Heavyist haul

[nswsparky]

Thought you guys might appreciate this.
Working on hauling my biggest load from Bismark ND to Northern Texas by way of US HWY 83. Weighs in at 93,000lbs and is 14' 6" tall. I gotta follow the route the the individual states gives me have me going all over the place to avoid low bridges. The load is our 25 ton 1980 Grove Crane.

 

[BIG JOE]

Wow, 93K ! How long do you think the haul will take ? Day Light Only.. I would think.

I'll bet planning the route was a PIA.. not to mention the Permits needed.

 

[nswsparky]

Yea only can haul in daylight hours in most states, should get it done in 2.5 days. I just set up to go US 83 the entire way down they automatically add the little detours to bypass low bridges and weight restrictive bridges. Have 6 permits in my hand for 6 states, about 15 pages. Some states are cheap only like $30 but OK and TX are the most expensive, I am only driving though the panhandle of OK but it is costing $116 and driving about 200 miles in Texas costing $211.

 

[lone_star_dsl]

I heavy hauled a few years ago. Mainly construction and military equipment going all over the country. My heaviest load was a gas processing unit that went from Comanche, OK to Long Beach.

I had 10 axles on the ground, grossed 130,000 lbs and was 127' end to end. We needed an overkill trailer to handle the length of the processor which was 14' wide and 61' long. The worst part was the height, we went down the road at 17'4".

My nerves were shot after the first hundred miles. I didn't mind the width, length or weight but the height scared the crap out of me.

I managed to clip a bridge in Phoenix (during curfew hours, oops) but got the load to the port.

I'm glad I finally got out. Heavy haul, specifically the tall stuff, is not for me.

 

[WD40]

Wow, well LoneStar at least you had a truck to pull your load, poor ole sparky
only has a darn old Mack. Have a safe trip. LOL

Doug

 

[nswsparky]

Yea hauling oversize is diffidently nerve wracking, but at least I have 18 gears in my little 400hp Mack.

 

[lone_star_dsl]

Don't feel too bad, that truck had a semi automatic transmission in it. That was one of the most worthless trucks I have ever driven.

With the way that thing shifted, I'm surprised that the driveline stayed intact.

 

[BIG JOE]

Weight, Length & Width was never a problem for me.... but Height was my Gremlin too. I can still remember that Warm'n Fuzzy when I relaxed my shoulders'n neck.... when the Spotters gave me the after clearing Overpasses, Traffic Lights, Posts & Wires.

I still get the Jitters.. with our 5r. I know I'm 12' 4", to the top of the A/C, but when I see 14' X.. I still kinda shrink inta the seat some.

 

[bigrigr]

I still remember the time i almost clipped a bridge in downtown houston with a articulated dump truck on my stepdeck. I missed a exit, and came face to face with a 14'3" bridge with a 14'7" tall load. You wanna talk about hunkerin down in the seat! (BigJoe) I dumped the airbags and held on to my underwear real tight with the ol cheeks. Don't know for sure what happened, but apparently someone in tdot can't read a tape measure! Not a scratch.......

 

[lone_star_dsl]

My clip was in Phoenix with an unmarked bridge. It was made clear to me that Arizona DOT doesn't mark their bridges if they are over 17'.

I had a pilot car in front with his height stick and he cleared the bridge so I continued on my way. The only problem was that the road dipped under the bridge and with the length of my rig, I managed to bridge the dip.

The crate I was hauling made contact as I was about halfway through. I hammered down to keep from getting wedged. We tore the top off the crate and littered the highway with plywood.

I got to sit at Randy's Rig Resort for a few days until we could get a framing crew out there to fix the box.

We would have had BIG problems if the load wasn't so forgiving.