American trucks are Pants !!
Carryfast:
Maybe in the case of a conventional which can’t be legally coupled to a standard length semi trailer here anyway.But American cab overs have proved themselves up to the job on euro/uk work going back years as in the Kenworths in the UK topic shows.
You’ve never driven a KW cab over have you Carryfast? If you had, you wouldn’t be writing such twaddle. You’d know about the horrendous turning circle, the passive safety, (which almost certainly wouldn’t meet European regulations, without massive engineering investment) or basic chassis/weight configuration problems.
Sure a cab over KW or White, or Peterbuilt, or Mack could do the job, just not as efficiently as a current Scania, Actros, Volvo FH, or Daf XF… which is why Europeans buy them and not the American equivalent.
It’s also why Paccar, the owners of KW amongst other things, bought Daf! Their American managers, unlike you, recognised the impossibility of trying to match the Europeans efficiency within European transport operations, with an American truck designed for American transport operations. And that’s before we look at the cost of buying a new KW, compared to a similar spec Euro truck.
Is there any chance you can post something close to reality, rather than your selective fantasy?
EastAnglianTrucker:
Carryfast:
Maybe in the case of a conventional which can’t be legally coupled to a standard length semi trailer here anyway.But American cab overs have proved themselves up to the job on euro/uk work going back years as in the Kenworths in the UK topic shows.You’ve never driven a KW cab over have you Carryfast? If you had, you wouldn’t be writing such twaddle. You’d know about the horrendous turning circle, the passive safety, (which almost certainly wouldn’t meet European regulations, without massive engineering investment) or basic chassis/weight configuration problems.
Sure a cab over KW or White, or Peterbuilt, or Mack could do the job, just not as efficiently as a current Scania, Actros, Volvo FH, or Daf XF… which is why Europeans buy them and not the American equivalent.
It’s also why Paccar, the owners of KW amongst other things, bought Daf! Their American managers, unlike you, recognised the impossibility of trying to match the Europeans efficiency within European transport operations, with an American truck designed for American transport operations. And that’s before we look at the cost of buying a new KW, compared to a similar spec Euro truck.
Is there any chance you can post something close to reality, rather than your selective fantasy?
Absoluteley unuseable,unmanageable,impossibly over sized but somehow over here.Unfortunately for me no I never got the chance to work for anyone who was mad enough to run one on uk-euro work. 
This Yank Volvo is nuts - part truck, part caravan
So a handful were put to work by owner drivers and small hauliers who could afford to and wanted something different. Hardly means they cracked the market. I remember seeing Geoff Gilbert’s White road commander as a kid and thinking that’s a bit of me I remember an article on it in one of the mags and the driver said it had about half the lock of a scania and it could be a right PITA to get on bays etc. So it was always a truck you had to learn to love and its only a certain type of owner or driver who will put up with them short comings.
EastAnglianTrucker:
Carryfast:
Maybe in the case of a conventional which can’t be legally coupled to a standard length semi trailer here anyway.But American cab overs have proved themselves up to the job on euro/uk work going back years as in the Kenworths in the UK topic shows.You’ve never driven a KW cab over have you Carryfast? If you had, you wouldn’t be writing such twaddle. You’d know about the horrendous turning circle, the passive safety, (which almost certainly wouldn’t meet European regulations, without massive engineering investment) or basic chassis/weight configuration problems.
Sure a cab over KW or White, or Peterbuilt, or Mack could do the job, just not as efficiently as a current Scania, Actros, Volvo FH, or Daf XF… which is why Europeans buy them and not the American equivalent.
It’s also why Paccar, the owners of KW amongst other things, bought Daf! Their American managers, unlike you, recognised the impossibility of trying to match the Europeans efficiency within European transport operations, with an American truck designed for American transport operations. And that’s before we look at the cost of buying a new KW, compared to a similar spec Euro truck.
Is there any chance you can post something close to reality, rather than your selective fantasy?
Exactly paccar Kenworth and Peterblt for the USA Australia etc Daf for Europe
Freightliner USA Mercedes for Europe
Volvo American products are very different offerings to European ones horses for course.
A couple of Whites from the 80s on UK work from my photo collection!
Who remembers the 1987 tv series Truckers?
There was a black Mack in the series that was owned in real life by a fella called Jonny Onions. That was his nickname because he always wore a beret.
and I just found a couple of pics on t’internet.
I always liked the white one on my one to drive one day list.
kr79:
So a handful were put to work by owner drivers and small hauliers who could afford to and wanted something different. Hardly means they cracked the market. I remember seeing Geoff Gilbert’s White road commander as a kid and thinking that’s a bit of me I remember an article on it in one of the mags and the driver said it had about half the lock of a scania and it could be a right PITA to get on bays etc. So it was always a truck you had to learn to love and its only a certain type of owner or driver who will put up with them short comings.
I think it was probably a ‘bit’ more than a handful that were used throughout europe including Switzerland. 
There’s three yank trucks in a guys driveway in Blyton near Gainsborough !!
End house on the right as you head up to the track ?
Think I saw one there last time I was mashing some tarmac up the road, very nearly stopped to ask to have a look at it but it was late when we left the track sadly.
Me, I like them because they are everything America stands for, over the top in every department, but that makes them a cool boys toy IMHO.
Not sure I would wanna drive one for a living tho, look far too crude (cant be worse than an old ERF with an knackered Eaton Twin tho I guess ?)
kevchalluk:
This Yank Volvo is nuts - part truck, part caravan
That’s cool 
Phantom Mark:
End house on the right as you head up to the track ?Think I saw one there last time I was mashing some tarmac up the road, very nearly stopped to ask to have a look at it but it was late when we left the track sadly.
Me, I like them because they are everything America stands for, over the top in every department, but that makes them a cool boys toy IMHO.
Not sure I would wanna drive one for a living tho, look far too crude (cant be worse than an old ERF with an knackered Eaton Twin tho I guess ?)
To physically drive that about sums it up.
Phantom Mark:
End house on the right as you head up to the track ?
Yes thats the one
Why do people love American Trucks?
Because they are what America stands for:
- Big but not clever
- over engineering but not smart
- Shiny on a distance, but close up it’s not what it appears to be on a distance.
Have you ever looked at an American car or Truck closely, and what did you think of panel gaps, small and even? Not really!
In many States the maximum Gross Weight = 80.000lbs = just under 38 ton.
So these engines don’t have to work, the MPG is to very interest, most American engines are tuned by throwing more fuel in, not really smart solutions, their famous saying is "There is no limit for cubic inches” it’s a shame that this also count for the fuel you dump in that engine.
Most of the trucks there wouldn’t even pas Euro one here.
One of the reason the American engines didn’t take really of in Europe was their thirst for fuel.
The other was their very extensive maintenance.
The UK was the only country who would sniff on the Cat’s and ■■■■■■■■■ however White was using Volvo engines already in the 80’s.
If you look at cabins, it’s Meccano stuff, some aluminium plates riveted together, some glass-fibre reinforced polyester, and that is it, it wouldn’t pass the safety standard for European trucks.
If you want proof of this have a look on You-tube and you will see plenty American trucks getting destroyed to nearly nothing.
Yes they have the luck on a bonneted truck that the engine is in front of them, but that’s about it.
Yes I have driven Freightliner, White’s and KW trucks, I like them, for the look, but I found always the driver space very restricted and in the Freightliner you are much to close to the split windscreen (that was in 2002)
if you look at the wiring, there is no real looms, its all loose wires, when I use to work for GM, if you looked under the dashboard of a Impala, Firebird, of Camaro, it was all loose wires and even some of the relay where floating about.
An Opel Kadett from the same era looked more thought through.
Our KW is still like that, all 12 volt no 24 volt at all.
Simple, simple and even simpler.
And there is a very good reason why everything is bigger, and not really refined.
The majority of Americans have an agriculture back ground, their great-great-grandfathers where farmers from Europe and of course a part was people who worked in the farming industry (mainly slaves from Africa etc.)
If you look how a farmer build something it’s always over engineered, if a 2 inch beam would do, a farmer will put a 4 or even a 5 inch beam in there.
If a farmers wires something up, there is a lot of “That will do” it doesn’t need to look, as long as it is functional.
You see that back in any American vehicle.
I had the luck to Visit the Space centre in Houston and had a look in the Space-shuttle, fantastic piece of kid, but don’t expect super-duper electronics in there, it works and it’s easy to fix, but its defiantly no science fiction in there.
That’s America, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, it’s OK as long as you don’t pretend it’s the new world, it’s not, it’s still the old world with a new lick of paint!
caledoniandream:
I had the luck to Visit the Space centre in Houston and had a look in the Space-shuttle, fantastic piece of kid, but don’t expect super-duper electronics in there, it works and it’s easy to fix, but its defiantly no science fiction in there.That’s America, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, it’s OK as long as you don’t pretend it’s the new world, it’s not, it’s still the old world with a new lick of paint!
Total bunch of idiots who haven’t got a clue when everyone knows that it was a euro aerospace consortium headed by French and German engineering know how which beat the Americans to the moon and put Boeing and McDonnell Douglas etc out of business.
As for cars or trucks it’s no surprise that an old 1960’s yank pushrod V8 muscle car is worth more than a used modern techno V8 Merc or BMW and the same applies in regard to a used KW v a used modern Euro wagon.
If you pump enough money in it, than you can put an ERF on the moon, that’s the diference.
And CF where is the proof that the Americans have been on the moon anyway?
And regarding the price of “a 60’s American muscle car against a full tech Mercedes” really blade, You open your mouth and let your belly rumble.
Take a 60 Mercedes against a 60 USA petrol guzler
Otherwise you may aswel say; Mushrooms are much cheaper than laptop computers.
Listen blade you’re full of ■■■■.
Daydreamer, probaly drove the councel lawnmower, and still get a stiffy on if you see a truck.
And you come every time up with this nonsense: nobody give me a chance to drive Europe" let me help you out of the dream, nobody gave me that chance either, …
I had to fight my way to it, and made it.
This is not a world for giving, its a world of grabbing
And now i gone have another very cold Continental Cider…Nerd!!
I don’t…