Why do so many Americans hate European trucks?

While pulling a tank.

 

Well since this has as usual got in to a trans Atlantic ugly vs dumb truck tit for tat I think I will add a bit more.
This time regarding Putzmeister and East vs West technology.
I was at a trade show late last year and was at the Putzmeister stand speaking to one of the representatives.
I mentioned to him the number of concrete pump manufactures in China and the claim that China had pumped more concrete in 3 years than the US had in 100 years.*
He responded that he did not believe that and in any event the Chinese technology was no where near that of Putzmeister and they would never catch up.
He seemed stunned when I pointed out to him that Putzmeister and Schwing were in fact Chinese owned.
* http://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmc...entire-20th-century-infographic/#109e5e977194

 

The red trucks are far to wide to be road legal, and I have no idea what is so special about the picture with the white one. You can do that with almost any truck.

 

The Oshkosh, not really your every day commercial truck is it? I can show you plenty of European military trucks, but that's not the point. I was referring to more or less of-the-shelf civilian tractors.

But here is a picture of a militarized and armoured DAF tractor:



Doesn't look as impressive as an Oshkosh, I agree. But does it do the job?
Ask the Canadians.

 

If your local sheriff has to waste taxpayers money on stupid contraptions like that, then think about what kind of society you have.

 

Those are actually Kenworth C500s - a particularly specialized variant of them, and I've operated highway legal variants of that model.
DAF, as I'm sure you're aware, operates under the umbrella of PACCAR, Inc., which is also the parent company of Peterbilt and Kenworth. Freightliner and Western Star are subsidiaries of Daimler A.G., and Mack was acquired by Volvo A.B. when they bought out Renault. Scania and Iveco have no highway market here.
A lot of it amounts to pissing in the wind... you're talking about two different types of trucks built around very different industries and doctrines, intended for different road networks, length laws, bridge laws, hours of service laws, length of stay, etc.

Law enforcement in your country has specialized units with equipment in a similar vein, as well. Keep in mind that when you say "local sherriff", we're not talking about Western films where the Sheriff is the sole law enforcement official of a single town... they cover an entire county, and are responsible for areas of that county which are not claimed as state or federal property (bear in mind we are a federal state here) and which are not policed by their own municipal police forces.

 

And? Is that a civilian tractor with all wheel drive?

The Mercedes Dingo, in a special version for your local sheriff:

 

Not really in this case. This concrete pump far exceeds the normal weight limits in the US, so it is something special anyway. I was trying to point out that a European truck manufacturer could (and would) have build an all wheel drive tractor from standard components for this purpose, and that such a tractor would have more axle travel.

I'm aware of that. But I'm also aware of the discussion in your country about the fact that police forces seem to have a tendency to become a kind of local armies with military equipment. Even some university police forces have armoured personnel carriers!
I'm also aware of the very sensitive jurisdiction discussions in the US, who is responsible for what. Compare that with Europe. When a Dutch police car chases a criminal, and the criminal crosses the border to Germany (remember we don't have real borders any more), will the Dutch police car stop? No, the chase goes on, and the German police will join. In the summertime Dutch policemen accompany French policemen to patrol the French highways.
In your case, if the state police would have armoured vehicles, fine. But local sheriffs and university police??

 

Yes, they are Chinese owned since a couple of years. Doesn't mean it is Chines technology. It will be the other way around, the Chinese will copy the German technology. Anyway, the Chines building boom has collapsed big way. Whole city areas with new apartment buildings are almost deserted.

 

Just the fact that incline is double that in your video!