Oversize (xtra-long) load.

Heyseed · Oct 14, 2018

Saw a bunch of these guys on the interstate. It is amazing how big they are when you get right next to them. I am curious about the truckers hauling them. Do they need a special DOT license? Does it pay better then hauling regular loads? What I read online says the blades weigh about ten tons each. So it isn't the weight that is an issue, just the big size.
Saw some riggers building them, better them than me, no way I'd work up that high. They looked like ants from the ground.

Moonlite37 · Oct 14, 2018

neighbor girl and her boyfriend operate some kind of a rig like that. Although I have not seen the rig, he drives the front part and she drives the rear

ss55 · Oct 14, 2018

Around ten years ago we saw a lot of those blades moving south on MN State Highway 15. They were made in Northern Europe and shipped up the St Lawrence Seaway and unloaded at Duluth, MN. They had to detour around any roundabouts.

shaun wallace · Oct 14, 2018

They run pilots in front and rear. The rear dollies are steerable. Theres a special trailer that they move the tower pieces with. Also haul on rail. Some towers are made in Abilene Tx. Company I work for built saddles to haul scrapped blades in. Just modified them so can be knocked down and shipped to Porta Rico.

SweetFeet · Oct 14, 2018

Heyseed,

We saw one being hauled like that too... CRAZY how big they are when you're up close to them!

NEKS · Oct 14, 2018

There was a article in the local paper two days ago where a outfit called the Pony Express Wind Farm is trying to get some land leased in Brown and Nemaha counties in Kansas to put up 300 wind turbines. The closes around here is Nebraska, was hoping that's where they stayed.

john in la · Oct 14, 2018

Just a normal CDL will do.
The things you can not drive without a special endorsement?.
Any haz mat that requires placards
More than one trailer at a time
Anything that holds more than 16 passengers
And liquids if you have more than 1000 gallons total

The pay on this load per mile will be several times what normal loads would be.
Special equipment to haul it; limited to daylight with good weather hours; special route permits; and your speed is reduced so it takes longer to get where you are going.

Heyseed · Oct 14, 2018

Thanks John, that was kinda what I expected, but didn't know.
I bet it is fun in a stiff breeze.

machineman · Oct 14, 2018

Have seem a lot of those here in central Kansas. They usually travel in threes. We have a storage facility here in Barton County for the components, a really large area. Don't know if this is a central distribution area or what. Pretty awesome when traveling through town, or when you meet them on local two lane highways. Just my .02.
Gary

Kansasredneck · Oct 14, 2018

When Suzlon was making them in Pipestone, the trucks heading south had to go north to Lake Benton, then over to Brookings SD to get on I-29. The routes south out of Pipestone were not suitable for them. Quite a few of them were shipped to Kansas.

paul · Oct 15, 2018

I saw more of the tower sections go by on 15 than wings. Was driving tractor when one came down behind me and had to make the corner to 14. That had to take some maneuvering, it is nicknamed ?the Y? for a reason, they were taking the sharp corner.

Must be getting hard to haul them with all the roundabouts piping up.

Paul

rustyfarmall · Oct 15, 2018

(quoted from post at 18:48:22 10/14/18) There was a article in the local paper two days ago where a outfit called the Pony Express Wind Farm is trying to get some land leased in Brown and Nemaha counties in Kansas to put up 300 wind turbines. The closes around here is Nebraska, was hoping that's where they stayed.

Start complaining to your leaders. If it wasn't for the tax incentives and other subsidies, none would ever go up.

Mike(NEOhio) · Oct 15, 2018

I worked with a guy who used to haul special loads. He loved it. State sets the route, speed, and hours on the road. Said he could get ten hours of sleep. I got to watch Lincoln Electric's wind tower go up, fascinating how they did it. Huge Manitowoc crane and a very large truck crane working beneath it.

caterpillar guy · Oct 15, 2018

I'm not sure what the rates are now for hauling towers and blades but heard the rates are beat down to nothing for what the costs are to do it. If Anderson in St.Cloud is doing it it has to be cheap. Any load I looked at hauling for them was to cheap for me to do them. Not blades or towers, other loads.
Those blade trailers telescope to legal when empty.

Bob M · Oct 15, 2018

We occasionally see entire trainloads of turbine blades passing thru rural upstate NY.

Each blade spans (3) 89' flat cars. The blade is anchored at the root end at the front of the first car and is saddle supported near the rear of 2nd car. The blade tip then cantilevers out over the 3rd car - ie the 3rd car serves simply as idler flat.

Always wondered how the blades were handled from the terminal railyard to the wind farm!

oldtanker · Oct 15, 2018

(quoted from post at 08:39:32 10/15/18) We occasionally see entire trainloads of turbine blades passing thru rural upstate NY.

Each blade spans (3) 89' flat cars. The blade is anchored at the root end at the front of the first car and is saddle supported near the rear of 2nd car. The blade tip then cantilevers out over the 3rd car - ie the 3rd car serves simply as idler flat.

Always wondered how the blades were handled from the terminal railyard to the wind farm!

Speaking of rail car loads.......https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...assembled-2-000-mile-rail-journey-Kansas.html

Rick

IA Roy · Oct 15, 2018

They are building an addition to a wind farm a little ways west of me in Grundy county. Only around 30 I think. My son talked to a concrete truck driver a couple of weeks back at the coop fuel station. I don't know if they were pouring around the clock or not but he started his shift at 2 am. Said it took about 500 yards per hole. The local concrete plant is part of a pretty big chain. They are bringing mixers and drivers from some distance away. Since I am pretty much housebound I have not seen any components on the road.

JMS/.MN · Oct 15, 2018

There is a staging yard near St. Cloud, MN that is currently used to store the tower sections, where they are offloaded from railcars, then trucked away, My blacksmith"s cousin owns the yard, and gets over 6 grand per month for rent. Maybe 6-8 acres? Renter paid for blading and all upgrades to get it ready for that storage. Previous use was just a flat storage yard, now it has berms and drainage. Few years ago an older couple died at Hwy 15 and 23 intersection in St. Cloud while a tower truck turned, and they collided with it. Must have been confused.

rustyfarmall · Oct 15, 2018

(quoted from post at 10:45:35 10/15/18) They are building an addition to a wind farm a little ways west of me in Grundy county. Only around 30 I think. My son talked to a concrete truck driver a couple of weeks back at the coop fuel station. I don't know if they were pouring around the clock or not but he started his shift at 2 am. Said it took about 500 yards per hole. The local concrete plant is part of a pretty big chain. They are bringing mixers and drivers from some distance away. Since I am pretty much housebound I have not seen any components on the road.

500 yards of concrete per wind turbine. ALL of which will be still in the ground IF they remove the towers. My guess is that those towers will just be abandoned and the land owner will be left with the responsibility of removing them.

Frank 41 · Oct 17, 2018

There is a farm of them from Bloomington to Gibson City, IL. It is pretty rolling ground around Saybrook and at the beginning they would pour the foundation and set the bottom tube and let it set. Then come back later to put the other 2 tubes on, then the headhouse with the generator in it. They put the blades on last. Then they would tear the crane down and move it to the next site and install the boom. Toward the end they would drive the crane to the next setting upright and plank it if they found a soft spot in the field. The plumb bob would have to be pretty accurate. A few around have puked a blade. They are wood.

Frank 41 · Oct 17, 2018

When they were remaking the bridge floors on I74 around Farmer City, there were trailers come through on 2 lane 150. There trailer looked to be 80' with 2 sets of 5 axles that was covered but only 5' tarped sides. They were east bound. When coming to a stop and had to turn 90 degrees, the back set of axles would crab. They would turn as tight as a 40' trailer. Then I would see them west bound and the two trailers would collapse into each other making it shorter. I was too interested in trying to figure what it was to see if all the axles were still on the ground.

Oversize (xtra-long) load.

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