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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Under Wraps number 2

The waterfront was the scene for more activity under wraps recently when Irving Shipbuilding's Halifax Shipyard took delivery of some large engines. The units were landed at the PSA Fairview Cove container terminal, presumably from Germany on a Roll On  / Roll Off ship of Atlantic Container Lines. They were then transported by modular transporter to the shipyard.

J.D.Irving Ltd., the company that owns Irving Shipbuilding, is a multi-faceted, vertically integrated,  industrial operation that also has an equipment division with a fleet of mobile cranes, trucks and trailers to serve them, and a number of modular transporters. These units, when coupled together can carry huge loads - up to and including entire ships.

The modular transporters arrived at the shipyard on a flat bed trailer behind a Freightliner day cab with an extra drop axle. (J.D.Irving also owns Universal Truck and Trailer Co. a Freightliner and Western Star sales, parts and service operation covering New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.)

 The units were lifted off by an Irving Equipment 500 tonne Liebherr hydrauulic crane.

 Once full assembled the modular transporter hustled off to the container terminal, with the operator sitting on what looked like a milk crate. (There were escort vehicles ahead and behind.)

 The load(s) were MAN main engines for the Arctic Escort and Patrol vessels currently under construction at the Shipyard. Each ship has four 6L32/44CR engines of 3600kW (4827 HP) each weighing 39.5 tonnes, powering two electric drives.

Unlike the military vehicles in the previous post, these wraps advertise the manufacturer. (MAN Diesel & Turbo is part of Volkswagen and also makes trucks and buses. It also owns the former Burmeister & Wain = B&W, and Alstom. It manufactures some engines in Denmark, France, india and China and licenses builders in Korea.)

 

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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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Mack and Trout

 Interesting exports from Halifax in recent weeks include: some Trout River live bottom trailers. I have never seen a trailer with six axles before. Even with one axle air lifted they must be beasts to turn.

A nice Kenworth hauled the trailers to Halfax.

Trout River Industries is based in Coleman, Prince Edward Island.

A Freightliner from White City, Saskatchewan (near Regina) made the long trip to Halifax with a very rough looking load.

It is hard to believe that it would be worth hauling a very beat up Mack Model R all the way here and then export it to some third world country. Produced from 1966 to 2005, it was the longest production run of any North American truck.(Some were also built in Australia and Iran.) So this beast must be closing on twenty years of age or more, but apparenely still runs and has some value - perhaps as a rolling parts pile.

I hope the driver has a backhaul it's a long trip home.

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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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