No truck shows or events this year, due to The Virus. So I have to catch them while strolling around the neighborhood, alongside the main road. Starting with a MAN 6×2 truck, coming from Germany. It has a hook-lift system and is towing a full trailer with two axles.
All 4×2 tractors from now on, here’s another MAN – temperature controlled transport. Müller sounds very German, yet it is a Dutch family business, founded in 1938.
DAF – temperature controlled transport (mushrooms, in this case).
Another visitor from Germany; Scania – tipping dry bulk tanker.
DAF – shipping container transport.
Scania – milk tanker (similar rig to this one).
Scania – temperature controlled transport.
Volvo – temperature controlled transport. Breth Trans hails from Prague, Czech Republic.
Scania – temperature controlled transport.
DAF – shipping container transport.
Mercedes-Benz – temperature controlled transport. The semi-trailer blends in nicely with the background!
Much smaller, but a commercial vehicle just as well. Is it a Fiat, Peugeot or Citroën? A Ram ProMaster it ain’t…
The last one for today, a Land Rover Discovery with a horse trailer. As a matter of fact, Land Rovers and horse trailers seem to be inseparable here. Well, at least you’ve got some form of backup readily available when hitting the road.
Great pics Johannes. As in many places, the ratio of commercial truck traffic to private cars on your roads, is likely much higher now.
You might enjoy this ‘Autobahn’ clip from the Dutch music program TopPop, originally broadcast July 4, 1975. Lots of cool 1970s CC’s to be seen here. Including a well loaded Citroën 2CV at the :27 second mark.
Thanks for that, is Kraftwerk’s work already that old? Geez…
TopPop was absolutely a must-see, albeit some years later, as I was only 9 in 1975. To us Dutch (old enough) it has got a legendary status.
And that whole scenery and all the vehicles look oh-so familiar!
Ironic you say that about Kraftwerk’s work, as co-founder Florian Schneider passed away at the end of April.
TopPop was a gem, and for music fans it is comparable to the UK’s Top of the Pops for quality and variety of musical guests. Lots of great performers at their YouTube channel.
I used to work with a guy that looked exactly like Dutch musician George Baker. I always tried to convince him to sing ‘Paloma Blanca’. 🙂
George Baker (Hans Bouwens, 75 years old now) never really went away, but he was fully back in business when Tarantino used the song Little Green Bag in Reservoir Dogs, back in 1992. George/Hans is still very alive and kicking!
Crazy , I just happened to be listening to the 22 minute version of this song when I saw your post- cool. There was a post about this song on Hemmings daily email today. One of the members of Kraftwerk passed away recently
Interesting to see how the typical European semi truck has evolved, with a 4×2 tractor and three axle trailer. Quite different from the US, where it’s almost universally 6×4 tractors and two axle trailers.
Of course the length restrictions in Europe have dictated that, but it’s also made possible by the short wheelbase of the tractor, which distributes the load from the front of the trailer more evenly on both its axles, whereas in the US the front axle only carries the weight of the tractor itself. And the three axles on the trailer are fairly far forward, so that they carry more of the weight, and less is on the tractor. In the US, that’s more balanced.
I’d be interested to know the relative efficiencies of each. Obviously the blunt front of the COE is an aerodynamic negative, but it seems that undoubtedly it’s more weight efficient.
Yes, the set-back front axle of a Euro-cabover has always played a major role in the vehicle’s weight distribution. The total axle load of a standard 4×2 tractor is 19 metric tons (41,888 lbs): 7.5 tons on the steering axle, 11.5 tons on the drive axle.
Another factor is that the weight limit for trans-European on-road transport is 40 metric tons (88,185 lbs). As far as I know, that’s still 80,000 lbs for US interstate rigs.
Ha ha Johannes, I couldn’t resist a smile at your little Land Rover joke..
Say, there’s a virus? Tell me more.
In a comparison test from 2000, the horse was slower in acceleration than the Disco, but still arrived at the quarter mile first, followed at some distance by a grandmother released at the same time. The Rover’s truck delivered it to the finish line, with the oil failure, just 13.7 hours later than the granny.
However, the Disco’s owners apparently just adjusted their snob-o-meters, and still bought the next model, and the one after, which is in your photo. Complete with horse.
How’s the grandmother doing these days? Does she still run, 20 years later?
Why yes, she does indeed.
On her daily route, she usually goes equipped to hand out sandwiches and coffee to marooned Disco drivers.
Lives in horse country, I should add.
Good to hear!
We seem to have gone to 8 wheeler tractor units now and trucks thats 8×4 and eithe 4 or 5 axle pull trailers or 6 axle B trains, 3 or 4 axles container skeletals are common and semis the same 2 axle semis are very rare max weight 58.000kgs you can only put 38,000 on that first rig or a 2 axle semi and theres no money in that.
Some containers, now that is something I’m used to seeing a lot of on the road. Living in a port city they are everywhere moving the containers from the docks to warehouse and the inter-modal yards.
Many times we do notice a difference in terminology between Europe and the US but this brings up a point about the different terminology used for the same thing in the US depending on the industry.
My brother is in construction and he and others in the construction industry in our area call it a Conex a contraction of the original name for their use Container Express and it rides on a trailer to and from a job site.
The kid who adopted me worked at the BNSF inter-modal yard for a number of years, moving those containers between trains and chassis. They refer to them as Cans.
My friend’s son is a long shoreman and his job is moving them between ships and chassis and they refer to them as shipping containers or just containers.
In the trucking world they are also typically referred to as shipping containers or containers and what they ride on as Chassis.
So 4 different industries with 3 different terms.
These containers just keep on rolling and rolling here too, an endless process. Mainly coming from the Port of Rotterdam, on their way to the hinterland and abroad, passing by my region.
I meant to add that Evergreen’s are a common sighting around here and I have to wonder if I’ve passed by that exact same container on one of its other trips around the world.
Chances are slim…but who knows.
I’ve been reading a bit about them, but Evergreen is a mastodon in the shipping container business.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Marine
Yeah, they must have hundreds of thousands of containers but who knows where any given container may end up next.
No one has mentioned the cows that were referenced in the title of this article, so I’ll suggest that an alternative title could be “Big Rigs on the Mooooo -ve.”
That’s a good one! Too bad the Campina milk tanker wasn’t in the background of the dairy cows.
I sold trucks for years and I love to see them. Thanks for the pictures.