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A comment on Accepting US car standards would risk European lives. Parent comment

Re:Accepting US car standards would risk European lives by rascul on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @10:42AM (#46135770)
> American style trucks might be big, but presumably they’re nowhere near 44 tonnes.

I believe the typical limit is 40 tons. I don't know if our tons are the same as your tonnes.

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Re:Accepting US car standards would risk European lives by Aloisius on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @03:07PM (#46139365)
The US limit is typically 80,000 lbs, so 36.29 megagrams (aka "metric" tons).

The EU countries have limits of 40 Mg or higher (except Albania). Netherlands allows vehicles up to 50 Mg.

Of course this is all for 5+ axle vehicles. A 5-axle 40 Mg big rig is putting a 8 Mg of load on each axle (if it was perfectly distributed).

A Dodge RAM 1500 loaded up has a gross vehicle weight of about 3.27 Mg - about 1.64 Mg/axle. Fourth power law means about 566 loaded RAMs would equal one about 40 Mg 5-axle big rig in terms of road damage.

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Re:Accepting US car standards would risk European lives by yurishimo on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @03:09PM (#46139395)
They’re close enough as to not matter a whole lot for this discussion.
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