OTR transport of 200' long wind turbine blade

[seafish]

Some very interesting challenges and perspectives here--

https://jalopnik.com/watching-a-truck-hauling-wind-turbine-blades-kinda-hurt-1846019061

 

[JR]

Apparently, there's no overhead phone/cable lines in Europe

I operate RT cranes off road like this

The higher the boom angle the the sketchier they get while transporting on unlevel ground. Generally speaking the lower the boom angle the better. AND this with the boom fully retracted!
I'd wager those chassis have some pretty custom axles with hydraulic levelers to keep those blades as close to "in the plane" as possible.

 

[seafish]

WTF .... how they do it in Texas ???

https://digg.com/video/train-hits-truck-turbine-blade

 

[DHayden]

I could be wrong but I'm thinking photo shop. I see these blades being transported across New Mexico and they are big, but not that big. The mechanics of that photo just dont seem right. The blade would not have to weigh that much to top that truck its on, especially just slightly off center. Again I could be wrong but...

 

[BSeyler]

I can’t stand those stupid eyesores! Over the summer, we visited with the people who own my great-great grandparents’ old ranch. The adjoining ranch sold last year and they put a whole bunch of those things up. It totally ruined their view. Plus, if the wind is not blowing (a rarity in Wyoming), you can hear them.

 

[seafish]

I could be wrong but I'm thinking photo shop. I see these blades being transported across New Mexico and they are big, but not that big. The mechanics of that photo just dont seem right. The blade would not have to weigh that much to top that truck its on, especially just slightly off center. Again I could be wrong but...

I dont know for sure ...but I dont think so... take a moment to look at the video in the first post of this thread ... now THAT looks photoshopped, but its still real !!!

Also the commentary of the Texas accident seems a little shallow, but real enough . LOL

 

[Wiredawg]

WTF .... how they do it in Texas ???

https://digg.com/video/train-hits-truck-turbine-blade

The trucks hauling the blades and towers travel through TX all the time... One got high centered on railroad tracks in Schertz TX a couple years ago... fortunately they managed to stop the train while they got the load moved off the tracks. Wished I would have snapped a pic, but traffic was bad enough with rubberneckers.

 

[Mikey-KE7LBB]

I can’t stand those stupid eyesores! Over the summer, we visited with the people who own my great-great grandparents’ old ranch. The adjoining ranch sold last year and they put a whole bunch of those things up. It totally ruined their view. Plus, if the wind is not blowing (a rarity in Wyoming), you can hear them.

Are you talking about the ones on HWY 59, or the ones South of Glenrock??? If so, I agree 100% about the eyesore thing! I absolutely hate looking at them, and the thought of them being buried in the Casper landfill in 20 years makes my blood boil!!!

 

[BSeyler]

The particular ones I was talking about are south of Granite Canon between Laramie and Cheyenne, but they are all an eyesore. Go any direction, Hwy 59, Shirley Basin, etc., and they’re everywhere. Albany County just approved putting them around Tie Siding. The only happy ones are a very few landowners.
Edit:
The Casper dump has a lot of them already. And, the numbers of birds killed by them is ridiculous. They get a pass, but if an eagle dies in a reserve pit, the oil company pays out the nose!

 

[Mikey-KE7LBB]

I remember reading an article a few years ago about the windfarm in Rolling Hills, WY being the #1 killer of eagles in the USA. There are around 300 more of them in Converse county now...

Cool thing I witnessed a few months ago is a lightning strike that made 50-60 of the red lights go dark for a while... God hates these things too lol!!!

 

[slowmover]

Blades are 90-105’ long last I read. They’d stack them all over the port in Corpus Christi I lived there some years back.

“Eyesore” isn’t the half of it. The Genset weighs approx 60k and have a lifespan meaning it don’t last forever. There are yards in West Texas and elsewhere these are in rows like junked cars. Someone has to haul them off.

Wind doesn’t blow when you need it, and then can be too high for them to operate.

A shell game.

 

[Ozymandias]

What I learned about the US railway crossings - if the light starts to blink you have 30 seconds of time to get out of the way. If I see videos like the above one I don't get why an American can forget about that.

Here in Switzerland you have at least 3 minutes time, sometimes more, till the train arrives at the crossing.

 

[Ozymandias]

Blades are 90-105’ long last I read. They’d stack them all over the port in Corpus Christi I lived there some years back.

“Eyesore” isn’t the half of it. The Genset weighs approx 60k and have a lifespan meaning it don’t last forever. There are yards in West Texas and elsewhere these are in rows like junked cars. Someone has to haul them off.

Wind doesn’t blow when you need it, and then can be too high for them to operate.

A shell game.

German Wind Gensets are warrantied for 30 years now, same for solar panels.

You are right about the lenght of the blades, they are massiv nowadays, the shorties are not in use anymore for serious wind energy production.

- Go big or go home.

 

[Mikey-KE7LBB]

Wind doesn’t blow when you need it, and then can be too high for them to operate.

Or, the Wyoming winds just destroy them lol!!!