The South African heavy lift logistics provider Vanguard has purchased six rotor blade transport systems (RBTS) from TII Scheuerle.
Three of the units have been deployed to transport 230 wind turbine blades, measuring 83 m long, over a distance of around 500 km. When loaded, the combined vehicle length reached 95 m. The project, which will take 12 months to complete, will see 78 sets of wind turbines move from Coega port to Noupoort.
The Scheuerle RBTS consists of a two-axle jeep dolly together with a free-turning device and a four-axle trailing unit. It is also possible to mount the free-turning device directly on the truck tractor. The lift of up to 2 m in the free-turning device is also large enough to accommodate obstacles such as surface unevenness and bumps in the road. The trailing unit combination, meanwhile, can negotiate bends without having to remove any infrastructure such as crash barriers.
This, according to Scheuerle, reduces the time and effort involved in preparing the route, minimises the approval procedure and is therefore particularly cost-effective.
