PETERBILT - Everything You Need to Know | Up to Speed

(engine revving) - Circuit breaker one-nine, there are some diesel bears bothering a chicken truck in a cabin above Pete at the 32-yard pole. I'm heading south, knocked down, sitting calmly on the stool. How do you feel over your shoulder, good friend? Wind it up and let it go, come on! Kentucky Cobra over and out! Over the last hundred shows, we've talked about many things that replaced the horse. But have we never talked about anything that replaces the horse and the river? So button up your plaid shirts and secure your hats with the mesh back. (truck horn sounds) Here's

everything

you

need

to

know

to get up to

speed

on Peterbilt!

Toot Toot! (video game music) (bell rings) - James, what we just watched was a great introduction. I

know

it may be difficult, but can you try to put into words how you feel right now? - No words, really, just, uh, no words. There are so many people I want to thank right now for getting me to this point. First of all, I want to thank Nos Energy Drink for partnering with me, partnering with donut, partnering with Up to Speed. I don't think I could have finished that intro without the Nos energy drink. Also, I want to thank this hawk.

I'd never met this falcon before, but I saw it flying in the air while doing the intro and thought, "Man, I'd really like to make Nos' energy drink and make this falcon proud of me." - You did well, James! You did it well! - Thank you falcon. From now on, I will try to make you proud. I will live to make Nos energy drink and this hawk proud of me, thank you very much. (applause) Majestic. (bell rings) Who was Pedro and what did he build? We're talking semi-finals, baby! (truck horn honking) In the 1930s, a guy named Theodore A.

Peterman owned a sawmill in Tacoma, Washington and

need

ed lumber for his sawmill. Luckily, the Pacific Northwest is full of trees and loggers who cut them down. But once the trees were turned into logs, there was no quick and easy way to transport them to the mill. They were floated down the river, or pulled by steam-powered tractors, or real, live, polished horses. I don't know if you've noticed, but those things aren't very fast. And they weren't doing it for T.A. Peterman. So, he began collecting old surplus military trucks and rebuilding them into trailers that could haul his logs.

I hope this is one of the episodes where he talks fast because I have to leave a record right now. Statistics show that most of you are dropping a record. You're pooping. (laughs) Every time he bought another truck, he improved it in some way, like replacing the crank starters with electric ones. When the Great Depression left many small businesses in big trouble, he purchased the bankrupt Fageol Motor Company in 1938. They had been manufacturing buses, trucks, and tractors in Oakland, California. That allowed Peterman to begin building his own truck chassis and the Peterbilt company was born. Toot Toot! - Toot Toot! - Toot Toot! - Toot Toot!

Dream. The first two models were the 334 with a steel cab and the 260 with a chain drive. And they went on sale to the public in 1939. As expected, the chain-drive truck idea didn't work out so well and was pretty much abandoned. quickly. By 1942, almost everyone was angry with each other and production shifted toward the war effort. Petermans sadly passed away just before the war ended and his wife sold the company to seven employees, but she kept the land where the business stood. Once the war ended, commercial businesses quickly recovered. Especially over the next ten or fifteen years.

By then, Peterbilt was already known for making quality trucks with great performance. They introduced the model 280 and 350 with the long-nose cab design that would become the classic semi-truck shape for decades. (Horn Sounds) The subsequent 281 and 351 models had super long, narrow front ends that earned them the nickname Needlenose. They were in production for over twenty years, so probably your idea of ​​what a stereotypical semi truck looks like is basically a Peterbilt Needlenose. They mostly used fourteen-liter Cummins diesel engines that generated around two hundred and forty horsepower and six hundred and eighty to eight hundred foot-pounds of torque. (Engine revving) Top

speed

probably wasn't even seventy miles per hour.

Peterbilt also made versions with a cockpit and fun bubble noses. See taxis were popular in the past because road transportation was highly regulated, but in the Motor Carrier Act of 1935. The length of a truck was limited to sixty-five feet; With the cab over the engine, the truck would have a much shorter wheelbase. That allowed more room for more cargo. And that means more money. But they are not so safe. They are more difficult to work with and are not as comfortable for drivers as conventional curb detectors. Hmm? (Laughter) When the trucking industry was deregulated and the length limit was expanded to seventy-five feet, cab vehicles fell out of favor.

You don't see flat-nose trucks much in the state anymore. Mainly only in Europe and Asia. But they call them trucks. Probably because they all look like Hugh Laurie, a famous British actor. As the 1950s progressed, construction of the new interstate highway system got underway. The smooth paved roads that crisscrossed the country meant that goods could be quickly shipped by truck virtually anywhere. And in 1956, intermodal container transport was invented. So you could put tons of stuff in a big metal box and move it directly from ship to train to truck to Walmart. - Even with this variable some type of truck brings something unique. - The business started to prosper in a big way, darling!

In 1958, Peterman's widow, Aida, decided to sell the land beneath the factory. Peterbilt shareholders simply couldn't stand having to build an entirely new plant, so they sold the company to the Pacific Car and Foundry company, which is now known as Paccar. Pacific Car and Foundry built them a new factory, just down the street in Newark, California. Where they would remain for almost thirty years. A lighter cabin made of aluminum was introduced in the 1960s. And the Unilite tilting cabin that could rotate ninety degrees for better access. A flying bird hood ornament was added above the red oval insignia.

Two things that have not changed in the new Peterbilt trucks until today. In '67 the wide-nosed 359 model appeared and cemented Peterbilt as one of the biggest names in the big-haul truck game. You can order a 359 however you want. Like Lamborghini. There were endless engine and transmission combinations to choose from and options like aluminum sleeper cabs, chrome vents, tall exhaust pipes, and bright grilles. The last four hundred produced were numbered special editions with custom paint jobs. And today they are worth it! In the 1970s, trucking culture was widespread. Truckers were seen as modern-day cowboys and outlaws and everyone wanted plaid shirts, stocking caps, and mustaches.

They drove long stretches of desolate highway and warned each other about highway patrols using sickening slang on their CB radios. It's fucking romantic! - A one-seven breaker for the sleepy eye? - Your eye is asleep, bring it back. - The freedom and romance of the road captured everyone's imagination and made its way into much of popular entertainment. In 1971, Steven Spielburg's first film, Duel, featured an unseen trucker in a rusty Peterbilt Needlenose tanker chasing a man in a red Plymouth across the desert. In 1976, CB's song, Convoy (Music Playing), about a group of truckers who avoid tolls and speed traps, was number one on the Billboard charts for a week.

Snowman the pirate trucker had bandit, Bert Reynolds in a Fire-chicken, brought CB slang and kitschy radio handles to the mainstream. - (Digressing) because the snowman is also coming! -There were so many trucker movies that practically every action star of the '70s had one. Actually, this is starting to look like a great Saturday night, do you want to see them together? It's fourteen, I'm coming. However, by the 1980s, truckers had a seedier reputation and the masses shifted their attention to hairspray synths and teen angst. But there was still a good trucker, Optimus Prime! (Music playing) The original Optimus Prime was a semi-truck with a cabin.

Where would we be without the Transformers? To nowhere! That is where. We certainly wouldn't have the worst costumes you've ever seen. (Eerie music plays) The semi-trucks found another home off the roads and out of sight of the general public. When truckers took a break from work, they began racing on local ovals and race tracks. The truck tuners ramped up the momentum and started rolling coal! The most popular Peterbilt of all time was also launched in the 1980s. The model 379. Older operators bought more examples than any other truck. And they were favorites on the show circuit. Yes, there are semi truck shows.

Big trucks travel more than one hundred and seventy-five billion miles a year in the United States alone. Delivering sixty-eight percent of

everything

we buy. That equates to about sixty thousand pounds of trash per person each year. That's eight hundred and twenty-three inholes. Although the original Optimus Prime was a taxi, a live-action Optimus Prime was a 379. Which is... ...Not Canon Accurate! It's also the truck in the heist of my son Nolan's all-time favorite movie, Fast and Furious. Supposedly it was a 379. Or maybe it was a 359. I'll admit I can't tell them apart and the internet says it's both.

And if you're a semi-truck expert, let me know in the comments below which one it is? As time went by, Peterbilt began to imagine its interiors. You could even get four different board colors. There were over three million long-haul truckers in the US and many of those people live in their trucks most of the year. Nowadays these long-haul trucks are like small motor homes. You can get a Peterbilt model 587 sleeper cab with a thirty-inch aisle, swivel chairs, lockers, and storage under the bunks. Or the new 579 Ultraloft High-roof Sleeper with double bunk beds for driver teams, room for a full-size microwave, a thirty-two-inch television, and a cabinet specifically designed to hold two porridge machines.

Now they are to treat sleep apnea. That is a medical condition that causes snoring. The next party you go to, you're going to be a little nervous, like you're going to walk up to someone and say, "Hey, do you know what a pap smear machine is? Did you know that Optimus Prime was originally a truck with a cab?" And then he just stares. Just look at them. It'll work out fine, I found a girlfriend. Modern Peterbilt trucks are more aerodynamic and fuel efficient than ever. The Peterbilt 386 was actually the first semi-truck to be designated green by the EPA.

Very good job Peterbilt. Another way big trucks are becoming more efficient is by switching to automated manual transmissions. (Music playing) You would think this would have happened before. I mean, we've had automatic transmissions for over half a century, but they're not traditional automatics with torque converters. In reality they are exactly what they sound like: automated manuals that still use a clutch. Fuel economy on these is better than regular manuals and the transmission is up to four hundred pounds lighter than an automatic. That means the truck can carry four hundred more pounds of payload. That means more money, baby!

More money, baby! New trucks are starting to have all the new car technology. Things like adaptive cruise control for stop-and-go traffic, forward collision prevention, and lane-keeping assist. Staying in your lane is probably the biggest help for truckers. You spend literally all day making small steering corrections just to stay between lanes. Peterbilt and other companies are also working on Platooning technology that digitally links trucks into a convoy. The trucks will automatically communicate with each other so they can follow each other at very close distances at the same speed, reducing traffic and improving MPG. They're drawing baby! Let's get into what you really want to know: those big old diesel engines!

What does it take to drag eighty thousand pounds down the road? The Peterbilts run a pairof versions of a 12.9-liter inline six-cylinder engine that weighs two thousand six hundred pounds dry. The top-of-the-line MX-13 engine produces 510 horsepower and up to 1850 pound-feet of torque and 990 RPM. That's the opposite of Vtec. Hm... They're designed to go sixty to seventy-five thousand miles between oil changes and run for a million miles, a million miles, before needing a rebuild. Five hundred is a big number for stock diesel horsepower, but sled and drag racing semis now run compound turbo setups and are capable of producing over three thousand hours of baby benefit. (Engine revving) 2019 is Peterbilt's eightieth anniversary.

Happy Birthday friend. And last January, his millionth truck rolled out of his factory in Denton, Texas. They gave it to a certified Peterbilt super fan at the Mid-America Truck Show. - Rick Mclarkin, Peterbilt's number one superfan! - Did you know? It's a great tribute to a long legacy of impressive big trucks. (Soft music plays)