Try green-laning in this!

It says it's not but I don't fancy driving one round that S bend with another coming the other way. I wonder how much actual driving the operator has to do and how much is done by the computer(s) do for them.

Well OBVIOUSLY the computer has to do a lot - how the hell would you fit in all the little steering wheels otherwise....

Steve

Reversing would be a bitch, you'd have to walk half a mile to get to the other cab..

Funny ! But... Given its ALL powered, it must be possible to reverse it - now that's something I'd like to see. What an awesome piece of kit. I like its central tyre system that detects damaged tyres and lifts them off the ground.

Steve

It certainly is possible to reverse it, in fact they make a point of it on the page, it has the last vehicle in the train facing in the other direction so that a driver can hop into it and drive the train the other way.

The big caveat in all of this of course is that the images are computer graphics, no pictures of actual metal, so it's possible that there aren't any in actual existence at the moment.

What a beast, want!

In message , Ian Rawlings writes old but...

That's a good 'un.. How's this;

One of the screw-thread pontoon machines, very interesting to see one in action.

On or around Mon, 5 Nov 2007 22:20:33 +0000, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

now, that's clever.

I did wonder how to unload the trucks, in the renders, the front and rear trucks have cabs but the others don't, and they can carry 10 tonnes or so more as a result so there must be quite a lot missing. If that's the case, how can you move them around a site to be loaded up and to unload them.. Remote control doesn't sound appealing and 10 tonnes of removed controls would be hard to just plug in, but I can't think what they could remove that would weigh that much and still leave the thing able to be controlled by a lead truck.

Still, they don't seem to really exist, so not much point thinking about it ;-)

On or around Tue, 6 Nov 2007 10:16:44 +0000, mark enlightened us thusly:

how about this one?

(the bit at the beginning especially)

Seems to be a bit of a habit with Tatra;

Makes Land Rover's history look pretty lame!

Maybe they tip sideways? I've seen 3 way tipping on smaller vehicles.

But as there aren't any photos & it doesn't show it, maybe they've just not thought about it.

There's pics of it tipping on the site, but only rearwards, I'd have thought they'd publicise three-way tipping if it was there, considering that it'd be hard to do it on such a payload without using a lot of extra metal.

Still no pics of it in real life though so I suspect it's wishful thinking.

You're proably right about wishful thinking.

Says that 2 way tipping is mentioned by a company spokesman "Two-way side-tippers are also possible depending on the products to be transported".

You'd never get down any of the lanes I've used;-)

9 metres width of roadway, it wants. It's also a miracle worker on the cost side, as it can save from 40 to *560*% on operating costs:-)

Now, if I could only find a way to do that with a Land Rover.....

I have been working in Roznoft in the Czech republic recently - its five miles from the Tatra factory and museum. Some amazing vehicles in there !

Steve

The chap who originally told me about them has just said that the first orders are already in and the first machines are scheduled for delivery in early 2008 so could be reality yet.

On or around Tue, 6 Nov 2007 15:39:08 +0000, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

there was something on the site about side tipping. The road train almost certainly would side tip. the head and tail units are suitable for use as individual trucks.

But it's still going forwards if you define the "front" as being the unit with operator in. Can you really reverse it? ie the operator doesn't have to get out and walk to the other end.