Why do so many Americans hate European trucks?

well trucks with drawbar trailers are now very rare reasons:

-more expensive, as tractors are large scale production , same equipped rigid is more expensive than tractor

-they are no stock trucks, tractor is universal and one tractor would suit 80% of customers, rigid dont, so this increase price often again

-time required for bodybuilding is often very problematic ( while tractor from stock is available right now)

-price of bodywork+trailer cost much more than semitrailer nearly double in some cases but always 60%

-drawbar trucks are almost always heavier

-often hard to find parking for them , or they are more expensive on ferries

-hard to find good drivers being able to drive it on right way

-cant load long loads



despite all of this above, i know for some people who still run them because of tradition, even they could replace them with tractors

but for some applications they are much more suitable than tractor+semitrailer

btw for problem you have described above , there is solution called BDF, this is too heavy for USA, here those trucks can have 97000lbs when using modal transport. to compensate higher dead weight

those containers are compatible with 20ft ISO locks, they are loaded on trucks, rail , ships and barges.....

on trucks they are loaded on 3axle trucks+2 axle drawbar or centralaxle trailers,

there are different sizes starting from: 7150, 7450,7825, old 8050 is not in use anymore. in past some more variants were in use.

Fangio would remember of times when 2axle truck had 20ft BDF body i think it was 6200mm outside and pulling 3axle drawbar trailer, so you could drop body and trailer, load another body and another trailer, but this dont longer exists

 

That's interesting..

I've just checked the Specs on the DAF Scania & Benz Trucks Sold here & all 3 have 7500Kgs rated front Suspension with the Actros only having a 7000Kg rated Front Axle...

We must get different Front suspensions & Axles than what is sold in the EU?

 

I'm curious, are you Euros owner operators?

 

Your country men can buy what ever they choose ,correct ? Which way does your market lean?

 

In the 90's I pulled a 48' spread axle reefer behind a t600. The beauty of the spread @ 80,000lbs. was that you had a tremendous amount of tolerance.

Your example would be nearly impossible to load. 41 on the drivers and 20 on the trailer? Come on, be realistic. Your example adds up to 75k gross. A person with any degree of professionalism would know how to load the trailer and be legal without even going to scale out. Besides, any reefer load would most likely be at least 44000 lbs. with a gross of around 78K. Still have to try awfully hard to load it wrong enough to be over on any axle with 34k allowed on the drivers and 40k on the trailer.

 

Yes, I think you're right. The permissible axle loads in Australia are very low, so these companies can use lighter axles. Since these axles not just can take lower loads, but are lighter themselves too, it helps to bring the weight of the truck down. Perhaps these companies use the axles of European mid-range trucks?

 

Not lighter axle is only 10kg lighter suspension max 40kg difference

Scania use 7.5t front axle on 9t front suspension

Mb use front axles 7.5t,8t and 9t suspension from 7.1, 7.5, 8,9t


Brazil have even worst front axle weights

6000kg

 

I loaded in Tracy, CA one time. I told the loader how I wanted it, but he didn't listen. I had a 48' with fixed axles. I went to the CAT scale, and it was over on the trailer. I went back to the shipper, and the supervisor didn't want to rework the load, but I told him the loader didn't load it how I wanted it. They finally agreed, and did it my way. Guess what, it scaled legal. This was 16 years ago.

 

Yes Australia is one of the Few Countries where truck Buyers have Choice European, North American & Japanese In all market Segments..

Here are the 2015 Sales figures. Total sales & heavy (class 8 ) segment...
As you can see We're a very small Market..



& here are the medium & light Segments .

 

No, truckers in Europe are certainly not all being lumped into the same box. The big manufacturers can build all kind of configurations, other companies may adapt a standard truck to somethin special, and if that's not good enough then there are companies that can build a completely tailor made truck for you.

You're mainly interested in tractors, so let's start with those. As usual I use DAF for my examples, for the very simple reason that they have a lot of technical information on their web site, something that is missing with other manufacturers, European or NA. No doubt other manufacturers have a similar choice.

These are the standard axle configurations for tractors:



LF trucks are the Kenworth K270/K370 class, the we have the mid-range CF class, and the heavy XF class trucks. The orange FTT option means that you can get a construction (off-road) version of that tractor.

You can get hydrostatic motors on the front axle, those can be used for low speed driving in slippery conditions.

The frames can be altered in case you need to mount a crane. Except for logging tractors, I can't remember seeing cranes on NA tractors, am I right?

As far as I'm aware NA truck manufacturers often use axles from specialized manufacturers, European manufacturers use their own axles. So no choice between 44k or 46k, that makes no sense in this case.

You can get the PX engines for the LF truck and a range of six MX-11 and MX-13 engines for the other trucks. Using third party engines is not possible.

No unsynchronized gearboxes of course, those belong in a museum is the European vision. You can get 12 and 16 speed manuals, and 16 speed automated manuals. The tendency is automated only. Allison gearboxes may be used on special trucks, like for instance fire-trucks. Unlike in NA, we don't have companies that build specialized fire-trucks, normal trucks can be used for that purpose, after some adapting.

Different air cleaners is not possible with the way these trucks are build.

Different type of PTO's, of course.

Day cabs and different sleeper cabs are possible.

All kind of interior options, half a dozen different seats, and so on. And if you really want, there are companies that will make a tailor made interior for you. Unfortunately they often look like the reception room of a brothel, but that has to do with the taste of the trucker.

You can not litter the dashboard with lots of gauges, there's no room.

So you can adapt your truck to your own wishes, or have a completely on-of-a-kind tailor made truck build for you.