European glider kit?
Posted by olenamerikkalainen@reddit | Truckers | View on Reddit | 8 comments
I was thinking how EU trucks aren't legal for import without being emmission tested for the US market.
But what about importing a cab and chassis and building a glider? That would solve a lot of the maintenence issues anyway because the mechanical parts would be from an American truck.
Western-Willow-9496@reddit
The “mechanical part” is a lot more than engine and emissions.
olenamerikkalainen@reddit (OP)
Well yes but it's required to have at least 2 out of 3 powertrain components to be reused (engine, transmission and axles.)
I was thinking the simplest build would be
Volvo FH (truck)
Volvo D13
i-shift transmission
European axles (US brakes?)
Since the d13 (slightly different emmissions) and ishift are already used in Europe, the mounting locations would hopefully be the same.
It would probably be best to use an American ECU since the European trucks are 24v, this keeps you from running into issues with converting to 12v for the trailer ABS and lights.
DanEpiCa@reddit
The latest US Volvo trucks are running 24V already. Having moved from Germany to Canada I can completely understand the desire to get and drive a European truck here, but once you start changing axles and brakes and big components of the chassis it just won't be the quality anymore. You might import a truck older than 25 years (US) or 15 years (Canada) without changing anything, but then I don't know how that would look like actually putting it to work.
olenamerikkalainen@reddit (OP)
The powertrain components would need to come off of a pre-built vehicle in the US, so it's not economical to build off brand new 24v truck (unless it's from a crashed and totaled truck I suppose).
Legally speaking, the "truck" from Europe would only be replacement parts for whatever vehicle the engine and transmission came out of.
The axles, engine and transmission could all be genuine volvo parts, for example. Just the engine and transmission would need to be from a different truck already legal in the US
And I guess technically you could import an old volvo FH (older than 25 years) and stick them in a brand new rolling chassis and it would technically be legal.
DanEpiCa@reddit
I see. The question is if it's worth the hassle. Having driven on both continents and both styles of trucks I'd say the European truck does everything better except sleeper size, so it'd very much depend on how you want to run it unless you want to import a Euro truck with the longline cab (there were a few Scanias out of the factory and you can order them new now, all the others were aftermarket builds) and then we're in "gets very expensive, very fast and its rare to find" territory and the tare weight might be too heavy for everything standard, so there's that to have in mind too.
It's an interesting topic though and if there's a way (for Canada at least) I'd be following that closely and might be very tempted to do it myself.
olenamerikkalainen@reddit (OP)
I've been in some European trucks and they're pretty similar in size to the smallest freightliner cascadia sleeper. The bed is a bit bigger in the Frieghtliner, I spent about a year in one doing OTR.
There's no real reason to do it other than the cool factor. Well, I guess you could get a box truck setup and run a pintle hitch and 40' trailer behind. That would make city deliveries more practical, especially if the truck had a lift gate.
DanEpiCa@reddit
Have you driven Euro trucks? Once you do there should be quite a few more reasons than just cool factor, at least for me there are.
What you describe is one of the standard combinations in Germany, basically a 3 axle, 26 metric ton box truck with a small trailer behind it.
Pintle hooks are yet another thing that I just don't like here (I'm pulling double 53ft trailers so have to deal with those regularly), a Ringfeder coupling would help a lot here.
olenamerikkalainen@reddit (OP)
I have, actually I live in Finland now and drive a Mercedes Actros box truck local deliveries. (I'm probably the only American to immigrate to Finland to drive a box truck 🤣.)
I drove one of those combination setups in driving school for my code 95 (my us license transferred over with a driving test.)
I've hooked up using the ringferder coupling and it's much nicer than a pintle hitch (I don't thing they're legal in Europe.)