Clash of the Trailer Titans

Which combination does the best job: a duotrailer, a megatrailer, or a conventional truck and trailer? That’s what the leading Spanish commercial vehicle magazine, TRUCK, set out to uncover. ALBERTO PUERTA reports on this titanic clash.

Photography by Juan Caraballo

Since the birth of the internal combustion engine, road transport progress has been unstoppable. The mega trucks are the latest instalment in this incessant pursuit of efficiency.

The vehicles are well-suited to Spanish roads. We have Europe’s most extensive network of motorways and dual carriageways, with about 17,000km of high-capacity infrastructure, compared to around 15,000km in Germany and 11,000km in France. Spain’s topography is also very advantageous.

Of course, the introduction of mega trucks isn’t without its challenges. The main difficulties are the warehouses, scales, and loading and unloading areas, which are certainly not prepared for these giants. It is simply a matter of time, though, before logistics (and customers in general) adapt these structures to achieve the rapid and full operation of the “megas”.

In terms of the rules and regulations pertaining to these trucks, megatrailer length cannot exceed 25.25m, while maximum length for a duotrailer is 31.75m. Their GVMs are limited to 60 and 70 tonnes respectively.

Driving a mega can be demanding: the driver’s workload, over and above the responsibility of guiding the vehicle, is much higher than in a normal truck. This is partly due to the lack of suitable adaptation at the logistics and loading points, as previously noted. The length of the scales, facility dimensions, and other factors mean that the driver has to hitch and unhook several times to load and unload their cargo.

Moving on to the actual trailer test, we turned to Bodegotrans: a family business based in Hinojedo, Cantabria, run by brothers José Luis and Fernando Allende. Their father Mr Allende, the founder of the company, is enjoying a well-deserved retirement.

The company has a total of 138 units, of which nine are 60-tonne B-double trailers and seven are 70-tonne duotrailers. In addition to its own trucks, Bodegotrans employs 35 freelancers who work “full time” for the company.

At the Tanos industrial estate facilities, Bodegotrans collects its clients’ various bulk and other materials, which generally arrive by ship at the port of Santander. According to market demand, Bodegotrans makes deliveries throughout Spain. Taking advantage of a substantial order from a large consumer in Salamanca, we loaded the three vehicles for the test.

The one-way route was Tanos (Cantabria) to Huerta (Salamanca), including 295km of highways, on which we collected our data. The test route’s height profile was typical of routes used daily by Cantabrian carriers: the starting point in Torrelavega is 25m above sea level and from there we ascended to the Castilian plateau on the A-67, arriving in Reinosa at 1,002m above sea level. Continuing the trip, we joined the A-62 in Venta de Baños to travel along the route formerly named the “Route of the Portuguese” to the Cañizal crossroads 800m away, where we ended this first part of the test.

We returned from Peñaranda de Bracamonte to load quartz at the Erimsa mine, destined for the port of Santander. We started the data control at the town’s exit, travelling along the CL-610 towards the Castilian town of Medina del Campo. The road is 54km of regional route, with frequent town crossings and the typical annoying “bumps” that proliferate their asphalt.

In Medina del Campo, we joined the A-6 to take the A-62 again in Tordesillas. From Venta de Baños until the end of the test, we travelled once more along the A-67 highway – this time for 273km in the opposite direction. This stage totalled 327km from loading point to the final destination in the Bodegotrans Logística warehouses in Tanos. The total monitored route was roughly 622 / 620 / 614km, according to the trucks’ different tacho readings.

Again, this was a fairly representative route; the first 45km to Reinosa comprised hard ascents with gradients of up to 7%, which were evident in the average speed and consumption. The rest of the route traversed the Castilian plateau, with a consequent increase in speed and reduction in consumption. Note that the comparison between the trailers was carried out under normal working conditions, without interfering with the driving patterns of each driver and with an assistant in the cabin to collect the field data.

Analysing the results, we made a surprising discovery: the average speed of the “giants” was not significantly slower than that of the normal trailer. The duotrailer travelled at an impressive 83.06km/h with its 70 tonnes in tow, while the 60-tonne B-Double reached 84.32km/h. For its part, the conventional combination travelled swiftly at 86.75km/h. The trucks are limited to 90km/h with the exception of the duotrailer, which is limited to 89km/h (in the descents, the golden minute at 95km/h was used wisely to improve the average and inertia).

There were no surprises in terms of consumption: the duotrailer consumed 51.28 litres/100km, the mega recorded 47.4 litres/100km, and their “little brother” consumed 34.16 litres/100km.

As a summary – and given the results of this comparison – it should be emphasised that these megatrailers will not threaten the extinction of other configuration types. Instead, the market itself and the customers will decide how they are deployed in the future.