… how come Canadian and US trucks don’t seem to be fitted with these? I thought they would be essential anywhere.
Warren T. Claim:
… how come Canadian and US trucks don’t seem to be fitted with these? I thought they would be essential anywhere.
I take it your on about side bars ■■ most trucks in the US and Canada as far as I know have sliding rear axels so it would pos cause probs with that … Dont know just a guess mind
Strangely enough this was brought up while i was doing my air-brake endorsement last week. Here Truck Drivers are told if you are going to hit a car, hit it with the trailer. As Car drivers are taught that if they are going to get hit by a truck to duck. Im not sure if this was just the instructor winding the whole group up or not. But thinking about it logically, there is more chance of survival if your hit by the trailer. The car (with driver ducking) would fit under the trailer , minus its roof.
I heard a story that in the 60’s some people with Mini Mokes (remember them?) used to fold their windscreens flat and drive under moving trailers on the newly opened, empty(!) M1, just for a laugh. Whether this is true or not I don’t know…
The reason they don’t have underun bars is, they are 20 years behind us, same with rear underuns too. and lighting on alot of trailers is very poor, no headlight wash/wipe, heated mirrors that only stay on for 15 seconds. great looking trucks but practicle they are not.
dieseldog6:
The reason they don’t have underun bars is, they are 20 years behind us, same with rear underuns too. and lighting on alot of trailers is very poor, no headlight wash/wipe, heated mirrors that only stay on for 15 seconds. great looking trucks but practicle they are not.
They do have rear underun bars & the majority of trailers have LED lights & plenty of them too, my heated mirrors stay on as long as I want them too & they did on the Kenworth & Volvo I had before my current Peterbilt, you say the trucks aren’t practical, I disagree, they are almost perfect for the job that they do over here, which is why, fundamentally, they haven’t changed much in recent years, all I can say is that you must’ve had a right old piece of junk mate! have to agree about headlight wash wipe though & a bit of alignment wouldn’t go a miss either, especially on the pick ups towing a caravan or trailer.
The underun bars on the rear of all but the newest trailers are a flimsey affair as for the led marker lights yes there are alot again on the newer trailers, and the reason they haven’t changed much is they won’t let go of the past,.
I know this, if I was offered a European cabover over there as opposed to a Pete Conventional, I’d take the cabover every time.
By the way mine was a 2007 with only 300k on the clock and it was falling apart.
Not going to get into any arguments about it with you, Cliff. I think you were very unlucky all round and was deeply disappointed for you.
But I am with Mark on this. My Pete is an 03, and pretty much everything works on it. The build quality is such that it takes all that is demanded of it, and I have taken NA trucks to some pretty extreme places and brought them back out unscathed. There is no European truck newer than maybe 1980 which would take the treatment that I have put them through out here. They simply would break.
The rear bumpers look flimsy but they take an impact fairly well, and the ones on our flats are probably stronger than European ones as they are a welded part of the chassis.
Just as a bit of devils advocacy, maybe the reason they don’t fit rails all round is because they don’t feel they should compromise their vehicles in order to protect morons. Front underrun bars would not last long out here. As you know, there are a few roads that are not that good…
Either way, things seem to move smoothly enough here as a rule. There are fewer requirements and that means that inspectors can really concentrate on what actually matters instead of picking at things that are possibly inconsequential…
Hello Bob, wasn’t looking to argue, we’ll leave it at that. hope your feeling better, how long do you think your going to be off? My wife is coming out in July to London as her Daughter is having a baby. so does that make me a Grandad!!!