Moose Bars- needed in Quebec

 Quebec is not the only part of the country where moose are a road hazard. However it must be especially bad on Route 138 on the North Shore of the St.Lawrence judging by the number of trucks fitted with impressive moose bars.

 Most of the moose bars I saw this summer were pretty basic frames, 

 

but some were contoured to fit specific trucks.

The wide load banner on this one appears to interfere with the headlights.

 

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  and this one appears  to be integrated with the bumper, and does not extend below it.

Highway 138 running the length of the St.Lawrence River is usually only two lane and passes through may miles of woodland. Compared to the cost of repiirs after a moose (or bear, or deer) collision, a substantial moose bar may be a small investment.

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Truck Show

 As usual with the Atlantic Truck Show there were some very impressive trucks on display at the Moncton Coliseum (May 9-10). As I learned a few years ago it is worth a trip through the parking lot too as some of the delivery trucks and attendee's trucks can be equally impressive.

 The interior of the various halls was as usual crammed with exhibits making it difficult to take pictures, There were also lots of people.

 

Frankly I was expecting to see more innovation. This TICO yard tug was something I had not seen before. Powered by Volvo electrics, it is North American built.
 

Other "new to me" sights out in the parking lots was this small sized Peterbilt 220 - also an EV.

Most of the major brands had demos or recent deliveries out in the parking lots. 

Navistar International had several models:

and the others, such as Kenworth:

and Western Star...
 

were there too.

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Star Boomer

I always like to see a boom truck, particularly one that is set up with a fifth wheel and semi-trailer. I spotted this one at the reinforcing steel fabricator Rendan, in the Burnside Industrial Park in Dartmouth, NS. A convincing Western Star equipped with a Tadano telescopic hydraulic boom, it carries a CTE Rentals sticker on the boom.

 

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Cat on tires

 Another Cat on the move through the Port of Halifax. This one is a rubber tired unit Material Handler (MH model number not known, but a big one, maybe MH3040). A beefy tri-axle Western Star and a four axle trailer from Transport Deen Express out of Pointe-aux-Trembles, QC has the job.

Most of the Cats I see are hauled by Bellemare, so this was an interesting change.

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From the Land of the Big Trucks

 After a few weeks in Quebec you get used to seeing big trucks thundering down the highway, and you forget that you are in the Land of the Big Truck where four axle trailers and B-trains are the norm and Western Stars every where.

The biggest trucks, at least by volume, are the wood chip transporters, running from woodlands to paper mills, some times great distances apart.The trailers have tarp tops, and sometimes tarps over screen sides, and are unloaded by suction.

 

While most rigs have sleepers there are some rare day cabs too.

They don't only haul chips with those 'Stars. 

 

 

The dealer in Amqui also sells Freightliners, but his lot was full of 'Stars...

 

Including this long wheelbase unit:

 Of course all trucks in Quebec are not Western Stars, there are lots of Kenworths and other hi-spec haulers (Peterbilts are still relatively rare.).

 

 

If one of these trucks breaks down you will need a heavy duty tow such as this hefty unit from Baie- Comeau:

 Or perhaps something a little lighter will do:

The roads need to be built and maintained, so you need beef to haul machinery and equipment. A Kenworth will do nicely with a Manac 60 ton low bed for example.

 

There were lots of other trucks to see, but that is for another post.

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More Big Stuff

Several big loads came through the port this week. Only one of the three I saw was readily identifiable. It was an aircraft tail wing component - I didn't catch the name of the trucking company. The other two were transfer loads by Total Transport and Rigging.

TTR seems to have a new Western Star.

Well maybe not big - but funny:

VW pop top, with a droopy tail.

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Boom truck or crane truck

 What looks like a boom truck becomes a crane truck when the boom is fully extended. Two of these cranes, operated by A.W.Leil, worked together to lift a couple of cruise ship gangways onto a flat bed.

One crane was mounted on a twin steer Western Star, the other on a Kenworth. I could not identify the red crane manufacturer - I think it had been painted over, and I could not get near the white one. 

The flat bed trailer (with one axle lifted) was hauled by a Navistar International.

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Bellemare moves a Schmidt

Heavy and oversize specialists Transport Bellemare had an interesting load out of Halifax today - a Schmidt TJS-C630 airport jet sweeper. 

Bellemare used a Western Star with a tag axle to pull a tri-axle Manac goose neck trailer rated at 40 tonnes.

AEBI Schmidt of Burgdorf, Switzerland builds a range of snow clearing vehicles. This one is an articulated rig with a 6.3 meter wide broom. The powered cab unit pulls the unpowered trailer. 

 

The rear mounted engine drives the rotating brush and the jet that blows clear the last of the snow.

 

Some airport will be receiving this unit just in time for the winter season.

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More Wheels

 If you need to haul big, you need more wheels. That is certainly the motto of Atlantic Tiltload Ltd, when they had a Terex Finlay J-1175 Tracked Jaw Crusher to transport.

The Western Star, fleet number 78, had a spare axle not in use, but the Trail King trailer rig had all its wheels on the ground, including a three axle jeep and two axle booster. According to the Finlay web site, the operating weight of a J-1175 rock crusher is 113,096 lbs / 51,300 kg. I expect shipping weight might be a little bit less.

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The Heavies Keep Rolling

 Within less than an hour I clocked about a dozen trucks, most of them heavy, either coming out of PSA's Fairview Cove terminal or from the port's other Roll On Roll Off pier in the Richmond Terminal - and that was just the loads, there were numerous barebacks arrriving for loads too. Here's a sampling:

Yes Atlantic Tiltload does have a tri-axle Freightliner. Fleet number 49 picked up this Rottne F15E (15 tonne capacity) timber forwarder.

The company also has a similar tandem axle F'liner (sorry I missed the number) that picked up a flatrack container with some extra wide crates.
 

TDR Transportation (trucking division of Municipal Contracting) was moving some crane components for J.D.Irving Ltd. They had a Navistar International with mid-rise sleeper on the job:

J.D.Irving Ltd, for their part, had an interesting Western Star equipped with a beefy Manitex TM 200 20 ton crane to lift off the counterweights and other gear.

Back to the heavies:

Killingeck Transport of Selby, ON (northeast of Kingston) had this Kenworth T680 to haul a piece of Sandvik drilling equipment:

Also carrying Sandvik machinery, Earl Paddock from Stoney Creek, ON had their Kenworth number 546 with a LH410 model underground loader:

 We used to see Earl Paddock trucks frequently carrying military vehicles for export from General Dynamics in London, ON. But the Saudi Arabian shipping company moved its operations to Saint John so that I could not photograph them.

D.Dumais et Fils trucks (from way up in Dolbeau-Mistassini, QC) are regulars in Halifax hauling away forestry equipment. Their Kenwoth number 53 had a Komatsu 901 harvester this time:

Closer to home Valley Flatbed of Aylesford, NS had two rigs for similar loads. First was a flashy red Peterbilt with flat top sleeper.:

and second was a plain vanilla Peterbilt with a low rise sleeper:

Each had the Mercedes Arocs tractor portions of a pair of Øveraasen airport runway snow sweepers that arrived last week from Norway (via Sweden) on the ship Don Carlos.

Unlike some similar (but red painted) units that arrived a few weeks ago (see August 7, 2023 post) these yellow rigs were not marked with an airport code. Perhaps they are headed for the Canadian military base in Greenwood, NS - close to Valley Flatbed's home.

There is no end to the odd looking loads coming out of the port. Brookville Carriers Flatbed from Truro, NS had these rubber ship fenders. Although not especially heavy, they do require some good lashing (not sure why they need blue protective pads) . Commonly called Yokohama fenders, after the Yokohma Rubber Co which first built these low pressure "cushions", that is a trade name however and several other companies manufacture similar products under their own names. The Port of Halifax has many of these in service to protect ships from scraping and damage when tied up alongside. Cruise ships are particular about the condition of their hull paint, and they require several of these fenders for protection. 

The Navistar International LT features red fuel tanks.

 JDI Logistics had an unusual looking 20 foot Ritzy International Transportation tanktainer on a long chassis (for protection?)  marked for tetrafluroethane (HazMat code 3159) - a non flammable (but hazardous) refrigerant gas.

The blue whale on the tank appears to be trying to escape from something...

And finally CFL Heavy Haul of Milton, ON was not hauling anything heavy when it passed my position and its step deck trailer appeared better suited to extra high container hauling, but I liked the look of the Kenworth T680 with high rise sleeper even if it was a stark refrigerator white. (The driver was headed for the container terminal but had apparently taken a wrong turn somehwere.)

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