The giant 170 ton production truck in front of you was donated by Hibbing Taconite in 1998. It was originally purchased in 1975 at a price of $451,900 and operated for a total of 110,000 hours or an equivalent of 12.5 continuous years. During the career of Truck 166 it hauled over 30 million tons of materials, both ore and waste.
This truck is considered an 'electric' haulage unit in that each of the four wheel hubs houses an electric drive motor. Power to drive these wheel motors is provided by a 16 cylinder/1600 horsepower General Motors diesel engine. Top speed is 32 mph and the fuel tank has a capacity of 800 gallons.
The tires are mounted on wheels that are 4.25 feet in diameter and with a tire diameter of 10.5 feet it takes only 162 revolutions to cover the distance of a mile.
During its operating life the individual tires cost $7,500 each and a complete set of eight would be $60,000 total. Even though the tires are 50 ply and the tread depth greater than 3 inches, sharp taconite fragments can puncture them.
The radiator holds approximately 150 gallons of coolant and the box holds the equivalent of nearly half a million, one pound packages, of butter. Maximum gross vehicle weight was rated at 630,000 pounds.
Drivers of these true 'monster trucks' often compare driving them to "driving a two story house" while sitting in the operators seat 18 feet above the ground.
- In Partnership with the Cleveland-Cliffs Foundation -
Comments 0 comments