Diggers, dozers and trucks are often referred to as “big boys toys”, and they don’t come any bigger than the Belaz 75710 dumptruck.

The Belaz 75710 is less a dumptruck and more a small planet on some very big wheels. The machine - which is built in that renowned capital of mining equipment excellence, Belarus – recently claimed the record as the largest dumptruck in the world.

It is 20.6 metres long, 8.16 metres high, and 9.87 metres wide and weighs more than 300 tons when empty. By comparison, the Airbus A380 – the largest passenger plane in the world – weighs a svelte 277 tons.

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The machine can also carry a payload of 500 tons. Just think about that for a second. That is the equivalent of about 5,000 non-American men or 37 double-decker buses. Put it another way, the Belaz 75710 could carry roughly 300 Ford Focus cars if you could shoehorn them into the machine’s skip.

Continuing the car analogy, the Belaz 75710 employs a pair of massive diesel engines developing a combined 3,430 kW. That is the same level of power as four Bugatti Veyron SuperSports, although the truck’s size and weight restrict the top speed to a rather sedate 64 km/hour. Acceleration speeds – not generally a huge consideration in mining equipment circles – are not currently available but, thanks to aerodynamic characteristics more normally associated with tower blocks, are expected to be measured in days rather than seconds.

Have a look at the Belaz in action…