Road train in Sydney

wee-allis wrote:

How long are the trains with tri drive tri trailer, tri dolly and tri trailer doing coal on Mt Ousley? Just wondering.

I was told 28.5m.

Thanks Spanners, they sure look longer than that. Haven't been up the coast for a while, but I seem to remember some are twin steer as well aren't they?

I have not seen a Linfox twin steer on the coal but there are a lot of different truck trailer combinations getting around. The more axles the more payload.

There are becoming very popular down here in tassie with toll and sea road starting the trend but now there are cement tanker sets and logging skels kicking around too. The government is spending a heap on fixing up the bridges on the on the highways so they can cart more weight too.

Slightly off topic but not really!

Possiblyh a year ago in BIg Rig mag I read that in WA they were trialling running trucks on the open roads tailgating each other. This was from memory to save fuel so the lead truck punched the air and the rest followed along. As for steering again from memory the following trucks just stuck to the tail gate of the truck in front.
Was this a BS thing or did I read it all wrong? That would make for a very long road train to pass.

Sounds like what all the overnighters did through the Putty in the late 60s early 70s

Spotted a road train entering the M2 heading East off Pennant Hills Road today. One 40'container on the A trailer and one 20'on the B with room for a second.

Pointed it out to my wife and she just looked at me with a sad look on her face.

I think I need to get a life, or a new Wife!

cobbadog wrote:

Slightly off topic but not really!

Possiblyh a year ago in BIg Rig mag I read that in WA they were trialling running trucks on the open roads tailgating each other. This was from memory to save fuel so the lead truck punched the air and the rest followed along. As for steering again from memory the following trucks just stuck to the tail gate of the truck in front.
Was this a BS thing or did I read it all wrong? That would make for a very long road train to pass.

They have spoken about this type of thing in the US for some years, I think the advent of driverless trucks and they follow the first truck no need to steer accelerate or brake and follow atmaybe just a foot or so behond the other one

It's called "Platooning" I think, dunno, it was on the Mack truck forum some years back

www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/59795-platoo...ogy-ford-otosan-avl/

www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/44535-6-truc...latooning-challenge/

www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/47072-two-tr...verage-fuel-savings/

Might not of been a few feet between the trucks at a quick glance

However the concept is there and if it is fully workable it will no doubt be adapted by the big companies pretty quickly

Paul

Seem to recall Mercedes were looking into this, the truck behind was controlled by the one in front via wi-fi or something but I think they gave up on it.
I know I wouldn't feel comfortable just sitting there while the thing went along by itself

It would be boring if you were behind the wheel of any following truck. Similar to flying a plane through thick fog or clouds, just waiting for something to crash into in a blink of an eye.