A decommissioned German U-boat, U17, has been moved from Speyer Technology Museum to its sister museum in Sinsheim, Germany. The submarine was moved by the heavy haulage company Kübler on 30 SCHEUERLE InterCombi axle lines, headed up by an MAN TGX.
Frieder Saam, driver and transport manager at Spedition Kübler, said: “For such transports, we need high-quality, robust and precisely steerable modular axle lines. We have been working together with TII SCHEUERLE for over 35 years and are very impressed with the convincing quality of the vehicles.”
The submarine weighs 350-tonne and it took four weeks to move it. The journey was live streamed online and hundreds of people took to the streets to see the U-boat up close. The commander of U17, Jürgen Weber, said: "The interest of the spectators made us feel good, it was an unforgettable experience for the whole team and we are proud that the U17 is being kept open to the public.”
At 90m long and up to 10m high, the submarine required specialist handling to navigate low bridges, narrow roads and overhead power lines. The team had to rotate U17 multiple times by up to 70 degrees to achieve the clearance needed to navigate these obstacles.
The SCHEUERLE InterCombi is a 3m wide modular platform which is 1,180mm tall in the driving position. Thanks to its wide base and low position, it’s well suited to loads with high centres of gravity like the U17.
While parts of the journey took the submarine through towns and villages, a section of motorway was closed off to allow the U17 to navigate this stretch. To make the turn off of the motorway, the last 5km of this stretch were completed at 15kmph on the wrong side of the road. This move is the result of five years of planning to safely move the U17 to its new location.
