Judging by the images only, those are all the ones I called "European" trucks though, the American ones are much longer. Is that also regulated so European trucks aren't allowed in the US and American ones aren't allowed in Europe? Because here in Europe it's really uncommon to see the US ones, and I'm guessing it's the opposite in the US?
One of them must be better aerodynamically though, must'n it?
Europe has length limits on the entire thing, so US trucks would require shorter trailers, which nobody really wants. Euro trucks also have significantly smaller turning radii, which makes navigating european cities and country roads… feasible.
Furthermore Europe has relatively strict speed limits on trucks, which makes aero something of a lesser factor since drag grows to the square of speed: european trucks at european speeds have a pretty significantly higher efficiency than US trucks at US speeds.
I could be wrong, but I thought the US had a mostly-national speed limit of 55mph, while the UK truck speed limit is 60mph, and the French truck speed limit appears to be 90kmh (56mph)
US speed limits are highly variables, they’re generally 55 in the north-east but on the western half they’re 65 to 70, and 75 in TX.
And that assumes the speed limits are respected at all, but the EU has required a hard 90kph limiter since 2005, tampering with the limiter is a criminal offense, so is tampering with the (also mandatory) tachograph which would reveal the first.
So while nothing prevents speeding up to that (and it very much happens) going higher becomes extremely dicey.
> US speed limits are highly variables, they’re generally 55 in the north-east but on the western half they’re 65 to 70, and 75 in TX.
I fear even that is misleading. Yes, the speed limits on undivided highways are often 55 in the north-east (or even 50 in a couple), but the speed limits on divided highways are all higher, ranging from 65-75 mph. See the two maps on the top right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_in_the_United_Sta.... I suspect that the majority of truck miles are on divided highways.
A number of the major freeways immediately around Boston are 55. Almost nobody actually drives slower than +10 mph. If you go 55 in the slow lane you'll get passed by other people in the slow lane!
I've seen truck speed limits of 55 pretty much everywhere I've been except Texas, though.
Is shipping either design of large truck across the ocean even feasible? I'm thinking they might be too tall for standard car carrier ships, but IDK.
It’s not hard. There are European cabovers in the US (see the Bruce Wilson YouTube channel).
American designs are aerodynamically better. they are potenitilly safer (crumple zone) though I haven't seen any safety studies.
> American designs are aerodynamically better
But that goes directly against TFA, doesn't it? The final image is closer to the European design than the American one? Or am I misunderstanding the article?
> they are potenitilly safer
Maybe for the occupants, but for everyone else they seem strictly worse, not to mention the visibility much be much much worse, making it a somwhat iffy tradeoff.
You're misunderstanding the context. The US at the time regulated truck length to a patchwork of shorter lengths state by state and so cabovers proliferated and that's what NASA chose as a base. So if you start with that and "add aero" it's going to trend toward what looks like a modern European design.
There are no crumple zones in a truck really.. You have straight frame rails. I guess the cast iron engine block gets a little crumply if you hit it hard enough..
Any space becomes a crumple zone - rails are great at that, but it is still something. Though as I said - I have never seen a study of relative safety.
In a cabover truck you're the crumple zone >_<