Are Long Nosed Trucks With Big Spacious Sleeper Cabins Legal Within the UK?

Yes, I'm sure your 'love' of trying to sleep in your truck will wear thing the first time you get a reefer running all night on one side, and a bull-hauler hauling swine on the other....

 

As has been said, European countries limit their trucks by overall length, whereas in N. America it is just the trailers that are limited. That means that in Europe hauliers not wanting to lose load space limit the tractors instead and thus, though comparatively luxurious these days, there is much less room for sleeping accommodation. and thus cab over engine trucks are preferred for the same reason.

However, cabs generally have been getting higher, and I don't mean roof height alone, the whole cab is higher which means the space inside is completely above the engine, in 'the old days' we had to work and live alongside it. I have been retired a long time now but the last truck I drove was a Renault Magnum. Best cab I ever had, completely flat floor right across and I could easily stand upright and walk around in it. Not sure you could do that in an American cab over. In the picture below you can see the division between the cab and the chassis just above the top step. The cab is independantly suspended and not everyone likes the way it leans when cornering. All the windows have electric blinds instead of curtains and the one on the screen acts as a sunvisor when part the way down. There is a small catch to stop it being fully lowered when driving though.


There is no law against long nosed cabs as such but for most operators they are not economic though a few, who never have need of max length trailers, such as tankers or tippers, have used them. But it is rare as they have lowered re-sale value.

 

The only synchronizers are in the air-shifted part of the transmissions. If you'd ever seen the inside of a transmission you'd know the gears in the main box are engaged by sliding dogs with no synchronizers at all.

 

I think in the UK every body drives on the left lane. So, when You drive in the rest of europe where the "right lane traffic" is, it could be OK. To drive in the UK with a truck with the steering wheel on the left side, I see there safety problems.
And when You stay at the gate to hand out the papers, then You need the extra long arms and and and....

M.

 

Not such a problem once you get used to it but you do need good mirrors, and skill, especially to be aware of blindspots, I am long retired but I see most trucks these days have stickers informing car drivers of where they are invisible from the driver. I drove both in Britain with a left hooker and many times in Europe with a right hand one, no problem.
As far as paying or handing papers in at the gate is concerned, no problem with the Magnum I pictured above, I could walk across the cab on the flat floor to the other window.

 

The Scania’s that made their way over to the states were imported through the first joint venture between volvo and Mack before volvo took total ownership of Mack I believe. There was a lot of weird brand parts sharing and interchanges going on with those three at that time.

 

There's a custom farming outfit not too far from me with a few Scanias that were imported from Europe. Not my cup of tea but they certainly grab your attention when you see them.

 

He was specifically talking about Eaton the way I read it, but I promise there aren't any synchros in the main box of any RTO or RTLO. But yeah, Europe has had synchro trannies in heavy trucks for decades. IIRC, they had much lower clutch effort to go along with them, but never had any personal experience driving one. I think the biggest synchro I ever drove was a class 5 or 6 Naziwagen we used for a crane tender back in the 80's. But it was only once for like an hour, and I don't even remember if it was a five or a 6-speed.

 

You remember which hooker was left and right handed ? Must've been SPECIAL .