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

Big Rig of the Week: King Off the Road

Today's post was inspired by some funny photos I received in my email today. The photos were actually a series of funny "Ooops" moments type of photos, but as the truck enthusiast that I am, I went straight for the big trucks.

I couldn't stand only posting the photos without researching this truck some more. After all, this blog is for educating as much as for entertaining. I knew this was a mining truck, due to the blog post I wrote a while back about the Liebherr (The world's largest truck), so I swung by Google and found out some more info on the particular truck below.

I've posted a couple of regular photos of the truck here, but the funny photos as well as an awesome video clip of a Cat 785D doing a donut. That's impressive!

Caterpillar 785D Mining Truck

Maximum load: 150 ton

Overall body length: 37 ft 9 inches

Overall height: 38 ft 9 inches

Width (Canopy): 22 ft 1 in

For more stats & info on this machine, please visit http://www.cat.com/cmms/images/C482772.pdf

It's a PDF file that'll tell you everything you need to know about this big guy!

So....... maximum load for this truck is 150 ton ... it's hard to even imagine what the weight of this boulder could be.

Suppose this driver cut off the wrong truck?

Below is an awesome video of a driver doing a donut in a Caterpillar 785D
Now that takes some skill!

Big Rig Chronicles: The Western Star

While researching the history of the Western Star, it was clear that this truck was designed first and foremost with the driver in mind. Although I’m sure that they mean it was designed for the driver of the actual truck, the Western Star is quite the eye candy for the ones of us who share the road with the Western Star. Unfortunately I don’t see nearly enough Western Stars on the road, at least not in my part of the country, but boy do they ever stand out when they do roll down the highway. Huge & majestic, usually equipped with a massive sleeper cab, this is the type of truck that’ll run you off the road, not because the truck can’t stay between the lines but because it’s so eye catching, a poor truck-smitten commuter may forget what they are doing and veer off the road.

The Western Star is quite young compared to the other trucks I’ve written about so far. It was born in 1967 in Cleveland, Ohio, although the production of the truck mainly took place in Canada. It was founded on the belief that the most valuable asset in trucking is the truck driver, which is probably why the sleeper cabs on these trucks stand out so much. While developing and manufacturing trucks for all sorts of fields, such as mining, logging and military usage, they never lost sight of who the truck ought to accommodate the most: The trucker.

During the 1980s, the Western Star trucks continued to grow and demand their share of the market as the Western Star gained reputation as a durable and reliable truck. They started advancing the cabs by increasing head room and improving the visibility for the driver.

Although young, Western Stars have been busy playing catch-up, which is evident by the timeline I’m about to list in this article. Rather than trying to incorporate these dates into a story, I found it easier and more organized to line them up, something which usually isn’t my style because I like to write articles, but there’s always an exception somewhere and this is it.

Anyway, here is a list of the major developments of the Western Star:

1986: Supertilt hood was introduced, one of the earliest versions of the sloped hood for trucks
1987: Cornerstone chassis was introduced, this platform reduced cost as well as weight and complexity.
1990: 6900XD entered production
1992: Significant contracts were won with the Canadian military, PT Freeport mining in Indonesia and for highway maintenance trucks in British Columbia. (Military Western Star displayed below)
1996: Western Star introduced and launched the Constellation cab & sleeper, a large-sized and comfortable cab of welded steel.
1998: the Star Light Sleeper was introduced, featuring a major weight-reduction solution for Western Star and the industry as a whole by their design and also by cradling a polypropylene honeycomb core between two aluminum sheets.
2002: Western Star moved to Portland Oregon and they also introduced the LowMax package, which came with a lot of options for customized stainless steel accessories. (LowMax pictured below...) 2003: The 82 and the 68 Stratosphere sleeper cabs were introduced. The 82 inch was a walk-through sleeper with roof-mounted air horns and marker lights…the only one of its kind. The 68-inch cab was longer and designed for Canadian customers where they require a shorter wheelbase than in the US.
Also in 2003, the 6900XD became available with Twin-Steer. (I’ve never seen this and had to look it up…. Doesn’t it look wicked!)
2006: The Stratosphere sleeper line becomes the broadest line of walk-through sleepers in the industry. The largest cab in the industry if a Stratosphere 82 inch Ultra-High.

Below is a Western Star sporting a Stratosphere sleeper cab.

So the driver’s comfort seems to always have been a major factor whenever Western Star introduced new lines and technologies for their trucks, which makes it a natural development that their sleeper cabs are some of the best in the industry. (Although I wouldn’t be one to judge this as my experience with sleeper cabs is limited… :) ) The driver’s comfort seems to be an underlying theme to most of the changes that have taken place since the Western Star’s beginning in 1967.

Although most of the manufacturing of the Western Star took place in Canada, it has now all been moved over to American plants and the Western Star is an all-American truck.

Although the Kenworth is my favorite truck, there's no denying that when a Western Star comes rolling down the freeway, it certainly outshines the rest of the trucks. It's comfy, it's powerful and it's looks are stellar.... what is not to like? :)

(Really...since I don't see too many Western Stars on the road, it leads me to believe that the price may be high.... I guess I ought to do a blog post about big rigs and pricing to get a better overview.... frankly, I have no idea how much a truck costs.... :))

I want to point out that every single one of these photos were borrowed from www.westernstar.com .... obviously they have the best photos of their own trucks, but also, during my brief time as a big rig photographer in training, I have yet to get a photo op with a Western Star.... )

Life 8 Feet Up - great blog!

This is the first time I'm advertising another blog on my website.... I do this rarely because I don't want to be an advertising blog .... :) How much weight would my word carry if I advertised another blog every day ...

This blog however, is awesome and I can't help but posting his link on my blog!
This guy is a truck driver, he has a camera with him and takes photos of cars making stupid moves in traffic (and that's putting it mildly...).

If you have some extra time, I highly suggest you take a look at this blog:

http://dalethetruckdriver.blogspot.com/

Not only will it be an entertaining read for you, but it may also be enlightning & give you something to think about the next time you're sharing the road with a big rig.

Happy reading!

Big Rig of the Week - "Wind Spirit"

Ok so my big rig of the week...has become more like "big rig when I have time to post it".... so sorry about that. I carry my camera with me so I can capture big rigs when I see them, so I do have a lot of nice ones lined up for my big rig "of the week" series.... maybe someday, it'll actually be a weekly posting once again.

This beautiful Kenworth was parked a few blocks away from my house. We were driving home one night after dinner, when I spotted the rig and had my husband turn around and go back so I could photograph it. The photos are a bit dark, I'm still working on my photography skills as well... but you can clearly see the beautiful airbrushings on the side of this Kenworth.
It was sooo gorgeous, I know my camera and I can't possibly capture the real thing the way it deserves to be captured, but we did our best.

I love it when truckers put so much heart & soul into their big rigs... this rig is obviously very personal to someone, the drawings and the names associated with them has to mean something special to the person who is roaming the freeways in this beautiful truck.

Here is the front, showing the gorgeous Kenworth grill.... gotta love it:
Showing off the entire side of the rig. The airbrushings are on the front, above the Kenworth logo and on the sleeper cab, to the right of the smoke stack.

Here's a closer shot of the front of the truck, showing the airbrushing a bit better:
Here is a closeup of the airbrushing on the front. I know it's hard to see from this photo, but the writing underneath the painting reads "Wind Spirit"

Here's a picture of the second air brushing.

Below is a photo of the airbrushing which I tried to lighten a little bit in photoshop, just so you can see the actual picture better.

Seeking photos of worn out trucks!

Got a big rig with peeling paint and a bumper that’s not quite hanging on, or maybe there’s a gaping hole in the grill? If so, I would love a photo of it!

Up till now, I mostly have photos of perfect, new and polished rigs on my blog.

I want to put up some worn out big rigs that show marks of a long life on the road. These trucks deserve as much dedication as those new ones that just rolled out from the manufacturer, just because their feathers are a bit ruffled doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have their time in the spotlight.

Anyway, I would love photos of old & worn out big rigs, feel free to message me here or you can email photos & big rig stats & anything else you want to share about the truck to the email listed below. If you have a website, I’d be happy to display the link when I post the photo of your truck.

My email address is 18wheelbeauties@gmail.com

Thank you very much & Stay safe out there!

Famous Trucks - Snowman's Truck ("Smokey & the Bandit")

There wasn’t much info to gather about the trucks that were used in the movie “Smokey and the Bandit”. I guess Convoy was a better truck movie, judging by the amount of material I was able to gather about Rubberduck’s truck as opposed to the minimal info I found about Snowman’s truck.
There is quite a lot of speculation is flying around on message boards and such regarding which trucks were used in this movie, but I finally found enough evidence to list the following about the “Smokey and the Bandit” truck, with 99% confidence that these are the true facts:

* Three Kenworth W900s were used in the movie (yay!) (Although some websites suggests that more than 3 trucks were used….)
* Two of the three trucks were 1974 models, which can be confirmed by looking at the grill, where the standard silver Kenworth emblems are displayed.
* The last Kenworth was a 1973 model. It sports a gold plated Kenworth emblem on its grill, something which signifies Kenworth 50th anniversary, as the business was established in 1923.
* All trucks were painted brown with golden edges and equipped with 38” sleeper cabs.

* The mural trailer was 48 feet long & manufactured by Hobbs Trailers in Texas.

If anyone has more info on these trucks used in Smokey & THe Bandit, feel free to leave it here :-)