"« Paul »" > wrote in :

> Willem-Jan Markerink wrote:
>>
>> For those who prefer to think in multi-wheel configurations....)
>>
>> ....it's life Jim, but not as we know it....)
>>
>> http://www.etftrucks.nl/Products/Roadtrains/
>>
>> F*cking brilliant....
>>
>> PS: until now, the Russian MAZ-9304 was the largest (all-wheel-drive!)
>> wheeled vehicle on earth (300 ton total):
>>
>> http://denisovets.narod.ru/maz/mazpages/maz7904.html
>>
>> (but apparently there was only one prototype made, and it is sadly rusting
>> away somewhere in a factory shed)
>> (perhaps 'hangar' is the better word....wouldn't mind having only that
>> shed, with storage room for several dozen ordinary vehicles....)
>>
>
> Great links. Thanks!
>

Mind you, only a few days earlier, I noticed the same 'pendulum dually' in an
article about the history of DAF (Dutch Van Doorne Automobiel
Fabriek)....back then, in 1934, only as a lazy axle on a semi-trailer
(niftily suspended by 2 traverse leafsprings, one front, one rear (outsides
of each pendulum resting on the tips of those springs)).
Could be an invention on the same level as the even more fascinating 'H-
drive'....and in this article (in a German magazine about truck-history) I
also read for the first time that it was the Dutch military officer 'Van
Trappen' who inspired the first incarnation of this 'Trado' axle (TRAppen &
DOorne), making very easy conversions possible of 4x4 trucks into 6x6 (or 4x2
into 4x6), with insanely good articulation on the rear axles (only limited by
the brake-system, in theory it could go all the way around, rear axle
becoming front axle).

Mind you2: this isn't the first electrical all-wheel drive monster vehicle
either, not even the first multi-multi-segment configuration....try googling
on 'LeTourneau Land Train', and be dazzled what was invented *and* deployed
in the 50's.
(at first, it just looks as one more crazy big 4x4/6x6 truck with non-driven
trailers, but they use gas generators in front-most and rear-most segment,
powering all wheels electrically)

Quite a shame that such marvels of technology are now rusting away somewhere,
long forgotten.


--
Bye,

Willem-Jan Markerink

The desire to understand
is sometimes far less intelligent than
the inability to understand

>
[note: 'a-one' & 'en-el'!]