What did I see?

[the_lone_wolf]

Hey all

Passed a strange convoy of vehicles going the other direction today, four or five of them with an escort 4x4 leading, travelling slowly and with a long tail of following traffic (not complaining, just to illuistrate they weren't keeping up with traffic or anything)

Now, to describe them...

Big and white took up all of one carriageway, probably ~10m long and 3m+ high, looked like a combine harvester with some kind of attachment on the front, whatever it carried looked like it wasn't mounted at the time. Four tyres like the ones below, body was like a harvester, driver's cab at the front and looked almost like a reinforced LPG tank but no hosing that I saw, logo and company text was blue on the side but didn't catch the name. On the back they have highways retroreflective chevrons and either "Highways" or "Motorway" Maintenance - all of the things had the same reg format - "B4xxEU"

Tyres:

All four were similar size to the back two:


I know it's not that good a description, but hopefully somebody knows what I'm on about...

[the_lone_wolf]

Perhaps I could inject a little life into this thread by having a bash at MS Paint?

[the_lone_wolf]

Shaw Tarse said:

Ah go on then!

Fair enough...

Here's a side and front view, pretty good effort IMHO, considering I'm using a touchpad instead of a mouse...

[the_lone_wolf]

CH51LKY said:

Possibly a self propeller harvester, in which case it would most likely be sugarbeet or spuds.

4 sounds a lot though, there's not many about.

That's what I thought, but I've lived out here in the buttf*ck end of nowhere for the last fifteen years and seen a fair few harvesters, and these didn't look like harvesters??

Thing that made me think they werent is the "Highway Maintenance" writing on the back, don't think they were new (B reg?) and I've never seen a white one, but there's always a first time...

[the_lone_wolf]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Yep, definitely not a harvester like the one you posted

Excuse the crappy MS Paint attempt, very few harvesters I've seen have four identical balloon tyres like these did, and the bodywork was very different to that of a machine designed to harvest...

I'm trying to think of something from highways that would be built like that, was thinking gritting truck possibly but I'm not sure??

[the_lone_wolf]

noosh said:

Maybe its a modern version of the space age machine that appears on the vid at about 30secs.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/motorway-machine...

Quite possibly something like that, big balloon tyres for minimal pressure, attachment for one (or more?) tools at the front...

myles1972 said:

They were going about the same speed...

[the_lone_wolf]

cheadle hulme said:

They sound like sugar beet harvesters to me. Possibly being moved to another part of the country?

Could well be, looked a bit like this one:



But all in white, and the tyres stuck out the sides a lot more than the sugar beet harvesters google images throws up, the bodywork of the truck was contained almost completely between the two tyres. I also remember it having higher ground clearance with none of the associated mechanics under the body...

[the_lone_wolf]

deadtom said:

or a sprayer of some kind like this?



though if you have lived in the country for a while im guessing you would recognise a sprayer

Aye, sprayer was one of the things that crossed my mind, but they normally have those narrow tyres so they don't flatten the crops, this had proper monster truck tyres and not spraying arms/hosework

deadtom said:

modified one of these maybe?

Tyres look similar, but they looked a bit too long to be tractors


Big thanks to everyone who's replied, please don't think I'm being a git and just saying "It's not that" - I've seen a bunch of farm/highways equipment and this one truly has me stumped

It did look like they'd just come off the incoming IOW ferry, so I might drop a line to the ferry company and ask them if they know

[the_lone_wolf]

deadtom said:

yeah, the sprayer thought was a long shot due to the big tyres you mention (called terra tyres by the way)

hmm....

this?

Terra tyres, now there's something new for me today

Not a transporter like that one, tyres were uncovered, no gap between the cabin and the rest of the vehicle, the cabin was the most forward part of the bodywork and it definitely looked more like a reinforced LPG tank than a top filled container like that...

[the_lone_wolf]

Not either of the last three, although the "Terra-Gator" has caused a trouser related problem for me...

Very nice...

[the_lone_wolf]

deadtom said:

I dont suppose for a minute its one of these, as the only thing this has in common with your description is the open wheel terra tyres, but I wanted to post a picture anyway 'cos skidders are cool as fk.

Im quite happy for this to be a temporary "post photos of proper man-chinary" thread until I phone the ferry company and ask tomorrow...

God I'm a nosey git

[the_lone_wolf]

Trommel said:

Seismic survey trucks:

Spot on that man...

Shows how piss poor my memory and drawing skills are...

[the_lone_wolf]

Steve_W said:

What a fascinating place PH is - I bet less than 0.5 % of us had even thought such a thing might exist...

As a topographical surveyer by trade, and one that worked five years in a highways engineering firm, I did know these things existed, but I'm sure they looked more like the american version shown below

Chances are they'll be spotted and someone will be writing to the local rag about how they're a great thing for our disintegrating roads, or a waste of precious taxpayers' money...

[the_lone_wolf]

Definitely Seismic Survey trucks, very interesting

They had the same sequential registration numbers