Astounding images of trucks hauling massive rotor blades

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/06/astounding-images-of-trucks-hauling-massive-rotor-blades.html

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Unfortunately, they did not pay attention to the warning signs and tried to go under the 11-foot-8 bridge.

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I’m guessing the awkwardness of that last picture was due to them trying to avoid streetlamps and/or buildings but I far prefer to picture this barreling through town knocking everything over like we’re in a GTA game.

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen a day with reliable forecasts for wind calm enough to even think about trying that.

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That got a genuine “WTF” from me :smiley: That’s an amazingly weird and unbalanced looking assemblage.

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I don’t know, I prefer a Katamari Damacy inspired image… Though I think you’d have to roll up the whole village before attempting that blade.

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Ughhh and even then it’d make the ball katamari roll all awkward! No thanks, I’d save that one for absolute last.

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The first time I saw a windmill blade being transported I’d never seen a modern windmill.
I was reeling in horror picturing the boat or airplane that uses that massive a blade.

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like in a GTA game?

How about a Macy’s Thanksgiving parade?

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Would’ve done the same thing honestly,

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Imagine how carefully you’d need to schedule these shipments to account for the weather. The slightest gust would send that truck flying.

At some point, they’re going to need to fabricate the blades in situ.

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Video of this or I call fake. The slightest bit of wind would topple that in a second, no way they could go through a town like that… nope…

And if it IS real, then what a dangerous way to transport.

And to risk this move with… how many blades? Is this a wind farm? Something isn’t right here.

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Someone posted a video of a similar operation in the twitter thread

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They’re P. Adams Schwertransporte not P. Adams Zwaartransporte or P. Adams Transports Lourds because they’re from Belgium’s small German-speaking community.

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It’s was the cat in the hat WHAT WERE THEY EXPECTING

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I suspect some cleverly used wide angle lens distortion. Diameter looks about right near the truck but that looks way to long for 67m im some images to me.

For example here are some shots of a ridiculously huge 88m blade on a truck

edited (was wrong link)

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Looks like a logical solution to me…

The blades are light (hollow glass fibre) and meant to support themselves from one end when attached to a windmill. On the truck they are attached to a similar mounting that can be rotated about all axes. You can have the blade horizontal on a straight road. You have the blade vertical when you have to turn a corner, in which case you can turn the blade to face the wind if there is any, If the wind picks up, you can park it with the blade horizontal and flat.

It only looks mad.

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We had a few turbines go up nearby about 5 years ago. They scheduled the transport for the crack of dawn to avoid traffic, and still managed to take out nearly every damn guardrail on the route.

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First time I saw rotor blades being transported was in Costa Rica on the road to Monte Verde from Arenal. We were lucky to get ahead of them while they were gong through one of the few other towns on the road. That’s because the road is so famous for being bad they sell t-shirts saying “I survived the road to Monte Verde.”

Seriously, I don’t know how they made it. It’s not an easy road even in a 4x4.

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Wow - they must be lighter than they look. You would think that they would tilt the whole base up from the weight. I guess some of them are probably carbon fiber composites.

Neat.

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