#82056
09/30/2002 3:31 PM
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
here is a nice planter you can get in the form of an "18-wheeler" semi truck, where you can get an idea of the four sets of four wheels under the trailer (plus two in front). you could fill this with little bags of sand and use it for an ashtray at your next poker game. http://www.westernstatue.com/4_planters/P-58.htm
|
|
|
#82057
09/30/2002 3:42 PM
|
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
I would call this an articulated lorry or more probably nowadays an articulated truck. Usually abreviated to "an artic". The term lorry I would normally use for a non-articulated truck (ie: one with a rigid chassis all the way from front to back), which would be a smaller vehicle but too large to be called a van.
So, a semi-trailer's trailer could not be rolled on its own without the tractor as it has no wheels on the front whereas a full-trailer's trailer has wheels at the front and back. Have I got that right? I don't think we differentiate between these in the UK, but I could well be wrong. Anyone know for sure?
|
|
|
#82058
09/30/2002 3:44 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
The defining quality of a semi-trailer
Differing opinion here:
The term for the whole assemblage is tractor-trailer. The tractor is the cab/motor stuff up front that supplies the motive power. The trailer is the part that trails behind (duh!). The diference between a full up trailer and a semi-trailer is that the regler trailer has a full set of functional support wheels, fore and aft. A semi-trailer has only rear wheels, relying on the tractor for front end support during travel. There is a set of vestigal looking supports that can be used when the semi-trailer is sitting around not going anywhere waiting for a tractor but they wouldn't be much use while barreling down the highway. Sometimes the term semi is used to describe the whole thing.
|
|
|
#82059
09/30/2002 3:45 PM
|
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
you could fill this with little bags of sand and use it for an ashtray at your next poker game
Or clobber somebody with it from behind while pretending to be in front - or is it the other way round?
|
|
|
#82060
09/30/2002 3:48 PM
|
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
A semi-trailer has only rear wheels, relying on the tractor for front end support during travel
Got it! Thanks for the confirmation.
|
|
|
#82061
09/30/2002 5:30 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Sometimes the term semi is used to describe the whole thing.
Oh Nitpicker of Nitpickers, no one I know or have known calls it a tractor trailer, while that may be technically correct. For example, when it's bearing down on you on the highway, the first words that come to mind is "Watch out - there's a semi passing us!"
So I submit that there are:
(1) technical definition: the trailer only, with the little legs for resting when it's rig-less
(2) practical definition: the whole darn thing, rig/cab, trailer included, even if you find out after it's passed you on a narrow highway and scared the bejeezus out of you that it actually had all the wheels and no little legs
|
|
|
#82062
09/30/2002 5:36 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Or, as I ponder phrasing it another way, if you were to say "Bean, you may not use the word semi-trailer to refer to the entire truck, for that is technically incorrect" I would be at a loss for another word to fill that linguistic hole in my idiolect. Everyone I know calls the whole kit-and-caboodle a semi-trailer. I would get a blank stare for articulated lorry and a very delayed reaction for tractor trailer.
|
|
|
#82063
09/30/2002 5:47 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I'll concede to semi being the most common term for the whole thang, but I don't believe that it's common to call the whole thang a semi-trailer, at least not for those who drive them. My votes for most common terms would be semi and rig. The semi-trailer itself would probably be called a trailer, the semi part being understood. I would think that anyone calling the semi-trailer by that name would be thought to be a little pedantic but not misunderstood. Owner-operaters are typically only going to own the tractor, whatever they might call it. The trailers are fungible.
|
|
|
#82064
09/30/2002 5:57 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
at least not for those who drive them
I'm sure that that's where the distinction lies. That's often the case for technical terms in general. It drives my husband crazy, for example, that many people call the part of the computer which houses its brains "the CPU" when he says "It's the case, or the tower, and the CPU's inside!!!!!" and then pouts in frustration. But most people are happy to refer to that whole thing as the CPU, even though there's all sorts of other junk in there.
|
|
|
#82065
09/30/2002 6:01 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
The Mexican term for the driver, BTW, seems to be trailero. Any comments on that Connie?
|
|
|
#82066
10/01/2002 9:39 AM
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
a T-bone steak...We don't seem to have them in the UK
We do, David, just they're not tremendously common (sirloin tends to be the cut of choice, followed by rump as the cheapo option, with fillet for very special occasions).
I had a T-bone recently in fact. Luvverly.
Had my first T-bone steak at least 15 years ago, though.
|
|
|
#82067
10/01/2002 10:25 AM
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Before they could be made by machine, of course, marbles were very much more highly valued than they are nowadays. Hand-made marbles are still very collectible. Here's a good page on valuable marbles, which also points out that the phrases "playing for keeps" and "knuckling down" originated in playing marbles: http://www.irelandsantiques.com/articels/marbles.htmIt occurs to me that if you had a marble made out of marble, that would represent a lot of hard work by someone. To the extent that a hand-made marble was perfectly spherical that would make it especially prized. We don't associate marbles with money, risk and gambling at all these days, but it's easy to see that once it would have been devastating to lose all your marbles. Interesting that the USn usage of marbles phrases is slightly more wide-ranging than UK usage: http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=15594
|
|
|
#82068
10/01/2002 10:36 AM
|
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
Trailero it is, my Fab Fool. Even scarier down there than they is up here  . Nothing scares me more while traveling down the freeway than a big rig doin' whatever he/she darn well pleases whether he/she speaks English, Spanish, French or whaddeva. [fount of more silver hairs-e]
|
|
|
#82069
10/01/2002 11:21 AM
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
"We T-boned them but no one was hurt"I'd have thought it sounded rude, and probably illegal. If you said "Our car T-boned theirs" I'd have got the gist, but not necessarily accurately. Not sure what the UK equivalent would be. Something boring like "we crashed into the side of their car.." 
|
|
|
#82070
10/01/2002 1:09 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 144
member
|
|
member
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 144 |
Now, over here (UK), semi-trailer would get you the blank stare, artic would be completely understood and accepted as the norm and 'tractor-trailer' would have everyone thinking you were nuts as everyone knows they're what you find on the farm, do a max of about 30mph (except for the new whizzy ones that do 45) and you certainly wouldn't want to do 7000+miles of the TCH in one!
|
|
|
#82071
10/01/2002 4:34 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Hereabouts, artic would be assumed to be a contraction of Arctic-Cat. The snobs would revile you for leaving out the first c and the rednecks would revile you for leaving out the cat.
|
|
|
#82072
10/01/2002 4:54 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
artic
I bet it's not pronounced the same. Is it ar-TIC, just like ar-TIC-ulated? (As opposed to AR-tic.)
|
|
|
#82073
10/01/2002 4:59 PM
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
In reply to:
Not sure what the UK equivalent would be. Something boring like "we crashed into the side of their car.."
I think most people would say that they'd hit a car broadside.
I've never heard this T-Bone thing till this thread, but it sounds like something that's been around for a long time. I always felt that way when listening to Ross Perot speak. He used expressions I'd never heard, but they sounded like they'd been around forever.
|
|
|
#82074
10/01/2002 5:51 PM
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Hoooo boy. Okay, in Zild it's a semi or a rig or an artic (we're a pretty confused lot, really).
The ones in the US are bigger in every way than the ones in Britland. The ones in Britland are governed to about 60mph. That, alone, is probably responsible for half the accidents I see on the way to and from my place of employment.
But you ain't seen nuffink till you've seen an Austraaaalian road train ....
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
|
|
|
#82075
10/01/2002 5:54 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I've seen them up to about three or four trailers long in the US.
Note: only the first trailer is a semi-trailer; all the rest are full trailers.
|
|
|
#82076
10/01/2002 6:13 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
Just my $0.02 on sandbagging...
I had always thought that to sandbag someone meant to ambush them in one way or another, and the origin was from the use of sandbags in theaters. Sandbags were (maybe still are) used as counterweights on pullies, to hold up the large backdrops and other set pieces used on stage. By cutting a rope a sandbag could be made to fall vertically onto an unsuspecting passer-by. Thus the heavy sandbag would drop upon the person with calamatous effect, and the person would never know what hit them.
|
|
|
#82077
10/01/2002 6:15 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
the origin was from the use of sandbags in theaters
It would seem to make more sense to have sandbagging trace back to sandbags rather than socks, but.
|
|
|
#82078
10/01/2002 10:13 PM
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
more sense to have sandbagging trace back to sandbags rather than socks
Sock it to me straight, mate, I won't have any truck with shady sandbaggers.
There's something sneaky and surprising about sandbags - they hit a lot harder than you expect (can even knock you senseless), and don't leave a mark.
But I suspect there is something in Alex's theatre theory - if you have sandbags suspended at a great height and they fall down when you're underneath and not prepared , you'll really know about it (assuming you're not dead). In a large theatre it would take experience to know where the sandbags are and where they're going, and thus to work safely backstage.
Duck!
|
|
|
#82079
10/02/2002 1:26 AM
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
The idea of smacking someone with a heavy bag of sand is inherent in the use of the word in cards.
I've never heard it used with reference to poker, but it's common in pinochle. It means to pass [in the bidding] with a good hand. The objective is that if the dealer is well ahead in the scoring and likely to win in the next hand or two, you "stick" him with the bid. (In pinochle, the dealer bids last and if no one else bids, he must play the hand, no matter how bad; or, in some circles he can "throw in", i.e., be penalized the amount of the minimum bid without playing the hand and without the other players, including sandbaggers, being able to score meld.)
Hence, using the old rules where the dealer must play out the hand, a sandbagger not only has a good hand to assault the dealer with, but a lot of meld score as well, which is like coshing him.
|
|
|
#82080
10/02/2002 6:47 AM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>I bet it's not pronounced the same. Is it ar-TIC, just like ar-TIC-ulated? (As opposed to AR-tic.)
No AR-tic or quite often, just to confuse people - ARC-tic. I'd always wondered if people were thinking it was to do with the arctic or just adding an extra consonant because it sounds better (you know how we like those extra letters).
Never heard of semi- or whatever trailer but maybe that is what they are called technically. I don't think that our roads are straight enough for more than two linked together. Sometimes you see really huge things on the motorway with accompanying police motor bikes to warn people, especially if it is an extra wide or slow load.
|
|
|
#82081
10/02/2002 7:33 AM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
> a T-bone steak...We don't seem to have them in the UK > We do, David, just they're not tremendously common (sirloin tends to be the cut of choice, followed by rump as the cheapo option, with fillet for very special occasions). Ah - whatever happened to the t-bone steak? I remember them well, a candle-lit dinner at the Berni Inn, the music (Demis Roussos for preference), a bottle of Mateus Rose and a t-bone with foil-wrapped baked potato and lashings of butter. Well, that would have been my father's view of heaven in the seventies. Maybe you're just too cool David? Here's some UK seventies nostalgia for those old enough to remember: http://tv.cream.org/thecore/adbooze.htmI think the the t-bone simply went out of fashion with the seventies style steak house (until it was banned for a while as part of the beef-on-the bone stuff in the midst of BSE) or had too many calories (to be replaced by calorie loaded chicken tikka masala) or priced itself out of the market (although fillet steak is still on the menu). I dunno. Here's a guide to British cuts of beef (veggies, don't look) for the more serious minded http://www.hwatson.force9.co.uk/magazine/2000/05-2000/beef.htm
|
|
|
#82082
10/02/2002 10:27 AM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
quite often, just to confuse people - ARC-tic
Probably just hypercorrection.
really huge things on the motorway with accompanying police motor bikes
Y'all get the cops to do the accompanying? USns have an accompanying pickup with a WIDE LOAD sign and flashing yellow lights.
|
|
|
#82083
10/02/2002 12:35 PM
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
wide loads rate cops here in NYC area... and to get into manhattan, they have to be scheduled. but last year, in a bit of morbid comic relief, i got stuck in a traffic jam just out side the toll booths for the George Washington bridge (a major portal from NJ) the traffic jam was caused by a convoy of wide load trucks (carrying massive cranes and earth moving equipement) that because of the emergency was going thro during daytime hours --only it wasn't -- the load was too wide for the toll booths, and they had move "zipper" barriers to open up the spaces...
do your artic travel down the road in convoys? tailgating each other, riding in each others slip stream? 10 or 20 in a row? I saw a convoy this summer in canada.
|
|
|
#82084
10/03/2002 7:48 AM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>Do your artic travel down the road in convoys? tailgating each other, riding in each others slip stream? 10 or 20 in a row? I saw a convoy this summer in canada. You do sometimes see them in groups but I don't think convoys are such a big deal hear. There was quite a funny rip off of the "Convoy" song years ago with names like "plastic chicken" and "rubber duck" http://members.tripod.com/~Cybertrucker/convoygb.htm - I suspect we're not so good at taking these things seriously. Here's a "sad" story (Eddie Stobart is a haulage firm - there was a thing about honking your horn when you saw them a few years ago): http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/july02/26th/stobbart.asp
|
|
|
#82085
10/03/2002 8:18 AM
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Here's a "sad" story.. Eddie Stobart Nothing sad about spotting and counting "Stobbies" and "Nobbies" (Norbert Dentressangle lorries, French competitors, boo hiss) on a long Motorway trip*, Jo! It's yet another way of keeping the kids distracted, and I'm all for that.  *about 30 miles and over for us Brits
|
|
|
#82086
10/03/2002 8:45 AM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
> another way of keeping the kids distracted
I rest my case.
Interestingly, while looking for a suitable link, I happened across some train spotting sites - now if you think we're dull ....
|
|
|
#82087
10/03/2002 12:38 PM
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
sorry I missed most of this - but I must have my two-pennuth. semi or semi-trailer It really does depend on to whom you are speaking as to whether this will be understood in UK. Certainly a lorry-driver (or truck-driver - the two terms are pretty equally used) would know what you meant, and would be quite likely to use the term frequently amongst fellow professionals. artic understood by just about everyone - the accent on the first syllable. governed to 60 mph You definitely have to be joking, CapK!! The Volvo F-series, fro instance, are capable of over 90 mph when unladen. So are the Scanias, and Mercs. Even the Leylands and AECs will do aaround 80. When you are stuck behind on doing60, I'll take a small bet that they are, a) fully laden and b) either going up hill or negotiating winding roads, or have been stuck behind a slow-moving, granny-driven Nissan Micra and not managed to build up speed yet. Try driving at a 60 in the middle lane of the M-way and find out how soon it is before your rear mirror is filled with the letters OVLOV !! 
|
|
|
#82089
10/03/2002 8:38 PM
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
do you mean the actual motor on the trucks are geared or have some sort of mechical governing circiut in them that limits the speed?
i think if congress tried to do that to truck (and if thought about it for cars) it would be makings of a second american revolution!
people might believe in free speach and still support some censoring of words, books and art, but give up our right to speed on a highway? them would be fight'n words on americas roadways.
i have had the experience of driving 70+ mph on road posted for 55, and then caught site of a cop car behind me... with out light or sirens, its just zipped on by, leaving me eating it's dust... speed limits are like suggested retail prices... a guide, but not one that most take seriously, except on small local streets.
|
|
|
#82090
10/03/2002 8:44 PM
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
No, if I understand it correctly, the limiter is run off the speedo. When the speedometer hits the magic number, no more power can be applied.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
|
|
|
#82091
10/03/2002 11:07 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Way I learned it there is some sort of spinning thang that when it gets going so fast it goes out far enough it trips a switch that cuts the power.
|
|
|
#82092
10/04/2002 10:04 AM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
I've been in school buses with the same restriction on speed. Something mechanical inside them was designed to stop their top speed at 90 km/h (56 mi/h). And there are lots of trucks (semis) with signs on the back informing you that their speed is limited, usually to 90 km/h. I guess the sign is there so that you don't get overly angry when stuck behind one, and ask yourself why the driver isn't going faster.
|
|
|
#82093
10/04/2002 11:47 AM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
Actually, of troy... if you've ever rented a U-Haul truck (or any of their competitors, for that matter), you've driven with a governor. If I remember correctly, they're set to 60 mph, and on a cross-country move, you kind of get used to eating dust. Presumably they've incorporated the governors to maximize the life of the engines on their vehicles, so it's not a bad business decision for them.
|
|
|
#82094
10/04/2002 12:15 PM
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
when i drove cross country in a u haul truck with my son a few years ago, the truck had no such control, and i one of the wild open places, they high plains of wyoming or maybe Utah, i drove the fastest i have ever driven, over 90 miles per hour... i didn't keep going that fast for long, i didn't think it safe, but we did regualary go 75 mph in the the thing. so they are not consistant in use of governers.
|
|
|
#82095
10/04/2002 12:44 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
Well, hell's bells. I musta gotten a raw deal!   I may be dealing with those U-Haul people in the immediate future, so now I'll know to ask.
|
|
|
|
|
