50 free Truck trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
41 free Truck trivia questions with answers. Truck trivia covers more ground than most vehicle quizzes, because a truck can be anything from a ute with a tailgate to a three-trailer road train crossing the Northern Territory. This quiz takes in all of it. There is a history round - where the word truck came from in 1611, why the British say lorry, who was building one-ton trucks in Pontiac in 1902 - and a records round built on the Ford F-Series, which has been the best-selling vehicle in America since 1981. Then the specialists: the modified F-250 that became the first monster truck, the bush mechanic who invented the modern road train, the dolly that lets a rigid truck pull a semi-trailer, and the difference between a European cab-over and an American conventional. Every answer was written against an encyclopaedic source and carries the sentence that proves it. Good for a garage quiz, a long drive, or anyone who has strong opinions about tailgates.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is a truck called in British English?
A lorry
The American word arrived first as a nautical term and only later meant anything with an engine.
Q 02The word 'truck' was first used in 1611 to mean what?
Small wheels on gun carriages
It comes from the Greek trokhos, meaning wheel, and only meant a motor vehicle from about 1930.
Q 03From which language does the root of the word 'truck' come?
Greek
The extended sense, a cart for heavy loads, has been in use since 1771.
Q 04Where does the British word 'lorry' probably come from?
The railway industry
It shows up in 1838 for a large flat goods wagon, possibly from the old verb 'lurry', to drag along.
Q 05What are pickups called in Australia and New Zealand?
Utes
The word is short for utility vehicle, and covers coupe utilities as well as proper pickups.
Q 06What defines a pickup's cargo bed?
Three low walls and no roof
The tailgate is the fourth side, and a removable cover is optional rather than standard.
Q 07Which company built one-ton trucks in Pontiac, Michigan from 1902?
Rapid Motor Vehicle
In those days a vehicle was sold as a chassis and somebody else bolted a body onto it.
Q 08In which year did General Motors introduce light-duty pickups aimed at private buyers?
1931
They were based on the Chevrolet Master; a dedicated light-truck platform, the AK series, followed in 1940.
Q 09Dodge marketed its 1939 truck range under which slogan?
Job-Rated
The Art Deco styling of those trucks survived the war and carried on afterwards.
Q 10Since which model year has Ford built the F-Series?
1948
The F-150 arrived in 1975 and pushed the old F-100 out of the entry-level slot in 1984.
Q 11Since which year has the F-Series been the best-selling pickup line in the United States?
1977
It has been the best-selling vehicle of any kind in the country since 1981.
Q 12Since which year has it been America's best-selling vehicle overall, not just among trucks?
1981
By the 2018 model year the line was generating $41 billion in annual revenue for Ford.
Q 13Roughly how many F-Series trucks has Ford sold worldwide?
Over 43 million
It has also been the best-selling truck in Canada for more than fifty years.
Q 14Which high-performance off-road F-150 trim arrived for 2010?
Q 21What is a road train?
Two or more trailers behind one prime mover
They are used where rail and other heavy transport cannot reach, above all in outback Australia.
Q 22Who is recognised as the inventor of the modern road train?
Kurt Johannsen
An Australian bush mechanic, he was challenged to build something that could carry 100 cattle instead of 20.
Q 23What did the Australian government's AEC Roadtrain replace in the Northern Territory?
Afghan camel trains
The camels had been crossing those deserts with freight since the late 19th century.
The Raptor
It sits at the top of a line that also spans chassis-cab trucks and, historically, panel vans.
Q 15Which F-Series model was the entry-level pickup from 1953 to 1983?
The F-100
The F-150 had been introduced in 1975 and took over the bottom of the range in 1984.
Q 16Which pickup did Bob Chandler start modifying in 1975 to create Bigfoot?
A Ford F-250
By 1979 it had four-wheel steering and 48-inch tyres, and is now considered the first true monster truck.
Q 17How big were the tyres on Bigfoot by 1979?
48 inches
The lower assembly and axles had been entirely replaced by then, along with the steering.
Q 18In which year did Bigfoot perform the first car crush?
1981
Chandler drove over a pair of junked cars in a field and filmed it to promote his four-wheel drive shop.
Q 19What were monster trucks originally used for at motorsport events?
Car-crushing side acts
Today the crushing is the main event and the mud bogging and motocross are the support acts.
Q 20Why did promoters stop putting motor homes and school buses on freestyle courses?
Flying debris injured spectators
Most courses are now mounds and ramps instead, which is safer and easier to rebuild between shows.
Q 24At which 1903 event was Captain Charles Renard's road train displayed?
The Paris Salon
Daimler bought the rights after his death and got four of them as far as Queensland before the war stopped production.
Q 25Where did the first identified road trains operate in the mid-19th century?
South Australia's Flinders Ranges
They were traction engines hauling wagons of minerals to port, and railways eventually replaced them.
Q 26How do continental tractor units differ from North American ones?
The engine sits under the cab
The flat-fronted European design exists because overall length is regulated more tightly there.
Q 27How many wheels does the most common European semi combination have?
Twelve
That is a two-axle tractor and a three-axle trailer, one of which is sometimes a lift axle.
Q 28What piece of equipment lets a rigid truck pull a semi-trailer?
A dolly
It carries a fifth wheel of its own and hitches to a pintle on the truck, which changes how you reverse entirely.
Q 29Peterbilt was created in 1939 by buying which company?
Fageol Truck and Motor
Al Peterman paid $50,000 for the plant in Oakland, its tooling and its parts.
Q 30How much did Peterbilt's founder pay for that company?
$50,000
The deal included a 13.5-acre plant in Oakland, California.