World's biggest driving machines

 Here is an article from MSN from today that really caught my eye:

World's biggest driving machines



To read more about the machines, cool facts like weight and height (very interesting reading!), just click the link above, it will take you to the full MSN article. I wanted to post the truck pics here. 

Caterpillar 797F 

Komatsu D575A
 

LeTourneau L-2350  

Big Bud 16V-747 

Hitachi 'Big Bertha' tunnel boring machine

NASA crawler-transporter

Bagger 288

Caterpillar finally rolling down the highways!

So .... like so many other people, I've reunited with an old friend through Facebook, and what do you know, he's a truck driver.   The other day, he sent me a photo of a really neat truck from CAT!

Unfortunately for him, he didn't get to drive it, but still .... he's probably one of the first ones to actually catch a glimpse of this new Caterpillar truck!

I had no idea Caterpillar made such nice-looking machines, so of course, nosey me had to investigate.

Turns out these trucks are brand spanking new! It's a Class 8 CT660.  It's a versatile truck, doing anything from hauling your waste to the dump to hauling your furniture, heavy goods and whatever else needs transporting down the highway.

Caterpillar didn't enter the vocational truck business without the proper research!   They sent team members out to ride along with truckers to observe what the truckers enjoyed comfort wise, what they lacked, what they wished for.... They looked into what the ultimate solutions would be for the best visibility, best comfort and best specs, all of the information was gathered from the ones who know these trucks the best: Truck Drivers!

I'm so excited about the birth of a new truck.  Not only is it good looking, but Caterpillar is a trusted brand what heavy machinery is concerned, so it'll be exciting to see what this highway truck of theirs will mount to and how popular it will be.

Cosmetically speaking, I think it bares somewhat of a resemblance to the Mack truck, but it's got its own style as well.

The pictures below have been shamelessly copied and borrowed from the Caterpillar website.

To learn more about this new truck, go visit http://www.drivecat.com
There they have all kinds of neat videos posted, as well as more information about their new truck.

Now let's get to the juicy stuff... the pictures!! Away we go!



Again, for more information about this truck, visit http://www.drivecat.com 
Their videos are really cool and you can get a better view of the CT660 there.

Anyone driving a CT660, feel free to visit us on Facebook and upload your pic!! (Or at least a pic of the truck ..... who are we kidding, that's really what we want to see ;-) hehe

Famous Trucks - Optimus Prime - Our Knight in Shining Armor from Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

Optimus Prime & the gang from Transformers Revenge of the Fallen
Contents of blog: Optimus Prime, Devastator - all rigs that compose the monster + photos of a couple of the 4-wheelers

(Photos: All photos of Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide and Sideswipe were taken by me. If anybody wants to use them for non-commercial web sites, that's ok with me but it would be nice to get the credit for the photos, as I really try to give people credit myself when I borrow their pictures :))

Displayed outside the Arclight Theater this weekend was none other than Optimus Prime, along with Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Ironhide. This exhibit was a must-see for me. The Arclight is a phenomenal theater to watch movies in, so although we didn't have to see the movie in order to view the cars on display, we of course opted to see the it while we were there. (Yeah, I fell for the advertising ;-)) I liked the movie a lot, apart from the "love scene" episodes in the movie, which I felt were redundant and just plain annoying. But for truck lovers, there was a lot of eyecandy.

Anyway, forget the movie. Let's get to the fun stuff... the TRUCKS!!!! MORE Specifically, Optimus Prime, who was on display outside the theater! Optimus had me fooled! I was certain that it was a Kenworth W900, but further research shows that Optimus Prime (at least the modern version of Optimus) is in fact a Peterbilt 379 EX! What a sweeeet ride! Absolutely gorgeous. I did go a little crazy with the camera, of course. The beauty of digital cameras is you can snap all you want without having to pay for development of the pictures.

In this blog I will mainly focus on Optimus, however further down I also have the rigs that make up the Devastator as well as a few shots of Bumblebee, Ironhide and SideSwipe, despite the fact that under normal circumstances, they are about 14 wheels short of making it into my blog ;-)

OPTIMUS PRIME
The original Optimus Prime was a Cabover Freighliner FL-86. Below is a photo of a blue/white COE freightliner, the original optimus was red. (All I could find was miniature models & toy versions of the freightliner so I opted for a differently colored Freightliner instead so I could post a pic of a real truck! So...just picture the truck below in red....


I know that fans of the original transformers were disappointed when they changed Optimus Prime from a flatnosed COE to a Peterbilt 379, but as a fan of big rigs, I must say I am happy they went with the Peterbilt.

From what I've read, the reason they went with the Peterbilt was so that Optimus Prime as a robot would be bigger and badder! :) Optimus Prime's height as a robot is 28 feet and all the mechanics of the CGI model would not have been possible if they had stuck with the cabover. Sticking with the cabover in this case would have dropped his height to 20 feet. (For you metric fanatics, that's a drop from 10 meters to 7 meters).Here are some of the photos I took of Optimus in truck form, while he was displayed outside the Arctern Theater. Sweet ride!!

Optimus Prime - Grill

Optimus - Hood ornament / emblem

Optimus - Sideview of cab

Optimus Prime - Front Left Side

Optimus Prime - View of the side

Optimus Prime - Rear tail lights

Optimus Prime - Rear tail lights


Optimus Prime - Head lights



Optimus Prime - Rear wheels & fenders


Optimus Prime - Blue lights on top

Optimus - From the back
Optimus Prime - Frontal view

Optimus Prime - Right side

Optimus Prime - Left side again
DEVASTATOR

Devastator was made up from 7 different vehicle constructs.

Below is a description of each construct and a photo of each.

LONG HAUL - Devastator's Right Leg
Mining trucks are becoming a favorite of mine. Until I started writing this blog, I had no clue about their existance at all. Yesterday while watching the Transformer, I was undeniably excited to see this baby roll on to the scene.

This is a Caterpillar 773 Dump Truck. Empty, it weighs almost 870000 lbs, it's 30 feet long, 15 feet wide and 13 feet tall and can carry about 50 ton! I love it! I really do!!

Long Haul - green Caterpillar 773 Dump Truck as seen in the movie

Long Haul - a yellow cousin of the truck in the movie.

SCAVENGER - Upper Torso
Scavenger is awesome! It's a red O&K/Terex RH400 Hydraulic Mining Excavator and weighs 1,553,220 lbs. (2,223,000 lb use-weight) This is the largest hydraulic shovel in the world and the biggest front shovel excavator in the world. It's literally a house on wheels, rumor has it that there is a resting area next to the cab, completely outfitted with microwave, refrigerator and sleeping bunk. This monster is 32 feet wide and 33 feet high (from top of driver's cab to the ground). These monsters are built in Germany and so far, there is only one of these in the USA.

Scavenger - O&K/Terex RH400 Hydraulic Mining Excavator

Here is Scavenger dwarfing a Chevy SUV!

Scavenger - a white version I included to show you how huge it is compared to a person.


OVERLOAD - part of Devastator's torso
(formed with Scavenger, who is described above)

Overload is a red Komatsu HD465-7, it's a big boy as well! Empty weight is 95,000 lbs and it's about 30 feet wide and 15 feet wide.

Overload - Here is a photo of a real Komatsu HD465-7 - the movie version is red

Overload - Red Komatsu HD465-7 (I think this is a model only)

HIGH TOWER - Left Arm
High Tower is a Kobelco CK2500 Truss Crane. It weighs about 458,000 lbs and can lift 250 tons. Certainly a massive construct & Devastator worthy!

High Tower - Kobelco CK2500 Truss Crane

SCRAPPER - Right arm
Scrapper is a yellow Caterpillar 992G Front Loader. It saw the day of light in 1992 and was for a period of time the largest earth mover in the world. It weighs over 204,000 lbs and can bite off 16 cubic yard chunks out of the earth at a time. Overall height, with the bucket (scooper) raised is 30 feet and overall length of this baby is 51 feet (including bucket)

Scrapper - Caterpillar 992G Front Loader


RAMPAGE - Left leg
Rampage is a yellow Caterpillar D9L Bulldozer and is a 107,000 lbs earth mover. It's used by military around the world to clear mining areas and for heavy road building operations.

Scavenger - Caterpillar D9L Bulldozer

MIX MASTER - Devastator's head

Mix Master is a silver & white Mack cement truck. As cool as it looks, it's no match for the big guys that make up the rest of this construct. Macks are nice but the rest of the babies in this constructs make this one fairly insignificant... sorry ole Mack! (But it looks nice!!)

Mix Master - Mack Cement Truck (here in red/white)

FOUR WHEELED TRANSFORMERS
Below are some photos of Bumblebee, Ironhide and Sideswipe that I took when they were on display outside the Arclight Theater in Hollywood. Normally they wouldn't make it into my blog (well, the GMC might, it's bad ass!!) but this is a special occasion ;-)

IRONHIDE - 2007 GMC TopKick C4500

SIDESWIPE - 2011 Chevy Corvette Centennial

BUMBLEBEE - 2010 Chevy Camaro