What happened to cabovers?

I used to drive in the late 70's when cab overs were everywhere. I never see them anymore. I was told that the government increased the allowable vehicle length so that conventional cabs can now pull 53' trailers. That sounds logical to me. Can anyone confirm that?

 

that's kinda what i have been told as well. used to drive a 2000 argosy... i don't think my kidneys will ever forgive me.

 

Emissions rules killed the Cabover for US.

 

I don't understand what emissions would have to do with cab overs.

 

They all got sold to Mexican carriers and the manufacturers realized that Europe would be the most profitable place to sell them.

 

Cab over tractors were long gone when the 53 foot trailers came out. It was the 48 foot trailer allowance that killed the cab over along with a multitude of other reasons, the old cab overs were a piece of crap in all respects.

 

STAA in 1982 allowed conventional tractors to pull 53' trailers on the national network. That was the beginning of the end. Other factors were increasing worker's comp claims from falls, increasing turnover (99% of drivers prefer conventional tractors so companies switched to stop some from leaving), and increasing speed limits/fuel costs (cabover is less aerodynamic and aerodynamics start to play a significant role above 55mph).

The last hurrah was the attempt to nationalize the "California legal" 57 setup (57' trailer but still under 65' overall length due to cabover). Not enough states accepted it, so when DPF's became mandatory there just wasn't enough demand for sleeper cabovers for Freightliner to make the necessary Argosy redesign. They still make the Argosy for export -- and it complies with other countries emissions -- but there just wasnt enough US demand.

 

Not much -- it just required fairly minor redesign to package the dpf. There just wasn't enough demand to invest the money in redesign.

It didn't have to be emissions -- it could have been any regulation that forced a minor redesign. They were happy to continue selling the same old model (and Freightliner still offers argosy gliders today), they just weren't willing to invest in a declining market.

 

Length laws started to disappear in the mid 70's.

Lots of companies had a majority of cabovers in the late 80's early 90's when the 53's showed up. They continued buying cabovers for years after that.

After emissions rules toke a step forward in 2007 freightliner discontinued selling new Argosys in us. Hard to fit all that emissions crap under the cab of a short wheelbase cabover.

 

I hated driving them when they were popular. But wouldn't mind having one now....