Windmill construction brings unsual trailer through town
The transformer was estimated to weigh over 257 tons, or 514,000 pounds. EJ Photo/Angie Hansen
Even C.W. McCall would have been impressed by the big rig that rolled through St. Ansgar Monday.
While semis tend to have 18 wheels, the trailer hooked up to this puppy had 18 axles alone.
The trailer was in three segments with 6 axles per segment, and 8 wheels on each axle, for a grand total 144 wheels!
(Each side can be independently steered and hight adjusted, so technically there are 36 axels).
About a dozen residents stopped by to gander at the colossus of a transformer being shuttled to its new home.
The cargo- a 257 ton transformer to be used in the ongoing windmill project- had to be lifted off of a rail car with giant jacks, right by BK Feed.
The rail car was then pulled away, and this 144-wheeler was rolled underneath of the monstrosity, before the giant transformer was lowered down.
The rig then wiggled its way over the tracks and into the school parking lot, backed up down Train Lane before lumbering off down Red Ball Road.
The trailer had hitches on both ends, and the semi would detach and drive around to the other side of the trailer to get the thing backed up.
Mercy sake’s alive that rig was a whole convoy by itself, fer sure fer sure, Rubber Duck.
