Oilfield vehicle
The term oilfield vehicle or oil field truck is a group sometimes very different trucks , which for work in the oil field operations are used and often also designed specifically for this. Since many oil fields are located in countries such as the United Arab Emirates , Turkey or Russia , high off-road mobility is essential for these vehicles, especially in snow and sand .
Subdivision
These vehicles can be broadly divided into three categories, depending on the degree of their particular construction and the tasks they perform.
Category 1
The first category , the technically simplest level, includes normal trucks that were only ordered with all-wheel drive and coarser tires. These vehicles are supposed to bring normal large and heavy loads, for example water containers , to the oil fields and can also drive on more or less well-developed roads. Apart from the poor working conditions caused by the temperature and the ground, these vehicles work like ordinary trucks e.g. B. in Europe . These trucks are then usually offered by common manufacturers. Apart from the sand tires / swamp tires, some of which are subsequently fitted by local specialty companies, these trucks are technically largely series products, with all-wheel drive being one of the equipment features available to many manufacturers anyway.
Category 2
The second category already contains different vehicles in terms of construction. These trucks usually have to drive to much more remote oil fields or other areas of operation to which there are no or much poorer roads. In addition, these vehicles are usually also burdened with significantly heavier loads, for example bulldozers stowed on low loaders to clear sand or parts of residential complexes for the workers. For these reasons, these vehicles are usually built to be extremely stable and, not least because of the extremely large sand tires that are often used, are excessively wide. Widths of 3 or 3.5 meters are the rule, which is why these vehicles are seldom seen in traffic even in countries with significantly more space than those in Europe. These oilfield trucks are in most cases custom-made, of which there are rarely more than ten identical units. The manufacturers add special, very heavy axles (e.g. from Kessler ), standard cabs (i.e. normal cabs from Mercedes-Benz, DAF etc.), powerful engines (mostly from Cummins , Caterpillar or Mercedes-Benz) and mostly themselves constructed frames together into constructions.
These trucks are usually built with a hood in order to be able to accommodate the large engines (18 liters displacement and more are not uncommon) and the cooling / heating required for the desert or tundra . Most of these vehicles have three driven axles, the front of which is steered. The two rear axles are usually designed for enormous loads (20 tonnes axle load per axle and more), but the front axle is also often overweight. This also results in the often very high fifth wheel load of 50 tons, more than a tank transporter . Since some of these vehicles have a very large distance between the first and second axles, they can be converted from a semi- trailer to a solo transporter with little conversion effort. As tractors, these vehicles, with their output of up to 700 hp, are often designed for a gross combination weight of over 200 tons. Such loads are also used by significantly smaller and lighter tractors such. B. moved by MAN in Europe, but not off the beaten track, let alone in heavy sand. In order to meet these enormous requirements, these vehicles are usually equipped with sand tires and not infrequently have various other off-road facilities such as barriers on board.
Reliability and quality are a prerequisite for these trucks (failure of important parts for an oilfield operation due to a breakdown reduces sales). For this reason, manufacturers have to take into account that their designs usually have to take the heaviest loads to locations over several decades under unfavorable conditions and in countries with often below-average maintenance options that would otherwise no longer be accessible by an off-road vehicle . For these reasons, this market is fragile, defects are not tolerated by the few customers and can ruin a manufacturer's reputation for a long time. Due to the very special production method and the extremely small number of pieces, the prices are accordingly. Individual companies such as B. Kenworth , who already have a solid reputation, set the prices that must be undercut by the new manufacturers in order to establish themselves.
Manufacturer
The best-known manufacturer of this vehicle category is the American company Kenworth with their bestsellers 953 and 953 Super, a classic oil field truck with a long wheelbase, one of the few makes that can be found in different countries. Kenworth belongs to the Paccar Group and can also build most of the vehicles from the company's own components. After Kenworth , Oshkosh is the largest competitor in this segment. Since this manufacturer plays a major role in the US military sector, he has a lot of experience with off-road vehicles and builds most of his vehicles (e.g. the driver's cab) himself, but most of the axles come from Rockwell . With the J-series, which has since been discontinued, Oshkosh built the largest oil field vehicles with a width of over 3.5 meters.
Mack is the next and last major competitor in this space. Otherwise known for his tractors for the Australian road trains , Mack rarely designs and also rather smaller oilfield vehicles. The Belgian company Mol is considered the most successful European manufacturer. The cabs are mostly from other companies, the axles from Kessler and the engines from Cummins. The hoods, which are very simple in design, and the rest are the actual mole parts. Titan Spezialfahrzeuge is the name of the best-known German company that manufactures such vehicles. Titan uses Kessler axles as well as cabs and engines from Mercedes-Benz Actros . After the successes of earlier times, Titan is now increasingly trying to gain a foothold in this segment. Another German commercial vehicle manufacturer that has been in the oil fields of Africa and China for over 30 years is DOLL Fahrzeugbau from Oppenau in Baden . DOLL manufactures oil field superstructures, gin pole trucks, pipeline transporters, semi-trailers, sludge tank superstructures, etc. DOLL Fahrzeugbau (350 employees, around 100 million euros in sales) is primarily known from the heavy haulage and log transport segments. Vehicles. In the latter, DOLL is the world market leader. There are various former military constructions from the Soviet Union , mostly from KZKT , MAZ , MZKT , KrAZ or ZIL , which are used for similar tasks as described above.
A new producer of oil field vehicles is Paul Nutzfahrzeuge , which presented the PAUL Heavy Mover in 2012, which uses vehicle components and engine and drive technology from Mercedes-Benz.
Third category
The third category is made up of very special constructions for areas of application that are so inaccessible that they can no longer be accessed by a classically constructed truck. These vehicles mostly run on almost roller-like tires, which can only be usefully attached under the vehicle through special construction methods. These trucks, which are hardly recognizable as such, do not transport heavy loads on trailers and their own payload is also rather lower, since it is particularly important for them to exert low ground pressure. That is why it is not uncommon for them to be tracked vehicles .
Within this vehicle group there are ready-made model selections from the manufacturers, custom-made products are more the exception. The best-known manufacturers are the Canadian company Foremost and its competitor Rolligon .
Web links
- Literature on the subject
- Presentation of the father of oil field vehicles, the KENWORTH 963 (PDF file)
Individual evidence
- ^ Oilfield Equipment. Retrieved October 12, 2019 .
- ↑ Reference report TITANSpezialfahrzeugbauGmbH. Retrieved October 12, 2019 .
- ↑ Products. In: doll.eu. October 12, 2019, accessed October 12, 2019 .
- ↑ Germany's thickest truck. Retrieved April 19, 2014 .
- ↑ http://www.nov.com/rolligon/