Trucks: An Evolution
There was a time when the word trucks implied one type of vehicle and one type only, but today the word trucks has a much broader implication and covers a wide variety of very different vehicles.
Traditionally speaking, trucks are different from other automobiles in the fact that trucks are build around a frame commonly known as a chassis. As more and more vans have become to make their way onto the market; however, a certain amount of ambiguity has entered the truck scene and while it may be surprising, the SUVs and mini-vans crowding the market today are actually classified as trucks even though they don’t happen to sport a traditional truck bed.
Trucks are primarily classified according to their size. There are four major categories of trucks, classified by size. They are light, medium and heavy trucks as well as off-road new or used trucks. Within each category there are also several sub-categories of trucks.
Light duty trucks are classified as those vehicles that weigh no more than 13,000 pounds. These trucks may be used for personal or commercial purposes and include pickup trucks, full size vans, minivans and SUVs.
Medium trucks fall in the mid-range of vehicles and generally weigh between 13,000 and 33,000 pounds. Examples of medium size trucks are dump trucks as well as the garbage trucks that make their way around your neighborhood every week.
Heavy trucks are the commercial variety of vehicles that you see on the road, and will generally be sporting eighteen wheels. These types of trucks are also frequently known as semi-trailers.
While heavy trucks are often viewed as being monstrously large, especially in comparison to much smaller vehicles, they are not the largest vehicles constructed. Off-road trucks are generally not allowed to use public roads and may represent vehicles that are used for construction purposes.
If you think back to history for a moment, you may recall that some of the first vehicles were already out on the road and wowing wagon and carriage drivers with their horseless engines just before the turn of the 19th century. You might be surprised to discover; however, that trucks actually predate those antiquated gas powered automobiles by several years.
Steam powered trucks were being developed as early as 1850 in order to pull passenger cars around Paris. While these early trucks must have assuredly had a strikingly different appearance than the modern trucks we are accustomed to seeing on the roads today, they did play an important role in the development and evolution of trucks. Work on the forerunners of trucks continued to evolve and change, resulting in the appearance of the first semi-trailer truck in 1881. This first semi-trailer took the form of a trailer that was pulled by a steam tractor.
A man by the name of Daimler, a name you might recognize in connection with one of the biggest auto manufacturers in the world today, developed the first internal combustion engine truck in 1898; an innovation that quickly led to other developments in the introduction of trucks to the world. By 1904, several hundred heavy trucks were in operation in the US alone. A decade later, that number had risen to 25,000.
Following the end of World War I, the world was once again able to concentrate on the advancement of the automobile industry and trucks began to slowly, but surely, take on the shape and form that we know today. Pneumatic tires, power breaks, closed cabs and diesel engines all began to enter the scene. As the acceptance and practicality of trucks grew, traditional touring car manufacturers, such as Ford, began to see the wisdom of getting in on the emerging market of trucks.
