Kandt deploys new Scania 650S as heavy haulage tractor

The company's new showpiece is approved up to 180 tons. The construction was done entirely according to the insights of owner director Arjen Kandt himself and counts numerous very special details that make work easier. 

"I chose a Scania this time for several reasons," Arjen summarizes the history behind the new vehicle. "First, of course we are very familiar with the brand, we have several in our company. But above all, this time I wanted a truck with a V8 engine. Then the choice is basically already made. But the fact that Scania can deliver a strong chassis with innerliner also played a part. I also liked the fact that Scania has a factory fitted air-suspended ten-tonne front axle as well as a weighted clutch. As a gearbox came a GRSO926R; obviously with retarder."

"Most of our trucks have five axles," Arjen explains. "But a four-axle truck was still missing from our program. That's easy with this truck because it doesn't have a crane on it. We really have it as an extension within special transport. But although it is entirely intended as a heavy transport tractor, we also have to be able to hang an ordinary Tautliner behind it. That is why we opted for a mechanically operated sliding fifth wheel. That makes the truck universally usable and our complete range of towed equipment fits behind it. From the heaviest low loader to an ordinary tarpaulin trailer. The latter does have a heavier 3.5-inch kingpin just like all our equipment."

The new truck is rated to 180 tons of train weight. "But we've never driven that. We don't get beyond a respectable 165 tons. That's usually when we transport a foundation machine from our other company. But other than that, we drive all kinds of things. That's the fun thing in this business. You end up with the heaviest or biggest things in the wildest places. And yet there is no training for it. You have to be able to do it and certainly want to. Because in special transportation, it's always challenging. Everything is always heavy. That makes it a profession you can only learn in practice. But somewhere it is strange. For an LHV of barely 60 tons, you have to get a complete additional driver's license. But with your waiver you can go on the road tomorrow with 160 tons or 30 meters plus like that."

With the new truck, an awful lot of attention has been paid to detail. "You keep going one step further," Arjen believes. "Partly this is progressive insight. For example, we don't want a radio connection with the steering rear axles of our flatbed trailers. With us that is simply wired to a joystick in the cabin. But also the construction of the tanks, the air tanks, your working light, the creation of as much storage space as possible has become more sophisticated with each new truck. For example, here we have 1,000 liters of fuel behind the cab in a big rack with the air tanks and extra lights all the way on top. That's all taken care of by Ematri. Now a superstructure like this is less exotic than it seems. Those parts are just hard to put anywhere else. Along the chassis there is hardly any space and ín the chassis it is already full of other components."

Another part of all the details is pure enthusiasm. "The eye also wants something. For example, we deliberately chose the tallest S cab. It's a tough cab, of course, but it also offers a lot of surface area behind the cab. We deliberately didn't want Skylights at the top because we don't think that looks right with the old skool light box. It needs classically shaped fog lights. In the cab, we took the term "full specs" very literally. Because although the driver hardly ever sleeps in it, it has everything." The end result is quite something. "We noticed that already during the construction. I saw all the manufacturers of miniature models go by. So that model is already there."   

Although the V8 engine can go well over a million without any problems, the chances of this happening at Kandt are not very high anyway. "We normally do about 13 years with a truck, but we only drive about 70,000 kilometers a year. Then that engine is far from finished, but it's usually time for something new anyway."