Doetinchem-based Ter Linden Transport has spent decades transporting wind turbines, no easy feat with such large equipment, and that equipment has consistently grown over the years, increasing in both height and diameter. Ter Linden Transport worked with Nooteboom to create a solution: the Mega Windmill Trailer XL, which the Gelderland transport company recently put to the test. The trailer is designed to haul tower parts with a diameter over 6 metres (19.6 feet).
The two companies have collaborated before, when Nooteboom developed the first Mega Windmill Trailer. Clamping the mast between a jeep and a self-steering dolly with hydraulically adjustable lift adapters to allow the trailer to lower to as low as 5 centimetres (1.96 inches) above the ground proved to be the solution. Nooteboom reports that there are currently 120 Mega Windmill Trailers on the road.
“In recent years, we have continuously adapted our equipment to the ever-growing masts,” says Ter Linden Transport Managing Director Nico Koster. “Fortunately, we are always informed in advance by wind turbine manufacturers. When the diameter of the tower sections was going to be 4 metres 20 years ago, we sat down with Nooteboom. We looked for a solution in which the combination, even with a tower section with a diameter of 4 metres, would fit under a viaduct.”
About The Mega Windmill Trailer XL
The changes in the new XL trailer were once again prompted by Ter Linden Transport. “As soon as we saw that the masts would become even wider, we entered into a dialogue with Nooteboom again,” Koster says. The Mega Windmill Trailer XL’s four-axle jeep dolly and seven-axle self-steering dolly have adjustable lift adapters that move in any direction through a remote control to ease connection and disconnection of tower sections. The trailer can haul tower parts with a diameter of up to 6,300 millimetres (248 in.). The seven-axle air-suspended self-steering dolly has a width of 2,840 mm (112 in.). The trailer can make sharp turns due to a large number of steering points and the front lift adapter being connected to the control system of the trailing dolly by a turntable.
The design of the Mega Windmill Trailer XL creates a low dead weight of around 7 tonnes (7.7 U.S. tons). The trailer can haul wind turbines with various diameters, but can only take the largest tower sections for the last few kilometres. “Four of the five tower sections of the latest generation of wind turbines are so large that transport cannot simply take place by road,” says Koster. “These parts are brought as close as possible to the final destination via sea and inland vessels, from where we take care of the last mile transport.”
Hauling such large, specialized pieces requires a lot of prep work. “With a length of 50 meters, a width of more than 6 meters and a total weight of more than 120 tons, it is often quite a puzzle to find a place from where the tower parts can and may be transported to their final destination. It starts with a route study, we make simulations and often road adjustments have to be made as well; that makes it quite complicated. It helps enormously that the load can be lifted up to 1.5 meters above ground level using the lift adapters, so that we can easily turn over a crash barrier, ditch or roundabout.” Koster says.
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Source: Nooteboom