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A well maintained 40 year old truck will provide better service than a poorly maintained 10 year old tuck.
If it is under the rated load it should be both legal and safe. Vehicle operation and maintenance are critical.
Pulling on level terrain is very easy. Hills are not. The speed up a hill is a determined by the power to weight ratio. Most commuter vehicles have a fantastic power to weight ratio because the engine is powerful and the vehicle is very light. Many take there vehicle's performance for granted because they don't have big rig experience..
Loaded trucks are different than light weight cars. Some big rigs have gobs of power. A 600hp truck engine at 1600rpm puts out 1969.5 lb-ft of torque (HP = T x RPM / 5252). They can beat most cars up a hill empty and put on a good show loaded with 22 tons.
Many trucks have a very low power to weight ratio. They use gears to multiply torque at the expense of speed. Last week I had a twin screw Mack near its legal limit of 80,000 GVW. Power is cut back on our trucks to save fuel. The first big interstate hill was just 25MPH. That's slow. It is also legal and safe.
JimK
If it is under the rated load it should be both legal and safe. Vehicle operation and maintenance are critical.
Pulling on level terrain is very easy. Hills are not. The speed up a hill is a determined by the power to weight ratio. Most commuter vehicles have a fantastic power to weight ratio because the engine is powerful and the vehicle is very light. Many take there vehicle's performance for granted because they don't have big rig experience..
Loaded trucks are different than light weight cars. Some big rigs have gobs of power. A 600hp truck engine at 1600rpm puts out 1969.5 lb-ft of torque (HP = T x RPM / 5252). They can beat most cars up a hill empty and put on a good show loaded with 22 tons.
Many trucks have a very low power to weight ratio. They use gears to multiply torque at the expense of speed. Last week I had a twin screw Mack near its legal limit of 80,000 GVW. Power is cut back on our trucks to save fuel. The first big interstate hill was just 25MPH. That's slow. It is also legal and safe.
JimK