The 5 largest vehicles in the world that move on dry land

Did you know what the biggest dry-road vehicles look like? They are mostly used in the world of industry, they are huge machines that have to meet demanding conditions most often with a massive construction capable of carrying or processing a huge amount of material, or allow the transfer of indecomposable large machines. A look at the heaviest vehicles in the world will exclude vehicles that we could find in Slovakia.

1. TC-497 Overland Train MkII

The TC-497 Overland Train MkII is unique in that there was only one, made by the US military. In 1962, they began testing the world’s longest vehicle, not to mention trains. It was with the trains that the TC-497 had a lot in common. In paranoid fears that the US could lose the railroad in a possible war with the Soviet Union, a vehicle was designed that would be able to represent the railroads and process goods across the country without the need for rails. In the end, the army did not use the massive construction of the trolleys for the main “locomotive” with six wheels, as it was able to carry only 150 tons, which other machines could handle at that time without such a complicated construction. The production was commissioned by LeTourneau, which built its name as a builder of powerful machines for quarries and mines. If you are familiar with the wheels on this machine, you may have seen them in pictures of the largest Monstertruck in the world. These are exactly the same wheels that have found further use after the scrapping of this military mistake.

Year of manufacture: 1962
Weight : Unknown
Length : 174 meters

2. Marion 6360

In 1965, they built the most difficult vehicle for the needs of coal mining until then and for a long time. It was an excavator weighing 14,000 tons and together with a spoon and ropes it boasted a weight of 15,000 tons. In the mining world, the model was known as the Captain. After severe damage in 1991, the machine was depreciated and scrapped.

year of manufacture : 1965
weight : max 15,000 tons
body length : 66 meters
body height : 64 meters
bucket height : 5 meters
power : 15,000 horses
speed and consumption information unknown

3. 4250-W Big Muskie “Captain”

His bucket, which moved a huge amount of soil or rock, was movable by steel ropes extended by crane arms at the front. During the service, it processed 465 million cubic meters of material. Just an hour’s operation of the machine was more expensive than the monthly payment of dozens of workers. The highest bill was in electricity combined with diesel engines.

year of completion: 1969
weight : 13,000 tons
height : 67 , 82 meters
length : 94 meters

Photo author: Calonius, Erik, Wikimedia source

4. NASA Crawler-Transporter

The second largest land vehicle in the world is the Crawler-Transporter used by NASA to transport Saturn V and Saturn IB heavy missiles. The vehicle is also used in other space agency projects, where it is necessary to carry huge weights. They are most often used to move entire shuttles to the launch pad. The machine was designed by Bucyrus International in collaboration with Marion Power Shovel. NASA owns two such pieces and uses them to move space shuttles as well as their fuel tanks and launch pads.

Detailed information on both vehicles can also be found in the PDF document on the NASA website.

year of manufacture: 1965
weight : 2,700 tons
length : 40 meters
width : 35 meters
height : up to 8 meters
maximum speed : 1.6 km / h
Engine power: 2750 hp / 2050 kW
Diesel engine consumption: 350 liters per kilometer
Number of units: 2

5. Bagger 287, 288 and 293

The largest vehicle ever is the Bagger 287. It was manufactured by the German company Krupp for the needs of the mining company Rheinbraun in 1976 and has been in continuous operation since then. Weighing 14,000 tons, it is a real colossus. Excavator 293 built in 1995 and has 14200 tons. The Model 288 weighs an incredible 12,840 tons. Its site has long been a German Hanbach in a surface mine during soil removal. The figures show an incredible 240,000 cubic meters of processed soil in a single day. Ordinary machines would do something like this for months or even years. The vehicle has now been in a new location at the Garzweiler open pit mine for 12 years.

Bagger 287
year: 1976
length: 225 meters
height: 95 meters
weight: 14 000 tons max speed: 10 meters per minute
number of pieces: 1

Bagger 288
year: 1978
length: 220 meters
height: 96 meters
weight: 12 840 tons
max speed: 10 meters per minute
number of pieces: 1

Bagger 293
year: 1995
length: 225 meters
height: 96 meters
weight: 14,200 tons
max speed: 10 meters per 1 minute and 1 pieces