Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The World's Largest Truck - Liebherr T 282B

Ok, so I wanted to try to vary my big rig content so that first of all, *I* don’t get bored writing this blog and secondly, people don’t get bored of reading this blog.
(Oh wait, the readers should probably be my first concern, huh?)

Anyway, I’m constantly trying to come up with various topics, preferably topics that somehow include big rigs somehow.

Today it was my curiosity that finally lead me on a Google-powered chase as I started looking up what the “World’s Largest Truck” is.


The world’s largest truck is a mining truck named “Liebherr T 282B”. This is a German truck that saw daylight in 2004. Although developed by Liebherr, the truck is built by hand in Newport News, Virginia, where they have a 10 acre factory that can accommodate 4 trucks at a time.

Accommodating 4 of these babies at once is no small feat, as you will understand once you read the stat of the Liebherr T282Bs :

Body Length: 50 ft 3 inches
Body Height: 25 ft 9 inches
Wheelbase: 21 ft 7 inches

Empty Weight: 224 ton (including a 11.5 ton engine!)
Max Capacity: 400 ton
Max operating capacity: 653 ton

Comparison: A regular sedan weighs about 3000 lbs - so 1 of these trucks equals the weight of about 150 Nissan Altimas...

Horse Power: 3,650
Max. Speed: 40mph
Fuel Capacity: 1,250 gallons

PRICE: $ 3.5 million …

(CD and air conditioner is optional…you would think for that price, it would be included? Then on the flipside, if you spend that much for a truck, paying for CD player and AC may not seem like a big deal….)

The truck is actually a hybrid. Its 11.5 ton, 90 liter diesel engine powers two electric engines that are located in the rear axle of the truck, and as stated above, it can get up to a 40mph speed.


Isn't this the coolest truck ever? :)


(See how teeny a person is next to this monster? Rumor has it a
driver of one of these trucks once crushed a regular sized service
truck and didn't even notice it.....)


Note: The information for this blog was gathered from various trucking websites, but most of it is from wikipedia, along with the photos. The photos are from the Virginia plant where these trucks are being built.

9 comments:

Heather S-G said...

wow...you've really re-worked your blog since last time I stopped by...it looks great!! I checked out one of your older (I think?) blogs last week sometime and saw that you luv Bret Michaels...he's actually going to be here (Indiana) in a couple of weeks & 20 lucky girls will be getting to spend his birthday with him...anyhoo...it made me think of you since I had just read your blog w/ all the pix of him :) Good luck w/ your big rig blog (you're making me appreciate them a little more)!

Marie Reed said...

Lol! Liebherr means nice guy in German too!

Laila said...

girlichef: Thanks!! :) I still have my other blog but I've been having more fun with this one, so I put my personal blog on hold for a while :-) (Until I get "blogariffic" enough to juggle 2 blogs at once! hehe)

I'm glad I can increase the appreciation for big rigs! :)

Laila said...

Marie: A "Nice guy" huh? That's awesome lol....I guess that means this truck must be a gentle giant? Hehe :) (I still feel I should get out of the way should I ever get across one, nice or not! lol)

Isuzu said...

Wow, those Germans sure know how to build a truck!

Anonymous said...

Sorry to say, we have 26 of these giant pieces of garbage. We had to derate ours to 340tons capacity to try and keep them running, as they wouldn't handle the higher load rating. The new Cat 797F is actually a larger truck.

online viagra said...

Great post. I think one of the basic things that we should know know is that we must always make sure that you are safe in every transactions you wanted to indulge with.

discount viagra said...

Hello I enjoyed yoiur article. I think you have some good ideas and everytime i learn something new i dont think it will ever stop always new info , Thanks for all of your hard work!.

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_797F

The CAT 797F has a higher payload capacity.

BTW I love your blog.