Heavy Metal Monsters

The Amphibex AE400 is a truly incredible machine – an amphibious ice-breaker, part hovercraft, part excavator – and it has a truly incredible job; saving an entire town from a massive flood. The Extreme Hagglund is an unholy hybrid of SUV and polar exploration vehicle – it has to be to handle one of the toughest commutes on the planet. It has to carry a team of specialist workers more than sixty miles across snow 15 feet deep to a remote construction site at the heart of Yellowstone National Park.

The P&H4100 XPC is one of the most powerful diggers on the planet, capable of shifting 80 tons of dirt with one bite, but it’s got its work cut out for it. The Tilden and Empire mine on the Michigan peninsula produces 20 percent of America’s iron and that means moving massive quantities of ore, but there’s a problem – this mine has to endure a more snow than any other on the mainland USA. On its own the Hitachi 200 excavator is a formidable machine, but when it’s paired with the 5-bladed Waratah 622 cutting head it becomes an unstoppable wood-slicing tornado. Just as well, because East Alaska is in the grip of a big freeze, and the entire region is running low on firewood.

The Helifor logging operation on Vancouver Island is a massive logistical challenge, and it all depends on the Boeing 107 Vertol heavy-lift helicopter. The prime cedar trees are on isolated, mountainous islands without so much as a dirt track, so the lumberjacks have to fly to work, and the helicopters have to haul the 8000lb logs to barges waiting offshore. The Moncrieff Drilling rig has to batter its way through some of the hardest stone on the planet for a dedicated team of linemen to bring power to the remote Indian community of Slate Falls in Canada’s frozen north.

A 1200 foot-long bridge is on the verge of collapse above a fast flowing river, and the Liebherr 1200 heavy lift crane has to take it down. It just might be the toughest job the Boston wrecking crew has ever faced. The Tan’erliq is one of the most powerful tug boats on the planet and it has to tackle one of the toughest jobs – towing oil-filled supertankers out of trouble. But even though the tug boasts a 10,000 horsepower engine, it’s not just grunt that gets the job done, Tan’erliq’s incredible multi-directional propellers mean she can turn on a dime.

The Marion-Dresser walking dragline is so heavy it can’t move on wheels or tracks – instead it has to ‘walk’ on feet more than 80 feet long. It’s massive because it has a massive job to do – mining coal in the Rocky Mountains to provide electricity for thousands of homes and businesses across Colorado. The Tucker 2000 XL Sno-Cat is an all-terrain vehicle specially adapted for military and search and rescue applications, but this one isn’t fighting. It has to bring a team of NOAA engineers to repair a remote mountain-top radar station to keep the local airport open during the Christmas travel rush.

The Tesmec 1070 trencher has to carve an 80-mile channel for a new oil pipeline through the frozen dirt of the North Dakotan plains. The mighty Asian Hercules is Asia’s most powerful floating crane and it has a truly titanic job ahead of it – building a massive drill ship piece by 3000 ton piece.