Why do so many Americans hate European trucks?

That's a nice little crane, can get into tight spots pretty easily I'm thinking.

Guess I should have said the axle configuration on the tow truck, as a straight truck with a body, is good for those weights, my bad.
(same axle configuration as the GINAF heavy wrecker)

That Euro Ford looks about as aerodynamic as a GMC cracker box.
The CLT-9000 was nicely rounded with aerodynamics in mind, as Euro COE trucks would later become, that's why I called it the first modern Euro truck.

It was a comfortable truck for me to drive for 2 1/2 yrs, it had 4 corner air ride on the cab, it was quiet, but it was also a heavy truck for a single bunk cab, over 20,000 lbs full of fuel.
It had 3 feul tanks, 44,000 lb differentials and a Cat engine that added to that,
a 3406A @ 400HP tuned for altitude, (probably 400 hp or more at the wheels), 13 spd Fuller/Eaton transmission, 3:55 rears, 22.5 rubber, was licensed for 110,000 lbs, ran from Quebec to British Columbia and everywhere between, occasionaly in the USA.


You don't see a lot of heavy spec dump trucks where I live, most dumpers pull trailers to max out the weight.


Edit: After thought.
The 81 Ford in the picture was very well maintained by the man I worked for at the time and very reliable, only had a few days of downtime during the entire time I drove it, a water pump, a broken shaft in the transmission, (which I managed to limp 1100 miles back home with a load on for repairs), a broken leaf spring, a wheel seal and several windshields that were pitted, broken by flying ice or rocks and one or two owls that came out of nowhere in the middle of the night, woke me right up.

 

That was a nice looking Ford. Never road in one, but heard older guys say they could make you "sea sick". I always thought the LTL9000's looked good.

 

Stole this from another thread......

 

Met the fellow @ ATHS show in Lexington. Believe he was originally from Germany so typical hard headed fellow like myself and @Caesar! He did an amazing job restoring the truck and spared no expense and didn't miss a detail.

 

What year do you think it is....?

 

The blue K100 aerodyne was an 1982 if memory serves me correctly. Big Cam with a 13 speed.

 

I thought the LTL's looked good too, drove a couple of them, a plain jane day cab with an 8V71 and fully optioned one with a big bunk, air ride and a 3406B.
I'm a big fella, the cabover was more comfortable to me.
The first time I drove that Ford on a twisty windy road I had to pull over and set the levelling valves to stiffen up the cab, went into a sharp corner and the cab leaned over so far I thought the truck was going to tip on it's side, not a good feeling with swinging meat in the trailer.

 

It's not really a small crane. In fact this is a 70 tonne version, with a boom length of 50 metre. Quite often twice as heavy cranes are used. The NA approach seems to be to pull, whereas the European approach is to lift. These cranes are indeed very manoeuvrable, they can also drive sideways.

I noticed, but the GINAF is much shorter. Such a long NA rotator or wrecker is very impractical over here.

The CLT-9000 was introduced in 1977, when you take a look at EU trucks from that era, you will see that they were rounded as well. By the way, the huge gap between cab and trailer is an aerodynamic nightmare, that's why EU trucks have a very narrow gap, and fairings to close that gap as much as possible.

We don't see many dump trailers over here, for the simple fact that a 4 or 5 axle truck can max out the GCW.