http://www.truckingmag.co.uk Summer 2019 TRUCKING 83
supplemented by retarders to cope
with the tremendous forces imposed
on puller units when moving down
steep gradients.
Nine ex-SAR&H Pacifi cs fl eet went
into service with South African
heavy haulage specialist Rotran in- With Pacifi c factory support,
Rotran’s workshops rebuilt four of
them, variously powered by a 800 bhp
Cummins 1710C V12, or a 1250 bhp V28
de-rated to 900 bhp.
A remarkable aspect of the
performance characteristics of the
South African P-12s was hands-off,
self-steer tracking when operating
as a team of four units coupled
together with ‘H’ braces. The driver
of the lead truck steered the whole
show. A four-tractor combo is on record
‘Elvis’, a 1977 Pacific P-12, one of two
(the other named ‘Big Daddy’) operated by
Barnhart Crane & Rigging of the USThe last all-new Pacific, a 12-inch deep
chassis frame P-12, was custom-built for an
Idaho ore mining business in 1995THE
L A S T H AY E S
The last ever new-built Hayes,
an HDX, has seen getting on for
fifty years’ service driven by
logging legend Stephen
Drybrough, who also rescued
Hayes company records for
safekeeping.as having negotiated a 90-degree
junction with a driver at the wheel of
the front unit only.
The specs of the P-12s were dictated
by South Africa’s geography, with gross
train weights of up to 1000 tons often
moved over distances in the region of
1200 km from the coast. This entailed
climbing gradients of up to 16 per cent
to destinations located as high as
1850 m above sea level.
Logging trucks, the core business of
Hayes and Pacifi c, were affected by the
switch away from virgin/old-growth
timber to plantation culture in the
’70s. Saving giant trees diminished
the market for giant trucks. Today, the
market is catered for by Kenworth,
Daimler North America’s Western Star
badge and Volvo-owned Mack. ■