Driving for a living is always going to be stressful. The constant vigilance required when high speeds, human brains and heavy vehicles are involved can wear on a person. If your job is transporting wind turbine blades up windy, narrow mountain roads, a single day at work probably ages you a year from stress.
A video released by CGTN Europe shows the excessive lengths, and heights, truckers in China are willing to go to make wind power work. This treacherous drive through the Nanling Mountain Range in Hunan, China is like threading a needle in a wind storm. This trucker is deftly maneuvering an 80-tonne, 172 feet long windmill blade up the 1,312-foot high Baoding Mountain.
It takes a certain level of concentration and mad skill to navigate some of the world’s most remote windy, narrow mountain roads. Lose focus and you could find yourself driving over a several-story drop beyond the non-existent guardrails. This truck driver is definitely a contender for having one of the most stressful jobs in the world. Now you may be wondering, how can a truck even carry something like that?
Slow, tall and steady
To successfully transport something as large as this wind turbine blade, special trucks or trailers are made to the object’s specifications. According to YouTube’s Trucker Culture, these trailers and haulers are equipped with a special blade lifter system. The root of the blade is mounted to the frame on the carrier, which is equipped with hydraulic lifters. Those lifters are key to helping the little truck that could to navigate narrow roads and paths, as well as get around homes, forests, power lines, bridges and really anything that could be in the way.
The hydraulic lifter can raise the blade upwards of 60 degrees, although in some videos it may look as though some can get close to 90 degrees. This comes especially handy on small turns and hairpins on mountains as the blade can be lifted and help lessen the footprint the truck makes, otherwise one risks the truck and blade hanging off the end of the mountain. No thank you.
The vehicles seen in the video escorting the semi carrying the wind turbine blade are there to not only survey and remove obstacles, but to help guide the truck around precarious situations. Sometimes this is done via radio communications, likely when slight, precise movements are required where the blade or truck have just a few feet of clearance.
Weather can also up a transport’s precarious threat level. Wind turbine blades are designed to catch wind, unfortunately even while on the back of a truck. Awind gust, on the top of a mountain like the one in the earlier video is not a good day for anyone. Mother Nature will bring the whole caravan to a standstill until conditions clear, otherwise suffer the wrath and one can find an unintentional but likely faster route back down a mountain.
