Here we see a Scania T143E-450 6x4 of Van Elk from Haarlem. They own 2 of these trucks. This one with the daycab, and a another one with a sleepercab. This tractor has been equiped with a ballast holder and is being is used to tow one of the Nooteboom drawbar trailers of Van Elk. They own a 4- and a 5-axled unit. On this picture, the 4-axled unit is coupled to the Scania , but on the next pictures it is coupled to the 5-axled trailer. The combination came to load the blue excavator in the background during this visit.

This is the second visit of this tractor to the Geveke yard. This time the load is a much heavier Caterpillar 350L ME. That is why they had taken the 5-axled drawbar-trailer with them. This tractor also has a cut of roof to make place for long booms of draglines and foundation equipment. Behind the cab is a strut on which such a boom can be laid.

The 5-axled Nooteboom trailer is equiped with pendular axles. These are separate axles of which 2 are being placed side by side. They result in one axle-line (so this trailer has actually 5-axle lines and 10 axles). A big advantage of this construction is the higher allowed axle load. In the Netherlands this varies from 13 till 16 tonnes per axle line. The steering of (all) the axles is done by rods and hydraulics. The steering angle is dependent of the angle between trailer and drawbar.

The Caterpillar drives onto the floor over the steel wedges. The shortening ME in the name of the excavator means “Mass Excavation”. These kind of machines are mainly used at jobs were there is a lot of material to shovel within a short reach of the excavator (loading dumpers, digging out sand mines). Therefore the machine is equiped with a shorter boom and stick, which results in a larger allowed bucket size.

A excavator gutter isn’t possible on trailers with these kind of pendular axles. Therefore the machines boom is laid this way. Because of the shorter boom en stick, this doesn’t cause any problems.

Here we see the combination ready to leave. Indeed, it is a little to high and somewhat to wide, but with warning lights and shields this won’t be a problem.