3 Of The Largest Semi Trucks In The World

With such a massive global population and a range of products in need of getting from point A to point B, national and international shipping is a sprawling industry. Across air, land, and sea, goods of all kinds go on prolonged voyages to get where they need to be. Though more heavy-duty modes of transportation like boats and planes handle larger amounts of cargo, that doesn't mean comparatively smaller ones aren't important. Most notable is the semi-truck, which connects to and lugs around various kinds of semi-trailers full of products and equipment. Suffice to say, they're essential to the modern commerce system.

Unsurprisingly, to move around such mammoth amounts of cargo, semi-trucks aren't small. As any driver could tell you, these diesel engine-powered trucks take up a fair chunk of the roadway as they move all kinds of things to their destination — even without an attached trailer. However, the vast majority of drivers haven't seen just how big semi-trucks can be. Throughout the years, a handful of specialized semi-trucks have come along from different companies and individuals to tackle special objectives. To meet their goals, not only have these semis turned out to be pretty powerful, but exceptionally large as well.

These are three of the biggest semi-trucks the world has ever seen, who created them, and what they were made for.

The main use of a semi-truck is to haul amounts of cargo that traditional cars and trucks simply couldn't manage, so you'd assume that the biggest semis to ever burn rubber were created for that exact purpose. While this is true for most, not all were put together solely to haul tons of goods. Take, for instance, the Red Giant, which didn't get its nickname by accident. The customized Diamond Reo truck is regarded as one of the longest functional semi-trucks found in the United States, with a length around 93 feet with the trailer attached.

This beastly semi-truck is the brainchild of former commercial driver Bryan Dax, who personally set out to convert it into the massive vehicle it is today. It took him a few years, but by the mid-2000s he had successfully souped the truck up and turned it into a giant billboard on wheels — inspired do so by boxing veteran Roy Jones Jr. no less. 

The Red Giant is supported by a 3406B Caterpillar engine and an 18-speed transmission, yet it doesn't actually haul any cargo. It's a massive advertisement, with 16-foot slide-outs on each side, both featuring two 11-foot by 6-foot LED screens to run multiple ads at once. It might've cost thousands of dollars to reach its current form, but surely Dax has made much of that back through his unorthodox business strategy.

Standard commercial shipping semi-trucks are pretty large, but they don't quite hold a candle to those meant for less extensive trips and hauling much different forms of cargo. The C510 from one of the most popular semi-truck brands in the United States, Kenworth, is one such behemoth, bursting onto the construction scene in 1998 with a whopping 140-ton payload capacity. It was initially developed as an off-highway truck to help out with moving materials in large Australian mining operations, but a variant has since come to fruition with on and off-highway capabilities.

The stats behind the C510 are solid, as it features a 19-liter engine that produces 600 horsepower, and 1,950 lb-ft of torque. They're just as powerful as they are big, moving impressive amounts of materials within more than one sizable trailer. Justifying its nickname as a "road train," it can pull a maximum of five trailers, increasing its length far beyond that of a standard semi. Perhaps the only mining vehicle as remotely impressive is the world's biggest hydrogen-powered mining truck, which is a true sight to be seen in its own right.

As impressive as these massive semis are, they pale in comparison to what Guinness World Records has recognized as the single largest semi-truck in the world: the Tractomas TR 10×10 D100. The record-setting truck — which looks a little like a train — comes courtesy of France's Nicolas Industrie SAS and took to the streets for the first time on October 28, 2005. So just how big is this enormous semi?

The Tractomas is approximately 410 feet long and sits at a weight of around 770 tons when equipped with a full load, with a height just shy of 15 feet. For the "Transformers" fans out there, that absolutely overshadows the kind of semi-truck that Optimus Prime is. To power it, the Tractomas has a Caterpillar 27-liter diesel engine under the hood that generates 900 horsepower and allows for an estimated towing capacity of roughly 600 tons. This specific model has only been replicated a few times for use by a South African energy company, where it hauls immense loads. As a result, the Tractomas has a top speed of just 15.5 mph.

[Featured image by Bob Adams via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 2.0]