What Is The Highest Capacity Dumptruck Ever Produced?

Some of the largest machines ever made are dumptrucks, often designed with a single, specific purpose in mind, albeit one that requires exceptionally large payload capacity, tremendous amounts of power and a robust, durable design.

They are typically collectively known as “ultra class” and are often astonishing feats of machinery to behold, weighing more than a fully laden jumbo jet, having multiple times the power of the fastest cars in the world and being as tall as a house.

Whilst there have been several ultra-class trucks over the years, the holder of the moniker of largest dumptruck in the world for over a decade at this point is the Belarusian BELAZ-75710, which has a payload capacity of 450 metric tonnes, 87 more than the previous largest truck.

As one might expect, such a dumptruck is not typically used for the types of versatile construction site work a conventional truck might be, but instead is specifically used for large-capacity mining in open pits and quarries.

The original ultra-class truck was the rather infamous Terex 33-19 Titan, designed and completed in the midst of an oil crisis, so rather than being used to meet the tremendous demands of the mining industry, the Titan became a rather ironic showpiece that starred in commercials with golf legend Jack Nicklaus.

The 75710 does not have that problem at all, with mine operators looking to increase efficiency and operating capacity as much as possible, as every penny saved per tonne quickly adds up in the world’s largest mines for iron, coal, copper and lithium.

The machines are also expected to operate for an extremely long time, with a lot of similar ultra-class machines still being used to this day and maintaining an extended service life, slowly recouping the initial investment of millions of pounds in the process of doing so.