Manufacturer's "sleeper size" .... isn't.

You would think that when a manufacturer relays a measurement to describe sleeper size, they would be providing the distance from the back sleeper wall to the back of the driver seat - the measurement they declare for sleeper berth size regulation compliance. NOPE. The inches they relay to Joe Public in their brochures, model descriptions, and marketing material - is literally whatever measurement they feel like using - without giving any clear definition of what the measurement actually is - and they don't make it easy to find out either.

Case in point, Western Star 5700xe's "82 inch" sleeper. When I measured the regulation distance from back of the front seat right where it sits at the trim line between the cab and sleeper body, it was 72" ... not 82". I looked online for a good hour trying find out what "82" represented and finally found a bodybuilder guide - turns out 82 inches is the interior height of the sleeper from floor to ceiling directly in front of the sleeping platform where the mattress goes. So does that mean the 48" sleeper is only 4 feet from floot to ceiling? Nope - in that case they are using the regulation spec measurement. But you wouldn't really know because they don't define what the measurement actually is - other than a marketing gimmick.

I can't think of any other industry where a declared measurement has nothing to do with what the public accepts as the traditional standard. i.e. advertising a tv as 200 inches, but then finding out its not the screen size - in fact the screen size is buried inside the spec sheet on the last page of the user manual that's inside the sealed box, nor is the screen size even shown on the box - the tv manufacturer decided that 200" is how far away you can sit and comfortably watch the screen - so its advertised as a 200" inch tv... righttttt... but that's exactly what's going on with semi-truck sleeper sizes. How about some truth in advertising?