Kässbohrer smoothes it for Reiser Schwertransport

Kässbohrer’s enginuity continues to provide the exact solution to its low-bed users in special transportation business, moving giant loads on challenging roads through tight corners.

It was a snowy day on January 4 in Nordhausen, Germany with temperatures showing -5° Celsius. One of Germany’s leading special transporters Reiser Schwertransport loaded a 60-ton transformer frame to be used in a natural gas power station in the United States, on a Kässbohrer K.SLH 8. Once its transatlantic load secured onboard after a 4-hour effort, Kässbohrer’s 8-axle hydraulic steering low-bed, K.SLH 8, took the way to Duisburg Port. A 420 km journey on A2 motorway...

The Kässbohrer team accompanied the loading operation and the journey in order to monitor the performance of K.SLH 8 and listened to the user experience at first hand from Manfred Richter, the Chief Driver of Reiser Schwertransport.

Manfred Richter supervised every step of the loading operation, once the 60-ton transformer frame was ready for loading. He put the load on the platform of K.SLH 8. He secured the load with lashing rings with a capacity of 6.7 tons each and covered the load with tarpaulin. After checking the load and the vehicle in accordance with load and road security measures, he hit the road to Duisburg Port.

It’s been almost a year since Richter is driving a K.SLH 8 and he says that he’s content with its performance. After receiving the K.SLH 8, Richter took technical user training at Kässbohrer plant in Goch, which he says helped him to know Kässbohrer’s 130-ton capacity platform better. “I got used to it pretty fast,” he remarks.

Kässbohrer’s K.SLH 8, with its hydraulic steering axle technology, overcame maneuverability challenges both on narrow roads and tight corners and offered a stable drive on icy road conditions of a typical German winter.  Richter finds the “Auto Alignment System” quite effective, as the system offers an automated alignment up to a speed of 15 km/h. Since no breakdown was observed in the system up to date, Richter never used the alternative manual alignment option. The Auto Alignment System comes with the standard package.

Richter tells that it’s quite easy for a driver to extend or shorten the platform of K.SLH 8, which reaches up to 9,000 mm, offering increased flexibility with locks for every 1,000 mm extension. When all extensions are on, the length of the platform reaches 24,800 mm.

With his vast experience over the years on special transportation, where the safety measures hit the maximum, Manfred Richter says the lashing rings of K.SLH 8 are ideal, in terms of both capacity and quality.

K.SLH 8 arrived its destination on January 6, safe and secure, and ready for upcoming challenges.