What is this thing?
Is it real, or a photoshop job? What possible purpose could this device - apparently a very long trailer, with a very superfluous-looking gooseneck hitch, painted construction yellow - serve?
It’s for hauling very heavy equipment.
The 5th wheel is way up on top of the tractor, so it needs to be high. The curve is so that it can rotate about the 5th wheel and not hit the towing vehicle. It’s also massively built, because the trailer is designed to haul massive pieces of equipment, such as those oversized dump trucks or earth movers.
Here is a model of a CAT 784C lowboy hauler. Good for hauling 225 tons. The rig in the image you linked looks even larger. Perhaps something based off the CAT 790 series???
For a moment I figured you were talking about one of these (links safe for work):
Or this one, which works on the same principle but is made to look like a normal trailer so people don’t wonder WTF is that thing on the road.
Since we’re on the subject, here’s a fairly large rig I saw at the Kennecott Copper Mine last week.
Thanks. Further, could someone identify the designation of the towing vehicle there in the original pic? Is it designed to be fitted with a dump bed, or some other bed, or is it solely designed for towing?
Designation of towing vehicle: It’s what is commonly referred to as a BIGASS Tow Truck.
Not to be confused with the BIGASS Dump Truck seen about halfway down the page in this link.
Seriously though, I’d be willing to bet that it’s a modified version of the dump truck made by caterpillar. There’s not too many outfits in this world capable of turning out machinery that large.
ETA: Just in case it’s not clear, this is me being facetious. I’ve got half facts here; I know it’s a big caterpillar, but not the specific model name.
Would it also be of use to ensure that the weight falls above the axle, rather than somewhere behind the tow truck, so that whatever weight goes on the back, nothing will make the tractor pull a wheelie?
Driving across South Dakota on the interstate, I saw a rig like that in length but it was carrying a missle or two. I was following behind it and saw a deer run out in front of it. The brake lights flashed for a second but no deer ran away- instead a deer schmeer was left in the road out the back end of the trailer. I kid you not that the entire deer was no taller than a centimeter and it was 30 feet long. Truly amazing sight.
I am sorry I can not find a good picture of this as a static image but talking about missiles (and airplanes) It is always interesting when you pass a steercar, as I do every few years commuting to work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWIUbmWdISY
I would hate to deal with a panic stop with that setup.
Over the road trailers like that are usually called lowboys or low-haul trailers - it looks like these beasts go by the same name.
Elsewhere on the same website, they show the tractors equipped with water tank trailers, bucket trailers, and towing equipment that can be hooked directly to other machines. The first thing your pic reminded me of was a scraper pan, but my mining experience is limited - I’ve mostly done commercial/industrial excavation work.
The Mine I retired from had a couple of those huge lowboys. The last one was a 170 Ton WABCO Haulpac dump truck converted into a tow vehicle.
The unit was huge!
These would most likely never be seen on a byway, they are off road units.
That is a highway unit. All the 240 Ton truck boxes we get here are hauled from Gillette Wyoming just like that.
Looks like a tug designed solely to move large things like that trailer around the yard or into a pit mine. Similar to an airport tug or a dock tug, but much larger.