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Kontour posted:It's the 7.2l 4x4, ostensibly because it just slides in under the weight limits for road closures, plus all wheel drive and diff locks all round. I kinda wish we'd gone for the 6x4 though because we seem to be having issues with the rear duals from the amount of weight we put on them coupled with the roads we drive on, although it could be a tire issue too. The day I never have to deal with another rock fractured radial will be a nice day indeed. That was the main reason we upgraded our little 4x2 DAF to a 4x6 within a year of buying it. The more central you get the more axles and the more powered axles you want. I have to applaud you though, I've been on a few trips around the central north Queensland area (Cloncurry, Longreach, Mt Isa etc), and I grew up in trucks with my dad in Central NSW, and I don't think I've ever seen a European truck once the bitumen stopped. EDIT: And to repost from the last thread, this is how we do things in Australia. This is a triple road train (in blue) unloaded some stock onto a B-Double (in red)  This is the bosses T908 setup as an A-B Quad, the largest legal combination that can be run on the roads without a permit, but only way out west where there's basically nothing but desert.  This is my dad's T404 B-double that I sometimes take out for a run on weekends. She's a million km's old, but the old C15 will still pull past everything else up the hills.  Rudager fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 12:19
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Kontour posted:As I said, we'll see how it goes once we get a few more k's on her and things start breaking. Unfortunately euro ratings and such mean that the days of relatively simple, non computer controlled trucks are getting harder and harder to come by, and when you're out bush it's not exactly easy to find an "Authorized(tm) Mercedes(tm) Technician(tm)" to pull codes and the like. Add that to the fact that no one really designs their trucks for Australian conditions and it's a bit of a crapshoot when trying to buy new vehicles. Haha, true that. that little old T404SAR up there may look like a tired old girl, but if she breaks in some farmers paddock on a Sunday afternoon, it's easy enough to try and figure out yourself if you've got half a mind for it. Nowdays it's all twin turbo ACERTS and cooled EGR's making everything hard. If nothing else, someone needs to add about 3-5L on engine capacity for road train specced trucks, but I suppose it's such a niche market in the grand world scheme of things for Cummins/Cat/Detroit. I can't remember what a triple train can max out at since we don't really run them, but an A-B triple (like the AB Quad above, but minus one of the short trailers) can top out at 104.5t (230,000 pounds and change for everyone else) and a 600hp ISX is working hard for it. Rudager fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 09:53
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InterceptorV8 posted:I'm pretty sure my 435 would just fall over and cry. I moved almost 100K before with a old 400, and it just didn't like it much. Thanks IKEA! Well I mean, if you get a truck that's going to be doing JUST road train work, then you get the diffs geared up a bit since they're limited to 90km/h (which is around 55mph?) anyway, but still. A 600hp C15/ISX Sig (I don't think anyone seriously runs Detroits in Australia) is doing OK on 64.5t B-Double work, but in my opinion, there should be another step above that for bigger work.
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Aug 25, 2013 11:23
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So one of the drivers at work today was making fun of how every North American Youtube trucker has a 10 speed. Is that a common thing up there? Here in the downunder it's an 18 speed Eaton, 14 speed Synchro box in the Euro's, or an Auto for the really big guys who just want something anyone can drive, but the far majority of trucks on our roads are 18's. I'm sure there's a 10 speed or two out there, but I don't know anyone that's ever seen one.
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Aug 29, 2013 11:36
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Javid posted:For big fleets, yeah. I suspect it's more to do with them being cheaper than anything else. The company I'm at NOW just goes for automatics for various reasons Makes sense. Just seemed wrong to me for a minute because American brands over here are pretty much assumed to be running an 18 speed. You'd have to go searching for one that wasn't. I dunno, all the runs between the major capitals, you wouldnt ever need to split the low box, but I guess it makes a difference when you start heading a little bit inland and its all hill climbs all day.
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Aug 29, 2013 12:39
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I've been watching more youtube truckers, and I really don't understand why you north American guys don't run more bigger combinations. Our roads here in Australia about 100x worse, and at least here on the east coast, it's all hills and corners, and yet 90% of trucks you see outside of a city is a B-Double, it's just more effecient. 2 B-doubles replaces 3 singles, they don't burn much more in the way of fuel (for example our guys aim at 1.6L/km and google tells me that's 0.422 gallons per mile) and they're not drastically less maneuverable than a single. They're even a touch bit faster since you can take corners a bit faster with 3 more axels working to stop you tipping over (if you look at those pics from the front page of that A-B quad, the dolly/converter is right after the first trailer because the B-triple combo behind it it's a thousand times more stable than putting a single trailer at the back under a dolly) It takes a bit of practise to reverse them, which may be why we run alot more tautliners (edit: sorry, curtainsiders) than you guys, since they can just drive in, pull the curtains back, and drive out compared to solid Pantech doubles that are a bit more annoying since it involves alot of hitching and un-hitching. I dunno, it just blows my mind that you guys have all these perfect, smooth, straight, highways and yet only run singles. Anyway, I'll have to get some photo's off the new trucks at work because they are some drat sexy beasts. DonVincenzo posted:Consider me sobered. Just lost the steering assistance, fully loaded, in a roundabout... At my last job, we had a guy come pick up a trailer with a fully loaded container with an old transtar. He got about 10 meters and the rod to the steering box clean snapped in two right where the thread starts into the steering box. I went out to find him about 5 minutes later about 10 smokes into his pack of cigarettes. Oh did I mention at that time the area we were in was under heavy flooding and they'd literally only just opened up the road an hour ago, so all he could think about was what would have happened if he had of been cruising back to the yard at 100km/h basically surrounded by a lake. Rudager fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Sep 6, 2013 |
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Sep 6, 2013 12:10
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InterceptorV8 posted:There are reverse b doubles flatbeds I see quite a bit. Instead of the first trailer being short, the first is long, but has a tri-axle with the 5th wheel plate, then hooks into a smaller flat. Sounds like a stag double they're the new rage with the tippers over here. The short back trailer makes it easier to jackknife out of the way to dump the A-trailer. And the way their setup puts all the weight in the back trailer over the back tri rather the spread over the drive and first tri. Rudager fucked around with this message at 13:52 on Sep 20, 2013 |
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Sep 19, 2013 12:30
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Friar Zucchini posted:On cars with rear drum brakes, the parking brake operates the same drums in back that the actual "I want to stop the car" brakes do, so I'd guess that'd be the same on a truck. So if the problem is that the brakes got hot and warped, then you're hosed no matter what. Pretty much, there's 2 lines to the trailer(s) and the brakes are spring loaded, one line keeps a constant pressure that overcomes the springs, and the other is to change that constant pressure slightly letting you have degrees of application, rather than a binary on/off.
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Oct 20, 2013 10:02
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Gas powered busses are pretty common in the major cities down here. Haven't seen any trucks though.
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Oct 21, 2013 00:27
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some texas redneck posted:Along the same lines, what do all the gauges and switches do in, say, a fairly modern OTR truck? Guages are any combination of: Tachometer, Speedo, coolant temp, oil temp, oil pressure, first diff oil temp, second diff oil temp, transmission oil temp, primary air tank pressure, secondary air tank pressure, brake application amount, turbo "boost", fuel, Diesel exhaust fluid (for Euro trucks). Switches: Engine fan, Lights, engine brake, engine brake level, diff lock, cross lock, air bag suspension dump, lever for trailer brake application, general interior lights/AC stuff. The big red push button is the prime mover (sorry, tractor) "parking" brake, the yellow one is the trailer brake supply. I'm sure I've missed something in that, doesn't seem like enough. Rudager fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Oct 29, 2013 |
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Oct 29, 2013 05:30
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ijustam posted:Don't forget exhaust temp, volts, air filter clogginess, suspension pressure, and a clock because why not Oh yeah, reminds me of another switch on the newish EGR Cummins, the manual burn off thing to pump some hot exhaust gas out to burn poo poo off some exhaust filter thing.
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Oct 29, 2013 20:45
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So this happened here in Sydney yesterday, COMPLETELY loving the traffic for the next week at least. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOaWGxj9YQM Story goes the driver dropped his glasses and hit the tipper controls when he picked them up. Why does he roll around town with the PTO engaged and how does it not gently caress his gearbox up in 5 minutes? Or how did he engage it while he would have been steady cruising down the motorway at 70km/h? I don't even know.
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Nov 15, 2013 03:11
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InterceptorV8 posted:I'm not sure on how the PTO works on that, but I do know there are units that you can have the PTO in and it still be mobile. Just saw this in the papers, Mr Flammia is the owner of the truck company. http://smh.drive.com.au/trucking-boss-apologises-for-m5-crash-chaos-20131114-2xjav.html posted:The Roads Minister, Duncan Gay, questioned the explanation, saying the tipping tray was activated by a two-stage process. One is the engagement of the PTO, the hydraulic mechanism that controls the power of the tray, and the second is the pressing of the button which makes the tray lift. Ghost tray just lifted itself up to near 90 degrees I guess. 
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Nov 16, 2013 06:52
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Powershift posted:A new truck or a new career. Haven't decided which. That's pretty drat sexy, if there's one thing American's do right, it's make sexy trucks. There's a few Peterbilt 379's getting around Australia now, but they're more a novelty than anything because of their length. I've seen a crazy purple tri-drive, twin steer rigid getting around my local area though.
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Dec 14, 2013 11:43
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Shadokin posted:Tell me about it. Moving to California and it's carb requirements Iis one of the large reasons we opted to stick with the company instead of buying a truck and moving into owner/op. Is it a cummins with the old DPF emissions system? Sounds like the burn-off warning light.
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May 18, 2014 08:12
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warcake posted:In europe, especially with volvos, its rare you'll find anything but their own version of that style of gearbox, called the I-shift. We rarely have problems with them, drivers love them, they are easy to repair, clutch lasts over 500,000km usually. Theres no synchros to wear out, and every sensor can be gotten to without removing the box. Only problem is when you leave it in "A" and let the air run down with the engine off you can't start it till someone blows the air up. The only auto I've ever driven was a little DAF, and it was the biggest piece of poo poo ever, it wouldn't change down out of top gear until it was literally about to stall out. Powershift posted:The engine will rev up to whatever you force it to rev up to, around 3k valves will meet pistons. Around 3500 it will build an inspection window in the block. Brother in law had one of these in his workshop the other day, brand new Mack Titan, some kid who's family owned a transport business letting him do his first solo run, first downgrade he hit while loaded he just let it run out until the piston's escaped, apparently he was just waiting for the engine brake to kick in.
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May 20, 2014 07:32
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CannonFodder posted:That's a mix of "You should never use the tractor for personal use" and dispatch getting to flex their rear end in a top hat muscle. Being an arsehole to just make drivers lives as uncomfortable as possible (like being a prick about some small tiny detour so they can stop by home) rubs me the wrong way, if you asked the people who get upset about it to work 16 hours days and sleep under their desk for 2 weeks straight and never go home they'd whine their loving heads off, but god forbid the driver who takes a 10 minute detour to spend a couple hours at home in the week or two they're away from it.
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Jun 3, 2014 11:12
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I think you'll find it's simpler than that and Mack just having better deals on daycab's or something.
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Jun 4, 2014 22:46
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InterceptorV8 posted:http://youtu.be/QPTDlNmValk There's nothing I love in this life more than seeing the chassis in those things twist under the sheer amount of torque they're trying to contain. 
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Jul 13, 2014 10:11
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ijustam posted:Are there still autos with a clutch? One of my previous jobs had a toterhome with a 10 speed clutched automatic and it was slow as poo poo, especially starting on hills -- it'd go through every drat gear. Yeah, this is my experience with the DAF I drove with a computer controlled manual box, they seem to be designed around "MUST GET TO TOP GEAR BECAUSE LESS REVS MEANS MORE FUEL EFFICIENT!" and it was a loving dog to drive because of it. Going up hills was loving painful because it would chug all the way down to the absolute last rev it could manage before it would barely not stall and change gears. Rudager fucked around with this message at 08:23 on Aug 18, 2014 |
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Aug 18, 2014 07:38
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tater_salad posted:I think that ive seen talk of a "walking" floor that lifts, shifts, drops, lifts, shifts, drops etc. To push goods out of trucks. The only real use for them is in for traditional tipper jobs in height restricted area's, which is a basically a non-existent problem. If it's palletized freight, why go to the trouble of having a walking floor when there's already guaranteed to be a forklift/lift truck/pallet jack at the place to move it once it's off the truck? And for tipper work, if there's no height restrictions, it's faster, easier and simpler to just tip the trailer up. Ontop of all that it's more complicated with more failure points, and weight more than a standard floor or a tipper setup.
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Sep 25, 2014 23:34
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Well that's the other thing that makes it hard for me to get my head around, over here in Australia general freight goes in curtainsiders. Solid bodies are pretty much only for fridge vans.
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Sep 25, 2014 23:58
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DNova posted:Why is that? Are they cheaper? I've never liked the idea of those things. It just seems too easy to mess up the fabric and/or whatever is being hauled. Also it seems like contents theft would involve 5 seconds with a decent knife. I'm guessing it's not too easy to cut through them, but still... Biggest factor is we run b-double combination's for any inter-city work, and even alot of intra-city work too, and it's a hell of a lot easier to just pull back curtains on both trailers than to split it all up, slide the body on the A trailer back and forwards and put it all back together again. For example the absolute best case scenario for the truck in the wiki article (which is about 85ft long all up), is that he's going to have to reverse the entire combination onto a dock, drop the B trailer, hopefully have a second dock there to put the A trailer on, then once it's all unloaded/loaded, put it back together again. That's the absolute best case scenario, and it very rarely works like that, most places will assign you a dock or be too small to maneuver a B-double around in and then the job is more like, drop the B trailer somewhere out on the street where there's enough room to break it up, put the A trailer on the dock, once it's loaded/unloaded, drop it somewhere else out on the street, pick up the B trailer, put it on the dock, once it's unloaded/loaded, drop it on the street where there's enough room to put it back together again, grab the A trailer and put it back together again. It's alot of work and a massive headache compared with just rolling in and pulling back the curtains. Rudager fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 26, 2014 04:33
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Javid posted:Was it occupied? That would be either fun or terrifying. The two container ports I've been to here in Australia had strict rules that you could only exit the vehicle to twist the pins off/on in a designated area pretty much right at the front door.
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Dec 14, 2014 00:54
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That's probably the single greatest thing I like about doing container work over the fridge van work I've done in the past where I had to manually pallet jack it all either on or off once every trip No matter what's in the box, it only takes 2 minutes to lift up 22 tonne and plop it on the trailer.
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Dec 28, 2014 02:56
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kathmandu posted:Clearly you've never been to the Norfolk Southern ramp in Chicago. Psssh no, I only do export containers to the wharf that have been loaded the day before and empties back that just get dumped in the yard My biggest headache is axle weights because lucky me, there's a 24/7 weigh bridge between me and the wharf, if it's 2x20's (it's Australia, so this is on a B-double setup), the middle tri is always a touch over the 21.5t weight I'm allowed. If it's a single 40', it has to be loaded in a particular way or I go over on the drive. Ontop of that the truck I do it in is a cattle truck through the week, so when it was specced out they got 2x750L fuel tanks to get max range, if it's full up with 1500L of diesel the total gross goes near 65t and I'm only allowed 64.5t. There's been more than one occasion where I've left overweight and just prayed that I've burnt the weight off by the time I hit the weigh bridge. I'm just a weekend warrior though, I'm the IT manager Mon-Fri and on Saturdays I do a run or two into the terminals for the same place to earn some extra money. IT was what I was always good at, but trucking was always family business.
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Jan 2, 2015 07:44
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kathmandu posted:Man, if you always get lifted off within minutes and never have to deal with live load/unload, then you are one of the luckiest SOBs in container drayage. Other than the whole legal weight issue, of course. I've got a fleet full of bitter owner-operators who would gouge my eyes out on national television for consistent and quick turn-around runs like that. Well it's not all roses, the ports are usually OK about getting lifted within an hour, but the empty yards are hosed, even on Saturday morning there's line ups and no-one's ever in a rush to do anything in those places. I can only imagine what horror it would be going there on a weekday afternoon.
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Jan 2, 2015 10:25
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some texas redneck posted:Let's say someone that has health issues has been thinking of getting a CDL (via a local school instead of through a company program). I've had some people tell me that diabetes is an instant disqualifier, but various websites say it only subjects the driver to some additional screening, and others suggest that's only if the person is using insulin. Keep in mind this is coming from a different country, but I know a diabetic driver, the only thing different for him than me is that he has to have yearly medicals while I only need one every 4 years (if I had the next license class down, it'd be every 10 years).
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Jan 5, 2015 09:55
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Powershift posted:Trucks don't get moving very quickly, especially not on ice, but in the 50 seconds he's looking backwards, the truck that was in front of him at the start is completely gone. He endangered lives to film an accident. He's a rubbernecker with a camera. He didn't cause that accident, but could have quite easily caused the next one. I'm wondering if there was another accident, the back trailer seems to take a severe jolt near the end like it's taken a hit from something.
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Jan 21, 2015 04:49
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