spell checker

A word that the spell checker doesn't pick up is artic.

Chakolate...

I'll bite - what does it mean? I couldn't find it in any online
dictionary.

david...

i like to use answers.com for such inquiries and the full answer, as you
described, matey, was there... i located it on a disambiguation page...

Dink...

The semi is the trailer.

semi (noun) - A trailer having wheels only in the rear; the front is
supported by the towing vehicle.

Crusher...

A bit misleading. A fifth wheel tractor is sometimes referred to as a "semi
tractor" because that's what it pulls, not what it is. We also have full
trailers that are in some states (usually flat ones) pulled behind the
semi-trailers. As Dink wrote, the "semi" is the trailer.

david...

ya' know... i never knew that. no, i haven't lost sleep on it, but i always
wondered why they were called semis and i was never sure whether it was the
entire rig or just the trailer. thanks...:)

Michael Fanner...

I can't help thinking from researching this here web, that 'semi' has
become a generic term for an for any articulated truck. I found a site of
photos that had an image entitled 'Semi hauling logs' and that is common.
I'm not arguing with your or Dink about the origins or the reality but
even one of the manufacturers sites showed pictures of the tractor units
they sell under the heading of 'semi trucks'.

Anyway, I don't really care what *you* call them. They're lorries, and
that's all there is to it. ;-)

david...

Yoj...

Me, too. ;-)

if you guys over there wud just speak anglish we wuddent have these
problums... :) lorry... furgodsake... :)

Jim Everman...

**Dalin**...

A vehicle that articulates well. After all, if you anthropomorphize a
vehicle I suppose you can hear it.

david...

uh, i call it a semi or an 18-wheeler... :-)) 'articulated' is just not a
word in common usage (for me)... for example, a camper that uses a fifth-
wheel hookup is not referenced as articulated... somehow, we've not found
a need for the term in the U.S. -- at least none that i've seen....

Jim Everman...

How about single axle trailers, making a 14-wheeler? Shall we try to
determine that the boogie is called that turns a single axle
semi-trailer into a full trailer?

I pulled this from a camping trailer site:

"Demountable : an ordinary demountable where the body can
be demounted from the flatbed truck/pickup using jacking
legs.

"Fifth Wheel : an articulated vehicle, mounted onto the
rear of a pickup and attached to it via a 'fifth wheel'
coupling, so that the parts will bend where joined when
turning corners while towing.

Note they define a fifth wheel by referring to articulated, not vice versa.

But my experience came mostly for an engineering point of view, so yer
prolly right..

david...

david...

thanks, bob, that's sorta' what i was trying to say. I don't know a front
end loader from a backhoe, but i've heard the term... we don't call it an
articulated loader... we in U.S. tend to call things by what they do and
not how they're assembled. btw, i just looked up front end loaders on
web-search... yes, i've seen those a lot... just never knew their name...:)

Crusher...

Front end loaders, hunged in the middle, are articulated vehicles. A little
factoid- the hinge means that these vehicles are about the only four wheel
vehicle on the road that has "perfect" steering, i.e. there is no scrubbing
of tires when it turns. Your car, regardless of who made it, scrubs its
front tires when it turns.

well, it's probably also my upbringing and my life environment...
"articulated" would have been a fancy word not used. and i don't think of
the term when i see such vehicles. for example, dalin and i were on
vacation recently and saw a motor home that would bend around corners...:)
it was one contiguous vehicle - not a truck and trailer setup. in
hindsight, i would call it an articulated motor home, but at the time i
just thought it unusual... :)

It was always my understanding that you take a semi-truck, tractor and
hitch it to a semi-truck, trailer and that made a full blown truck. Is
there a name for the bogie that supports (has the wheels) the fount of
a semi trailer to make it a full trailer?

I know there's a trucker in here somewhere (prolly laughing at us).

david...

Yoj...

We have some articulated buses in Southern California. They have an
accordion-like section in the middle that lets them bend when going around
corners. The term "articulated" is used to describe them.

david...

ok, i give in.... somehow, i managed to live all the years and never
heard the word 'articulated'... :) and now i've seen the word enough
to last a lifetime.... :) i looked it up the other day and it's a very
interesting word that applies in a lot of areas, far beyond machinery,
yet it's about machinery where the word is largely used...

Yoj...

I know what you mean. You can go all your life without hearing of a word, a
term or a person. Once you become aware of it, you see it everywhere.

ain't english great!!! i love this thread... :) and i'm learning from it
also...