84-445: X-Frame may also refer to: X-cross (BDSM) , a restraint device A type of vehicle frame a Smith & Wesson revolver frame size See also [ edit ] Frame (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title X-frame . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
168-406: A fifth wheel hitch. Box trucks have walls and a roof, making an enclosed load space. The rear has doors for unloading; a side door is sometimes fitted. Chassis cab trucks have a fully enclosed cab at the front, with bare chassis frame-rails behind, suitable for subsequent permanent attachment of a specialized payload, like a fire-truck or ambulance body. Concrete mixers have
252-578: A monocoque shell and more like a bowl. One thousand were produced. A key role in developing the unitary body was played by the American firm the Budd Company, now ThyssenKrupp Budd . Budd supplied pressed-steel bodywork, fitted to separate frames, to automakers Dodge , Ford , Buick , and the French company, Citroën . In 1930, Joseph Ledwinka , an engineer with Budd, designed an automobile prototype with
336-478: A "U" and may be either right-side-up or inverted, with the open area facing down. They are not commonly used due to weakness and a propensity to rust. However, they can be found on 1936–1954 Chevrolet cars and some Studebakers . Abandoned for a while, the hat frame regained popularity when companies started welding it to the bottom of unibody cars, effectively creating a boxed frame. Originally, boxed frames were made by welding two matching C-rails together to form
420-485: A 25 mph (40 km/h) speed governor as they are classified as low-speed vehicles. These vehicles have found uses in construction, large campuses (government, university, and industrial), agriculture, cattle ranches, amusement parks, and replacements for golf carts. Major mini-truck manufacturers and their brands include: Daihatsu Hijet , Honda Acty , Tata Ace , Mazda Scrum , Mitsubishi Minicab , Subaru Sambar , and Suzuki Carry . Light trucks are car-sized (in
504-529: A commercial vehicle without a trailer or other articulation is formally a "straight truck" while one designed specifically to pull a trailer is not a truck but a " tractor ". The majority of trucks currently in use are powered by diesel engines , although small- to medium-size trucks with gasoline engines exist in North America . Electrically powered trucks are more popular in China and Europe than elsewhere. In
588-401: A common construction: they are made of a chassis , a cab , an area for placing cargo or equipment, axles , suspension and roadwheels , an engine and a drivetrain . Pneumatic , hydraulic , water , and electrical systems may also be present. Many also tow one or more trailers or semi-trailers. The "cab", or "cabin" is an enclosed space where the driver is seated. A " sleeper " is
672-704: A compartment attached to or integral with the cab where the driver can rest while not driving, sometimes seen in semi-trailer trucks. There are several cab configurations: A further step from this is the side loading forklift that can be described as a specially fabricated vehicle with the same properties as a truck of this type, in addition to the ability to pick up its own load. Most small trucks such as sport utility vehicles (SUVs), vans or pickups , and even light medium-duty trucks in North America, China, and Russia use gasoline engines (petrol engines), but many diesel engined models are now being produced. Most of
756-562: A factory to the nearest railway station. The first semi-trailer appeared in 1881, towed by a steam tractor manufactured by De Dion-Bouton . Steam-powered wagons were sold in France and the United States until the eve of World War I , and 1935 in the United Kingdom, when a change in road tax rules made them uneconomic against the new diesel lorries. In 1895, Karl Benz designed and built
840-530: A full unitary construction. Citroën purchased this fully unitary body design for the Citroën Traction Avant . This high-volume, mass-production car was introduced in 1934 and sold 760,000 units over the next 23 years of production. This application was the first iteration of the modern structural integration of body and chassis, using spot welded deeply stamped steel sheets into a structural cage, including sills, pillars, and roof beams. In addition to
924-470: A ladder frame, but the middle sections of the frame rails sit outboard of the front and rear rails, routed around the passenger footwells, inside the rocker and sill panels. This allowed the floor pan to be lowered, especially the passenger footwells, lowering the passengers' seating height and thereby reducing both the roof-line and overall vehicle height, as well as the center of gravity, thus improving handling and road-holding in passenger cars. This became
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#17328546506091008-406: A ladder if tipped on end. The rails consist of a tall vertical section (two if boxed) and two shorter horizontal flanges. The height of the vertical section provides opposition to vertical flex when weight is applied to the top of the frame (beam resistance). Though typically flat the whole length on heavy-duty trucks, the rails may sometimes be tapered or arched for clearance around the engine or over
1092-420: A ladder, the ladder frame is one of the oldest, simplest, and most frequently used under-body, separate chassis/frame designs. It consists of two symmetrical beams, rails, or channels, running the length of the vehicle, connected by several transverse cross-members. Initially seen on almost all vehicles, the ladder frame was gradually phased out on cars in favor of perimeter frames and unitized body construction. It
1176-547: A lightweight, multi-tubular, triangulated frame over which an aerodynamic aluminum body was crafted. In 1994, the Audi A8 was the first mass-market car with an aluminium chassis, made feasible by integrating an aluminium space-frame into the bodywork. Audi A8 models have since used this construction method co-developed with Alcoa , and marketed as the Audi Space Frame . The Italian term Superleggera (meaning 'super-light')
1260-420: A manual transmission with synchromesh (synchronizers). Bigger trucks often use manual transmissions without synchronizers, saving bulk and weight, although synchromesh transmissions are used in larger trucks as well. Transmissions without synchronizers, known as "crash boxes", require double-clutching for each shift, (which can lead to repetitive motion injuries), or a technique known colloquially as "floating",
1344-545: A manual transmission, while conventional automatic or automated manual transmissions would have anything from 5 to 12 gears. Almost all heavy truck transmissions are of the "range and split" (double H shift pattern) type, where range change and so‑called half gears or splits are air operated and always preselected before the main gear selection. A truck frame consists of two parallel boxed (tubular) or C‑shaped rails, or beams, held together by crossmembers . These frames are referred to as ladder frames due to their resemblance to
1428-407: A method of changing gears which does not use the clutch, except for starts and stops, due to the physical effort of double-clutching, especially with non-power-assisted clutches, faster shifts, and less clutch wear. Double-clutching allows the driver to control the engine and transmission revolutions to synchronize so that a smooth shift can be made; for example, when upshifting, the accelerator pedal
1512-500: A more uncertain origin, but probably has its roots in the rail transport industry, where the word is known to have been used in 1838 to refer to a type of truck (a goods wagon as in British usage, not a bogie as in the American), specifically a large flat wagon. It might derive from the verb lurry (to carry or drag along, or to lug) which was in use as early as 1664, but that association
1596-467: A platform frame. The frame of the Citroën 2CV used a minimal interpretation of a platform chassis under its body. In a (tubular) spaceframe chassis, the suspension, engine, and body panels are attached to a three-dimensional skeletal frame of tubes, and the body panels have limited or no structural function. To maximize rigidity and minimize weight, the design frequently makes maximum use of triangles, and all
1680-437: A rectangular tube. Modern techniques, however, use a process similar to making C-rails in that a piece of steel is bent into four sides and then welded where both ends meet. In the 1960s, the boxed frames of conventional American cars were spot-welded in multiple places down the seam; when turned into NASCAR "stock car" racers, the box was continuously welded from end to end for extra strength. While appearing at first glance as
1764-401: A roof and floor, used for transporting fresh and frozen cargo such as ice cream, food, vegetables, and prescription drugs. They are mostly equipped with double-wing rear doors, but a side door is sometimes fitted. Refuse trucks have a specialized body for collecting and, often, compacting trash collected from municipal, commercial, and industrial sites. This application has the widest use of
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#17328546506091848-544: A rotating drum on an inclined axis, rotating in one direction to mix, and in the other to discharge the concrete down chutes. Because of the weight and power requirements of the drum body and rough construction sites, mixers have to be very heavy duty. Dual drive/Steer trucks are vehicles used to steer the rear of trailers . Dump trucks ("tippers" in the UK) transport loose material such as sand, gravel, or dirt for construction. A typical dump truck has an open-box bed, which
1932-686: A simple form made of metal, frames encounter significant stress and are built accordingly. The first issue addressed is "beam height", or the height of the vertical side of a frame. The taller the frame, the better it can resist vertical flex when force is applied to the top of the frame. This is the reason semi-trucks have taller frame rails than other vehicles instead of just being thicker. As looks, ride quality, and handling became more important to consumers, new shapes were incorporated into frames. The most visible of these are arches and kick-ups. Instead of running straight over both axles , arched frames sit lower—roughly level with their axles—and curve up over
2016-704: A six-axle truck may have a maximum weight of 44 t (97,000 lb) or more. Off-road trucks include standard, extra heavy-duty highway-legal trucks, typically outfitted with off-road features such as a front driving axle and special tires for applications such as logging and construction, and purpose-built off-road vehicles unconstrained by weight limits, such as the Liebherr T 282B mining truck. Australia has complex regulations over weight and length, including axle spacing, type of axle/axle group, rear overhang, kingpin to rear of trailer, drawbar length, ground clearance, as well as height and width laws. These limits are some of
2100-453: A subframe). The unibody is now the preferred construction for mass-market automobiles. This design provides weight savings, improved space utilization, and ease of manufacture. Acceptance grew dramatically in the wake of the two energy crises of the 1970s and that of the 2000s in which compact SUVs using a truck platform (primarily the USA market) were subjected to CAFE standards after 2005 (by
2184-411: A truck, of a trailer, from axle to hitch point, kingpin to rear of trailer, and turning radius are all regulated. In additions, there are special rules for carrying containers, and countries can set their own rules for local traffic. The United States Federal Bridge Law deals with the relation between the gross weight of the truck, the number of axles, the weight on and the spacing between the axles that
2268-564: A unitary body with no separate frame, the Traction Avant also featured other innovations such as front-wheel drive . The result was a low-slung vehicle with an open, flat-floored interior. For the Chrysler Airflow (1934–1937), Budd supplied a variation – three main sections from the Airflow's body were welded into what Chrysler called a bridge-truss construction. Unfortunately, this method
2352-611: A version of their Xebra electric tricycle (licensable in the U.S. as a motorcycle). Popular in Europe and Asia, many mini-trucks are factory redesigns of light automobiles, usually with monocoque bodies. Specialized designs with substantial frames such as the Italian Piaggio shown here are based upon Japanese designs (in this case by Daihatsu ) and are popular for use in "old town" sections of European cities that often have very narrow alleyways. Regardless of name, these small trucks serve
2436-529: A weaker-than-usual frame and body framework welded to the chassis to provide stiffness, in 1960, Chrysler moved from body-on-frame construction to a unit-body design for most of its cars. Most of the American-manufactured unibody automobiles used torque boxes in their vehicle design to reduce vibrations and chassis flex, except for the Chevy II , which had a bolt-on front apron (erroneously referred to as
2520-566: A wide range of uses. In Japan, they are regulated under the Kei car laws, which allow vehicle owners a break in taxes for buying a smaller and less-powerful vehicle (currently, the engine is limited to 660 cc displacement). These vehicles are used as on-road utility vehicles in Japan. These Japanese-made mini-trucks that were manufactured for on-road use are competing with off-road ATVs in the United States, and import regulations require that these mini-trucks have
2604-427: Is hinged at the rear and lifts at the front, allowing the material in the bed to be unloaded ("dumped") on the ground behind the truck. Flatbed trucks have an entirely flat, level platform body. This allows for quick and easy loading but has no protection for the load. Hanging or removable sides are sometimes fitted, often in the form of a stakebody . Refrigerator trucks have insulated panels as walls and
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2688-422: Is in neutral, it allows the engine speed to drop and synchronize engine and transmission revolutions relative to the road speed. Downshifting is performed in a similar fashion, except the engine speed is now required to increase (while the transmission is in neutral) just the right amount in order to achieve the synchronization for a smooth, non-collision gear change. "Skip changing" is also widely used; in principle,
2772-564: Is most often made as vans. Medium trucks are larger than light but smaller than heavy trucks. In the US, they are defined as weighing between 13,000 and 33,000 lb (5.9 and 15.0 t). For the UK and the EU the weight is between 3.5 and 7.5 t (7,700 and 16,500 lb). Local delivery and public service ( dump trucks , garbage trucks and fire-fighting trucks ) are normally around this size. Heavy trucks are
2856-455: Is mostly reserved for larger vehicles. In Australia and New Zealand, a pickup truck is frequently called a ute (short for "utility" vehicle), while in South Africa it is called a bakkie ( Afrikaans : "small open container"). In the United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Ireland, and Hong Kong lorry is used instead of truck , but only for the medium and heavy types, while truck
2940-463: Is not definitive. The expanded meaning of lorry , "self-propelled vehicle for carrying goods", has been in usage since 1911. In the United States, Canada, and the Philippines, "truck" is usually reserved for commercial vehicles larger than regular passenger cars, but includes large SUVs, pickups, and other vehicles with an open load bed. In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the word "truck"
3024-404: Is now "considered standard in the industry". By 1960, the unitized body design was used by Detroit's Big Three on their compact cars ( Ford Falcon , Plymouth Valiant , and Chevrolet Corvair ). After Nash merged with Hudson Motors to form American Motors Corporation , its Rambler-badged automobiles continued exclusively building variations of the unibody. Although the 1934 Chrysler Airflow had
3108-408: Is now seen mainly on large trucks. This design offers good beam resistance because of its continuous rails from front to rear, but poor resistance to torsion or warping if simple, perpendicular cross-members are used. The vehicle's overall height will be greater due to the floor pan sitting above the frame instead of inside it. A backbone chassis is a type of automotive construction with chassis that
3192-412: Is released and the clutch pedal is depressed while the gear lever is moved into neutral, the clutch pedal is then released and quickly pushed down again while the gear lever is moved to the next higher gear. Finally, the clutch pedal is released and the accelerator pedal pushed down to obtain the required engine speed. Although this is a relatively fast movement, perhaps a second or so while the transmission
3276-407: Is similar to the body-on-frame design. Instead of a relatively flat, ladder-like structure with two longitudinal, parallel frame rails, it consists of a central, strong tubular backbone (usually rectangular in cross-section) that carries the power-train and connects the front and rear suspension attachment structures. Although the backbone is frequently drawn upward into, and mostly above the floor of
3360-497: Is sometimes also referred to as a monocoque structure, because the car's outer skin and panels are made load-bearing, there are still ribs, bulkheads, and box sections to reinforce the body, making the description semi-monocoque more appropriate. The first attempt to develop such a design technique was on the 1922 Lancia Lambda to provide structural stiffness and a lower body height for its torpedo car body. The Lambda had an open layout with unstressed roof, which made it less of
3444-498: Is still used in modern-day sport utility vehicles such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Land Rover Defender . This design is also used in large vans such as Ford Transit , VW Crafter and Mercedes Sprinter . A subframe is a distinct structural frame component, to reinforce or complement a particular section of a vehicle's structure. Typically attached to a unibody or a monocoque, the rigid subframe can handle great forces from
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3528-417: Is the main supporting structure of a motor vehicle to which all other components are attached, comparable to the skeleton of an organism. Until the 1930s, virtually every car had a structural frame separate from its body. This construction design is known as body-on-frame . By the 1960s, unibody construction in passenger cars had become common, and the trend to unibody for passenger cars continued over
3612-516: Is used almost exclusively to refer to pickups . Often produced as variations of golf cars , with internal combustion or battery electric drive , these are used typically for off-highway use on estates, golf courses, and parks. While not suitable for highway use some variations may be licensed as slow speed vehicles for operation on streets, generally as a body variation of a neighborhood electric vehicle . A few manufactures produce specialized chassis for this type of vehicle, while Zap Motors markets
3696-545: The European Union , vehicles with a gross combination mass of up to 3.5 t (3.4 long tons; 3.9 short tons) are defined as light commercial vehicles , and those over as large goods vehicles . Trucks and cars have a common ancestor: the steam-powered fardier Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built in 1769. However, steam wagons were not common until the mid-19th century. The roads of the time, built for horse and carriages, limited these vehicles to very short hauls, usually from
3780-536: The Hornets and all-wheel-drive Eagles for a new type of frame called the "Uniframe [...] a robust stamped steel frame welded to a strong unit-body structure, giving the strength of a conventional heavy frame with the weight advantages of Unibody construction." This design was also used with the XJC concept developed by American Motors before its absorption by Chrysler, which later became the Jeep Grand Cherokee (ZJ) . The design
3864-422: The diesel engine did not appear in production trucks until Benz introduced it in 1923. The diesel engine was not common in trucks in Europe until the 1930s. In the United States, Autocar introduced diesel engines for heavy applications in the mid-1930s. Demand was high enough that Autocar launched the "DC" model (diesel conventional) in 1939. However, it took much longer for diesel engines to be broadly accepted in
3948-461: The phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles includes trucks. According to The Economist magazine "Electric lorries will probably run on hydrogen, not batteries, which are too expensive." Other researchers say that once faster chargers are available batteries will become competitive against diesel for all, except perhaps the heaviest, trucks. Small trucks use the same type of transmissions as almost all cars, having either an automatic transmission or
4032-404: The rails or beams . These are ordinarily made of steel channel sections by folding, rolling, or pressing steel plate. There are three main designs for these. If the material is folded twice, an open-ended cross-section, either C-shaped or hat-shaped (U-shaped), results. "Boxed" frames contain closed chassis rails, either by welding them up or by using premanufactured metal tubing . By far
4116-605: The 1967–1981 GM F platform , the numerous years and models built on the GM X platform (1962) , GM's M/L platform vans (Chevrolet Astro/GMC Safari, which included an all-wheel drive variant), and the unibody AMC Pacer that incorporated a front subframe to isolate the passenger compartment from the engine, suspension, and steering loads. Truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight , carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but
4200-535: The US, no more than 13,900 lb (6.3 t)) and are used by individuals and businesses alike. In the EU they may not weigh more than 3.5 t (7,700 lb) and are allowed to be driven with a driving licence for cars. Pickup trucks , called utes in Australia and New Zealand, are common in North America and some regions of Latin America, Asia, and Africa, but not so in Europe, where this size of commercial vehicle
4284-555: The US: gasoline engines were still in use on heavy trucks in the 1970s. Electrically powered trucks predate internal combustion ones and have been continuously available since the mid-19th-century. In the 1920s Autocar Trucks was the first of the major truck manufacturers to offer a range of electric trucks for sale. Electric trucks were successful for urban delivery roles and as specialized work vehicles like forklifts and pushback tugs . The higher energy density of liquid fuels soon led to
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#17328546506094368-455: The addition of a chassis. The terms "unibody" and "unit-body" are short for "unitized body", "unitary construction", or alternatively (fully) integrated body and frame/chassis. It is defined as: A type of body/frame construction in which the body of the vehicle, its floor plan and chassis form a single structure. Such a design is generally lighter and more rigid than a vehicle having a separate body and frame. Vehicle structure has shifted from
4452-431: The axles and then back down on the other side for bumper placement. Kick-ups do the same thing without curving down on the other side and are more common on the front ends. Another feature are the tapered rails that narrow vertically or horizontally in front of a vehicle's cabin. This is done mainly on trucks to save weight and slightly increase room for the engine since the front of the vehicle does not bear as much load as
4536-403: The axles. The holes in rails are used either for mounting vehicle components and running wires and hoses or measuring and adjusting the orientation of the rails at the factory or repair shop. The frame is usually made of steel , but can be made (whole or in part) of aluminum for a lighter weight. A tow bar may be found attached at one or both ends, but heavy tractors almost always make use of
4620-479: The back. Design developments include frames that use multiple shapes in the same frame rail. For example, some pickup trucks have a boxed frame in front of the cab, shorter, narrower rails underneath the cab, and regular C-rails under the bed. On perimeter frames, the areas where the rails connect from front to center and center to rear are weak compared to regular frames, so that section is boxed in, creating what are called "torque boxes". Named for its resemblance to
4704-639: The components needs to be stamped with ridges and hollows to give it strength. Platform chassis were used on several successful European cars, most notably the Volkswagen Beetle , where it was called "body-on-pan" construction. Another German example are the Mercedes-Benz "Ponton" cars of the 1950s and 1960s, where it was called a "frame floor" in English-language advertisements. The French Renault 4 , of which over eight million were made, also used
4788-431: The decline of electric-powered trucks in favor of, first, gasoline, and then diesel and CNG-fueled engines until battery technology advanced in the 2000s when new chemistries and higher-volume production broadened the range of applicability of electric propulsion to trucks in many more roles. Today, manufacturers are electrifying all trucks ahead of national regulatory requirements, with long-range over-the-road trucks being
4872-435: The engine and drive train. It can transfer them evenly to a wide area of relatively thin sheet metal of a unitized body shell. Subframes are often found at the front or rear end of cars and are used to attach the suspension to the vehicle. A subframe may also contain the engine and transmission . It normally has pressed or box steel construction but may be tubular and/or other material. Examples of passenger car use include
4956-437: The ensuing decades. Nearly all trucks , buses, and most pickups continue to use a separate frame as their chassis. The main functions of a frame in a motor vehicle are: Typically, the material used to construct vehicle chassis and frames include carbon steel for strength or aluminum alloys to achieve a more lightweight construction. In the case of a separate chassis, the frame is made up of structural elements called
5040-483: The first internal combustion truck. Later that year some of Benz's trucks were modified to become busses by Netphener . A year later, in 1896, another internal combustion engine truck was built by Gottlieb Daimler , the Daimler Motor Lastwagen . Other companies, such as Peugeot , Renault and Büssing , also built their own versions. The first truck in the United States was built by Autocar in 1899 and
5124-526: The forces in each strut are either tensile or compressive, never bending, so they can be kept as thin as possible. The first true spaceframe chassis were produced in the 1930s by Buckminster Fuller and William Bushnell Stout (the Dymaxion and the Stout Scarab ) who understood the theory of the true spaceframe from either architecture or aircraft design. The 1951 Jaguar C-Type racing sports car utilized
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#17328546506095208-443: The heavier trucks use four-stroke diesel engines with a turbocharger and intercooler . Huge off-highway trucks use locomotive-type engines such as a V12 Detroit Diesel two stroke engine. A large proportion of refuse trucks in the United States employ CNG (compressed natural gas) engines for their low fuel cost and reduced carbon emissions. A significant proportion of North American manufactured trucks use an engine built by
5292-440: The highest in the world, a B-double can weigh 62.5 t (61.5 long tons; 68.9 short tons) and be 25 m (82 ft) long, and road trains used in the outback can weigh 172 t (169.3 long tons; 189.6 short tons) and be 53.5 m (176 ft) long. The European Union also has complex regulations. The number and spacing of axles, steering, single or dual tires, and suspension type all affect maximum weights. Length of
5376-407: The largest on-road trucks, Class 8 . These include vocational applications such as heavy dump trucks, concrete pump trucks, and refuse hauling, as well as ubiquitous long-haul 4x2 and 6×4 tractor units . Road damage and wear increase very rapidly with the axle weight. The number of steering axles and the suspension type also influence the amount of the road wear. In many countries with good roads
5460-514: The last remaining major independent engine manufacturer ( Cummins ) but most global OEMs such as Volvo Trucks and Daimler AG promote their own "captive" engines. In the European Union, all new truck engines must comply with Euro VI emission regulations, and Euro 7 from the late 2020s has stricter exhaust limits and also limits air pollution from brakes and tires . As of 2019 several alternative technologies are competing to displace
5544-553: The late 2000s truck-based compact SUVs were phased out and replaced with crossovers). An additional advantage of a strong-bodied car lies in the improved crash protection for its passengers. American Motors (with its partner Renault ) during the late 1970s incorporated unibody construction when designing the Jeep Cherokee (XJ) platform using the manufacturing principles (unisides, floorplan with integrated frame rails and crumple zones, and roof panel) used in its passenger cars, such as
5628-427: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=X-frame&oldid=1097044513 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Frame (vehicle) A vehicle frame , also historically known as its chassis ,
5712-538: The main body. It was so successful that the Soviet post-war mass produced GAZ-M20 Pobeda of 1946 copied unibody structure from the Opel Kapitän. Later Soviet limousine GAZ-12 ZIM of 1950 introduced unibody design to automobiles with a wheelbase as long as 3.2 m (126 in). The streamlined 1936 Lincoln-Zephyr with conventional front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout utilized a unibody structure. By 1941, unit construction
5796-647: The most challenging. Truck is used in American English ; the British English equivalent is lorry. The first known usage of "truck" was in 1611 when it referred to the small strong wheels on ships' cannon carriages, and comes from "Trokhos" (Greek) = "wheel". In its extended usage, it came to refer to carts for carrying heavy loads, a meaning known since 1771. Its expanded application to "motor-powered load carrier" has been in usage since 1930, shortened from "motor truck", which dates back to 1901. "Lorry" has
5880-487: The most common, the C-channel rail has been used on nearly every type of vehicle at one time or another. It is made by taking a flat piece of steel (usually ranging in thickness from 1/8" to 3/16", but up to 1/2" or more in some heavy-duty trucks ) and rolling both sides over to form a C-shaped beam running the length of the vehicle. C-channel is typically more flexible than (fully) boxed of the same gauge. Hat frames resemble
5964-424: The operation is the same as double-clutching, but it requires neutral be held slightly longer than a single-gear change. Common North American setups include 9, 10, 13, 15, and 18 speeds. Automatic and automated manual transmissions for heavy trucks are becoming more and more common, due to advances both in transmission and engine power. In Europe, 8, 10, 12, and 16 gears are common on larger trucks with
6048-587: The overall height of the vehicles regardless of the increase in the size of the transmission and propeller shaft humps since each row had to cover frame rails as well. Several models had the differential located not by the customary bar between axle and frame, but by a ball joint atop the differential connected to a socket in a wishbone hinged onto a crossmember of the frame. The X-frame was claimed to improve on previous designs, but it lacked side rails and thus did not provide adequate side impact and collision protection. Perimeter frames replaced this design. Similar to
6132-442: The prevalent design for body-on-frame cars in the United States, but not in the rest of the world, until the unibody gained popularity. For example, Hudson introduced this construction on their 3rd generation Commodore models in 1948. This frame type allowed for annual model changes , and lower cars, introduced in the 1950s to increase sales – without costly structural changes. The Ford Panther platform , discontinued in 2011,
6216-648: The traditional body-on-frame architecture to the lighter unitized/integrated body structure that is now used for most cars. Integral frame and body construction requires more than simply welding an unstressed body to a conventional frame. In a fully integrated body structure, the entire car is a load-carrying unit that handles all the loads experienced by the vehicle – forces from driving and cargo loads. Integral-type bodies for wheeled vehicles are typically manufactured by welding preformed metal panels and other components together, by forming or casting whole sections as one piece, or by combining these techniques. Although this
6300-453: The transition areas from front to center and center to rear reduce beam and torsional resistance and is used in combination with torque boxes and soft suspension settings. This is a modification of the perimeter frame, or of the backbone frame, in which the passenger compartment floor, and sometimes the luggage compartment floor, have been integrated into the frame as loadbearing parts for strength and rigidity. The sheet metal used to assemble
6384-575: The truck can have on the Interstate highway system. Each State determines the maximum permissible vehicle , combination , and axle weight on state and local roads. Uniquely, the State of Michigan has a gross vehicle weight limit of 164,000 lb (74 t), which is twice the U.S. federal limit. A measure to change the law was defeated in the Michigan Senate in 2019. Almost all trucks share
6468-405: The use of diesel engines in heavy trucks. CNG engines are widely used in the US refuse industry and in concrete mixers, among other short-range vocations, but range limitations have prevented their broader uptake in freight hauling applications. Heavy electric trucks and hydrogen-powered trucks are new to the market in 2021, but major freight haulers are interested. Although cars will be first
6552-430: The vast majority feature body-on-frame construction, with a cabin that is independent of the payload portion of the vehicle. Smaller varieties may be mechanically similar to some automobiles . Commercial trucks can be very large and powerful and may be configured to be mounted with specialized equipment, such as in the case of refuse trucks , fire trucks , concrete mixers , and suction excavators . In American English,
6636-433: The vehicle, the body is still placed on or over (sometimes straddling) this structure from above. This is the design used for the full-size American models of General Motors in the late 1950s and early 1960s in which the rails from alongside the engine seemed to cross in the passenger compartment, each continuing to the opposite end of the crossmember at the extreme rear of the vehicle. It was specifically chosen to decrease
6720-631: Was available with 5 or 8 horsepower (4 or 6 kW) engines. Another early American truck was built by George Eldridge of Des Moines, Iowa, in 1903. It was powered by an engine with two opposed cylinders, and had a chain drive A 1903 Eldridge truck is displayed at the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum, Walcott, Iowa. Trucks of the era mostly used two-cylinder engines and had a carrying capacity of 1.5 to 2 t (3,300 to 4,400 lb). After World War I, several advances were made: electric starters , and 4, 6, and 8 cylinder engines. Although it had been invented in 1897,
6804-445: Was no longer a new idea for cars, "but it was unheard of in the [American] low-price field [and] Nash wanted a bigger share of that market." The single unit-body construction of the Nash 600 provided weight savings and Nash's Chairman and CEO, George W. Mason was convinced "that unibody was the wave of the future." Since then, more cars were redesigned to the unibody structure, which
6888-515: Was not ideal because the panel fits were poor. To convince a skeptical public of the strength of unibody, both Citroën and Chrysler created advertising films showing cars surviving after being pushed off a cliff. Opel was the second European and the first German car manufacturer to produce a car with a unibody structure – production of the compact Olympia started in 1935. A larger Kapitän went into production in 1938, although its front longitudinal beams were stamped separately and then attached to
6972-432: Was one of the last perimeter frame passenger car platforms in the United States. The fourth to seventh generation Chevrolet Corvette used a perimeter frame integrated with an internal skeleton that serves as a clamshell. In addition to a lowered roof, the perimeter frame allows lower seating positions when that is desirable, and offers better safety in the event of a side impact. However, the design lacks stiffness because
7056-508: Was trademarked by Carrozzeria Touring for lightweight sports-car body construction that only resembles a space-frame chassis. Using a three-dimensional frame that consists of a cage of narrow tubes that, besides being under the body, run up the fenders and over the radiator, cowl, and roof, and under the rear window, it resembles a geodesic structure . A skin is attached to the outside of the frame, often made of aluminum. This body construction is, however, not stress-bearing and still requires
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