Trucking Heavy

A team of experts prepares to transport two gigantic pieces of electric equipment 40 miles using two specially adapted rigs, but from too-small exit gates through multiple roundabouts and ending with a weak bridge, the journey is anything but certain.

A team on the south coast continue to shift a 150-tonne reactor and a 195-tonne transformer across Sussex to an electrical substation in Ninfield.

In Lincolnshire, 36-year heavy haulage veteran Steve Moss's two-day mission is to deliver a 60-tonne reel of electrical cable for an ambitious green energy scheme. Carefully positioning his 60-tonne bespoke trailer, which is longer than a diplodocus dinosaur and about as agile, the hefty load has to confirm its conductivity by having 10,000 volts of electricity sent through it. Supported front and rear by his team and under police escort, Steve takes on all manner of man-made obstacles. A humpback bridge, a railway crossing and overhead phone cables could all bring this oversized convoy to a halt. After overcoming these challenges, trouble arrives in the form of a swan! Cue former chicken farmer and support driver Roger Morris. If anyone can wrangle a piece of posh poultry safely off the road it should be him. With no time for swanning around, Roger swiftly clears the bird from the road and the reel can finally reach its destination. Then after two false starts solved with grease and some gentle persuasion, Roger remotely controls the unspooling of the cable from the mechanised trailer in perfect unison with the construction site's winch. Meanwhile in Warwickshire, the ‘Golden Boys', a three-tonne statue of the fathers of the steam age, needs taking to its new home in the second city's Centenary Square. But James Watt and his colleagues can't go anywhere without being precisely loaded, because for these boys to remain golden, not a single fleck of gold leaf can be damaged in transit. Former Birmingham bus driver Dave Hemmings navigates low-hanging trees to arrive with the statue in one piece. And despite having a centre of gravity to challenge any crane op, precision slinging and careful lifting eventually has the Golden Boys sitting firmly on their plinth. Job done.

To haul a 190-ton reel of steel crane cable, driver Zack steers his 144-wheeled, 60-ton trailer from Warwickshire to Worksop to first load and then take it to Immingham docks.

The crew collects a 255-tonne transformer bound for a substation in Woodmansey. The load is so large that it requires drivers at the front and rear of the cargo.

Veteran driver Col takes on the challenge of not one, but two mammoth moves, including a 63-tonne cable reel that needs transporting from Worksop to the yard at Studley.

Two 94-tonne electrical transformers bound for a green energy project arrive by ferry from Rotterdam. Veteran heavy haulier Gavin and his protégé Rob must transport them from Immingham Dock in Lincolnshire to Aberdeen. The three-day, 450-mile journey will be on 116 wheels, attached to two 630BHP Mercedes trucks and two 27-metrelong trailers. Including support vehicles, this convoy is as long as a football field, and tomorrow they must meet their Police Scotland escort. But getting north of the border today will prove an almost impossible challenge. After an hour on the M180, there's smoke billowing from Gav's trailer. An impromptu hard shoulder stop has Rob getting down and dirty to clean a brake airline. In west Yorkshire, with M62 traffic rushing past, there's another smoking brake that can't be fixed by Rob, so a mechanic is called to pry the brake shoe free. Now the race is on to escape the county's rush hour heavy haulage vehicle embargo. At an average speed of just 30mph, making the county line in time will be touch and go. And today's challenges are by no means over. Meanwhile, in Warwickshire, driver Tom must secure the contents of a Portakabin before lifting it onto his trailer by crane and delivering it to a building site in Battle, east Sussex. Almost as tall as three camels, this load risks being displaced by wind. But the real and present danger is the tricky unload. When Tom arrives, he must deal with an unforgiving slope that proves difficult for his lorry to climb, and he finds it even harder to find a stable position to lift the load without lorry and cabin toppling.

A 450-mile journey threatens to be ruined by repeated blowouts, with the convoy running dangerously low on spare wheels. And struggling up an incline, a cutting passenger car threatens to leave the lorry stuck on a slope

A team struggles just to move massive industrial units from the port to the storage area, leaving the drive ahead looking grim. A driver transports a 400-year-old olive tree.

In the Midlands, heavy haulier Colin has to move a 107-tonne transformer from the outskirts of Walsall to the yard in Studley.