Noise regulations for big trucks

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johnrhansen

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 12, 2013
Messages
1,100
Location
Seattle, WA
Went for a walk today, and noticed how obnoxiously loud these large commercial trucks are. Got me thinking... All the cars, and even the city buses are an order of magnitude quieter. Why don't they require large truck manufacturers put some sound insulation around the engines and install more efficient mufflers? I know it's possible, because those honkin big city buses have just as big of an engine as the trucks do and they can be quite quiet. I think it's a matter of money.

What does this have to do with electric cars, you might ask? Well i love my car chiefly because it's quiet. Thinking my fellow ev drivers might feel the same way.
 
I usually turn up my 1000 watt stereo loud enough where I can't hear anything else.

That works wonders.

Lasareath
 
Many of the diesel truck owners install after-market exhaust systems that are far louder than stock... Is it legal? No. Does anyone do anything about it? No.

It is like the ludicrously and obnoxiously loud exhaust systems that you hear on so many Harleys! (The Harley owner mantra seems to be, "If you can't make power, at least make noise!"

johnrhansen said:
Went for a walk today, and noticed how obnoxiously loud these large commercial trucks are.
 
Yeah, why would anyone want to go out of their way to draw attention to that fact that Harley engineers didn't know how to make an even firing engine back when...

MikeinDenver said:
TomT said:
(The Harley owner mantra seems to be, "If you can't make power, at least make noise!"
Ain't that the truth, and it isn't even good noise.
 
Don't get me started on Harleys.... I'm a motorcyclist and I hate the things. Not to mention the people who ride the loud ones with fuel-swamped engines...

About the trucks: ever notice that they often get very loud when slowing? Many of them are equipped with 'Jake Brakes' which are a crude compression release that briefly turns the engine from a source of power into a drivetrain brake. The reason is that the air brakes with which they are equipped are too frail and short-lived to do all the braking work. Those without JBs use downshifting for much of the braking. I had a learner's permit to drive Semis back in the late Seventies, and I still remember the first time I entered a rest area and tried to stop with just the brakes. The main driver was yelling at me to DOWNSHIFT! DOWNSHIFT!
 
Are you talking about compression brakes? Yeah they are loud but better than a runaway truck crashing into whatever happens to be in it's path.
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
Are you talking about compression brakes? Yeah they are loud but better than a runaway truck crashing into whatever happens to be in it's path.

It's a compression *release* brake*, but yes. I'd argue that it would be better to build trucks with adequate brakes.

* Sounds like a contradiction, but by releasing compression the engine stops firing, and the remaining compression becomes a drag on the vehicle.
 
Usually compression brakes arent allowed in town, and that's not what I was hearing. Its just the high speed screech from the turbo combined with the sounds coming from the engine itself. Diesels are very loud, even with stock exhaust!
,
as for harleys, I say this. Any thing that needs to be modified right out of the box can't be good. How many stock harleys do you see?
 
I think the newer trucks are going to get quieter due to all the emissions equipment but it is going to take awhile to get the old ones off the road or retrofitted.
 
as for harleys, I say this. Any thing that needs to be modified right out of the box can't be good. How many stock harleys do you see?

They don't *need* modification. The are relatively quiet and smooth. I see a fair number of those, and have no quarrel with their riders. OTOH, Idiots don't like smooth and quiet. The pipe manufacturers have created a "Loud pipes save lives" meme, and they lap it up. They also want to be "different" so they line up at Harley shops to have the motors fed more fuel than they can handle, after-burning the excess in those loud pipes. Some of them get "Ape Hanger" bars that make actually controlling the bike nearly impossible, while others settle for wearing helmets (only in states that require helmets, of course!) that offer as little protection as possible. Why do they do all this? They are otherwise-ignored flabby white guys who feel they no longer have the power they deserve, and so, being idiots, they substitute bothering others for having power over them.

They aren't the only Idiots on bikes, of course - just look at the D-Bag "sport bike" riders who do wheelies on the freeway and ride at 120+MPH. They may have more skill than the Harley Idiots, but they have not one more brain cell...
 
BMWs are nice, but after copying them for decades the Japanese were making great bikes by the '80's. My current non-electric ride is an '82 Suzuki GS450T with 6K original miles on it. It's a little rusty, but runs perfectly (except for being cold-blooded) and doesn't smoke at all. I also ride an electric ZEV 5000LA maxi-scooter that would be great if it hadn't been packaged badly for shipping, then wrecked in transit, then "rebuilt" to a pretty low standard by the manufacturer. The front end is Crap and shakes...
 
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