50 Fun Facts About Truck

What is a truck called in British English?

The American word arrived first as a nautical term and only later meant anything with an engine.

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

It comes from the Greek trokhos, meaning wheel, and only meant a motor vehicle from about 1930.

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

The extended sense, a cart for heavy loads, has been in use since 1771.

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?

The word is short for utility vehicle, and covers coupe utilities as well as proper pickups.

What defines a pickup's cargo bed?

The tailgate is the fourth side, and a removable cover is optional rather than standard.

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

In those days a vehicle was sold as a chassis and somebody else bolted a body onto it.

In which year did General Motors introduce light-duty pickups aimed at private buyers?

They were based on the Chevrolet Master; a dedicated light-truck platform, the AK series, followed in 1940.

Dodge marketed its 1939 truck range under which slogan?

The Art Deco styling of those trucks survived the war and carried on afterwards.

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

The F-150 arrived in 1975 and pushed the old F-100 out of the entry-level slot in 1984.

Since which year has the F-Series been the best-selling pickup line in the United States?

It has been the best-selling vehicle of any kind in the country since 1981.

Since which year has it been America's best-selling vehicle overall, not just among trucks?

By the 2018 model year the line was generating $41 billion in annual revenue for Ford.

Roughly how many F-Series trucks has Ford sold worldwide?

It has also been the best-selling truck in Canada for more than fifty years.

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

It sits at the top of a line that also spans chassis-cab trucks and, historically, panel vans.

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

The F-150 had been introduced in 1975 and took over the bottom of the range in 1984.

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

By 1979 it had four-wheel steering and 48-inch tyres, and is now considered the first true monster truck.

How big were the tyres on Bigfoot by 1979?

The lower assembly and axles had been entirely replaced by then, along with the steering.

In which year did Bigfoot perform the first car crush?

Chandler drove over a pair of junked cars in a field and filmed it to promote his four-wheel drive shop.

What were monster trucks originally used for at motorsport events?

Today the crushing is the main event and the mud bogging and motocross are the support acts.

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

Most courses are now mounds and ramps instead, which is safer and easier to rebuild between shows.

What is a road train?

They are used where rail and other heavy transport cannot reach, above all in outback Australia.

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

An Australian bush mechanic, he was challenged to build something that could carry 100 cattle instead of 20.

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

The camels had been crossing those deserts with freight since the late 19th century.

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

Daimler bought the rights after his death and got four of them as far as Queensland before the war stopped production.

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

They were traction engines hauling wagons of minerals to port, and railways eventually replaced them.

How do continental tractor units differ from North American ones?

The flat-fronted European design exists because overall length is regulated more tightly there.

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

That is a two-axle tractor and a three-axle trailer, one of which is sometimes a lift axle.

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

It carries a fifth wheel of its own and hitches to a pintle on the truck, which changes how you reverse entirely.

Peterbilt was created in 1939 by buying which company?

Al Peterman paid $50,000 for the plant in Oakland, its tooling and its parts.

How much did Peterbilt's founder pay for that company?

The deal included a 13.5-acre plant in Oakland, California.

Which group has owned Peterbilt since 1958?

Kenworth is its sister division inside the same company, which is why the two compete so politely.

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

It built its first truck in 1905 and only took the present name in 1922.

Which company has owned Mack Trucks since 2000?

It bought Mack along with its former parent company Renault Vehicules Industriels.

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

The company started in Brooklyn and moved there in 1905, staying until 2009.

What is an owner-operator in the trucking industry?

Company drivers, by contrast, drive vehicles their employer provides.

What do 'dry van' drivers haul?

It covers most of what moves on a highway, perishable or not.

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

Some drivers, such as driver/sales workers, do take on sales duties alongside the driving.

What construction do the vast majority of trucks use?

The cabin is independent of the load-carrying part, which is what lets one chassis wear many bodies.

Peterbilt specialises in vehicles of which weight category?

It also builds medium-duty vehicles in classes five to seven.

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

Older vehicles and those in developing countries rely more on high-contrast patterns instead.

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

What else it carries depends entirely on the size of the department and the calls it usually gets.

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

Daimler's Motor Lastwagen followed a year later, and the first American truck came from Autocar in 1899 with 5 or 8 horsepower.

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

Steam wagons hung on in Britain until 1935, when a change in road tax rules made them uneconomic against diesel lorries.

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

Diesel had been invented in 1897, but US heavy trucks were still using gasoline engines as late as the 1970s.

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

The same company was the first major maker to offer a range of electric trucks in the 1920s and introduced diesel for heavy work in the mid-1930s.

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

A bid to change the law was defeated in the state senate in 2019.

Which company is the last remaining major independent truck-engine manufacturer in North America?

Global OEMs such as Volvo Trucks and Daimler prefer to push their own 'captive' engines instead.

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

The flat-nose design gives better manoeuvrability in tight spots; these are also among the highest-GVWR trucks on public roads.

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

Models such as the Daihatsu Hijet, Honda Acty and Suzuki Carry earn their owners a tax break for staying small.

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

Road wear rises very rapidly with axle weight, which is why axle count and suspension type are so tightly regulated.