All hail the Cabover Trucks!

Poor cabovers, sorely neglected in trucking photos around the globe :) At least in the US where the cabovers are no longer a hot item and most of the ones we see on the road are fairly worn.

I love seeing the cabovers that have been taken care of over the years, there's a couple of them that I pass in traffic every day to work that have a shiny new coat of paint on them and seem to have been pampered by their owners.

Cabover trucks are the "flatnose" trucks where the cab is positioned on top of the engine. It was due to length regulation that the cabovers were popular. Until 1956, trucks could only stretch out 42 feet from nose to taillight and no doubt, a company would want most of that length to go to the trailer where they keep the goods, thus the flat noses made very much sense! In 1956, the length regulations were increased to 65 feet and in 1976 to 75 feet. Since 1976, the COE's have been on a decline in the United STates but are still popular and necessary in other parts of the world.

Anyway ... I recently went to Universal Studios and I was able to check out the back lot. There were some nice trucks there, I found a couple of cabovers that caught my attention & here they are.

First, my affection for Kenworths made me stop and take a few shots of this one. I don't know what year it is, if anybody does, please eduate me :)

I think the Kenworth COE is pretty stylish, even after a few years in the business, like the truck below :)

Here's another truck I found, it's a custom Universal Freighliner COE, by the looks of it, used to pull generators (most likely out to movie sets etc). For a cabover, this one is pretty sweet! :)