American reacts to Why European Trucks Have MORE Horsepower than American trucks

Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to Why European Trucks Have up to 770 HP And US Don’t!

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[markflint]

I wish i had a dollar for every time an American said " Ive never heard of that "

[Micha-qvuf]

"Did you know that European engines are more powerful than the ones in the US? That's because European engines are more powerful than the ones in the US! And since European truck engines have more power than US ones, it explains why European engines are more powerful than the ones in the US!"

That's what this video sounded to me. I think American script writers are a bigger problem than American engines.

[tntfreddan]

Diagram down below

There's a difference between European trucks and Swedish trucks. The biggest and most powerful engines made on the European continent are 520hp for Renault, 530hp for Daf, 570hp for Iveco, 625hp for Mercedes and 640hp for MAN. Then you go to Sweden and you'll see that both Scania and Volvo has two engine specs each that are more powerful than that. Volvo with their FH16 650 and 750, and then Scania with their new R/S660 and 770. Volvo and Scania also make engines with more torque than everybody else. The new Volvo FH500 has "only" 500hp, but it has 2800Nm of torque. That's more than the Daf 530, Renault 520 and the Iveco 570. The Scania R/S590 has more torque than the 625hp Mercedes engine, too. The reason for these powerful engines is because they're made for Swedish roads, regulations and conditions. On the continent, most trucks are semi trucks with semi trailers with a max weight of 40 to 44 tons. In Sweden we drive something the Germans call a "Sweden combo". It's when a rigid chassis truck pulls a full trailer. A semi trailer only has wheels in the back and is made to be pulled by a truck with a fifth wheel, aka "Pivot disk". A full trailer has a set of axles in the front with a drawbar and a pivot mechanism fixed on the trailer, as well as another set of wheels in the back. The most common trailers you'll see in Sweden are 4-axle full trailers. They have a max weight of 38 tons. The 5-axle versions have a max weight of 44 tons. And that's just the trailers. These trailers are pulled by rigid trucks, usually 3-axle trucks, with a max weight of 28 tons if we add the max weight for each axle, but limited to 26 tons due to the short distance between the first and last axle. This makes the regular "Sweden combo" have a max gross weight of 64 tons (141000lbs). Then there are the Class 4 combos with a 4-axle truck, usually an 8x4, pulling 5-axle full trailers. These are most often excavation trucks or lumber trucks and they have a max gross weight of 74 tons (163000lbs). Then there are the ones still in their testing phase. They usually consist of an 8x4 truck pulling a dolly and B-train. A B-train is a trailer with a fifth wheel on the back of it and another trailer attached to it. These beasts can weigh up to 98 tons (216000lbs). These are usually wood chip trucks but they only drive short distances because the dispensation can be expensive. Usually from a train terminal to a heating plant. Needless to say, you're not pulling 98 tons with a 500hp truck, it's just not happening. So this is why Scania and Volvo makes more powerful trucks than anyone else. I'll also throw in a little diagram down here to show the axle configs on our trucks:




Regular European 44 ton semi truck:

Numbers indicate max axle pressure in metric tons



O-O-O
8 20 24

Max gross weight limited to 44 tons and 18.75 meters in length.

Sweden Combo:





8 20 I 18 20
I
Drawbar

Max gross weight limited to 64 tons and 24 meters in length

Class 4 combo:





8 26 18 26

Max gross weight of 74 tons and max length of 25.25 meters.

Beast Combo:


8 26 18 26 26

Limited to 98 tons and 34.5 meters in length.

[Dasyurid]

A newton is the SI unit of force, equivalent to the force needed to accelerate one kilo by one metre per second squared. A newton-metre is the torque you get on one end of a metre long bar by applying one newton of force to the other end. Or it’s about one and a third foot-pounds if you just want a US friendly value.

[buk]

the federal weight limit in the US is NOT 80 tons (short\US) it is 40 tons US\Short or 80, 000LB which is 36.287 tonnes, while for Europe its 40 tonnes as a baseline for comparable 5 axle combination of tractor unit and semi trailer, with more in some parts of Europe

[filippob]

“I never heard about Newton” has the same vibe as “wtf is a Kilometerr” 🇺🇸😂

[erikmeltzer-rtrh]

The vast majority of trucks in Europe have something around 400..500 horsepower. The 700+ hp engines are rarely sold in central Europe, probably in the low single digit percentage.

[ulvsbane]

Volvo and Scania are both from Sweden and here we allow 25.25 metre (83 feet) long and 74 metric tonnes, and just a couple of months ago that limit were changed to 30.5 metres (100 feet) and 95 metric tonnes on some roads. Finland got similar limits, and maybe some other European countries too.

[SiqueScarface]

There is a single word that describes the difference between Europe and the U.S.: Brenner. The Brenner is a pass between Italy and Austria. It is short but steep from both sides, with more than 2000 ft of elevation differences within less than 30 miles from both sides. South of the pass is the harbour of Genova, where all the big cargo ships from Southeast Asia land, and north of it there is Central, East and Northern Europe. Basically, all imports from Taiwan and China have to cross the Brenner. No freight hauling company will buy a truck which struggles to get over the Brenner. And yes, it's not only the torque at this pass. Trucks actually need the power.

[nenaddimi]

Volvo and Scania have monsters of engines. Volvo pulled 22 trailers with 44 containers in total weight of 700 tons. The torque is so much that it dint slip a wheel and it was snowing

[Tacko]

Cultural thing there. In the EU, everything is smaller, a bit cramped sometimes, so we’re used to do more with less space. US cars always had big engines, and they were powerful. EU cars never had that, apart from the real luxury brands. Average family cars are way smaller and so are the engines. The US part of my family came over for their first visit long ago, they thought the cars here were toys. They probably thought the same about the streets and houses.
As a side effect, we always got more power per unit from an engine. If you’ve only got 80cu, it needs to work harder than that 289 v8, right? And while building a truck engine, you don’t suddenly forget how to do that.
In the same way, our trucks carry more load. It equals fewer trucks on the road, and thus fewer traffic jams. We need that. So our engines NEED to be more powerful, it’s not about bragging rights.

[kizi]

in Iceland, the maximum weight on the main roads is 44.000kg / 97.000lb for a 5 axle semi, but if you have a 6 axle combo on doubles on the trailer, you can be up to 49 tons, 49.000kg / 108.000lb. everything over that, and you have to get a special permit for. We generally go for higer output engines because of how mountainous our country is, so many go for 700hp+ engines, most choose either Volvo or Scania, those are the two main trucks people choose here, as they have the biggest engines, 750 and 770HP

[utcastAussie]

Our trucks are also physically speed governed to 90kmh (56mph) so there's no "taking a run up" to any hills. It's all grunt work.

[richard]

In the Netherlands we can be max 50 metric tonnes. Most trucks have between 400 and 500 hp. Distribution trucks usually have between 300 and 400 hp.

[Arsenic]

The maximum weight of a truck in Germany is 40 (and 44 for extra-long trucks) tons total. And I dare say most truck engines have around 400 hp or less. Yeah you can get big V8s with 750+ hp (or even more) but that's usually only for special occasions/requirements like hauling extra-heavy items. Then you require a special permit and get all sorts of headaches.

[Paul-pldl]

Here in Australia we have B-Double's and we have Road Trains outside of cities they can have 3, 4 or even 5 trailers on them and motors up to 700 HP if you want look up some vid's about our outback trucks and the city B-Doubles that get around our cities

[schnelma]

Maximum weights for trucks in cross-border traffic in the EU are set in Council Directive 96/53/EC. The 40 or 44 metric tons maximum weight is also listed there. These trucks are permitted everywhere in the EU. Individual bridges may still have a stricter weight limit.
However, individual member states may allow different regulations for domestic traffic in their national law (e.g. Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands allow heavier trucks)

[thestonegateroadrunner]

The source video is incorrect. With a few exceptions, trucks in the EU can weigh a maximum of 40 metric tonnes.
Most bridges in the EU are not certified for heavier trucks

[nathan-]

that video was utter chaos he had no conversions and still got nearly all numbers wrong why would anyone upload this

[bubu]

I would Recommend watching "Volvo Trucks - Volvo Trucks vs 750 Tonnes: An extreme heavy haulage challenge" it's a great demonstration of how powerful the European trucks truly are! P.S. Keep up the amazing videos!