A truck (North American and Australian English) or lorry (British, Commonwealth and Irish English) is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile. Commercial trucks can be very large and powerful, and may be configured to mount specialized equipment, such as in the case of fire trucks and concrete mixers and suction excavators. Modern trucks are powered by either gasoline or diesel engines, with diesel dominant in commercial applications.
In the United States and Canada "truck" is usually reserved for commercial vehicles larger than normal cars including pickups and other vehicles having an open load bed, while in Australia and New Zealand, a pickup truck is usually called a ute (short for "utility") and the word "truck" is mostly reserved for larger vehicles. The small utility truck was invented in Australia in the 1930s.
In the United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Ireland and Hong Kong lorry is used instead of truck, but only for the medium and heavy types.
In U.S. English, the word "truck" is often preceded by a word describing the type of vehicle, such as a "fire truck" or "tanker truck". Note that in British English these would be referred to as "fire engine" and "tanker" or "petrol tanker", respectively. In Canada "fire engine" is also used.
Almost all trucks share a common construction: they are made of a chassis, a cab, an area for placing cargo or equipment, axles, suspension and roadwheels, an engine and a drivetrain. Pneumatic, hydraulic, water, and electrical systems may also be identified. Many also tow one or more trailers or semi-trailers.
The cab is an enclosed space where the driver is seated. A sleeper is a compartment attached to the cab where the driver can rest while not driving, sometimes seen in semi-trailer trucks.
There are several possible cab configurations:
* Cab over engine (COE) or flat nose; where the driver is seated above the front axle and the engine. This design is almost ubiquitous in Europe, where overall truck lengths are strictly regulated, but also widely used in the rest of the world as well. They were common in the United States, but lost prominence when permitted length was extended in the early 1980s. To access the engine, the whole cab tilts forward, earning this design the name of tilt-cab. This type of cab is especially suited to the delivery conditions in Europe where many roads follow the layout of much more ancient path, and trackways which require the additional turning capability of the cab over engine type. The COE design was invented by Viktor Schreckengost.
* Conventional cabs are the most common in North America, and are known in the UK as American cabs. The driver is seated behind the engine, as in most passenger cars or pickup trucks. Conventionals are further divided into large car and aerodynamic designs. A "large car" or "long nose" is a conventional truck with a long (6 to 8 foot (1.8 to 2.4 m) or more) hood. With their very square shapes, these trucks experience a lot of wind resistance and typically consume more fuel. They also provide somewhat poorer visibility than their aerodynamic or COE counterparts. By contrast, Aerodynamic cabs are very streamlined, with a sloped hood and other features to lower drag.
* Cab beside engine designs also exist, but are rather rare and are mainly used inside shipping yards, or other specialist uses such as aircraft baggage loading.
The oldest truck was built in 1896 by Gottlieb Daimler. Most small trucks such as sport utility vehicles (SUVs) or pickups, and even light medium-duty trucks in North America and Russia will use petrol engines (gasoline engines), but many diesel engined models are now being produced. Most heavier trucks use four stroke diesel engine with a turbocharger and aftercooler. Huge off-highway trucks use locomotive-type engines such as a V12 Detroit Diesel two stroke engine. Diesel engines are becoming the engine of choice for trucks ranging from class 3 to 8 GVWs.
North American manufactured highway trucks almost always use an engine built by a third party, such as CAT, Cummins, or Detroit Diesel. The only exceptions to this are Volvo and its subsidiary Mack Trucks, which are available with their own engines. Freightliner Trucks, Sterling Trucks and Western Star, subsidiaries of Daimler AG, are available with Mercedes-Benz and Detroit Diesel engines. Trucks and buses built by Navistar International usually also contain International engines. The Swedish manufacturer Scania claims they stay away from the U.S. market because of this third party tradition.
Small trucks use the same type of transmissions as almost all cars, having either an automatic transmission or a manual transmission with synchromesh (synchronizers). Bigger trucks often use manual transmissions without synchronisers, saving bulk and weight, although synchromesh transmissions are used in larger trucks as well. Transmissions without synchronizers, known as "crash boxes", require double-clutching for each shift, (which can lead to repetitive motion injuries), or a technique known colloquially as "floating", a method of changing gears which doesn't use the clutch, except for starts and stops, due to the physical effort of double clutching, especially with non power assisted clutches, faster shifts, and less clutch wear.
Double-clutching allows the driver to control the engine and transmission revolutions to synchronize, so that a smooth shift can be made, e.g., when upshifting, the accelerator pedal is released and the clutch pedal is depressed while the gear lever is moved into neutral, the clutch pedal is then released and quickly pushed down again while the gear lever is moved to the next higher gear. Finally, the clutch pedal is released and the accelerator pedal pushed down to obtain required engine speed. Although this is a relatively fast movement, perhaps a second or so while transmission is in neutral, it allows the engine speed to drop and synchronize engine and transmission revolutions relative to the road speed. Downshifting is performed in a similar fashion, except the engine speed is now required to increase (while transmission is in neutral) just the right amount in order to achieve the synchronization for a smooth, non-collision gear change. Skip changing is also widely used; in principle operation is the same as double-clutching, but it requires neutral be held slightly longer than a single gear change.
Common North American setups include 9, 10, 13, 15, and 18 speeds. Automatic and semi-automatic transmissions for heavy trucks are becoming more and more common, due to advances both in transmission and engine power. In Europe 8, 10, 12 and 16 gears are common on larger trucks with manual transmission, while automatic or semi-automatic transmissions would have anything from 5 to 12 gears. Almost all heavy truck transmissions are of the "range and split" (double H shift pattern) type, where range change and so-called half gears or splits are air operated and always preselected before the main gear selection.
A truck frame consists of two parallel boxed (tubular) or C-shaped rails, or beams, held together by crossmembers. These frames are referred to as ladder frames due to their resemblance to a ladder if tipped on end. The rails consist of a tall vertical section (two if boxed) and two shorter horizontal flanges. The height of the vertical section provides opposition to vertical flex when weight is applied to the top of the frame (beam resistance). Though typically flat the whole length on heavy duty trucks, the rails may sometimes be tapered or arched for clearance around the engine or over the axles. The holes in rails are used either for mounting vehicle components and running wires and hoses, or measuring and adjusting the orientation of the rails at the factory or repair shop.
Though they may be welded, crossmembers are most often attached to frame rails by bolts or rivets. Crossmembers may be boxed or stamped into a c-shape, but are most commonly boxed on modern vehicles, particularly heavy trucks.
According to a 1995 U.S. Government estimate, the energy cost of carrying one ton of freight a distance of one kilometer averages 337 kJ for water, 221 kJ for rail, 2,000 kJ for trucks, and nearly 13,000 kJ for air transport. Many environmental organizations favor laws and incentives to encourage the switch from road to rail, especially in Europe.
The European Parliament is moving to ensure that charges on heavy-goods vehicles should be based in part on the air and noise pollution they produce and the congestion they cause, according to legislation approved by the Transport Committee. The Eurovignette scheme has been proposed, whereby new charges would be potentially levied against things such as noise and air pollution and also weight related damages from the lorries themselves.
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