Why do so many Americans hate European trucks?

Well, then start your own truck manufacturing plant.

 

Reading is an art so it seems. If Australia would have the same rules for building trucks as Europe has, the truck building would be a whole lot easier in Australia. Why not US rules? Because you have the bridge laws, based on the fact that many of your bridges are too weak to withstand European axle loads and axle distances for instance. Standardized regulations save money, also for the trucker who wants to buy a truck.

 

Everyone must have a job, even if that means the work is done very inefficiently. That is the way things were done in Eastern Europe decades ago in the good old communist era. When East German factory workers were allowed to go to West Germany to work there, many did. Many quit their new jobs within weeks, they were exhausted. In the old inefficient East German factories they didn't ahve to work hard, in West Germany things were very different. So yes, many people working inefficiently to get the job done is a very socialist idea.

I don't have to, others did.

 

LOL, the force is strong tonight!!!

 

1. I'm not in Europe. I'm in north America and can enter every single part of it that i desire to. So ill keep my dependable truck and the guys in Europe can continue to be forced to buy new ones every few years. After all, the topic is why do those of us in north America not like euro trucks. European requirements have absolutely zero bearing on the conversation, we operate here not there.

2. Drum brakes have more than sufficient stopping power. Good enough that in over 20 years of operating trucks i have yet to strike an object due to not being able to stop quicker.

3. A 67 inch sleeper is nothing to brag about. It doesn't even qualify as mega company stripped down fleet specced truck standard equipment.

 

I would not be surprised if California will be doing something similar somewhere in the near future.

You could also argue that a building doesn't need fire extinguishers because there has never been a fire. When drum brakes heat up they loose braking power, that doesn't happen with disk brakes. Going down a hill and losing your brakes isn't funny as you will agree with me.

I wasn't bragging, just showing that extending a Euro cab with a bigger sleeper compartment is quite easy. And the actual size is bigger, since you also have the cab itself. Contrary to the NA set up, there is no separation between the cab and the sleeper, it is one space. Look at the floor plan of the cab, the area between the seats is appr. 3 feet wide. It is also living space for an EU trucker, the cab has curtains that go all around the windows.

 

So almost 5 inches smaller then a standard Freightliner . And this is something great?

 

Have you driven anything with the big brake package? Forgot the width , but seems like 3 inches wider. Preformed as well as disk brakes , and priced just over basic drums.

 

Actually, it is both. Clean engines, fuel efficiency, adaptive cruise control, automatic braking, and so on, are important features, and things like that are being developed and improved now to be installed on new trucks. And with teh speed of development in mind, in five years time a truck will be very different from today's versions.