Why do so many Americans hate European trucks?

True, eventhough Scania is small Truck maker compare to MAN or Daimler but is most profitable truck manufacturer in Europe.

As far axles are concerned Scanias road application were the best, this is were MAN was lacking. Because originally MAN & Daimler were good construction truck maker. The reason being after WW-II, Germany was to reconstruct whole country and truck makers there were more focussed on making Construction jobs related trucks.
Where as Sweedish truck makers continued to develop more road application trucks and improving them, like comfort for long distance, fuel economy, how to move loads fasterer from A-B over different terrains etc. This why always the Volvo & Scania come up with bigger engines and inventions like Turbo-compounding to keep the truck moving faster and economically.

Where as MAN & Daimler have developed more off road construction trucks but they have made really some good strides in road appliction trucks in the last 10-51 years. Still there Hub reduction axles for construction application are reliable.

Theoretically 16-speed transmission is better but practically 12 or 13 speed considered better because it reduces the human error as working thru 16-speeds driver always liable to make mistakes in selection, because of closely stacked ratios. With the automated manual transmissions like AS-Tronic which are standard now a days in Europe a big deal of human error is reduced in selecting the ratios and on top of this it extends clutch life.

As far as Twin clutch transmissions are concerned even many car manufacturers are not offering them, probably in next 2-years most of cars will have them.

 

True! key to Paccar's survival is DAF.
slowly the American trucks are trending towards European trucks...There must be reason for this.

to put it better "Necessity is the mother of invention"

 

Yes! Manufacturers can come up with something. There must be a middle way between American & Euro trucks.

 

they sale about same number of trucks, volvo and mercedes are much larger but volvo because of na , and mercedes not so much in europe but places where people are more primitive and dont believe in anything else, in europe in tractors daf lead

but in recent years , man did not make anything , they still did not fix many of child diseases of TGA series so already 13.5years, on our roads they are falling apart , over same exploitation mercedes show much less problems , man trucks have lot of problem with winter freezing air and fuel, on roadside. during winter 9/10 trucks roadside with raised cab are man, rest are renault (renault sale only 10trucks per year here-last year 9)

man still eat clutch, on astronic clutch last about 500-600tkm many replace it already at 400

many of their customers are disappointed and change brand, despite best service (i would say only service here at european level)
last good man was fe2000

now volvo here dominate market

 

Aye the fuller box is a grand job on the road but we are working offroad and during breakup especially you're wading through deep mud most of the time, they don't use hardcore to build roads on the oilpatch but a type of clay that gets very sticky when wet, you won't float shift in that, a synchro is a gift in those conditions. Thought those racing trucks had sequential boxes? I could be wrong.

 

I'd hate to see us tucks lose their character but pity there isn't more choice in NA, more competition would improve things no end, I'd like to see US trucks being allowed to be built a little heavier so you could improve cab safety and build quality, I'd have disc brakes with EBS and retarders for safety and full cab suspension, that would be an easy addition and with such long wheelbases would make a sublime ride, Those regen systems would have to go, too unreliable but that's as far as I'd take it you wouldn't want to europeanise (?) them too much, if everything's the same then it would be boring,

 

well they kinda look goofy comes to mind

 

I ran a Peterbilt 377 with a 475 CAT 3406E here in Ireland 10 years ago, and believe me, there are a lot of qualities European manufacturers could learn from Stateside manufacturers. The simplicity and ruggedness of construction were impressive. The truck rode very smoothly on our roads, mainly due to it's long wheelbase. The overall durability of the Peterbilt and it's components were excellent. A lot of the technology on the truck was old, but proven, reliable and perfected. It was a truck that you could easily operate for twenty years. The quality of the wiring was excellent...this is certainly something the Europeans could copy. Disc brakes and EBS would certainly improve matters....but I wouldn't touch the transmission or the cab suspension. These US trucks have a fantastic charisma that a European truck will never have. This added to an inbuilt durability is something that should always be preserved.

The current problems I see with US trucks has more to do with emission systems rather than build quality. European trucks have these issues also.

 

Your message box is full.... can't PM...

 

I don't understand why European cab-overs never made it the US. Are they not more fuel efficient and lighter? Plus their tight turning radius and short length would nicely offset our long 53 foot trailers. Just like the Euro Sprinter van made was a success here I think the trucks would also.