Need to move your mining truck? This Mercedes-Benz semi should do the trick

By Peter Braun May 4, 2014

mercedes truck might actually able haul anything mining — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Think your truck can haul a lot? I did. It turns out, though, that I was very wrong. That’s because a Mercedes-Benz Actros semi, just redefined “a lot”.

What this absolutely insane picture, tweeted by Mercedes-Benz, shows is a standard semi hauling a simply enormous 308-ton (for kicks I converted that to pounds: 1,375,000) Caterpillar 797B mining truck.

And it’s not just heavy either; it is also just massive, at 47 feet long, 32 feet wide, and 27 feet tall. Seriously, not even the Nazis would have been silly enough to try and build a truck this big, even if they did want to build a tank with a battleship turret.

All of this giantness normally needs a 3,200-horsepower, 24-cylinder diesel to haul itself and its 345-ton load around. Apparently, though, you can put it all on the back of a semi that normally has a 250-ton load limit, which kind of begs the question as to why you need the massive truck in the first place.

Though, I have to say, I have a question; “Why aren’t the Benz’s tires exploding?”

Maybe they filled them with something besides air – like Wolverine’s bones. Or maybe they just drained the Cat’s 1,800 gallon fuel tank. Regardless, I am both impressed … and flabbergasted.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Peter is a freelance contributor to Digital Trends and almost a lawyer. He has loved thinking, writing and talking about cars…

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