It is nothing unusual to see old familiar brands of HGVs and trucks moving on our motorways, the world’s Dentressangles and Stotbarts. These are consistently and constantly present on the roads. Trucks make their way from A to B, and on to C, merrily delivering their loads as required, all as expected. See here for HGV licence cost.
But do they break out from the norm at times? Yes, they do. There are some trucks that have left their mark on the trucking world by striking out from the norm.
These are the trucks that have broken records.
The sort of thing, like a truck jumping over a Lotus.
Trucks have been used in the past, as objects that have been jumped over, something that Evel Knievel used to do in the earlier days when he jumped over lorries and buses.
But, breaking tradition, a man named Mike Ryan who had a reputation for doing things with a lorry that were unusual, decided in the year 2014, to jump over a racing car, the Steyr 891Lotus F1, by getting behind the wheel of his truck. This made him get an entry in the Guinness Book of Records with his leap that extended over 87 feet.
The Record Reverse – Backing a Truck
In September 2008, Marco Hellgrewe, a German driver, decided it would be fun to see how far an HGV could be driven in the reverse gear.
His thinking was, why not.
He then went on to drive on a Bergen, Germany training forces track in an HGV for 39.7 miles, taking 5 hours and 21 minutes to do so.
A reverse gear in an HGV always beeps, and we wonder how that did not make him crazy.
And On the Side
Earlier in 2004, just across the border in Austria, Johann Redl went to to the Wels airport in his truck, a 7420 kg Steyr 891, where he managed to drive and steer the truck on two wheels for more than 10 miles.
That is quite impressive, but not nearly as impressive as Bond, the James Bond, who went through fire on a truck wheelie, and then drove a tanker to its side so that bazooka blasts could be avoided.
I think not.
Get Aboard the Road Train
Australia is a very big country that does not have much in its middle land areas. It can be nice, but even then you have to admit it is not much.
As a result, the roads in this area are long and straight as they take you from one side to the other. The barrenness of the land and its distances have been a factor in its truck driving culture and led to what is called truck trains.
These are just very, very long trucks. They are made up of multiple trailers that go along the fairly empty roads in the heartland of Australia carrying freight across this vast continent. You will also find multiple trailers used by trucks in the USA, Canada and Argentine.
Imagine yourself being stuck behind this road train. The longest road train has 100 trailers, in excess of 140 wheels and is more than a mile long.