Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/319866
36 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | JUNE 2014 Pictured here is a 492,000-pound gas turbine on a Scheuerle like the one used to roll the generator, one of three such turbines that were part of the move. Contractors Cargo's trucks are Kenworth T800W models powered either by 550-hp or 500-hp Cummins engines with, respectively, 18-speed/2-speed auxiliary or 17/4 transmissions. Combinations for larger pulls, depending on grade, typically go as follows: 1 push and 1 pull, or 2 pulling. On the STG module, "we used 4 trucks," said Rabaino, "either 3 push and 1 pull or 2 and 2." All told, more than 70 fl atbed loads of components and accessory cargo were moved along with the fi ve main large pieces. The STG offl oaded from the sea at the Port of San Diego was the heaviest shipment the port had done in 10 years, said Rabaino. The route from San Diego moved north into Arizona, then traveled back down into Mexico. Weight and height restrictions dictated the route. "There are limited roads it can travel on," Rabaino said. Preparations included building special roads and obtaining permits from Indian reservations – likewise the use of rail on other portions of the load. The custom-built 43-axle trailer built to accommodate the STG comes in at 362 feet long with trucks and a maximum carrying capacity of 800,000 pounds, the biggest trailer Contractors Cargo has ever built and used, Rabaino said. The 562,000-pound generator unit pictured here, a separate piece of the haul, moved on a 24- line dual-lane Scheuerle trailer at the offl oad at the Port of Long Beach. From there, an 800-ton gantry was used to load it to railcar, then back to a Scheuerle trailer in Co- chise, Ariz., for the border crossing and fi nal leg to Agua Prieta. Contractors Cargo, a Los Angeles-based super-heavy- haul company, set off in April from two California ports on circuitous routes to Agua Prieta in the Mexican state of Sonora – hauling some massive pieces destined for an electrical power-generating station for the Federal Electrical Commission of Mexico. Contractors Cargo representative Keoni Rabaino provided these pictures that tell the story of the equipment used to haul the freight, including this 661,000-pound steam turbine generator. Planning began in February, and the haul was completed in May.