THIS Is Why America Stopped Making Cab-over Trucks

The body wouldn’t have ANY thing to do with the emission .
That’s all engine .

 

The point is that they could make a cabover with emissions engines,it’s just that nobody’s interested in them.

 

I thought it strange too, hearing an American voice using European, or at least British, terms for conventional trucks. We call them long-nosed partly because the word 'conventional' means 'normal', and that simply isn't normal on this side of the water.
A bit refreshing though, for this old pedant, to hear Americans complaining about British words when we spend much of our time moaning about American taking over what we are pleased to call English.

For what it is worth though, I think most European drivers envy the American style which, as the video said, is purely because of the trailer length laws rather than overall lengths. No European employer is going to deny himself paying load space just to give his driver a better place to live, but, while they can't increase rearwards, they have created more livable space upwards, so not so bad perhaps.

 

I always thought the main reason the cabover was phased out was aerodynamics/fuel economy. But the video only mentions it almost as an afterthought near the end. I worked for JB and actually preferred the flat-floors they had at the time. It seemed like you were higher (not sure if that was true), could see better, and had tons of room inside. Are any US OTR companies using cabovers now?

 

My thoughts too, but I am both pleased and surprised that you had flat floors. The few American cabovers I saw in Britain had a great big engine hump alongside the driver, a bit like British lorries before the '80s. The Fodens and Volvos I bought for my company in the '90s had low intrusions, the Foden slightly higher but was fashioned in the shape of a flat tray, useful for eating from and keeping bits and pieces safe. It was 1999 when I came to live and work here in France that I got my first completely flat floor cab, the one I pictured on here elsewhere, the great Renault Magnum.

And yes, they were higher. The long climb up to the Magnum was way more than my B61 Mack in the '60s. Also, a couple of times I took my Greyhound, Lira, with me. I lifted her in ok but she was too nervous to allow me to lift her out again, so I pulled up close alongside a flat trailer in the yard and persuaded her to walk across to me, then down to the tail where I lifted her down.

 

Most cabovers had better aerodynamics than long noses

the Peterbilt cabover that looked like a football helmet was very aerodynamic.

 

Yep its all about how the engine runs and what it puts out the other end that counts, be it a cabover or a bonneted truck won't affect what comes out the other end of the exhaust pipe that's for certain. Most new trucks come out with the Euro 5, 6 standards compliance usually required to use Adblue which can become a real problem as the urea used in the Adblue mix tends to crystalize causing blockages in the fuel lines. Creating a loss of power in trucks under load. Most European trucks are Cab over but still adhere to the Euro 5 or 6 regulations for diesel motors.