Why do so many Americans hate European trucks?

sleepers of US trucks aretwice bigger average euopean COE truck

Fortunatly you guys have no trucktor lenth kimits.

 

can i ask why some of you need long wheelbase on trucks , i can understand wheelbase enough long for hood and big sleeper(70-80) on back and trailer next to cab but why longer than this?

here 90% of our trips are in circle of 300milles so you are almost never longer than 5days on road

we can stand inside for exaple scania have 7feet 3.5 inch high on engine tunel which is 1/2 of foot high some trucks dont have engine tunnels at all.

i can stand up on engine tunnel with raised hands and barely touch cab roof
average eu truck have about 30 qubic feet of storage space which is enough for us

also you can get tv..... kitchen....

 

It is due to bridging laws. Short wheel bases usually mean hauling less weight on certain types of roads.

When DOT checks out your truck for your weight, they measure everything, the distance from the front axle to the rear axle group, the spread of your axle group etc. This determines exactally how much you can legally weigh.

I push the limit with my setup since I run between 96,000 lbs to 106,000 lbs depending on the roads I have to take. I haul bulk product(bulk potatoes) and I get paid for the amount that is in the trailer (by the 100 ct weight or by the bag which equals 100 lbs) So I get paid a little more for each bag I carry. Which means, I get paid less if I have 500 bags (50,000 lbs) in the trailer then if I had 600 bags (60,000 lbs) in my trailer. We can't pull doubles or pups because the plants we go to can't unload them as they are not setup to unload pup setups. So we pull single trailers with live bottom belt setups to unload them. The tops of our trailers are not removable, we open some doors on the back and back up to a bin piler (conveyor setup) to load them.

Below are a couple pics of the truck I run. The first one is of my truck getting loaded at a growers/farmers yard. The second pic is of me backed up in JR simplot in Grand Forks ND getting unloaded.

 

dear god almighty...looks like something out a of a new Mad Max movie...(coming to a theater soon..!!)

 

thanks for answer

here shorter is better only UK and Sweden have bridge formula
here you can see a lot of trucks with 27-28-29feet from first to last axle they can carry 88200lbs here

for example sweden require 18m(59feet) from first to last axle to have 60ton(132000lbs on 7axles)

here in my country it is very often that setup like below have 220 000lbs



or like this 160 000 of course not legal

 

I'll drive whatever my boss hands me keys to. Right now, that's a Freightliner Century.

 

How does that one steer? Are both the axles in the front steers?

 

yes and first is also drive one -i dont like this because it is uncomfortable, high for climbing inside and high center of gravity also bad fuel economy ( take about 1.7mpg) and it is very hard to maintain it ( when truck gets in age maintaining truck with front wheel drive cost twice as normal truck) this one was new on this image 3years ago but for 15years this truck will be night mare

but they are necessary for trucks working hard on heavy excavations

 

it is tipical 4x8/8x8 truck, two steer axes. but there are very unusual UK trucktors with push lift axe that is steer axe too! it is 6x2 trucktors!

 

ouh, there is some US vs UE truck difference we do not say! in US semis thre is 12V electric systems, EU and UK truck electric systems are 24V. So WABCO, Bosch/Knorr/Bendix, Siemens-VDO makes electrnics for 12 and 24 V aplication. some units may work on EU and US truck (like new TEBS-E, Volvo LCM 12-24V, engine ECMs... ) some units are made for different markes (you can get 12V ABS unit ore 24V ABS unit). EU starters are smaller and more reliable becouse of lower currents, wires are thiker, relays are more reliable!