49 Fun Facts About Truck

What is a truck called in British English?

A lorry is what British English calls a truck; the heaviest are licensed as HGVs, heavy goods vehicles, while a coach is a long-distance bus.

The word 'truck' was first used in 1611 to mean what?

Small wheels on gun carriages: in 1611 'truck' meant the solid little wheels under a ship's cannon carriage; the sense of a cart for heavy loads followed in 1771.

From which language does the root of the word 'truck' come?

Greek is the root: trokhos, meaning wheel, from trekhein, to run; English picked it up through Latin trochus, an iron hoop, before 'truck' meant any cart.

Where does the British word 'lorry' probably come from?

It shows up in 1838 for a large flat goods wagon, possibly from the old verb 'lurry', to drag along.

What are pickups called in Australia and New Zealand?

Utes is the Australian and New Zealand word, short for utility vehicle; it covers car-based coupe utilities such as the Holden Ute as well as true pickups.

What defines a pickup's cargo bed?

Three low walls and no roof define a pickup's cargo bed; the hinged tailgate closes the fourth side, and a tonneau cover is an optional extra rather than part of the definition.

Which company built one-ton trucks in Pontiac, Michigan from 1902?

Rapid Motor Vehicle, founded by Max Grabowsky in 1902, built one-ton trucks in Pontiac; General Motors bought the firm in 1909 and folded it into what became GMC.

Which Chevrolet pickup became a separate full-size model line for the 1999 model year?

Silverado became Chevrolet's full-size pickup model for 1999, replacing the C/K line; the name had been a C/K trim level since 1975.

Dodge marketed its 1939 truck range under which slogan?

Job-Rated was Dodge's 1939 slogan, promising a truck rated for each job; the badge stayed on Dodge trucks through the postwar B-series and into the 1950s.

Since which model year has Ford built the F-Series?

1948 was the first model year of the Ford F-Series, launched in January 1948 as the 'Bonus-Built' range running from the F-1 half-ton to the F-8.

In which year did the F-Series begin its run as America's best-selling pickup line?

1977 is the year the F-Series took over as the best-selling pickup line in the United States, a lead it then held for more than four decades.

Which metal replaced steel in the body panels of the 2015 Ford F-150?

Aluminium alloy body panels arrived on the thirteenth-generation F-150 for 2015, trimming up to about 700 pounds from the truck; the frame stayed high-strength steel.

Which high-performance off-road F-150 trim arrived for 2010?

The Raptor, launched as the F-150 SVT Raptor for the 2010 model year, was built by Ford's Special Vehicle Team with long-travel suspension for high-speed desert driving.

Which F-Series model was the entry-level pickup from 1953 to 1983?

The F-100 was the half-ton base model from 1953, when Ford renamed the F-1, until 1983; the F-150, added in 1975, then became the entry-level truck.

Which pickup did Bob Chandler start modifying in 1975 to create Bigfoot?

A Ford F-250, a 1974 model, is what Chandler began modifying in 1975 in St. Louis, Missouri; with ever-larger tyres and axles it became Bigfoot, regarded as the first monster truck.

How big were the tyres on Bigfoot by 1979?

48 inches was the tyre size Bigfoot wore by 1979, on military axles with four-wheel steering; the truck later moved up to 66-inch tyres taken from an Alaskan tundra vehicle.

Which monster truck did Dennis Anderson build in 1982, later Monster Jam's signature machine?

Grave Digger began in 1982 when Dennis Anderson rebuilt a 1957 Chevrolet panel wagon as a mud-bogging truck in North Carolina; its ghost-and-graveyard paint later made it Monster Jam's signature machine.

What were monster trucks originally used for at motorsport events?

Car-crushing side acts were the original role: early monster trucks drove over junk cars as a sideshow at mud-bogging and tractor-pulling meets before racing and freestyle made them the main event.

Why did promoters stop putting motor homes and school buses on freestyle courses?

Flying debris injured spectators when crushed motor homes and school buses shed parts into the crowd, so freestyle courses switched to dirt mounds and ramps, which are safer and quicker to rebuild.

What is a road train?

Two or more trailers behind one prime mover make a road train; in outback Australia quad combinations over 50 metres long haul cattle and fuel where no railway reaches.

Who is recognised as the inventor of the modern road train?

Kurt Johannsen, a bush mechanic from Alice Springs, is credited with the modern road train: challenged to haul 100 head of cattle instead of 20, he built self-tracking trailers behind a surplus Diamond T truck.

What did the Australian government's AEC Roadtrain replace in the Northern Territory?

Afghan camel trains, which had carried outback freight since the 1860s, were replaced by the government's AEC Roadtrain, an eight-wheel-drive British truck delivered in 1934 with two trailers.

At which 1903 event was Captain Charles Renard's road train displayed?

The Paris Salon of 1903 is where Renard showed his road train, a tractor driving the wheels of its trailers; Daimler bought the rights after his 1905 death and four reached Queensland before the First World War ended production.

Where did the first identified road trains operate in the mid-19th century?

South Australia's Flinders Ranges saw the first identified road trains: steam traction engines hauling wagons of ore from the mines down to the coast until railways took over.

How do continental tractor units differ from North American ones?

The engine sits under the cab in European cab-over tractors, giving them a flat front; North American trucks mostly keep a conventional bonnet because their overall-length rules are looser.

How many wheels does the most common European semi combination have?

Twelve wheels: a two-axle tractor with twin tyres on its drive axle, six wheels, plus a three-axle semi-trailer on single wide tyres, another six; one trailer axle is often a lift axle.

What piece of equipment lets a rigid truck pull a semi-trailer?

A dolly, or converter dolly, carries its own fifth wheel and hitches to a pintle hook or drawbar coupling on the rigid truck, turning the semi-trailer into a full trailer.

Peterbilt was created in 1939 by buying which company?

Fageol Truck and Motor, a failed Oakland, California truck builder, was what Tacoma lumberman T. A. 'Al' Peterman bought in 1939, renaming the trucks Peterbilt after himself.

How much did Peterman pay for the Oakland truck plant that became Peterbilt in 1939?

$50,000 bought Peterman the whole operation in 1939: a 13.5-acre plant in Oakland, California, together with its tooling and parts inventory.

Which group acquired Peterbilt in 1958?

PACCAR, then Pacific Car and Foundry, bought Peterbilt in 1958, thirteen years after it had bought Kenworth, which made the two rival badges sister divisions.

In which year was Mack founded, as the Mack Brothers Company?

1900 is when Jack and Augustus Mack set up the Mack Brothers Company in Brooklyn; its first vehicle was a sightseeing bus, and the Mack Trucks name only arrived in 1922.

Which company agreed in 2000 to buy Mack Trucks from Renault?

Volvo agreed in 2000 to take over Renault Vehicules Industriels, Mack's parent since 1990, and the deal closed in January 2001, putting the bulldog badge under Swedish ownership.

Which Pennsylvania city was Mack's home for over a century?

Allentown was Mack's home from 1905, when the brothers moved from Brooklyn, until the headquarters left for Greensboro, North Carolina in 2009; assembly stayed nearby at Macungie.

What is an owner-operator in the trucking industry?

A driver who owns their truck is an owner-operator, an independent contractor who leases on to a carrier or hauls under their own authority; company drivers use rigs their employer provides.

What do 'dry van' drivers haul?

General goods in big trailers is the dry-van trade: enclosed, unrefrigerated box trailers carrying packaged freight, the bulk of highway cargo; perishables travel in refrigerated reefers instead.

Besides driving, what are truck drivers responsible for before a trip?

Inspecting the vehicle is the driver's job before every trip: a pre-trip check of brakes, tyres, lights and coupling that US regulations require drivers to carry out and record.

What construction do the vast majority of trucks use?

Body on frame is the rule: a ladder chassis carries engine and axles, and the cab and load body bolt on separately, so one chassis can take a tipper, a tank or a box.

Peterbilt specialises in vehicles of which weight category?

Class 8 heavy-duty trucks, those rated over 33,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, are Peterbilt's speciality, mostly long-haul tractors and vocational chassis; it also builds Class 5 to 7 medium-duty models.

What kind of markings do modern fire engines use to be seen at night?

Retroreflectors, the reflective chevrons and striping on modern fire engines, bounce headlight beams straight back at approaching drivers; older appliances relied on high-contrast paint schemes instead.

What does a standard fire engine usually carry besides firefighters and tools?

A limited supply of water, typically 500 to 1,000 gallons in an onboard tank, lets the crew start attacking a fire before the pump is hooked up to a hydrant.

Who designed and built the first internal-combustion truck, in 1895?

Karl Benz designed and built the first internal-combustion truck in 1895 in Mannheim, a year before Gottlieb Daimler's Motor-Lastwagen, the first truck from his rival firm.

The first semi-trailer appeared in 1881, towed by a steam tractor built by which French maker?

De Dion-Bouton built the steam tractor that hauled the first semi-trailer in 1881; steam wagons lasted in Britain until 1935, when new road-tax rules made them uneconomic against diesel lorries.

In which year did Benz put the first diesel engine into a production truck?

1923 saw Benz & Cie fit a pre-chamber diesel engine into a production five-tonne truck, the first diesel lorry; petrol engines nonetheless remained common in American heavy trucks into the 1970s.

Which American firm built the first truck in the United States, in 1899?

Autocar, founded in Pittsburgh in 1897 and later based in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, built the first American truck in 1899, offered with 5 or 8 horsepower engines.

Which US state uniquely allows a gross vehicle weight of 164,000 lb, twice the federal limit?

Michigan permits up to 164,000 pounds on an eleven-axle combination, roughly double the 80,000-pound federal interstate cap, under weight rules the state was allowed to keep when federal limits arrived.

Engine maker Cummins was founded in 1919 in which Indiana city?

Columbus, Indiana is where mechanic Clessie Cummins and banker William G. Irwin founded Cummins in 1919; the company's headquarters building there, finished in 1983, was designed by Kevin Roche.

Which type of truck makes the widest use of the cab-over layout in North America?

Refuse trucks use the cab-over layout more than any other North American type: the flat nose and low cab ease manoeuvring and repeated climbing in and out on tight collection routes.

In Japan, mini-trucks are regulated under Kei car laws limiting engines to what displacement?

660 cc became the kei-class engine ceiling in 1990, up from 550 cc; mini-trucks such as the Suzuki Carry and Daihatsu Hijet stay under it for lower tax and insurance.

In countries with good roads, a six-axle truck may have a maximum weight of roughly how much?

44 tonnes is the six-axle maximum in the United Kingdom and much of the EU; road wear rises roughly with the fourth power of axle load, which is why axle counts are regulated so tightly.