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Anything they can do?
Page 74
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At CM's conference last week there was high praise of US trucks, especially for their cab design. The singers of those praises might have been a little taken aback to accompany American Lorry Driver of the Year, Bill Moore from Albuquerque, round some of the stands at Earls Court, as I did last Friday.
He was frankly envious of the standards of sound proofing, seating, trim, comfort and fittings; and looking at the tractive unit suspensions and discussing them with engineers and senior management he concluded that the ride of our artics is streets ahead of what the American trucker has to put up with. "They're like riding a solid iron bar when they're empty, and you get thrown all about," he said, remembering his experience of half a dozen makes driven back in the States.
Bill Moore's comments about the enormous, and unwelcome, length of US treble-bottom outfits have been aired recently in CM. When I asked him about the length margins for even double-bottoms he said that they weren't really enough. Operators squeezed two 28ft trailers into an overall 65ft length, and if you had to make a turn while tractor and first semi-trailer were in a sharp dip in the road (so that they leaned towards each other) it was quite easy to wipe the accessories off the back of the cab.