Question: How can you tell when you have finished building a sufficiently large and all together bad ass truck?
Answer: When the truck is too large to fit through your factory door.
The builders of Pacific Trucks figured this formula out in 1995 when they put the finishing touches on the very last rig to roll out of their shops. Thankfully someone had the presence of mind to film the truck, a P12W3 model, emerging from the shop and the subsequent test run around the neighborhood. It is nothing short of amazing to see it running down regular streets as pedestrians stop and stare. Near the end of the video you even get to jump in the pristine cab for one of the shake down runs. The only thing missing is that new truck smell!
Weighing in at 28 tons the final Pacific was destined to be a 100 ton ore hauler. I couldn’t find any information regarding the current status of this truck but given the overbuilt nature of these trucks it wouldn’t be surprised if it was still running the haul roads of an open pit mine near you. To give you an idea of how the truck may have looked when upfitted click here to see a mid 80’s version in a similar setup or you can watch this video.
Anyone know what type of advantage a P12 would have over a more contemporary style of haul truck?
Also available on YouTube is more footage of this truck during assembly. Watch as it transforms from a pile of random parts into a massive machine. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2, and finally the truck loading up for the start of its working life by clicking here.
To further bolster my claims that Pacific Trucks are still out there earning their keep here is video evidence that Big Foot and UFO believers could only dream of!
While poking around the web looking for more information relating to this post I came across mention of road trains for South African Railways that utilized massive 600HP Pacific Trucks. Naturally my interest was piqued. Thankfully photos of these impressive trucks also exist. Click here for a nice gallery.
Fantastic! I remember visiting Pacific’s factory many years ago and meeting the CEO. He had a picture of one of the South African RR “land locomotives” on his wall and the caption read, “They are so big that it’s said that the earth revolves beneath them!”
Thanks eh…