Jackknifed trucks

I was talking with a truck driver about trucks. “We could build a truck that moved the cargo box up snug against the tractor. That would mean that there would be no more jack-knifing.”

The trucker laughed and said “A good trucker should never jack knife. I never have and never will.”

The tractor truck is attached to the cargo box with a couple of feet of room between the two so that you can make a sharp turn. But on the freeway, you never need to make a sharp turn. The truck can have a system that pulls the cargo box up snug or at least ‘snugger’ when they are on the freeway and lets the gap get bigger when you are off the freeway and need to turn sharply.

Not all truck drivers are as good as the one I was talking to. Make the trucks better, reduce the jack-knifed incidents and the freeways will be that much clearer.

Added bonus! By ‘snuging’ the tractor up to the front of the box, you would see significant gas savings—less wind resistance equals less gas. It just might be enough to get the drivers and tractor truck owners to adopt this idea.