One Of The Worlds Largest Trailers Navigates Laramie, Wyoming

How many wheels does it take to pull a 1.5 million pound transport?

Watch the video below and see if you can count them.

This is what was pulled through Laramie, Wyoming just a few days ago.

This trailer has been seen in other parts of Wyoming, including Gillette.

A rig like this is not just about being able to pull the weight or support it.

How does something this size navigate tight turns?

How does it manage to support all that weight without wrecking the roads?

It's an engineering marvel.

This much weight has to be widely distributed.

They try to travel when almost nobody is on the road with them.

Top speed is a whopping 20 mph.

They can only do 1.5 mph on grades and slopes.

The trailer, as rigged, is 300 feet long all by itself.

You're probably just dying to know how many tires.

There are 36 rows of axles, each with eight tires (288 total).

They can add another additional 80 wheels on hinged outriggers, for a total of 368 potential flats.

Add in five 10-wheel heavy-duty road tractors (two pulling and three pushing) and that flat tire potential rises to 418.

Notice the tires are small. The point is to spread the weight around, evenly.

So how the heck can they make a sharp turn?

The trailer can negotiate the 90º turn.

That is done while keeping all 338 tires solidly on paved surfaces.

Each axle is steerable with an onboard computer turning each tire.

There is driver telling the rig where to go. The computer figures out how to do it.

So who the heck needs one of these rigs?

This is Wyoming, we have big projects going all the time, that's why.