European Big Rigs

[espo]

I have a general question for those who may have first hand experience with the large trucks used in Europe. The reason I ask is I got lost on YouTube the other day and came across videos of these trucks. First off let me say some of them were about the contests for parking and backing into tight spots. These drivers are truly outstanding. Looking thru these videos the things that I noticed were the wheel bases on the cabs and the trailer both. The cabs seem to be mostly the cab over design which makes since with the tight spots they have to get into. The cabs wheel base at first seems longer than needed until I noticed that the mounting point for the trailer was far closer to the center of the trailer than what I'm used to seeing. The trailer axels, usually three instead of two, at first seemed mounted further toward the center of the trailer. This seemed odd at first until I watched how they got these rigs thru the streets and turned around. I know I'm going to open a hornets nest on this, but compared to what I see on the roads around here any way, these drivers are really pros and interesting to watch how they get these rigs around. Lately here all we've had is drivers running into each other and over the top of cars on the highway. We even had one change his mind in the middle of an off ramp and ran into the guard rail. Shut down one of the major highways for hours as they tried to put out the fire.          

[Force]

The main reason for the kingpin placement and cabover trucks is the length regulations in most European countries, if the kingpin is further back the front of the trailer comes closer to the cab of the truck and you can have that much longer trailer and still keep it within the regulations, the bogie of the trailer is mounted closer to the center so it woun't cut the corners as much as it would do with the bogie further back.
For trucks with semi trailer the maximum length is16 meters and 50 centimeters (54 feet 1½ inches) from the front bumper of the truck to the rearmost part of the trailer and for straight trucks with tag along trailer it's 18 meters and 75 centimeters (61 feet 6 inches), there are some exceptions to the rule tho'.
I live i Sweden and we together with Finland have the longest truck/trailer combinations allowed in Europe, our combinations can be up to 25 metres and 25 centimeters (82 feet 10 inches) as we speak and longer combinations are under consideration...up to 32 meter (just over 104 feet) combinations has been discussed.

Edited September 21, 2017 by Force

[espo]

The main reason for the kingpin placement and cabover trucks is the length regulations in most European countries, if the kingpin is further back the front of the trailer comes closer to the cab of the truck and you can have that much longer trailer and still keep it within the regulations, the bogie of the trailer is mounted closer to the center so it woun't cut the corners as much as it would do with the bogie further back.
For trucks with semi trailer the maximum length is16 meters and 50 centimeters (54 feet 1½ inches) from the front bumper of the truck to the rearmost part of the trailer and for straight trucks with tag along trailer it's 18 meters and 75 centimeters (61 feet 6 inches), there are some exceptions to the rule tho'.
I live i Sweden and we together with Finland have the longest truck/trailer combinations allowed in Europe, our combinations can be up to 25 metres and 25 centimeters (82 feet 10 inches) as we speak and longer combinations are under consideration...up to 32 meter (just over 104 feet) combinations has been discussed.

Thank you for the information. This is the sort of information I was wondering about. From what I saw in the videos the trucks look very sleek and aerodynamic and as I mentioned I was very impressed with what the drivers were able to do with them. It might be a good idea for some of the American truck designers to follow some of these designs.  

[jacobus]

here in holland we have also the long truck,s with the lengt of 25,25 meters and a max weight of 60 ton and the normal one,s with16 meters etc

that the most trailers are use with 3 axle,s is because the max weight pressure on the road and that the trailer,s are very narrow on the cab is for the max lenght and also we have here smal road,s and narrow street,s in city,s etc

most truck,s [ 4x2 ] have a front axle for 7 ton , [ steering ] than 11 ton and the trailer have most 3x9 ton now its some change in the years and most thing,s are now new because the material is every time changed with other regulations

and how the contolled that , some years ago the have here in holland a sort of cable in the road and when you passed this he register everything from the truck , weigt , axle pressure and the even make a fotograph for evidence , you can,t see the front of the truck with the licence plate , and also the driver and also wath he due at that point [ smoke a cigaret , on the phone ore wath ever ] fore so far i known that,s al gone now

one of these day,s i wil look for some new regulation,s and some picture,s

jacobus

[Force]

We have a gross weight of 64 metric tonnes (70.55 US short tons) allowed on most highways here in Sweden and soon they will allow 74 tonnes (81.57 US short tons) on some of them.
The most common combinations for hauling freight or logs here are a straight truck 3 axle with a dual drive rear bogie or 3 axle single drive with a tag axle bogie, a few are 8X4 with one steer axle and dual drive with a tag axle bogie, and a tag along trailer with 2 axles in front and 2 axle spread bogie or 3 axles at the rear and they are total length of 24 meters and 2.6 meters wide, and all of the EU 25.25 meter combinations...but as I said up to 32 meter truck/trailer combinations are discussed for the future and are tried in some places right now.
Many trucks here have a 8 or 9 tonne steer axle, maximum 11.5 tonnes weight for a single drive single axle, for a dual drive or single drive/tag axle air ride bogie on a truck you can have a weight of 19 metric tonnes (18 with leaf springs), for a 3 axle bogie you can have 24 tonnes, on the tag along trailer the front 2 axles can have 16 tonnes (10 if it's only 1 axle),  if the rear 2 axles are together you can have a max weight of 16 tonnes and if the 2 axle are a spread bogie you can have 20 tonnes,  if you have a 3 axle rear bogie it's maximum 24 tonnes, the rear axle combination weights are the same for a semi trailer.
But you can't exceed the maximum gross weight for the truck/trailer combination even if you have axle combinations that can handle more weight, the total length and distance between axles are also a factor when you are calculating how much you can load,

Edited September 22, 2017 by Force