The death of Cab-Overs
 

HI,

I know most of these dinosaurs are off the road theses days. But I always wondered the real reason the cab overs are not made anymore. I still see lots on the road owned by private owners that pull shipping containers in my area.


It always seemed to me a cab over would have more pulling power because the engine/trans is close to the drive tandems. Or are they just the same?


James

I don't know that the cab overs are any better or worse as far as pulling power is concerned. I doubt there would be any difference. The cab overs usually have a shorter wheel base and ride a bit rougher than the hoods. Typically, the longer the wheel base, the better the ride. Most people in the U.S. seem to prefer the look of the hoods. The cab overs had their heyday during the 60's and 70'. They were still in wide use during the 80's and 90's. The main reason we have seen a decline in the cab overs is that California changed their length laws. When trailer length's began to get longer trucks were over length with the long hoods. Shippers and trucking companies needed to have the longer trailers and the only way for them to legally pull them was to shorten the truck. Some of those cab overs would really roll down the road. KW, Peterbilt, Freightliner and International were probably the most widely seen. You will still see a lot of cab overs in other parts of the world. If you spend any time in the West, especially California, you will still see a lot of cab overs, many of which have been stretched.

I do not know that they are dead! Recently I have seen several new models rolling down the highway. Mostly foreign makes, like Dahatsu )or something like that. Several car haulers are using them with the enclosed boxes and like GMAN stated, in Cali and some other big cities they are still in demand due to tight docks and streets. Someone told me the other day that Freightliner still builds limited numbers of Cabovers for certain customers and overseas sales. They are still extremely popular in Europe.

OTR drivers prefer the conventionals, mostly do to better ride quality. I drove a Pete Cabover many years back, about 100 miles, and I felt like I had been in a buckboard the entire trip, and it did have a trailer attached. That was before the CDL days, I think commercial drivers had what was called a chafeurs licence before. Someone correct me if I am wrong. I just drove it from one horse farm to another, and it was private, not commercial use.

By the time somebody started investing money into cabovers, like the flatfloor Freightliner Argosy and the International 9800, the coffin was already nailed.

Like them old Transtars? :P

Hey, the Transtar was a damn fine truck. It would turn a bottle of milk into butter if it was in the cab but it was a damn fine truck. :lol:

Here's a White Freightliner very similar to what I drove for a few months in 1980....you'd have to make sure you were sitting straight to avoid the back slap that that thing produced. Oh...and no power steering.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...t_frghtlnr.jpg

That aint no lie. :lol:

Good trucks back then.

Hush your Mouth-My first truck
What comfort :P

I spent a few months running a KW T100 single axle c/o. Never again. I don't think my back hurt that bad when I was did labor work on a masonry crew.

Hell - I think that whole truck would fit inside the cab of my Volvo that I run now :lol: