Cabover Tractors?

This thread brings me back to the good old days of bouncing around in my dad's '77 KW. no air, no air seat on the passenger side, and the old vacuum windshield wipers, I hated unsticking them going up hills. I spent several summers and Christmas school breaks bouncing around in that truck, and my head still has the knots on top!

DigDug said:

I have always liked the look of the Europeon cabovers. I wish more were here in the states. They must have great visisbility for getting around in tight spots . :drinkup

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Looks like the cabover MKTEF is showing probably is a Volvo FH16, maybe 400 to 600 horse power range. Visibility and manoverability are indeed fantastic, ride is the best. Trouble is come bed time........I'm a big fella and that bed just didn't cut it:badidea

Down here its much as MK says, long noses are a dying breed with two notable exceptions. Operators can still go to Paccar to spec up their off road/outback haulers for the mines. These trucks spend up to 50% of their time on corrugated gravel, so the big Kennies live on.

The other exception is the snub nosed Sterlings and Freightliners for On Road and this is because they are very competitive on price. Other than that the European Cab-Overs have a large part of the long distance heavy haul market due in main to fuel efficiency, comfort and far better safety than an American built truck. You might think having great lumps of steel in front of you is a good thing when it comes to collisions but the Europeans actually got with frontal and rollover testing/safety many years back for buses and trucks.

http://www.scania.com.au/trucks/cabs/cab_safety/crash_test.asp

Around town and for dump trucks it seems anything that has a bit of life and remains street legal will do....any half decent dump truck is out working no matter the style.

Squizzy246B said:

The other exception is the snub nosed Sterlings and Freightliners for On Road and this is because they are very competitive on price. Other than that the European Cab-Overs have a large part of the long distance heavy haul market due in main to fuel efficiency, comfort and far better safety than an American built truck. You might think having great lumps of steel in front of you is a good thing when it comes to collisions but the Europeans actually got with frontal and rollover testing/safety many years back for buses and trucks.

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If I remember correctly Squizzy you have the same Volvo FH down there with a bigger bed (extended cab). I'm thinking every truck lands in OZ gets an injection of steroids before it hits the road.

Colin Doy said:

Trouble is come bed time........I'm a big fella and that bed just didn't cut it:badidea

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Collin, that bunk would be called the "Day Cab" spec down here. Basic for grabbing a few hours or one night if you have to. The Long Haul cab specs are much bigger and very well appointed.

http://www.scania.com.au/trucks/cabs/sleeper_cab/high_roof_sleeper/interior.asp

Despite the reputation for RoadTrains the majority of trucks around are pretty much similar to that found elsewhere in world.

My favourite truck was a Volvo FH12...once I got that RoadRanger sorted and the other truck I liked (for reliability and ease) was a Scania 114H...which is a long nose. But then, anything was better than the old Internationals I'd come from

Pics i have posted is from the new FH16 cab.
Not the Globetrotter, it's got two bunks, and a lots of space over the driver.

Regarding bunks, the standard length for bunks in a Volvo/Scania is 2,0m, around 6 feet.
Thats the length of a normal bed in a shop around here too.
U can get a bedroom bed thats 2,1m but they are special...

In the Globetrotter the main bed is .70m wide, the nr 2 is .60 wide.

I think many drivers here on the forum dosen't think that its possible with a bunk that long in a cabover, cause the cabs in us is so much narrower.
U can stretch over and close the right door.
Thats impossible in a european cab.
U got to have very long arms to do that.

I've added a crashtest pic from Volvo, and some old Macks from Iran..
Crashtests is very seriously business by Volvo.
Crashed in all types of ways + investigation of bad accidents all over Scandinavia.

Neat! The two tractors would be fun trying to coordinate looks like. Maybe not would love to see that up close though.

I have driven both,its what ya get used to.Drove in the states for Pullen Brothers and had no problems, as far as comfort goes it depends on the road.Here in New Zealand we have both short and long nose rigs.

there are a heap of cab overs over here that i can see, a lot of argosy's and volvo's,

god those argosy's look the goods

http://www.truckpaper.com/listings/detail.aspx?OHID=1591993&guid=7605B18159634DA08F04D79485502229

How cool is that??????????:cool2:cool2

Way overpriced but still very cool!!!!

Cabover? that is a new term to me. I refer to them as forward control cabs. Just goes to show that there is always time to learn.

Tippers, mixers, loggers, freighters, horses, everything here is 'cabover'. We have a few Freightliner Columbias on the market, some short cabs and long cabs, but good cabs none the less. I recently went to our Eston Show, and they had a few trucks there, mainly cheapish Asian brands, but MAN and Mercedes Benz were there too.

The Asian trucks, like Hino, Isuzu and Powerstar were mainly the daycab versions, but still very comfortable. I checked out an MAN TGA 33.410 Horse, and that thing was spiffy. Huge cab(enough space for me to stand) huge bunks, air suspension seat, ergo controls etc. Not quite a microwave, but our hauls that our truckers pull are no more than 700kms if going to Jo'burg from Durban, and around 2000 km from Durban to Capetown. Most of those operators use the fancy European trucks, Scanias, MAN, Merc, International cabovers, Freightliners, Volvo, DAF (which is now struggling along) but some of the operators going to Jo'burg use the Asian trucks, like Isuzu, Hino, UD and Powerstar. The powerstars are just remakes of the older Merc Powerliners and MAN F2000.

I think the term forward control is used here as a subtype of cabover like the Ford C cab models which have always been very popular for garbage and fire trucks.

On the downside...driving a COE tractor..in a wreck you are the FIRST one to the scene

GaryKelley said:

On the downside...driving a COE tractor..in a wreck you are the FIRST one to the scene

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Gary, If you compare a European Cabover to a long nose american truck that argument doesn't add up when it comes to the injuries sustained by the driver. European trucks have to pass very stringent crash test requirements and are very well designed in this regard. Your long nose has a whole lot of steel and controls thats going to come through and mess you up. There is little safety in sitting behind a whole lot of iron when it is these things that are going to injure you in a crash.

I imagine when the legislation catches up with US manufacturer's (if it hasn't already) then things will be different. In the meantime, have a look at what good design can do in the real world:

http://bridger.us/2002/12/16/CrashTestingMINICooperVsFordF150/

And the moral of the story:
Friends don't let friends drive Fords :stirthepot

Actually forward controls are also called Cab forwards. This is usually a configuration like the one shown here.

http://www.truckpaper.com/listings/detail.aspx?OHID=1528508&guid=e522dce87b964673bf54840da3d5ea7b

here's another example

http://www.truckpaper.com/listings/detail.aspx?OHID=1853812&guid=e522dce87b964673bf54840da3d5ea7b

Cabovers became the nickname for C.O.E. (Cab Over Engine) trucks.

like mentioned above with the advent of longer over all length laws, set back front axles, better bridge weight laws and a little thing called driver comfort the cabover went the way of the dinosaur.


The freightliner argosy was the last class 8 COE available in America. and the one posted above takes me back to ye oldern days when there was many a cabover with a 15' dromedary's or "droms" pulling 43's. P.I.E. used to love them.

Hey 06Bowtie Guy, do you have or can you get any pics of Manitoulins Peterbilt cabover with the twin steer, two lifts and rear tandems with the tanker on it pulling the Toromont Cat trailer. That thing looks awesome. It used to go by everyday when I was working on hwy. 400 and I tried to get a pic but it never worked out.

I just got a Kenworth brochure and in the off road section they now offer a K500 cabover. It is basically a DAF set up for off road It replaces the K100 they were offering on the C500 chassis. Wonder if we'll ever see a road version? I for one love European cabovers. I wouldn't mind running one over here. (tandem rear axle though) Most of those euro cabovers are like Australian trucks, they offer waaayyy bigger power plants than we can get. Like those big MAN V8's with almost 700 horsepower and over 2400 lb./ft. torque!

Paystar, I do know which truck your thinking about. It doesn't always have the toromont cat trailer but I'll keep my eye open for it.

Dualie said:

...little thing called driver comfort the cabover went the way of the dinosaur.

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Well, I don't know much about comfortable trucks but what I have come across so far is definately the MAN TGA 33.410, or the DAF CF85.430. Huge bed, maybe its quite small, I don't know, huge cab, and panoramic view.

To be quite honest (TBQH), big trucks like yall and our Botswana neighbours use are just to big for our hauls, but if you got a huge country like yours, then driver comfort is important. But just to know, how long is a typical haul and how far do you travel?

There really are no typical trips. You can have produce from California trucked to NY, meats from the midwest trucked to NY or a load of gravel moved just a few miles. The trucks are set up for the type of work they do, be it long haul, intra-city or construction. The trip from California to NY can take 3 days or more, the midwest to NY 2 days. Produce is hauled up and down the east coast here which is a 2 day trip.

I worked for a company doing local deliveries where I was home every night. The longest trips I made were 350 miles, and I ran what was called a day cab with no sleeper. Being a company truck, there were no frills, it was a base model truck.