road trains

haha just came from visiting a friend from australia,and i see a b double over there,i think i still can drive that one a reversing it but certainly when u hauling 3 to fives trailers its gotta to be blady difficult to reverse it and most of the drivers who haul up to five trailers are those who worked in mines and the weight they haul is really incredible,imagine more than 100 tones going up hill and down hill.
i certainly respect australians road trains drivers as i found out the job is not easy

 

a Two 45' roadtrain can gross around 80 tonnes, a thre trailer is around 105t, four 140 and everything otherwise is usually on a permit, so weights as per the permit.

Roadtrains dont really reverse.. too many pivot points.

B-Doubles on the otherhand, are not nearly as bad, and with practice, can be maneuvered proficently.

 

yeah just drive the road train forward only theres heaps of 2 trailer road trains west of mackay at nebo see ya yas

 

17 prime movers, 51 trailers outback Australia at Helen Springs Station.
Truckiesonline

 

now that's a convoy. No McMega carrier trying to pass those guys.

 

You can back a double roadtrain with practice but not a triple - well not with accuracy

I had mine worker ask me to back a triple around a corner so a dump truck could get through, i just laughed at him and said "YEAH RIGHT MATE" lol
I ended up backing it up in a straight line fairly well but only for around 50m or so before rear trailer started to wonder

As for question on how hard to drive - Not really hard, the trailers pretty much all follow themselves and nearly over the same line as one in front of it so if you give yourself an extra 2m turning space you'll be fine

Hardest part of driving these is backing the dolly under the trailers as you usually have the dolly connected to the lead trailer and then back them as a set under the rear trailer, obviously you do this twice if driving a triple

I was running out of Perth for mines up in Port Hedland and Karratha which means you can only drive a double train out of Perth and have to connect 3rd out at a place called Wubin which is around 3hrs out. If you don't have someone taking your lead trailer out for you then your going to lose a day as will be over 9hrs driving before you have all trailers hooked up. Nearly all companies over there send out your lead though so you don't have to do this

As for driving, obviously no where near as quick as singles or doubles, takes quite amount of time to wind them up and also slow them down, in some cases it can take nearly 10 minutes to get them upto 62mph, especialy heading out of Wubin with a heavy triple with over 100T on board as it has a very slight incline for around 20-30km (around 20 miles in your language i think)

Hope this info is what you're after

If want to lnow anything specific let me know

 

The guy's have it pretty much covered, can't really add anything. I can't but my father inlaw can reverse a road train with 4 trailers around corners (don't ask me how, he is a freak). I stick to B-Doubles runing the east coast / South East of Queensland, they now track very well compared to about 15 years ago when they first appeared, slight trailer improvements, over the past 10 years or so. Reversing them is pretty easy once you work out to ignore the A trailer (lead trailer)

 

iv pulled road trains in australia=3 45fters,and it aint bad but as far as backing the i didnt do any that besides just for sh#@s and giggles cause i brought it up.its all mostly forward pulling.just watch out for cattle and kangaroos lol.thats what the big brush guards are for lol.

 

If you know your gears your fine.. if you get asked to reverse; just laugh, if they order you, then hop out, and let them try (no, dont do that)

Trucks do get boosted up here, and when you try to overtake one in the outback, it will take ages if your in another truck..