What's The Biggest Vehicle You've Driven?

[crokett]

Today I spent 11 hrs behind the wheel of a 22' long rental truck getting my in-laws' stuff moved from Indianapolis. Actually the truck is longer than that, the box is 22'. Driving across Ohio wasn't too bad since it was all straight. Horsing that thing through the mountains was tons' o fun especially since climbing it was slowing down to about 50 mph on a lot of the hills. Huge blind spots, even with the fish-eye mirrors.

[dbhost]

Does combined count?

Biggest single vehicle was a rented Budget Isuzu 20' flatbed truck. 5 speed with 2 splitters. That was fun to drive over the grapevine...

Combined? My 2004 F150 4x4 2.5" lift 35x12.50 tires (6' 9" tall) Super cab standard bed, pulling a 30' rented travel trailer. The worst part is dealing with Houston traffic. Next time I do that, I am gonna rent a trailer in Austin and head out from there. To *#$% with yanking anything big through Houston...

[headhunter636]

I drove one of those 22 footers from Clarksville, TN to Seattle, Wa. But I would have to say the biggest (and without a doubt the coolest) vehicle I've driven was an M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank. Drove that thing for about 4 years, 16 years ago and remember it like it was yesterday.

[Richard in Smithville]

I used one of the big rentals a number of years back but I used to operate one of the huge bucket loaders for work. Not as cool as headhunters tank but at least a close second. Ok, perhaps a far second.


It's amazing how people see it's a rental truck, and still won't give you any leeway.

[eccentrictinkerer]

Back when I was in my twenties (a very long time ago) I drove a 'deuce and a half' pulling a 20 KW generator trailer from Minneapolis, MN to Waco, TX and back.

This was on the occasion of mylast summer camp in the Army Reserves. The truck was was over 20' long, carried our radio repair shop and weighed 13,000 lbs. Top speed was 45 mph.

To stay cool we could tilt the the windshield windows forward to catch some air. If the temp rose over 80 we could take off our 'blouses' and drive in our T-shirts.

The worst part was that only about 20 of us made that 'road trip'.

The rest of our battalion got to TX on a Northwest jet!

[leehljp]

I grew up on a farm, primarily cotton and soybeans. Dad had two 22 ton 18 wheelers that we hauled our grain and cotton as well as other farmer's to mills. I drove them on occasion, mostly in the summer when out of school. We did occasional mid range haul of gin machinery as well as other for distances of 500 miles or so.

My dad was also the Gulf Oil distributor for 15 years over a two county area and I delivered gas from a 2000 gal truck to farmers, service stations and ag (flying) services.

It has been a looong time but it seems like I had a commercial license at the time.

But the most fun was driving a D-9 Cat that Dad (and I) overhauled. We got to use it for about a month for free for overhauling the engine.

Also big in a different dimension were cotton pickers and combines. Those were the days!

[dbhost]

Hey, I just noticed you said VEHICLE, not land vehicle, automobile, truck or what not...

This just got a LOT easier.

50 foot Bertram Diesel yacht. Friends of my ex owned it, and I was the only sober person on board... We found a nice quiet cove, set anchor and I proceeded to join the rest on board...

[3thumbs]

Multi Fuel semi tractor, pulling a military Load King type trailer, with a Cat D-8
tractor loaded on the trailer. South Viet Nam, 1968-69. A heavy load!
DM

[headhunter636]

Back when I was in my twenties (a very long time ago) I drove a 'deuce and a half' pulling a 20 KW generator trailer from Minneapolis, MN to Waco, TX and back.

The old deuce and a half, one of the best vehicles ever to grace the Army inventory. I drove one of those and a 5-ton in Korea in 1998-99 and they were a blast to drive. The deuce had that old style power steering, the stronger you were, the more "power" steering you had. Now-a-days, they replaced those trucks with LMTVs, which seem more like a fragile machine compared to the brute strength of the deuce.

I never had to drive one that far, I do not envy you for that.

[chopnhack]

Box truck, ~35'

[Pappy]

Single vehicle was a 26' U-Haul with a car trailer hooked to it. Ran 5,000 gal tankers as nurse trucks / runway foamers. Different bases had different tractors from an M-52 (Fun to shift that sucker!) to a cab-over Jimmy.

Biggest 'vehicle' was one of these:



Lift and carry salvage crane built by Leteurne-Westinghouse. Most of them were rated for 50 tons, but a few were only certified to 40 tons. Biggest thing I every carried with one was an EA-6B when I was at El Toro.

The first one I ever drove was a 40 Ton at Quantico, Va. Ten years later, I met up with Bertha again when I took over the Crash Rescue unit at 29 Palms, CA. Because Quantico had no air traffic heavy enough, she had been mothballed. When the combat airfield at the 'Stumps' was expanded, she was rehabbed and put back in service. We had cables special built to hook up to a 56 ton tank retriever for the weight certification. After the lift was made to 88,000 pounds and dogged for 15 minutes the inspecter signed off and told us we could set it down. The young Sgt driving the retriever made a comment about doing it quick before something broke. With a thumbs up from the mechanic, I invited the inspector to help himself to some coffee in my office. When the retriever's tracks were 3' off the sand, I had it guy-lined to the boom and asked the Sgt where he wanted his 'tinker toy' parked. As he spouted off a little more I had my operator climb in the cab and start toward the open desert. He decided a 10 mile hike in the sun wasn't such a good idea.

[Knottscott]

Drove a standard size Ford diesel garbage truck with the split shifter many moons ago. Have driven a couple of 26' U-hauls. We owned a 15 passenger Ford Clubwagon for about 8 years, up until summer of 2008.

[Relative]

40' motorhome with toad pusher.

It's a 1995 Country Coach Magna, rated at 32K and currently has a Jeep Wrangler hanging behind it.

Been all over the country with it and more than a few sticky situations.

Mike

[jackellis]

I suppose the biggest thing (size wise) I've ever "driven" was a 4,100 pound airplane. According to the book, 28' long, 43 foot wing span. Nothing like tanks, trucks, cranes, etc., but it had a cool factor all its own. This particular model had a 6 cylinder, 300 hp piston engine but it was pressurized and could fly at 25,000 feet. On one occasion, a jet at cruise altitude actually passed beneath us. We once flew it from Marquette, Michigan to Aspen, Colorado non-stop (7 hours). It was a rental airplane to boot.

[Uncle Cracker]

I've piloted yachts, flown planes, driven 18-wheelers, but my neighbor has me beat (and the rest of us as well, I'd wager). He's retired from NASA, and drove the "Crawler" for 5 years...