Transporting wide and super loads beyond standard heavy transport weight and dimensions requires experience, care and precision. That is why this work should be left in the hands of professionals who offer supercargo shipping and transportation services.
Imagine loads weighing more than 4,800 tons or one that is very wide to occupy six lanes being transported on the road. If you haven’t yet witnessed or observed gigantic loads like spaceships being transported on the road, read on to explore some of the heaviest and largest loads ever transported.
Here are some of the heaviest hauls to hit the history of supercargo shipping:
1. Water desalination unit
Although other bulk loads are transported, a water desalination unit is the heaviest load carried on the road. A logistics company in Saudi Arabia made the news and broke records for moving the heaviest items ever, weighing 4,800 tons. This huge piece of machinery was transported with a specialized 172-axle tractor-trailer truck. The most amazing thing about this gigantic commodity is that its size covers more ground than a football field.
2. Power plant transformer
The UK logistics industry has also received praise for transporting super loads. In 2013, a power plant transformer weighing 640 tons was transported at about 4 miles per hour. This mammoth piece of machinery was transported from Didcot Oxfordshire to Cottam, with heavy traffic behind it as backup.
3. Space Shuttle Endeavour
After retiring from its mission, the space shuttle Endeavor was transported to its retirement home at the California Science Center. The shuttle, which occupied six freeway lanes, was transported on a 160-wheel transporter. Many people came out to watch this slow procession as the shuttle passed through the streets of Los Angeles.
4. Nuclear reactor pressure vessel
Even in the 1970s, the transportation industry was delivering heavy and abnormal cargo all over the world. This is demonstrated by the transportation of the nuclear reactor pressure core for a nuclear power plant in 1972 with a 384-wheel truck. This is the heaviest cargo transported in North America, weighing 2,314,000 pounds.
5. Turbine engine
Another massive load transported by road is an 850-ton turbine engine the size of a football field. In 2010, the Texas Department of Transportation transported this gigantic cargo on a custom-built platform for 25 days.
6. The Muon G-2 storage ring
The g-2 muon storage ring is a massive electromagnet used for data collection. However, it was transported to the plains near Chicago ten years after it stopped collecting data at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Because tilting or rotating this huge electromagnetic ring could cause irreparable damage to the complex wiring inside, it could only be transported in one piece.
7. Boulder of 340 tons
Moving a 340-ton rock from Riverside County to Los Angeles was no easy feat. It took the logistics company a week and a half to move this massive piece of equipment to the Art Museum to be used in an art installation. A truck with 176 wheels was used to transport this block, which moved at 10 miles per hour.
8. Tubular tower
The Tubular Tower is one of the tallest structures ever transported by road. Transporting these structures poses many challenges and requires state-of-the-art equipment to load and ship them. In 1988, two reactors from the Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment (HTRE) were transported to the Idaho National Laboratory, where they remain today.
9. Saturn V rocket
Another major success in the logistics industry occurred in 1965 when a prototype Saturn V rocket was transported from the engineering laboratory at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
While you may not be hauling some of the heaviest and largest equipment, the list above is a testament to the shipping industry’s capability. From wide loads to oversized loads and super loads, you can trust a heavy equipment hauling company to get them to their destination safely. However, only a few shipping companies have the resources and experience to ship such heavy cargo. This is why you should only work with an oversized freight forwarding company like Heavy Haulers to transport your goods.
