Why do big rigs have unsynchronized transmissions?

[Rope-Pusher]

- Saw this one yesterday...kind of a cylindrical cage around the hub. Any ideas?

[potownrob]

There's a pretty interesting semi-trailer truck parked in our campus. Every time I see it, they seem to be adding new aerodynamic bits to make it more fuel-efficient. I wonder if any of them will find their way to commercial trucks. After all, we do have some manufacturers in Finland.

the pieces would have to be heavy duty to hold up to the tortures that most commercial big rigs undergo

[theholycow]

the pieces would have to be heavy duty to hold up to the tortures that most commercial big rigs undergo

Disagree. Most commercial big rigs endure the tortures of getting on the highway, getting off the highway, and navigating enough paved roads to deliver/pick up their cargo. The worst torture that they are usually exposed to is coming up over a short hill where they can high-center, having a tire blow up, or having a brake get stuck.

There's a new law in California (IIRC) requiring standard box trailers to have a fairing underneath. The fairings are showing up on long-haul trucks everywhere, even here in the northeast, and the ones I see are incredibly flimsy. You can see them rattling in the wind, and the front edge on some is already curled/chewed up...but they're surviving enough to obey the law (and hopefully they're actually saving fuel as intended).

[Squint]

Without looking it up, it probably is CA, Cow. They tend to create laws for lots of things.

[IMBoring25]

They're even making similarly-constructed tapered tails now.

[noob5,000,000]

- Saw this one yesterday...kind of a cylindrical cage around the hub. Any ideas?

Maybe it makes it harder to get a tool on the lug nuts to deter theft? It seems like stealing a wheel off of a big rig is a big operation, though, and someone capable of doing so wouldn't be slowed down very much by a simple mesh cage. Maybe they had little trolls loosening lug nuts.

[noob5,000,000]

the pieces would have to be heavy duty to hold up to the tortures that most commercial big rigs undergo

Disagree. Most commercial big rigs endure the tortures of getting on the highway, getting off the highway, and navigating enough paved roads to deliver/pick up their cargo. The worst torture that they are usually exposed to is coming up over a short hill where they can high-center, having a tire blow up, or having a brake get stuck.

There's a new law in California (IIRC) requiring standard box trailers to have a fairing underneath. The fairings are showing up on long-haul trucks everywhere, even here in the northeast, and the ones I see are incredibly flimsy. You can see them rattling in the wind, and the front edge on some is already curled/chewed up...but they're surviving enough to obey the law (and hopefully they're actually saving fuel as intended).

We all know the real reason for covering the sides...

[Rope-Pusher]

- Saw this one yesterday...kind of a cylindrical cage around the hub. Any ideas?

When you run out of Diesel fuel, you put the squirrels in the cages and let them run, which gets you down the highway to that next truckstop.

[theholycow]

I would never make those squirrels do that kind of work...especially that one in the green top.