Anybody ever drive one of these?

I remember reading an article in, I think, Popular Mechanics about this when they first came out with it.

 

Wayne Daniels Transportation ran a pair of these from Missouri to California for a few trial runs in the '70's.
Scared everybody to death when they passed another truck cause they couldn't see a truck pulling it. Just looked like a trailer going down the road.
I've seen it once.

 

I wanna drive one of the bobtails. They look fun!!

 

I saw one ,just once. I was 17 years old working at the Union 76 TS in Tulsa. Used to be at I 44 & 161st E Ave. It really had everyone looking. I remember a driver that lived locally there. In 1979 ,Bought a new International Transtar two, Eagle. Rumor he paid $ 51000 for it .Everyone wondered how he was going to make those payments.

 

We had such projects in Germany too



But I would prefer this one, better vision and better design

 

That's why I had to ask earlier if that was the front of the thing in the original picture posted. It looked like a trailer with some type of strange reefer unit stuck to the end of it to me, I can see how people going down the road next to would be freaked out, it took a lot of staring at the picture to finally be able to see what was what because I'm so use to seeing just a certain set up.

It would be cool to see one in person up close though.

 

That first one looks like a ROYAL pain to turn given the spacing of all those axles. I think part of the other reason these things never took off is because of the required trailer re-design. I'm sure the had a hell of a time getting ANY support from the trailer manufacturing companies.

 

It was actually made by Strick Trailers.

 

I doubt it will hit 88 mph

 

I saw one parked at the TA south of Nashville back in the late 70s. It was either bobtail or on a lowboy trailer. I'd always assumed it was some sort of special-purpose truck like for mining or like those articulated combos that haul 100,000 pound loads. Some of them have steering cabs near the back of the trailer.