Bagger 288

Bagger 288 or Excavator 288 is one of a group of similar sized ‘sibling’ vehicles such as the Bagger 281, Bagger 285, Bagger 287 etc. built by the German company Krupp. It is a bucket-wheel excavator or mobile strip mining machine. Taller than the Statue of Liberty and heavier than the Eiffel Tower, this German mining machine is one of the largest land vehicles on Earth. It took five years to design and manufacture, and five years to assemble with total cost reaching $100 million.

It can dig out 8.5 million cubic feet of land per day, and when it reaches the depth, it can extract 265,000 tons of fuel every day. The monster only requires three to four people for its operation. Electric cables as thick as a man’s arm, spanning over 5,600 feet deliver electric power to the excavator. The power this behemoth uses can power a city of 20,000 people. 8,600 square feet of tread carry the Bagger’s 13,000 tons of weight at a steadily 0.4 mph.

To add to the surprise, the mining monster Bagger 288 was surpassed by its sibling Bagger 293 weighing 14,200 tons and 310 feet high, in 1995 which stands to be the heaviest land vehicle to date.