all the trees are conifers.