National Heavy Haulage redefined the “heavy” part of their moniker recently with a gargantuan project that took them all the way from Mackay to Peak Downs over the course of a whole month, carrying incredibly huge mining trucks to a new BHP mine site.
The task at hand: move not one but five Ultra-Class Liebherr T 282 C Dump Trucks to BHP’s Peak Downs mine site in Central Queensland. Upon its debut in 2004, this 2,700 horsepower (2,000 kW) diesel/AC electric drive haul truck offered the largest payload capacity in the world, carrying 400 tonnes. It’s still the second largest heavy hauler on the market, and each one costs anywhere between five and six million dollars. It’s not something that can be driven on our highways, so that’s where National Heavy Haulage came in.
The trek, comprising almost 200 kilometres of road, required a tremendous amount of logistical coordination in addition to the strength and versatility of the trailers. Road closures and police escorts were necessary through the various stages of each journey, as even a disassembled T 282 measures almost nine metres wide and can take up three road lanes.
All of this was made possible by using The Drake Group’s trailers for the load, which offer a winning combination of high-performance, stability and design excellence. If you’re wondering if The Drake Group trailers can shift any load, this job proves it once and for all.
Mark Ackroyd, Managing Director of National Heavy Haulage’s parent company the National Group, heaped praise upon his NHH team saying “This was not your everyday type of haul. The trucks are some of the biggest in the world and have an empty vehicle weight of more than 260 tonne so when you put that into perspective, they each weigh more than 130 standard cars. It takes a highly efficient and reliable team to deliver a haul of this size and our NHH guys were able to do it without any concerns at all”.
General Manager of NHH, Ian Scott, downplayed any concerns they might have had with the scale of the job. “These were definitely some of the biggest loads we have dealt with but that is what we are known for. We utilise top of the range Kenworth prime movers and Drake heavy duty trailers, so when you combine these with a team focus on safely delivering the biggest and best equipment there is, nothing is too hard or too big to shift”, he said.
We’d like to thank National Heavy Haulage once again for trusting The Drake Group to supply their trailers and we look forward to seeing what head-turning tasks they will be put towards next.
Want to recreate this amazing logistical exercise in your own home? The team at Drake Collectibles has you covered, with all the trucks and trailers you need – at one fiftieth the size. If you need to move something at full scale, talk to the team at The Drake Group about our range of heavy haulage and container transport trailers.
