Scania R730 the pick of the crop for WA grain haulier

[kscarbel2]

Owner/Driver / July 14, 2015

When he needed a prime mover for triple road train work, Alan Moyle chose Australia’s most powerful truck.

Like many Australian owner-operators, Alan Moyle has spent most of his working life behind the wheel of a North American truck. In Alan’s case, 20 years in Kenworths are included in his 35 years’ driving experience.

Currently, however, Alan’s steed is a Scania R730 V-8, which he uses to haul grain from Western Australia’s wheat belt region to the port city of Albany where it is shipped out to global markets.

His previous truck was also a European make, a MAN. But while the German-manufactured unit proved to be able on both the bitumen and in the paddock, Alan needed something with more grunt.

"We were carting woodchips at the time, and I was pulling two trailers with the MAN, but the woodchip finished and I started hauling grain again," Alan explains.

"I really needed to pull three trailers, not two. So that’s why I needed to buy a Scania, something with a bit more horsepower."

More to the point, Alan needed a prime mover that was capable of pulling a 130-tonne GCM 60-wheeler road train.

With its Southern Regional Transport (SRT) logo on the special purpose Evertrans end-tipper trailers, the Advanced Herd Bars stainless steel front bumper, Alan’s rig looks the goods.

And that’s not the only reason it stands out.

Alan says SRT is a Kenworth stronghold, although there’s also couple of Western Stars and a 700hp (522kW) Volvo. The R730 is the only Scania in the yard.

"We’ve got about 25 road trains going every day, carting grain plus frozen food out of Perth and stuff like that," Alan says.

With recent rains pointing to a bumper grain season, Alan is preparing to rack up a lot of kilometres.

"We’ve had two above average years in a row now, which is almost unprecedented. If they have another year it’s going to be huge," he says.

"I can’t see us shifting all of last year’s grain this year. We had half a million tonne to move and we’re not even half way through that yet."

At age 67, Alan is often asked when he’s going to retire.

For now he’s happy to keep on driving.

"While the job’s this easy I’ll keep doing it for a little while and eventually I’ll put a driver in the truck."

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[TeamsterGrrrl]

Was in South Dakota today, saw three 17 axles doubles sets and musta been at least a dozen 13 axle grain hopper doubles sets. Legal gross on the 13 axle doubles is around 145,000 pounds and 170k on the 17 axle doubles... That's the highest regular highway weights in North America, even higher than Michigan. Was behind a loaded 17 axle combo for awhile, took forever for it to get up to even 40 MPH... These things beg for more power. Scania, bring that V8 to South Dakota and show 'em how it's done!

[Timmyb]

Hard to believe that years ago people used to pull 3 with a 285hp mack.

Now my 550 cat looks under powered.

Anyone priced up a diff for a Scalia?

[kscarbel2]

Hard to believe that years ago people used to pull 3 with a 285hp mack.

Now my 550 cat looks under powered.

Anyone priced up a diff for a Scalia?

I assume, at 130 tonnes, he's running Scania's RBP832+RP832 bogie, but possibly the RBP730+RP730. No way the standard RB660+R660.