Cabovers

You Finnish certainly have us Aussies pummelled in terms of Axle weights.

 

You know something?

They (the old guys) ain't talking about the "good old days" cause they had to drive trucks with no power steering, no AC, no air ride and stuff like that! They are talking about the fact that they were making really good money and kept most of it for themselves. They're talking about that in those days the government and their goon agencies weren't constantly shoving, pocking, threatening, harassing and punishing you for any reason conceivable and for no reason at all, maybe just for doing your job, as it happens in our days.
They're talking about that they were allowed to be part of and achieve "The American Dream", which in our days it's become only "a dying dream"!

Another thing is that those "crappy old trucks" didn't require anything more then a couple of wrenches, a screwdriver, a simple electrical test lamp, some spare fuses, light bulbs, clamps and belts in order to "do it yourself" fixing that got you going 99% of the time in just a few minutes. For the major breakdowns you didn't need a 25 year mortgage to pay for the tow and shop charges. Fuel was $0.4-0.5/USgallon and most of the time $75.00 filled up your fuel tanks.
You purchased a brand new truck for some $35k to $40k(if it had all the latest bells and whistles available at that time that made you the envy of the highway dogs), and all this with cash outa your jeans pocket while you took a weekend break at that motel with the bar, restaurant and flushing lights.....(and pretty girls that were thinking the world of you), and when you went back to work you still made a minimum of $1.25/mile to the truck and when the opportunity arose you took that extra weight and doubled your money cause $15.00 fine at the scale master got you going again and everybody was happy.


Now, we've got this comfy new trucks that when they have the least of problems, it needs a fully equipped shop, a computer for the part changers that pretend to be mechanics, and when you're getting the bill, oh well, you're getting your both arms and legs cut off, your nuts, an enema and lobotomized just to get your truck back. And if you need to buy a truck, oh well,......you need to sign off the entire family, including your pets, in order to get an approval from the financing institution for the astronomical cost that more then likely will bankrupt you and the next 20 generations of your progenies.
If you're an o/o these days, we all know the cost of fuel, tires, insurance, tags, authorities and the rest of the crap that constitutes the operation costs.

Even though we've had 1000% increase in overhead costs, we're still struggling to get a miserable $2.00/mile to the truck, and that's in a "good day" scenario.


I don't know about all y'all road dogs out there, but, as for me and what I think about these modern contemporary days, oh well, I think that it sucks to high heaven and I'd rather have "the good old days" with the crappy trucks any day!

I'd rather drive a crappy truck and have an awesome life then drive a comfy and pretentious truck and have a crappy life!

 

company I work for own really old MAZ 500 tanker (10 m3). I used to drive it and I'd say 40 years ago driving big rigs was really difficult.

Yep, old MAZ 500 - no turbo (280 hp engine, but enought for ten ton truck), no a/c, no ABS, very simple electrical system, tires with tubes, noisy, rought.... but reliable, really reliabl.

PS does not work at below zero temperature before you turn steering wheel from lock to lock twice.

Air driyer with alcohol reservouar and you have to drain moisture from wet tank every day in winter.

but really reliable

 

interesting combination

except this volvo extended chassis on front for hook is ugliest thing ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ymFIna0Deo&feature=player_embedded

 

extended chassis for twin trucktor train is popular thing in Russian North places. One trucktor pulls, other helps to push trailers

 

i understand what for it is but it is ugly as hell , like there is no another ways to pull , it is very often present on turkish trucks mostly volvo but as well some man and some daf have it there....

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66906710@N07/6137710650/sizes/l/in/faves-77028220@N03/

that especially looks "good" when it get some rust ......

cant wait how ugly it would be on new fh

 

That is horid, they didn't think about that for too long.



Its just a ring feeder used to attach a draw bar to another truck or trailer for push pull

 

ERF 4x2 Trucktor. Engine N14. Tranny Fuller 18st. Made in early 2000-s. One of the last with N14.

 

is it left hand drive from the factory or just someone made an conversion?
they had plans to fit cummins isx under thouse cabs but science the firm was acquired by m.a.n. the project was stoped,know they made tgx's with erf badge on them even cuminns and eaton is not an option anymore