Something I passed today

[iaff84]

Passed a truck in Iowa today hauling just one of the blades for a wind turbine. I knew they were on the large side, but these are large.
Dennis

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[rhino 2]

Yep, From a distant they look small, Very deceiving I rode under them a few times in Waymart Pa.. You have to get up close to realize just how big they are..

[Sloufoot]

Dennis, those look longer than the ones they are using out West. Had a lot of them on the roads around here. They don't look as long as yours tho.

[Rick Kay]

At first I thought maybe you ate something you shouldn't have!

[DakotaTG]

There are both tower and blade manufacturers in North Dakota. Towers are made in Fargo and blades in Grand Forks. The toweres used to be around 150 feet in height made from several sections and blades 90 feet in length. Now the "super" towers are 200 to 225 feet in height and the blades are 125 feet in length. Of course when you see then in the distance they look big but not having anything to scale them against you don't realize just how big they are. The "housing" for the generator is about the size of a school bus (the big 64 passenger size). About two years ago our Harley group toured a tower field about 40 miles southwest from Jamestown that was one of the earliest ones in ND and has 40 towers. The bolts that anchor the tower down are 125 feet long, 2 inches in diameter and I believe there was 100 of them per tower. They use a special machine lowered by a crane over the bottom section of the tower to run the bolts in all at the same time. An interesting fact is that the tip of the blade is moving at 175 mph when it is turning and the blade angle adjusts itself according to the wind speed (much like the prop on airplanes).

A new tower field about 40 miles northeast of Jamestown has 125 super towers covering miles of land and another one is planned about 15 miles north of Jamestown that will also have about 100 towers.

2011 Merlot and Black TG.

[msocko3]

Yep, that be a big blade. I've passed blades like that in the past while running out west, sure do get your attention.

[cscsonny]

We were on a road trip (can't remember what state) and saw one of them on fire.It was fairly close to the road and the local fire dept.was just arriving.Rural fire departments apparently have no way to fight a fire in a wind turbine and it pretty much just burned to the ground.
We had pulled to the shoulder (as others did) to watch and it turned into a huge fire before it was over.It was different to watch and we took a couple photos but I'll be darn if I can find them.

[suvcw04]

Iowa currently ranks #2 in amount of electricity coming from wind power. Texas is #1 and California is #3.

We do lead in the percentage of electricity used coming from wind power. In 2010, it was 15%.

Just some useless facts for a Monday morning. (I'm very good at that . . . . especially on a Monday morning.)

[pcombe]

Passed a truck in Iowa today hauling just one of the blades for a wind turbine. I knew they were on the large side, but these are large.

Dennis

Wind Turbine Blade from Dennis Swan on Vimeo.</p>]http://<iframe width="500" height="281" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/100662819" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="]</iframe> [/URL]

We have farms of the things out here in Wyoming and the field wide open for employment for the most part. Between them and oil there allot of bucks being made around here.

They are impressive but a farm of them are a bit of an eyesore.

[rae2012]

I work for a concrete company down here in Texas and we poured the bases for 73 of them in our area . Ever windmill base has 250 yards of concrete & thousands of pounds of steel as an anchor below ground !!

[Rod69]

Sister lives outside of Abilene Texas. We were there first of June. They have them all over the place around where they live. They are huge. Their address is Tuscola Texas close to Buffalo Gap.

[Lucky]

Thanks for the video. They are huge we saw those farms when we were in North Dakota. RIDE SAFE

[iaff84]

At first I thought maybe you ate something you shouldn't have!

I left that alone. Was wondering how long it would take for a comeback to title!!
Dennis

[jcolson]

Nice video Dennis. Give us some more. Still love the sound of the bike! Best video's I've seen yet cause you get the real feel of being on the bike without the damn noise from the wind like some. Enjoy you vacation buddy!! Jim

[Papa Zook]

Passed a couple of these going through Kansas a couple of years ago. They're a lot bigger up close than from a distance! Keep the videos coming Dennis.

[iaff84]

Nice video Dennis. Give us some more. Still love the sound of the bike! Best video's I've seen yet cause you get the real feel of being on the bike without the damn noise from the wind like some. Enjoy you vacation buddy!! Jim

I will shoot some when we get off interstate. We are meeting another couple in Idaho, then the trip starts.
One more day of the super slabs. Just got through Wyoming.
Dennis

[screwball]

Two huge wind farms near by. Tehachapi and near Palm Springs. You spot them riding over a hill from a distance. By the time you get near you realize how big they are. Hope they work, when they ban coal we are all screwed.

[iaff84]

Got up this morning in Evanston, WY. Found out there had been a bad accident on I 80 just West of us. Road was closed. Waited awhile at motel only to find it was expected to be closed for quite awhile. Looked at a detour, went over to Ogden Utah on 39. A good change of pace from this Interstate stuff.
Was a few hours late to Meridian, ID but made it.
Met up with Trent and his bride. We leave out tomorrow morning for the Pacific Coast Highway.
A short clip of Utah 39 detour.
Dennis

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[Trent]

It was great to meet Dennis and Marilyn last night. Too bad for them that the dozen wildfires burning outta control around here have the air so hazy with smoke that you cant see the mountains. A lightening storm cruised thru here a few days ago and started about 15 different fires.
We are headed up to Hells Canyon, where a fire is burning but should not affect us, then over the Blue Mountains to the Columbia River Gorge, up to Astoria, OR, then follow the PCH all the way down to Santa Barbara, CA. I think Dennis will keep you all updated on our trip... I will see ya when we get back in a few days! ;0

[iaff84]

We road down some of the 101 in Oregon today. Just heading South.
A short clip.
Dennis Swan



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