This fall Lampson Australia took part in a monumental heavy move project dubbed the Mackay Monster Move. The project was filled with challenges including railway crossings, overhead power lines, tight corners and intersections.
The route took us through north Queensland hauling a huge, extendable, outer shuttle ship-loader boom, built by local firm Melco Engineering. The boom had to be moved from its build site south of Mackay, to the city’s harbour.
The boom was loaded onto two trailers for transport and accompanied by a convoy of almost a dozen support vehicles. The boom measured 43.5m long, 8.3m wide, 6.3m high and weighed 175 tons. In a four-hour operation, three overhead cranes lowered the giant boom onto a pair of nine-axle Goldhofer trailers, the unit supported on universal and swivel bolsters so it could rotate and pivot simultaneously for maximum stability during the move.
Lampson rolled out two Mack Titan prime movers configured specifically for super-heavy haulage. Running 680-horsepower Mack engines and standard transmissions, but with Spicer ‘joey’ gearboxes and hub-mounted reduction gears added to their drivelines, the trucks have a 210-tonne allowable GVM. Because the trailers are connected by draw and push bars, each also has a 10-ton counterweight to boost drive-wheel traction. The full rig measured 76.5m from headlights to tail lights, stood 6.5m high, 8.3m wide and weighed a fraction under 345.5 tons, the prime movers alone accounting for approximately 44 tons.