Are Long Nosed Trucks With Big Spacious Sleeper Cabins Legal Within the UK?

Trucks in Europe do have sleepers but I personally haven’t seen long nose trucks being practical in that environment. Roads to small most of the times to allow a long nose to turn. COE on the other hand has a smaller turning radius.

I could be wrong.

 

Don’t think they are illegal, but your total length is limited. So might have to get a shorter trailer. Trust me though ace, being an expat that after a few roundabouts and small villages you’ll be saying to yourself WTF am I doing. There’s no way in this world would I want to drive a hood over there.

 

Some of the interior pictures I’ve seen of European cabovers would put many of the American trucks to shame.. they maximized the space better imo

 

American trucks are really mostly a flashy pile of rubbish; poor use of space, with less powerful engines than the majority of European engines have. Your trucks with manual transmissions have synchros; ours don't. And I've yet to find an American truck with more than 100,000 miles on it that didn't rattle like a marble collection inside a coffee can. I'm certain that overall length regulations would prevent you from hauling all but the shortest trailers, and the height of a big American sleeper would likely be an issue on the continent, if not also in the British isles. Driving with 'wrong side' controls would also be challenging, although visiting drivers from the continent seem to manage.

As for Peterbilt/Kenworth; they are owned by PACCAR, which I believe owns DAF?

And, as for deliveries taking "weeks or months", seriously, if you drive team you can cross the entire US in about 3 days. I think the longest load I EVER had was 1 week, and that was a load I took from Bellingham, WA to a place in Trenton, NJ. Perhaps if you dive the polar regions of Alaska/Canada, you might find someplace less accessible, but it's not like driving across Russia or the African continent.

For people who choose the OTR life, sometimes you could be out driving for several weeks before you get home; I live in the northeast of the US, and when I drove for a 48-state-and-Canada carrier, I once got stuck on the road for 6 weeks. First, I got a load out to California, then my company kept me doing regional runs all up and down the west coast. Then I got a load to Texas, which kept me doing short loads along the gulf coast. Then a load in Florida got me heading north, and I spent another 10 days going up and down the east coast. After that, I'd had enough, sleeping in noisy truckstops with reefer units running next to me, eating crappy food on the road, etc. So I took a "Canadian regional" job, where I took freight into and out of Canada, but got home every weekend.

 

In Europe the trucks are cab overs because of length restrictions. Also, European trucks tend to have higher horsepower and higher torque than American trucks because the weight limits tend to be higher.

Best to buy the style of truck everyone else is buying. They are choosing that type of truck for a reason. American trucks are designed for American roads.

 

The myth that will not die. If these transmissions did not have synchronizers you'd never be able to shift one.

Eaton Fuller transmissions do have synchronizers. The twin countershaft design produces so much rotational inertia that you have to get the gears reasonably close in speed for the synchronizers to work. This design also results in a pretty bullet proof transmission.

 

"Is trucking the same within the UK as it is in America? In America I see people get to sleep in their truck while on the job as long as they deliver on time I think and I’d love to be able to do that."

we "get" to sleep in the sleeper?? no we HAVE to. can't afford a hotel or find one.