Rock Truck and Roll!

When most people think of heavy equipment, they think about the typical machines seen at a normal construction site. Some of these items might include cranes, bulldozers and backhoes, but there are some pieces of heavy equipment most people will never have the opportunity to see. One of these monster machines is the Rock Truck. These monstrosities are used on large construction sites, in mining operations and on other work sites that require the transport of a lot of material or very large materials. Here is a video of a rock truck in action:

Much like a dump truck, the rock truck is used in moving around dirt or rocks and to dump the load in a particular area. The main difference between a normal dump truck and a rock truck is their size. The rock truck is manufactured to carry usually between 100 and 300 tons of material. These mammoth vehicles are used extensively off the road because their enormous weight would damage the roads as they passed over them. This actually results in another issue: How are these humongous trucks transported? The answer to that question would be that they actually need to be disassembled into manageable pieces to be moved off the site to ensure no damage is done to the roads.

Due to the size and power of these monster trucks, additional training and certification needs to be performed prior to a heavy equipment operator being able to drive a rock truck. This training will include classroom work as well as behind the wheel hands on training. The heavy equipment operator will need to prove he can handle the rock truck on rough terrain. This rock truck training can truly add another dimension to any heavy equipment operator’s resume.