The Colossus Of Heavy Transport That Conquered South Africa ▶ Pacific P12W3 “Ultra” History

[Music] like many success stories and multinational companies Pacific trucks began in 1947 as the ambitious project of three friends former employees of hay trucks whose Vision was focused on creating powerful Transportation machines with a high degree of customization to satisfy the diverse needs of each customer becoming one of Canada's most iconic and representative companies this North American brand embodied its ambitious goal in the form of ultra powerful and highly resilient trucks for Industries such as forestry and Mining in the same year of its founding the company managed to sell its first Vehicles destined for forestry operations something that strongly characterized it and gave it legendary status in its Home Country they quickly increased their Workforce five-fold producing up to one truck per day due to the great success they had achieved by 1970 Pacific trucks had gained International recognition this along with its recent acquisition by International Harvester LED customers from different parts of the world to become more interested in the reliable P series of trucks one of the many companies interested at the time was South Africa Railway which is part of the South African Railway and Port Administration they were looking for Pacific trucks to become their reliable supplier capable of providing them with four heavyduty service trucks capable of transporting loads of up to 400 tons true to the special customization philosophy with which the company was founded and with the goal of providing the right attention the manager of engineering and development at Pacific trucks at that time Gwyn Jenkins traveled to Africa to learn about the the loading operations and routes to which these trucks were destined after his arrival in September 1971 and various consultations the model offered by the Canadian brand was called the p12 although it wasn't until May 1972 that pacific was notified of its successful bid by November of the same year the four requested units had already been shipped by sea to their destination Johannesburg South Africa it is worth noting that the p12 model had never been built before so the impressive pace of work as well as the speed and the development and production of the trucks pleasantly surprised the African company despite the fact that the originally selected model intended to handle the work that typically revolved around indivisible loads for power plants met the required expectations in terms of engine power close to 600 horsepower the South African Railway company requested an even larger and more powerful model capable of operating together like a sort of Road train it was then that using the proven p12 as a base the Canadian company set out to redefine the concept of a Road train known as the Pacific Ultra these resulting units were not only the most powerful on the road but also had the highest traction capacity of their time capable of pulling 370 tons of cargo without any problem their distinctive design with a massive Hood served to conceal the powerful 27 L cumins V12 1710 engine which generated a whopping 800 horsepower to propel its three driven axles additionally these trucks had enormous radiators to maintain a stable temperature mainly because the areas they regularly had to Traverse could have ambient temperatures as high as 40° C the nature of their operations allowed them to perform individual or Collective transports additionally some units were equipped with a cabin-like structure on the chassis which allowed the members of the transportation team to rest during long shifts this combined with the fact that the height of these trucks was over 5 m made them look like giant locomotives moving along the [Music] highways the reliability of these powerful machines especially their qualities for heavy transport in the 1970s quickly made them highly acclaimed among some of the major African transport companies today companies like rran continue to extend their service life making them a truly viable option for super heavy and oversized loads these Pacific Ultras are often seen operating in conjunction with more modern units like the powerful tractomas and are revered as trusted veterans however they also occasionally work in groups consisting solely of ultr trucks albeit less frequently nevertheless the fact that these trucks were developed in the 1970s makes them increasingly old and difficult to maintain in working condition interestingly the simultaneous gear changes are made through radio commands between the drivers themselves due to the lack of modern electronic systems however while this megga truck project yielded results and brought except ceptional International Prestige to the Canadian company the construction of this robust line of trucks did not provide the company with more significant benefits Additionally the real sector of importance for Pacific trucks was the forestry and Mining Industries the new Transportation requirements also led to this model serving mainly as the basis for improved versions among which the p16 truck stands out as the successor to the p12 in terms of General heavyduty transport trucks it is worth noting that after its ownership by International Harvester Pacific trucks became the property of another company based in Singapore in the early 1980s this expanded the reach of its units allowing them to enter the Asian and Malaysian markets mainly in the forestry sector that characterized the brand unfortunately poor management decisions and various Financial crises caused the development and production of heavyduty trucks to cease being a priority resulting in the last official Pacific unit being produced in 1991 during the 44 years of the Brand's existence a total of 2,38 trucks of different models were manufactured of which only 23 were Pacific Ultra representing just 1% of the entire production after the closure of its production lines the brand focused entirely on the sale and distribution of spare parts until it was acquired in 2002 by Coast powertrain limited who became owners of all the blueprints models and templates that the Canadian company managed to develop in nearly half a [Music] century curiously there is a very peculiar story about these trucks in 1995 once again a group of three mechanics who had worked for the company for decades took on the project of building another Pacific truck using spare parts and pieces they had in a warehouse in Vancouver with great success they unofficially produced what would be the last truck of this brand it was manufactured in the back of a workshop and it was necessary to demolish a wall to remove the enormous 25ton [Music] truck before you go we'd like to recommend our Channel gear unlimited you'll find Excellent content on various topics that we're sure you'll enjoy thank you for joining our community if you haven't already make sure to subscribe like and turn on the notification Bell until next time

Channel: Gear Tech HD

Views: 183,154

Keywords: Heavy Transport, Pacific P12W3, Ultra Truck, South African Transport, Heavy Haulage, Pacific Truck History, Transport Colossus, Hauling Equipment, Ultra Heavy Duty Truck, South African Roads, Trucking in South Africa, Transportation Challenges, Heavy Load Transport, Trucking History, Extreme Hauling, Colossus Truck, Heavy Duty Vehicles, Pacific P12W3 Story, South African Trucking, Pacific Truck Legacy, geartech, gear tech hd

Id: uLWH62VBPYQ

Length: 8min 10sec (490 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 28 2023