An interview with the designer of the world's biggest truck; larger than a family home and capable of transporting 400 tonnes of whatever it is you want to transport at 60km/hour:
The first time I was in it at a mine, the driver started to drive away and actually ran into the back of a service truck. It seems we mashed it down to the ground. I saw someone yelling, but we didn't feel a thing.
A blow-out can damage vehicles close-by because the tyre is holding so much air and just the force of that... Drivers have actually been killed by tyre explosions, but not on our trucks, thank goodness.

I wonder how long until the technology makes it to the domestic market. Already, in the US, there is a trend towards SUVs one can use the word "palatial" to describe: womb-like cocoons with all the comforts of home for people who spend an increasingly large part of their lives in their cars (partly due to ever-lengthening commutes due to more cars on the road). Surely the ultimate extension would be to make the family home into a super-SUV.

Posted by: gjw | http://the-fix.org | Thu Jun 24 04:56:50 2004

I fail to understand the attraction towards massive vehicles. I sometimes have to drive the department's Landcruiser when I do field trips out to the bush. It is a pig to drive, a pig to park - it's really no fun at all. I can only assume owners of "Toorak Tractors" (or as we say, "Burnside Busses") enjoy the knowledge that if they ever hit something, they won't feel it.

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com/ | Thu Jun 24 09:55:43 2004

Yeeeahh... http://www.bridger.us/2002/12/16/CrashTestingMINICooperVsFordF150

(OK, it's a Ford F150, but you get my drift...

Posted by: gjw | http://the-fix.org | Thu Jun 24 11:12:30 2004

Wow.

Posted by: El Bizarro | http://bizarro.typepad.com | Thu Jun 24 13:08:18 2004

>Like a mangled insect.

>Yes.

Posted by: Alex | http://livejournal.com/~b0rken | Mon Jun 28 16:49:30 2004

They also make wine cabinets.

http://www.liebherr.com/english/52186.asp

Yum!

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