etruck.com.au

The citizens of Narrandera got a chance to see the shape of things to come on the roads in Australia when a demonstration was organised for the politicians and road authories to see some of the new trucks in action. The show, organised by the Australian Trucking Association, saw the trucks travel around several set routes in the South West NSW town to demonstrate the compatibility of these innovative combinations with normal roads.

The combinations ranged from a BAB Quad (two B-doubles joined by a dolly), through a pocket road train (two 33 foot tankers joined by a dolly) to an AB-triple (semi and B-double joined by a dolly) to normal B-double and truck and dog sets.

One of the interesting things to see in a practical demonstration in the real world is how well these longer combinations track compared to the smaller ones. The quad hardly needs much more road than the B-double and all of them can get out of road junctions without too much fuss. The trucks on show are all empty, when they are fully loaded they will track even better as the triaxle group holds its position on the road.

There is a lot of fear in communities about these kinds of trucks but when they are actually there on the road sharing it with the rest of the population it often goes unnoticed as long as the road infrastructure is correctly laid out. In these days of concern about global warning it is our national duty to support these new combinations and drastically reduce our carbon output.