18 wheels of Chill - a primer on why Class A trucks are the best damn thing ever

[Elephant]

Many of us have been thinking about things like shelter, transportation, storage, and defensible positions. well my friends, while you have been thinking, I have been driving. without a doubt, the modern Tractor Trailer combination is going to be your best friend.

while many might not find it a suitable primary mode of transportation, there are a few things that might change your mind, or at least give you a better understanding of the multitudinous uses of a Rig.
1. Most modern trucks are equipped with a sleeper berth. They traditionally have two bunks and storage room for all your day-to-day living needs.
2. Truck windows are 6 or more feet off the ground. While driving a rig, you are at a lessened risk of a random unseen zombie breaking your window and pulling you out through it.
3. Trucks sit higher off the road than traditional class c vehicles. not only is this a safety boon again for not being attacked through your windows, but it makes it easier to see trouble ahead, be it walking dead or a car pileup.
4. Trucks pull massive amounts of weight. 70,000 lbs of weight, including the tractor itself and the weight of the trailer. and this is not the weight at which the tractor or trailer crumple or collapse. this is the weight allowed by the DOT. while i would not recommend exceeding this number, it would be possible to do so and still be able to pull it.(12k on steer axle, 34k on drive tandem axles, 34k on trailer tandem axles)
5. Trucks carry Massive amounts of fuel. most trucks can carry around 200 gallons of fuel, 100 per tank. on my truck its 120/tank. loaded, they get somewhere around 6 miles to the gallon, 9 empty or bobtail (without trailer) the main point of this is that any truck you find may have up to 200 gallons sitting in the tanks.
6. Most modern trucks have Auxiliary Power Units (APUs). These allow you to run an Air Conditioning, lights, and i am using it right now to power my laptop. The APU is used when the vehicle is turned off, and burns fuel at a rate of 1 gallon every 10 HOURS. that's 1/10 of a gallon an hour. so you can run a limited amount of electronics 24/7 for less than three gallons a day. imagine how easy it will be to find 3 gallons of fuel a day, in your home town. 3 gallons.
7. Trucks pull things. yeah, i already said that, but didn't say *what*. the reason i didn't is because the answer is every-damn-thing. opening a sealed truck is like playing the lotto, only you always win. and all trucks nowadays are sealed, making it easy to spot what has already been salvaged, or more importantly, what trucks you should be most careful around.
8. many trailers are Temperature Controlled. TCUs have their own fuel tanks. they have ventilation as a result of needing to pump cold air in. in other words, those long treks across country with 20 survivors to get to HQ will be more pleasant, with the temp set at 70 degrees the whole way. Or, in my previously posted trailer of death (to zombies) it can keep ZACs in full armor chilled before and on the way to a fight. street clearing just became a slightly smaller nightmare.


This particular version of the trailer is meant to deploy 12-20 ZACs into "dead zones" with covering fire from an additional 18 CORPS "troops." this is pretty much a standing room deal, but straps and hand bars could be added subway/bus style to make the ride less precarious. if the trailer is a TCU, then ZACs can wear heavier armor (not to mention the thick ass trenches i am such a big supporter of) and not worry quite as much about the heat. attach some flood lights all around and you can even stage assaults at night.

Trailers are a great way to make a highly modular fleet out of a smaller pool of vehicles, lowering the impact of breakdowns. if all your tractors are essentially the same, then having one fail isn't as big a deal. another can just pull that trailer instead. in addition, different trailer set ups can be created for different occasions. for excessively long trips, you could create a trailer with a reserve tank of fuel in it, complete with pumps to the main tanks. for salvage, just a regular trailer with the addition of a drop ramp, and potentially a forklift. for S&R, trailers with high seating capacity and a double caged entrance, with a drop ramp for easy access.

add in the existence of double and triple trailers, and you now have an endless mix and match for easy and fast deployment.

one problem with dropping trailers in the field - on most trucks, someone has to get out and manually lower the landing gear, and detach from the fifth-wheel plate. however in some newer tractors, the fifth wheel can be unlocked from the cab, and in UPS tractor/trailers, the landing gear is also lowered from the cab. with some reverse engineering we could outfit our own tractors and trailers with similar easy uncoupling gear, and would only need to remove the air hoses and electricity. that could be made simple by adding a hatch at the back of the tractor, or moving these hookups to the inside of the trailer, so they can be released by the occupants.

tl;dr there are millions of these trucks everywhere and you want one.

[Rooster]

tl;dr there are millions of these trucks everywhere and you want one.

always thought trucks were perfect...

[Elephant]

tl;dr there are millions of these trucks everywhere and you want one.

always thought trucks were perfect...

thanks. just trying to build a strong picture in my head of what an extermination team ought to look like, and these will definitely be a part of any one that I am physically involved in. and perhaps bring to everyone's attention something that seems so painfully obvious that it could be overlooked.

this also ties in to my leather trench and heavy armor idea. adding to what i had originally said on the topic the possibility of temperature controlled trailers and it becomes much more feasible, to me at least.

[dthatcher]

tl;dr there are millions of these trucks everywhere and you want one.

always thought trucks were perfect...

thanks. just trying to build a strong picture in my head of what an extermination team ought to look like, and these will definitely be a part of any one that I am physically involved in. and perhaps bring to everyone's attention something that seems so painfully obvious that it could be overlooked.

this also ties in to my leather trench and heavy armor idea. adding to what i had originally said on the topic the possibility of temperature controlled trailers and it becomes much more feasible, to me at least.

Damn good idea. Of course, if we don't find many survivor truckers, you'll be doing a lot of teaching. Those things CAN'T be easy to drive

[autonomous]

If you mounted seats in the trailer then you could comfortably carry lots of people but I'm thinking about how many people you could fit in a row. i have been in the back a semi trailer but it was awhile ago so correct me if I'm wrong in my estimates. i think 3 seats to a row would give sufficient room for an exit aisle but if you went with 2 seats to a row then each person woulds have a god sized space next to their seat for gear personal or other. a shelf could easily be installed above the seats if they where only 2 across which would allow for more storage but that's only good for stuff that doesn't need to be easily accessed since if every one is trying to exit it would slow things up a lot. doors on the side and roof would be a good thing to implement to increase exit speed or give options if we have to abandon ship. gun ports with locking port doors would be good but if we are using next to seat storage the would have to be placed on every other row in such a way that people from both rows could shoot out and still have storage or put in a shelf above the port.

*end thoughts on trailer design for now*

[Elephant]

If you mounted seats in the trailer then you could comfortably carry lots of people but I'm thinking about how many people you could fit in a row. i have been in the back a semi trailer but it was awhile ago so correct me if I'm wrong in my estimates. i think 3 seats to a row would give sufficient room for an exit aisle but if you went with 2 seats to a row then each person woulds have a god sized space next to their seat for gear personal or other. a shelf could easily be installed above the seats if they where only 2 across which would allow for more storage but that's only good for stuff that doesn't need to be easily accessed since if every one is trying to exit it would slow things up a lot. doors on the side and roof would be a good thing to implement to increase exit speed or give options if we have to abandon ship. gun ports with locking port doors would be good but if we are using next to seat storage the would have to be placed on every other row in such a way that people from both rows could shoot out and still have storage or put in a shelf above the port.

*end thoughts on trailer design for now*

very nice Auto, that all sounds highly feasible. i think your 2 seats per side would work, like a greyhound bus, storage above and below seats.

[Xolotl]

tl;dr there are millions of these trucks everywhere and you want one.

always thought trucks were perfect...

thanks. just trying to build a strong picture in my head of what an extermination team ought to look like, and these will definitely be a part of any one that I am physically involved in. and perhaps bring to everyone's attention something that seems so painfully obvious that it could be overlooked.

this also ties in to my leather trench and heavy armor idea. adding to what i had originally said on the topic the possibility of temperature controlled trailers and it becomes much more feasible, to me at least.

Damn good idea. Of course, if we don't find many survivor truckers, you'll be doing a lot of teaching. Those things CAN'T be easy to drive

Correct me if I'm wrong but is the gearbox the most difficult thing to get used to? I saw a car show once where they were doing an episode about lorries (trucks) and they said that in a car you can go from 1,000 rpm to 5 or 6,000rpm without having to change gear and in a lorry you go from 1,200 to 1,500 and need to change. And they have about a dozen gears to go for. I suppose though that most tucks will be automatic, like the cars, so it won't matter as much. Other than that, and keeping an eye on what is on the inside when you turn, they shouldn't be that hard to drive should they?

[Elephant]

tl;dr there are millions of these trucks everywhere and you want one.

always thought trucks were perfect...

thanks. just trying to build a strong picture in my head of what an extermination team ought to look like, and these will definitely be a part of any one that I am physically involved in. and perhaps bring to everyone's attention something that seems so painfully obvious that it could be overlooked.

this also ties in to my leather trench and heavy armor idea. adding to what i had originally said on the topic the possibility of temperature controlled trailers and it becomes much more feasible, to me at least.

Damn good idea. Of course, if we don't find many survivor truckers, you'll be doing a lot of teaching. Those things CAN'T be easy to drive

Correct me if I'm wrong but is the gearbox the most difficult thing to get used to? I saw a car show once where they were doing an episode about lorries (trucks) and they said that in a car you can go from 1,000 rpm to 5 or 6,000rpm without having to change gear and in a lorry you go from 1,200 to 1,500 and need to change. And they have about a dozen gears to go for. I suppose though that most tucks will be automatic, like the cars, so it won't matter as much. Other than that, and keeping an eye on what is on the inside when you turn, they shouldn't be that hard to drive should they?

The most common transmission is a manual 8 speed, and after that is a manual 13 speed (my favorite). There are automatics, this is true, but they are few and far between. there are one or two major US based companies that run automatic fleets, but beyond that its all manual. which is the way i like it :-) thankfully if i am alone in this, i do know *which* companies use the Automatics, so we could grab a few for the losers who cant learn stick.

you are correct about the RPM, but it isnt as difficult as you think. the only time a 4wheeler and a semi are comparable is when the semi is not hauling a trailer. then you feel like you shift every 2 seconds, and it can get really jerky. under a load, its not a big deal.

and yeah, making wide turns is massively important. it is VERY easy to hit something if you forget what you are driving.

also, automatic transmissions are more costly and difficult to repair. if we go with manuals and something goes wrong, we just go to the local truck stop(pronounced "pick'n'pull") and scavenge one. if we lose an automatic transmission, things get complicated. fast.

[IronGeneral]

But what your point is that it is pretty much a movie command station/base/ (well there's a lot of word options) I've never worked with or driven a transport truck, but I have been in the back area for a little bit. Although, if Optimus Prime turns into a transport they must be awesome. Sorry I digress. I agree fullheartedly with this plan and to show my willingness to begin I say: LLLLEEEEEEERRRRRROOOOOOOYYYYYY JJJJJJJJJJJEEEEEEENNNNNNNKKKKKKIIIIIINNNS!

[Rooster]

^ Omigod he just went in there. ^ All we need to add is a cow-catcher like on a train and miniguns attached to each side of the cab.

[dthatcher]

^ Omigod he just went in there. ^ All we need to add is a cow-catcher like on a train and miniguns attached to each side of the cab.

Uhmm... Miniguns eat through a LOT of ammunition... And hard to find... And big and heavy...

Couldn't we get that very same job done much easier with some plain old machine guns?

[autonomous]

elephant i have a few truck questions for you.
1) how tall is the average truck with trailer?
2) what is the steepest hill a truck can safely go down? (in degrees)
3) how much room would a truck with trailer need to make a 180 degree turn in one go (no 16 point turn please)?

[Rooster]

^ Omigod he just went in there. ^ All we need to add is a cow-catcher like on a train and miniguns attached to each side of the cab.

Uhmm... Miniguns eat through a LOT of ammunition... And hard to find... And big and heavy...

Couldn't we get that very same job done much easier with some plain old machine guns?

Duh, we won't use the minguns, they are there for looks.

[IronGeneral]

Miniguns each go for about $450,000. They are all owned by extremely rich people although. Once in awhile one pops up somewhere but once again, extremely expensive. Surprisingly, they are legal in America lol some weird loophole or something. Read it on cracked. So all we have to do, is mug the rich ppl come Z-day lol

[dthatcher]

Miniguns each go for about $450,000. They are all owned by extremely rich people although. Once in awhile one pops up somewhere but once again, extremely expensive. Surprisingly, they are legal in America lol some weird loophole or something. Read it on cracked. So all we have to do, is mug the rich ppl come Z-day lol

Only miniguns made before 1980, though, and there are only about 4 total.