Geoff Roy 6th June 2016

Record-Breaking Trucks

We’re used to seeing trucks and HGVs on our roads, rolling along the motorways with their old familiar brands – the Stobarts and Dentressangles of the world. Constants and consistent presences on the road. We know what to expect from a truck – merrily making its way from A to B to C, delivering their loads on cue.

But what about the break from the norm? What about those trucks who have struck out and left their mark on the world?

You know, the record-breaking Lorries.

Like a Truck Jumping a Lotus?

Yes, that sort of thing.

We’ve certainly seen trucks used as objects over which to leap in the past, Evel Knievel used to regularly leap lorries and buses back in the day.

But, in a brazen break from tradition, Mike Ryan, a man noted for doing unusual things in a lorry, decided in 2014 to get behind the wheel and launch a truck over a Lotus F1 car – and straight into the Guinness Book of World Records with a leap of more than 87 foot.

Wanna See?

Back the Truck Up! The Record Reverser

And then there’s German driver Marco Hellgrewe who, in September 2008, clearly thought it would be an absolute hoot to see how far he could reverse an HGV.

Because, why not?

He then proceeded to drive an HGV around a training forces track in Bergen, Germany for five hours and twenty-one minutes as he backed the truck for 39.7 miles.

One has to wonder quite how he avoided going mad from the sound of the reverse-gear beeping.

A bit on the side

Meanwhile, across the border in Austria (albeit a few years earlier in 2004) Johann Redl took his 7420 kg Steyr 891 truck to the Wels Airport where he managed to steer the vehicle more than 10 miles on two wheels.

Now, that’s pretty impressive I grant you, but is it really as impressive as James Bond pulling a truck wheelie through fire and then driving a tanker on its side to avoid bazooka blasts?

I think not.

All aboard the road train

Australia is a big place with a whole lot of not much in the middle. Very nice not much, I grant you – but not much nonetheless.

Which makes for some considerably long and straight road journeys when heading from one side to the other. The scale and barrenness of the land plays a factor on the truck driving culture of the country and has given rise to the so-called road trains.

Essentially the road train is one very, very long truck. Comprised of multiple trailers the trucks (which are also used from time to time in Argentina, Canada and the USA) will roll along the open and fairly empty roads in the Australian heartland, delivering freight across the vast land.

And you really don’t want to be stuck behind one. The longest trucks / road trains comprising over 100 trailers and more than 140 wheels, stretching upwards of a mile in length.

And Finally…

A more industrious record to finish with the story of the Turkish team from Aras Cargo in Antalya who, to mark their 30th anniversary in operation, set about to create a new record for loading / uploading cargo to an HGV trailer.

Using a team of 15 employees, the Aras group managed, following 3 attempts, to set a new record of 16 minutes 38 seconds on 19th April 2009.