"spamtrap1888" wrote in message
...
On Jun 28, 4:59 pm, Archon wrote:
On 6/26/2012 8:06 PM, Cydrome Leader wrote: with a truck engine, so
maybe not. I have seen signs here though at the











I wonder if vehicle size difference is part of the reason jake brakes
would seem to be less common outside the US.

a large truck in europe is small here in the US.

I think only Australia outdoes the US with their road trains.

It's the same with railways, a large european freight train would be
crushed to bits in a crash with a commuter passenger train from the US.
Laws here don't permit passenger trains to be made of paper cups and
used
tissue like in germany. Everything is large and heavy.

Canada does run longer heavier trains than in the US though.

Ever been out of the States? Europeans don't use steam any more you
know. I think you will find the max laden truck weight is higher in
Europe. US trucks are so crap, 1950's engines. Crawl up hill, no brakes
down hill. Driven by suicidal Mex's. Always tailgating, All chrome and
no safety gear, no spray suppression, no side bars, ineffective tail
bars, totally lethal to other drivers. Stay well away from them on
interstates. We have a couple rollover almost every day here in NJ.
Usually trash trucks from NY. JC

At least in North America the truck tractor's exhaust does not point
right at the motorist in the next lane. And the semitrailers are
almost always metal boxes, not cloth-covered frames.


Well, to be fair, the exhausts on an awful lot of European trucks also run
vertically up the back of the cab like Kenworths and Peterbilts. And most
trailers are also metal box construction. The curtain-siders (it's not
really 'cloth' - more of a *very* tough plasticised tarp) are used for the
most part for the special purpose of 'palletized deliveries' which is maybe
something that's not done in the U.S. ??

It's a system where a central company runs goods around the country for many
different clients on the same truck. Schedules are arranged such that as
goods are dropped off in towns, more goods are picked up to keep the truck
moving around as full as possible. It cuts down on fuel wastage and road
wastage by not having 'returning to depot' trucks running around empty, and
cuts down on costs for the companies that are having their goods shipped by
them not having to maintain their own truck fleet, or having to try to keep
their own trucks full.

The system only works if the goods to be shipped are palletised, and able to
be got at, no matter where their load point is on the trailer. So, they are
stacked on a curtain-sider, in two rows, running the length of the trailer.
That way, when the driver reaches a drop-off point, he can just pull back
the curtain on the appropriate side, to allow the fork truck to get in there
and remove the pallets. When he arrives at another collection, the
previously emptied space is again easily accessible to be reloaded. The
curtain material is very tough, and pretty much affords the same protection
to the load, as an aluminium box trailer. And if the trailer bed has been
properly loaded, there is no issue with the goods moving about.

Some companies that have their own trucks, still use curtain-siders, because
their goods are palletised anyway, and it can just be easier to load and
unload in some goods depots, if the fork truck can get to the sides of the
trailer, rather than the driver having to manually pallet-truck the goods to
the back, or handball boxes to the back as would be the case with a box
trailer. Just horses for courses, I guess.

Arfa

The U.S. may be just geographically too large for such a system to work ??