It’s easy to forget that cabover (COE) trucks were once extremely common in the US, even out West. This shot from the early 1990’s in Wyoming shows a lineup of some of the legendary brands (from left to right): Western Star, Peterbilt, Kenworth and Freightliner
Livestock rigs, parked in front of McDonald’s, how appropriate.
My favorite “last-gen” US cabovers were the Mack MH-Ultraliner (which did very well in Australia), the Peterbilt 362 and especially the Ford CL-9000.
I remember reading about the Ford and seeing many exterior and interior pictures of it, about 40 years ago, I was highly impressed. Didn’t it have an air-suspended cab? Very common now, but back then it must have been really special.
Yes, it did.
Yup, Cabovers are pretty dang rare in Oregon these days. Occasionally I’ll see a Cabover carrying lumber or hay bails behind the cab on its lengthened frame and towing a trailer.
Anyone else (from the 70s) have “Convoy” running thru their heads on reading cabover?
OK, dumb question of the day: Why did they disappear?
I’m assuming it had something to do with: A. Cost of production, and B. A change in regulations meaning that the manufacturers could go with a cheaper to manufacture alternative.
The overall length regulations were liberalized. Maximum trailer length was still restricted (to 53′), but the overall length was substantially increased. Conventional truck ride considerably better, have better aerodynamics, accessibility is easier, etc..
In Europe COE’s are still the norm because their length restrictions are much more severe.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-coe-semi-tractor/
Thank you. Somehow, I missed that article.
From a maintenance perspective, COE is harder to maintain. It’s much easier and faster to lift the hood than tilt a cab. You don’t have to worry about loose objects damaging the windows when you lift the hood rather than tilting the cab. Also the hydraulic tilt mechanism itself can have problems.
Most modern truck hoods are made of fiberglass and are one piece. When the truck has a fender bender it’s cheaper and easier to replace the hood than replacing the cab.
I just saw a cabover on the road this past week. As I was passing it on the highway, I noticed that it was in remarkable condition… fresh paint and shiny chrome. When I passed it, I looked in the mirror and was astonished to see that it was a Marmon! Looked to be from the 1980s, and judging by the trailer, it seemed to be hard at work.
Ford CL-9000 did have an air ride cab, very interesting experience the first time you drive one. I had my hand on the shift stick when I went around the corner of the shop and as the cab tilted the shift lever pulled down and then pushed back up. The lever is mounted to the frame and it “moves” when the cab tilts, very strange, the cab is shifting but your brain says the lever is moving.
The one bizarre feature on the CL-9000 Ford was the air conditioning system. The sleeper cab would have three separate A/C controls, all vacuum operated. Diesel engines don’t generate vacuum. Ford uses a vacuum generator, not a vacuum pump. A vacuum generator uses air pressure from the air system to “make” vacuum. However the vacuum generators were known to fail. The air pressure would get into the vacuum side and air pressure would cause the vacuum hoses to blow off their connections. Now you have three controls leaking air and you have to pull it all apart and find the hoses and put them back together.
On some GM medium duty trucks they also used vacuum generators. The drivers would find the trucks in the morning with one side of the air system empty. The vacuum generator would try and keep the system supplied with vacuum until it ran out of air to generate vacuum. Installed elec powered solenoid valve to cut off air supply to the vacuum generator when ignition is off, problem solved.
Relaxed length laws were the primary reason for the cab over going away. Some work comp issues and driver preference. Cab overs are rougher riding. The typical class 8 trucks shown in the picture are especially bad from a drivers stand point. You basically sit in a hole to drive the truck and they didn’t call it “crawling into the sleeper” for nothing. Advantages are usually a shorter and more maneuverable tractor. Good visibility. Some fleets preferred them for being easier to service. Major service work was definitely easier, clutch, trans, engine removal. Radiators were a pain. Tilting the cab was always an interesting affair. Never know exactly what to expect, especially on an older unit.
Oh yeah, I remember those air pressure vacuum generators. We had some 80’s era GMC TopKicks (the heavy-medium duty type with the jacked up ’73 light duty cab and 3208 Caterpillar). Those trucks had vacuum actuated HVAC controls, and the vacuum generator was located under the hood above the evaporator case. Watched guys doing 90 day BIT inspections on those trucks looking for some barely audible air leak they could never find…….
We had one CL-9000. It was not a happy experience.
Paul, you wrote hat COE’s were once common “even out West” but I think of these as the iconic Western highway truck. I still see a few cabovers out here, mostly hay haulers. And each of these brands had origins on the Pacific coast: California (Peterbilt), Oregon (Freightliner), Washington (KW) and British Columbia (Western Star).
I follow the Peterbilt 362 Facebook page (yes, there is such a thing) and there are more than few still working out there, though proprietary parts are hard to find. If you have the space and facilities to store, maintain and display one, they are very reasonably priced per pound as a true, American-made Truckstop Classic.
Agreed,, they were also very common out west, but the “iconic” Western truck is it was popularized in media and such was a long nose Peterbilt or Kenworth. The difference is that in the east, they were almost universal, due to the overall length restrictions, if you wanted to haul a full size trailer in many states there.
In the west, it was optional. But obviously if you were running the whole country, or even from the West to the Midwest, you had to use a COE.
Having lived in the 70s in both the East and West, I got to see the differences first hand, before trucks became more universal.
The KW is apparently a straight truck?
Possibly the Pete too?
Check out the rooftop AC, still hanging in there.
The Freightliner has unusual air intake plumbing, for Freightliner.
Western Star cabovers were quite rare. Not at all like a White Road Commander.
It still looks a bit unusual to me since I grew up in New York where International Transtars ruled I-95 alongside Macks and Brockways with Mack cabs.
One of the reasons you did see a lot of cab overs out west was because of the double and triple trailer sets.
P.I.E. (Pacific Intermountain Express) and C.F. (Consolidated Freightways} were big players out west and that was pretty much their standard set up. Day cab cabover pulling two or three trailers.
Its probably been discussed here before but just in case, C.F. built their own trucks and started the Freightliner company.
The trucks in the photo are all sporting winter fronts too.
Yeah, I think it was those long doubles (no triples in California) pulled by Freightliner COE’s along California freeways that made a big impression on me. In fact until I started working at Peterbilt in 1976, I didn’t really pay much attention to conventional trucks, they seemed dated and inefficient. And when I saw a prototype CL9000 while interviewing at Ford in Dearborn in 1976, I thought I had seen the future of Class VIII trucks.
Scania has just launched their new V8 cab over with 770hp and 3700nm. A truck for the forest industry with 75 ton loads of timber.
Last big hp Scania was 750 but only on demand empty it was only 550 or so theres a load sensing program in the engine computer
Bryce, 750 is the Volvo FH16. The most powerful Scania was 730, but now 770 hp, as Husky says.
> 70 tons GVM in Finland and Sweden, plus harsh road and weather conditions. No surprise that Volvo, Scania and Sisu (Finland) build the world’s most powerful, road legal trucks and tractors.
The bottom step on the KW is making my knees hurt just looking at it!
We are restricted to 25 metres overall length and cabovers are most common but these 50 tonne plus rigs require permits and H placards the outfit I work for run Freight shaker Argosy cabovers either Cummins or Detroit powered 18 speed manual we also have a couple of R500 Scanias also manual and underpowered and a couple of Volvos and some CAT conventionals C15 powered but semis are being replaced with 8×4 truck and trailer rigs because they carry a greater payload Nothing so far survives very long reliably running 24 hours doing this kind of work,
Freightliner still builds their cabover Argosy class 8 model in the USA, but only for export. You can check it out on their New Zealand website: https://www.freightliner.co.nz/trucks/argosy
There’s also the NZ built International 9870 cabover which more information on the builders website: https://www.intertruck.co.nz/trucks/9870.html
It looks like a parallel universe US built International if they were still popular.