[topset]

Originally Posted by tcr1016

I love cabovers, but have been told they are death traps. I was told by a trucker that the pins break in an accident and the cab comes forward. He says he has had to berry a few truckers from collisions in cabovers. Is this true??? Are they not as safe as a regular hooded truck??

what kinda berrys?

[GMAN]

Originally Posted by tcr1016

I love cabovers, but have been told they are death traps. I was told by a trucker that the pins break in an accident and the cab comes forward. He says he has had to berry a few truckers from collisions in cabovers. Is this true??? Are they not as safe as a regular hooded truck??

A cabover should not be any more of a death trap than a conventional. Any of them can be considered a death trap if you drive like a maniac. There were many cab overs that could do triple digits back when they were more prevalent on the highways. I don't recall seeing more accidents back then as now. Unless you tailgate you should not have any more concerns with a cabover than a conventional.

[Orangetxguy]

Originally Posted by tcr1016

I love cabovers, but have been told they are death traps. I was told by a trucker that the pins break in an accident and the cab comes forward. He says he has had to berry a few truckers from collisions in cabovers. Is this true??? Are they not as safe as a regular hooded truck??

IF you knew enough about COE trucks to love them, why would you have any concerns about their safety?

I hate crawling into and out of the dang things....Mack, International, Freightliner, KW, Pete.......Cabovers suck.........Conventional all the way for me.

[silvan]

Originally Posted by YerDaddy

I hated the ride, sitting on top of the steer axle. Spinal compression.

I drove cabovers from 1997 to maybe 2005. My CDL says I'm 5'10", which is how tall I was when I was 16, but last time I measured, I was only 5'8.5" or so. That spinal compression is no joke man!

Good view though.

I'll never forget my first trip in a "hood." I never did get used to the weird reflection off the weird thing out in front of me that first night. It kept freaking me out until I rememberd what it was and calmed down. Making my first turn into a tight parking lot in that thing was fun too. It turned pretty tight and there wasn't much difference in where I could put it, but all the angles were wrong, and it felt enormous.

I don't have any desire to go back to driving cabovers. They suck.

I wouldn't worry about safety though. The cab isn't going to flip over, and you're probably more likely to drive the truck away in one piece than a conventional. We had a driver who had the biggest, prettiest, fastest truck on the yard. It was a triple-digit, candy apple red cabover Pete with a queen sized sleeper. The boss's little brother, truck number 1. He totaled it one foggy night when he hydroplaned and jacknifed and bounced off the walls repeatedly going over a bridge. He tore that poor truck all to hell, but he drove another 1,000 miles to get it home. He had worn brand new tires down to the wires in that distance, because the alignment was so screwed up, but he came out of the ordeal in one piece.

I wouldn't want to try that trick in any modern conventional.

Come to think of it, I ass-ended a lawyer in a cabover myself. A truck up ahead of me freaked out at a low bridge he had plenty of room to get under, and I just barely didn't get stopped in time to avoid tapping the four-wheeler in front of me. I pulled over and got my insurance information ready, and he walked up and said "It's a good thing for you I'm not a plaintiff's attorney. I've got to be in court right away, and I don't have time to deal with this, so have a nice day."

GULP!

The truck was fine. So was the car. It was a very low-speed tap. I had forgotten all about that one. Oh well, it's not on any record anywhere, so it never happened, right?

Right.

[mitchno1]

hey you yanks are pusseys caboveras are the way to go .in our job ure bonnetts are a pain in the arse and that true haha now were dos this cum from

[freebirdrfd]

Originally Posted by mitchno1

hey you yanks are pusseys caboveras are the way to go .in our job ure bonnetts are a pain in the arse and that true haha now were dos this cum from

Try ENGLISH................ Most of us are not from New Zealand..... I don't think your statement would make sense even in New Zealand. :smokin:

[RostyC]

Originally Posted by mitchno1

hey you yanks are pusseys caboveras are the way to go .in our job ure bonnetts are a pain in the arse and that true haha now were dos this cum from

HEY! I ain't no pussey!! issedoff:



















I'm a chicken. :lol:

[snoopyandpuppy]

With the flat front, does mpg decrease with a COE as compared to a conventional? I would think wind resistance would factor in....

[GMAN]

You would think that a flat front would get much worse fuel mileage than some of the newer aero trucks. That is not necessarily correct. I think that one of the most fuel efficient cabovers of yesteryear was the Peterbilt 367 (I believe). It has been so many years since I have driven a cabover I don't remember. At that time most of us didn't give much thought about fuel economy.

[TK THE TRUCKER]

Originally Posted by GMAN

You would think that a flat front would get much worse fuel mileage than some of the newer aero trucks. That is not necessarily correct. I think that one of the most fuel efficient cabovers of yesteryear was the Peterbilt 367 (I believe). It has been so many years since I have driven a cabover I don't remember. At that time most of us didn't give much thought about fuel economy.

Peterbilt 372 ?