Here's something that should keep Martin Phippard happy! Regular Biglorryblog readers may recall my blog on the 90-tonne 'One More Pile' twin-trailer concept logging truck being trialled by the Swedish Timber industry. local timber haulers and Volvo to name but three participants in the project. Well thanks to regular BLB follower Bert De Vuyst I can add a bit more to the story. Photos are by Anna Franck/Skogforsk by the way.
"The One More Pile" concept is a way of reducing CO2 emissions for every stack of timber carried - naturally the more you can get on one truck the lower the emissions-per-tonne carried. However,the Swedish timber industry body is trialling a variety of different configurations including these two which premiered recently at the Mittia Fair. The outfits included in the project can carry between 17-30% more timber than a conventional 24m long Swedish timber truck, based on a 6x4 rigid, pulling a two-axle converter dolly attached to a tandem axle trailer. That adds up to 60-tonnes gross weight and a 40-tonne payload. However, as you can see from Anna's photo the first outfit has an 8x4 prime mover, again with a converter dolly and what looks like a tri-axle trailer behind it (those two blokes are in the way!). This has a 47-tonne payload and is used to collect the timber from the forest (note the crane) and take it to the transfer point. The rig above is what I'd call a B-Double (or B-Train if you must!) and will be used to carry 52-tonnes of timber from the transfer point to other industrial sites. Both have a gross weight of 74 tonnes. Now click through here to see the grand-daddy of them all!
And here it is, the 90-tonne project truck (with a 60-tonne payload) - based on a 30m long 6x4 rigid, converter dolly, short tri-axle A-trailer and then a regular tri-axle semi-trailer behind it. And below is what it looks like next to a conventional 60-tonne logger on the right... And in case you're wondering where the expression 'one more pile' came from the super logger on the left just happens to carry one more pile of timber on it... Go ahead, count it if you don't believe me...
Both the new outfits featured at the top of the blog join the 90-tonner in full-scale test runs in September in Dalsland and Värmland. The trials will continue for three years, The experiment is part of a larger research project looking at modular timber transport, operated by the Swedish Forest Research Institute looking at the impact of higher gross weights and longer vehicles. And as well as reducing CO2 emissions the trials are expected to show a reduction in fuel consumption and increased truck utilisation. What's more, as the new vehicles built up of standard modules, they are fully-flexible. Makes the UK's approaxch to LHVs look rather laughable doesn't it...?
Brian,
There's a world of difference between the wilds of Sweden and the crowded roads of the UK. LHVs certainly have a place in the right environment but that isn't the UK.
I've recently been running onto a brand spanking new industrial estate on the edge of Heathrow and it's a nightmare. The roads are narrow and the roundabout is only just big enough and needs precise positioning if not to come to grief on the very raised concrete centre or high kerbs. Fine for the 30 footers with single steering axles that the company runs but not for a 45 foot triaxle. To achieve the essential spin in the yard relies on having 2 adjacent bays vacant to allow room for the tail swipe. Even the extra rear overhang of the Kogel long trailer would make it a no-go area as the tail swipe would demolish the security shed while negotiating the chicane on the way onto the estate. Having done that, it would demolish half the fence on the way out. It's possible the obstacle course has been designed as traffic calming, but with no straight long enough to find any speed, that's doubtful. It looks more like absolute minimum space for access roads and yards to maximise building size, which considering the cost of land isn't really surprising.
It's all well and good advocating LHVs and saying they take little extra road space but what when the road ends at the destination? Factory estates are getting smaller in terms of road size and accessibility, so when factoring in the cost of the infrastructure needed at both ends of the LHV's journey, they must be a non-starter.
Best wishes,
Roy.
I would have thought any new road layouts in a UK industrial area would be made to accept a maximum size 6 axle artic. If they are you should get a pocket B Double in there.
When we first moved to 48' trailers over here they were sent into the same places where you could just squeeze in a 45' er and had some expensive accdents. One experienced driver caught the cab of a new rigid parked in the next bay with the tailswing of the trailer and demolished it. Those 48' trailers also ran heavy on the tri because of the overhang.
I have never seen lorrys that long before
That is a lot of timber!
How many sheds of fence panels would that load make?
New Swedish super loggers on Biglorryblog... The latest from the 'one-more-pile' project!
That will make a lot of timber fences and garden sheds!