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These huge cabover tractors slash motorhomes are built in Cleveland in the American plant for Freightliner Argosy, which has robotics and the best technology the company has. It was designed in America’s wind-tunnels, too.
The four main objectives Argosy set out to accomplish with this design were these, and they show the focus the tractor company has for owner-operators and truck drivers everywhere: Workplace environment, increased payload, reduced operating costs and driver safety. They have some interesting air control (and debris control) features, including ducts on the front corners to keep splash and debris from shooting up.
They use alumininum for the cabover cabs, so they are strong. It’s not just a frame to shelter the cab from wind.
The trucks not easily buckled, because they’re long (kind of luxury motorhome-length) and riveted with Henrob self-piercing and countersunk rivets. Much stronger than the conventional rivets that pierce the second layer of aluminum.
The cab design is curved to protect the life of the driver in any crash. It’s quite crashworthy, despite being a cabover which most truckers don’t consider particularly crashworthy in general. If you can imagine an impact that forces the walls and things of a cab inward, here you have a curved dash, so the wall being forced in crashes around the driver to some degree, not into the driver. We’ve written before about these models, because they have a lot of interesting truck features:
