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OT: in Germany , early 2020, a 240 ton tank rolls off SPMT into ditch

Spud

Diamond
Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Location
Brookfield, Wisconsin
Germany - the heavy haul and maritime services company Royal Wagenborg were transporting two 240 ton tanks. One rolls off. The reasons given appear to be that the road banked at that section. The irony is that SPMTs are ideally suited to counteract banking. Have not read anything stating that one side of the SPMT was lowered and the other raised to keep the platform level when banking.

Took about a month to finally get everything salvaged and the tanks moved.


This is the kind of video that would given PTSD to the project's head of operations.


Longer video and salvaged tank being taken away.
Heavy Haulage of Giant Tank Gone Wrong! - YouTube
 
Wagenborg is a local company and I know them well. I have worked with them on occasion. Altogether a professional and pleasant company to work with. Acoording to the local paper the cause was human error. As far as I can gather from the newspaper article the operator responsible for the leveling of the spmt did the reverse of the necessary adjustment for the bank and the tank rolled off. Acoording to the article he was quite shaken, was offered professional help and, above all, not fired.
 
Wagenborg is a local company and I know them well. I have worked with them on occasion. Altogether a professional and pleasant company to work with. Acoording to the local paper the cause was human error. As far as I can gather from the newspaper article the operator responsible for the leveling of the spmt did the reverse of the necessary adjustment for the bank and the tank rolled off. Acoording to the article he was quite shaken, was offered professional help and, above all, not fired.


I watched several videos of Wagenborg since last year, and read a few articles; my understanding is that they are a top shelf company and focused on Maritime services. That's nice to know the company was kind to the operator. I don't know if that would be the norm here.

Even the best of the best make mistakes, here is a crawler crane super-structure sliding off an SPMT being transported by Mammoet. Not in the same league as the Wagenborg accident.

 
here is a crawler crane super-structure sliding off an SPMT being transported by Mammoet
I found myself shouting at the video "Slow down! Shit! Slow down!" but the lead tractor was already skidding, being pushed by the load at that point. Was there nobody in the cab of the following tractor? Ah, looks like he bailed out of the vehicle when things went out of control. Also, the ground guide dancing over the rip-rap was not a sign of professional planning.
 
I found myself shouting at the video "Slow down! Shit! Slow down!" but the lead tractor was already skidding, being pushed by the load at that point. Was there nobody in the cab of the following tractor? Ah, looks like he bailed out of the vehicle when things went out of control. Also, the ground guide dancing over the rip-rap was not a sign of professional planning.


The driver in the lead truck stayed in the cab, the driver in the rear truck bailed out.
 
I thought the guy on the ground was going to slip and fall under a wheel and be crushed.

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Might have resulted in bigger wreck but lead driver needed to get off brakes and steer out of it.

I bet he called the trail driver a pussy for bailing out.


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Here is another case of a large tank rolling off a SPMT. This one is worse because of the proximity to homes and people, and no ditch to stop the rolling, but it doesn't roll too much because of the cradle built to hold the tank. The black SUV hightailed it out of there quick.

 
I totally agree that the guy in the lead truck should have let it roll down the hill rather than lock and skid off the side.




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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
I've ran platform trailers before, and in my opinion speed played a role in this mishap. There may have also been other factors to blame also, that can't be seen from the video, but speed was one of the major contributing factors. At the speed they were traveling, there is no way a trailer operator would have been able to keep up with maintaining level, the trailers don't level that fast. With something like this with a high center of gravity, maintaining level is critical. Once something like this gets to leaning, it often overloads the suspension on the lower side of the trailer, after that point there is nothing you can do but step back and watch it roll.

Most of the time, these trailer's suspension are setup in a 3-point configuration. While it looks like a stable platform with all those axles and wheels, the axle suspension circuits are configured in a 3-point load bearing configuration. The reason for this is to insure you have equal loading across all axle lines. You can set them up on 4-points, but you have to really move slow and the operator has to really stay on top of axle pressures.

To explain this better, say you have a 4 axle line platform trailer. On the front 2 axle lines, 2 axles on one side will be on 1 circuit, and the 2 axles on the other side will be on a circuit. Manipulating these 2 circuits will change the bed level left to right. The back 2 axle lines will have all axles tied into the same circuit, this makes the 3rd point. Moving the rear 2 axle line circuit will raise and lower the platform front to back. Configuring this way works just like a 3 legged stool, each "leg" will always carry 1/3rd of the load.
 
I wondered if it wasn't a matter of not being able to level out at that speed when watching, but I had no clue.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
I wondered if it wasn't a matter of not being able to level out at that speed when watching, but I had no clue.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

On the rest of the video, when they are going though town, that is the speed they should have been going. Walking speed. On loads like this, you lay a carpenter's level on the deck and keep it in the lines. No way a trailer operator could keep up at those speeds and in a banked curve like that.

On the second video, looks like multiple things went wrong. Frist, they should have made sure the road was clear before they crested the hill. It also looks like the trailer brakes were working some (it appears the front axle tires were sliding some before the truck started sliding) but they weren't working like they should. With that many axles and good brakes, they should have had a lot of stopping power.
 
On the rest of the video, when they are going though town, that is the speed they should have been going. Walking speed. On loads like this, you lay a carpenter's level on the deck and keep it in the lines. No way a trailer operator could keep up at those speeds and in a banked curve like that.

On the second video, looks like multiple things went wrong. Frist, they should have made sure the road was clear before they crested the hill. It also looks like the trailer brakes were working some (it appears the front axle tires were sliding some before the truck started sliding) but they weren't working like they should. With that many axles and good brakes, they should have had a lot of stopping power.

Agree on that, some type of level seniors, and perhaps outrigger axils to be brought in at the event of off-sided weight.

That tipping tank seems that the trailer was only 1/3 of the width of the tank.

We had a big nuclear waste tank transported through Michigan that many were worried about. My buddy took photos of it barely making it through town. I wish I had kept some of the photos as now they are hard to find. most of the reference to the transport seems to have disappeared.

[the reactor vessel itself radioactive), as well as due to radioactive contamination from experimental plutonium fuel rods which ruptured within it, the huge (282 ton) reactor vessel will travel by truck, train, and perhaps even barge before reaching its burial site.]
[The semi-secret shipment bearing the radioactive cargo traveled by heavy haul truck (96 wheels, traveling at a maximum speed of 5 miles per hour due to the heavy load) from Charlevoix through Petoskey on US 31, then...

Highly-Radioactive Nuclear Reactor Moving from Michigan Through Several States an Route to South Carolina Dump * NIRS

The nuclear plant is gaining plans to dismantle it.
NRC approves transfer of Palisades, Big Rock Point to Holtec for decommissioning -- ANS / Nuclear Newswire
 
Agree on that, some type of level seniors, and perhaps outrigger axils to be brought in at the event of off-sided weight.

That tipping tank seems that the trailer was only 1/3 of the width of the tank.

We had a big nuclear waste tank transported through Michigan that many were worried about. My buddy took photos of it barely making it through town. I wish I had kept some of the photos as now they are hard to find. most of the reference to the transport seems to have disappeared.

[the reactor vessel itself radioactive), as well as due to radioactive contamination from experimental plutonium fuel rods which ruptured within it, the huge (282 ton) reactor vessel will travel by truck, train, and perhaps even barge before reaching its burial site.]
[The semi-secret shipment bearing the radioactive cargo traveled by heavy haul truck (96 wheels, traveling at a maximum speed of 5 miles per hour due to the heavy load) from Charlevoix through Petoskey on US 31, then...

Highly-Radioactive Nuclear Reactor Moving from Michigan Through Several States an Route to South Carolina Dump * NIRS

The nuclear plant is gaining plans to dismantle it.
NRC approves transfer of Palisades, Big Rock Point to Holtec for decommissioning -- ANS / Nuclear Newswire

Semi-secret? Kind of hard to move something that size across the country and keep it a secret. Lol
 








 
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