Whilst most of Turkmenistan is cloaked in arid, inhospitable desert, it is awash with natural oil and gas reserves, which play a key role in the ongoing growth of the central Asian nation’s economy. Its situation by the Caspian Sea provides easy access to the Russian market, along with other Eurasian territories. With increasing trade comes the increasing movement of machinery. For any transport operation, the need for roads is a basic requirement. But what if the load is too big and heavy for conventional routes? And what if there were no roads at all?

The Turkish haulage operator ÇABA is currently tasked with transporting a huge armine absorber unit across the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan on its way to a flue gas desulphurisation plant located in the town of Eloten. Plant operator “Türkmengas” is the largest gas supply company in Central Asia, and requires extensive logistical support. As a long-standing customer of Scheuerle, ÇABA has relied on the robust InterCombi platform trailer.

Since November 2010, ÇABA has been transporting essential armine absorber units at regular intervals from the Caspian port of Türkmenbasi to Eloten, a journey of about 1,300km. Roughly 80% (about 1,000 km) of the route travels over uneven desert dunes. The Karakum desert occupies about 80% of Turkmenistan, covering an area of over 350,000 km². It would be a rough ride for any vehicle.

The 600t load is hauled by three Mercedes 8×4 2MB 3850 6×6 WSK truck tractors. The total combination is over 40m long, 7.5m wide and almost 7m high. For handling such dimensions, a number of special measures are required. For example, all bridges to be crossed during the trip have been fitted with special bridge crossing systems. Obstacles such as electricity pylons and road signs have to be continually removed and repositioned afterwards. Asphalt roads had to be built especially for these transportations for the remaining 300km of the journey. Regular routes simply would not be able to cope with such heavy traffic. As a result, a single delivery takes an average of 60 days and accrues associated costs.

ÇABA employs heavy duty Scheuerle InterCombi platform trailers with 24 axle lines for this very demanding assignment. An additional 12 axle lines InterCombi SL (“split type”) are laterally coupled. As the split type can be divided longitudinally, this means the transportation unit can also be extended laterally, in connection with the platform trailer. This so-called “3-file” combination provides improved stability if the load’s centre of centre of gravity is higher.