Render WIP

[den]

Roadtrain: BQuad of 4 x 40foot containers


The round bit at the rear is a streamlined cowling that covers a turntable, so another trailer can be added. Still to do: container detailing, logos, lights, road and background, cabin doors & detailing, roo-bar.

Comments

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Wow... what would the fuel requirements for a thing like that be? I mean, would it be more efficient to run one tractor pulling all those or two each pulling half the load? And gads, how would it navigate if it had to go to drop the load somewhere that wasn't right on a highway? How could it pull into a depot?

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Road trains are a very Aussie setup:



They are huuuuge :)

CYa!
Mako

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Since it's only a "future vehicle concept" I can wave my magic SF wand and claim all sorts of fuel efficiencies and power train advances.

And it's sort of based on real road trains, like this one I photographed in the NT. 53m long, and that's my Camry.

[pipibluestockin]

And that is one road train with out a fuel problem... :p

[marmoe.livejournal.com]

Nice render. Waiting for the detailed version. :)

If you should be looking for more futuristic designs, have a look at the truck by Spitzer (designed by Colani) (http://www.lsi.upc.es/~lcmolina/hobby.htm#Spitzer). Here is another view (http://www.sata.com/artikel/Aktuell/detail053475.jsp?printview=1).

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting design! But the shape looks unnecessarily complex and hard to clean.

[marmoe.livejournal.com]

I think, curves are important to Luigi Colani, usability is not always. ;)

You can find more of his designs on his homepage www.colani.ch
Click onto "English", on the following page click onto "Portal" and have a look at "Visions" and "Projects". No direct links, as his site hides the URLs.

[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

Neat Render, Den! I like it!

Thanks for the links, Marmoe!
I'd never heard of Luigi Colani before.
Wow! Very Interesting Designs!

Must look up more of his stuff. :)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Wow. Here in the US, mere two-trailer 18-wheelers tear the crap out of the interstates. Do you guys have to put up with contant road repair, or do you just deal with hte potholes? Or have you come up with some Magic MacAdam?

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Roadtrains are generally restricted to the non-urban western areas of the country where the roads are straight for long stretches. In places where tight turning is needed, like at traffic lights, the surface is concrete.

I don't know how they build roads there but here they mix a 2-foot deep layer of subsoil with gypsum, wet and compact it, then lay and compact heavy gravel layers each of which is sprayed with bitumen, then surfaced with compacted
fine gravel and a bitumen/rubber binding compound mix.

Anyway, a road's natural state is to be corrugated. Smooth road surfaces are unnatural.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

A lot of the places where the roadtrains go, there really isn't any proper road to tear up: just gravel tracks. Out in the NT, where roadtrains carry all of the heavy freight (including all the supplies for the cattle stations), the Stuart Highway up the spine of the state is dead-straight high-quality bitumen, but as soon as you take a turnoff it's almost 100% dirt roads.

The roadtrains trash the dirt roads, but nearly everybody who regularly uses those roads has a 4WD, so it isn't too big an issue.

Occasionally you get weird compromise stuff: the Barkley Highway (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v137/lostwanderfound/dodgyroad.jpg) (heading east into Queensland from just north of Tennant Creek) is a two-lane dirt road with one lane of bitumen down the middle of it. People drive on the bitumen when they've got it to themselves, and shift half a lane sideways (dropping one set of wheels into the dirt) whenever there's any oncoming traffic.

That's just when it's an equal match (car -v- car or roadtrain -v- roadtrain), of course; when it's roadtrain -v- car, the roadtrain stays on the bitumen and the car gets the hell out of the way.

I should also mention that this road has a great many blind crests in it, and no speed limit... :)

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

That road's transition from NT Highway to QLD Highway at Camooweal is a real shock to the system.