When your engine is running but you are not moving, it is idling. Lorries commonly idle for short and long periods of time for various reasons: Stuck in a traffic jam or waiting at traffic lights Waiting to be loaded…

While light vehicles like cars and vans use foot brakes (also called service brakes), the service brakes on HGVs are not powerful enough to maintain a specific speed and stop the vehicle from running away on a long downhill. Lorries…

A concrete mixer truck (often called a cement truck, agitator truck, concrete truck, cement mixer or concrete mixer) is a rigid truck that has a rotating drum or ‘bowl’ on the back that keeps pre-mixed concrete moving so that it…

Some lorries have auxiliary equipment which requires power, but they don’t have a PTO or power take-off that draws power from idling the main engine. Instead, they have a small auxiliary engine which can provide the power. Common applications for…

The fifth wheel or turntable is what the skidplate of a semitrailer rests on, and the kingpin fits inside. An articulated lorry needs to articulate, and this articulation point is around the kingpin which slots into the centre of the…

Have you bought an electric car but you have a bit of ‘range anxiety’ – the niggling worry that you might not make it to the next charging station? You’re not alone. Even though the UK has a lot of…

Where I grew up on the Fens in Lincolnshire, we used to bike 4 miles east to the next village, then we’d wait for a tractor or combine harvester to slipstream back against the prevailing wind. The bigger the better…