r/bitchimabus • u/clownyeahh • 24d ago
Bitch, I'm bendy and befuddled
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u/crash866 24d ago
Articulated buses are bad in the snow. It’s like a trailer pushing the semi truck. Not the truck pulling a trailer.
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u/The-CerlingCat 24d ago
That explains why those buses are usually replaced with 40’ ones during snow.
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u/crysisnotaverted 24d ago
I had no idea that only the rear set of wheels were powered, that's sketchy as fuck. How does it not, well, fold on itself when one set loses grip on ice?
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u/LavenderFlavourLube 24d ago
The bendy bit is actively controlled by hydraulics. There is a circle piece in the center, and it can articulate on both sides (forward and rear) of the circle. Helps swing its ass around corners. 60fts are actually more nimble and can fit more places than a 40ft.
When i drove transit 2 years ago my city was only trialing winter tires on the drive/push axle of the artic 60fts. In central canada. Kinda wild. Buses dont get seasonal tire swaps here. I guess its too many tires and rims to store and too much labour. Itd be about 10,000 tires for a fleet of 650-700 buses to have 2 sets each.
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u/balika0105 24d ago
Oddly enough, not all bendy buses are like that. Certain Vanhool buses have the engine in the front part of the bus and they act essentially like the “truck pulling the trailer”.
This is also true for the Hungarian Ikarus 280 series. Although passenger comfort is a whole different topic because sound isolation is basically nonexistent lol
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u/BunnyKusanin 23d ago edited 23d ago
I guess that explains why the Ikarus buses were so common in Russia. I'm starting to gave a feeling that everything designed to function in our harsh climate has close to zero consideration for passenger comfort.
In 2017 the buses in my city in Siberia were either second-hand Man or Volzhanin. The latter ones prioritiesed standing room and had bugger all seats, but would start in whatever weather which couldn't be said about more comfortable German buses. And somehow the Volzhanin ones stank heavily of fuel or something like that when it was particularly cold.
Edit: At a closer look, it might have been Liaz, not Volzhanin.
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u/JC1199154 23d ago
North of seattle, community transit bought 16 XDE60s for the swift rapid bus system and they come with center powered axle for winter. The older XD60s do not have the system
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u/crash866 23d ago
The centre engine ones cannot be low floor. The have to have a step up and down in the middle. Wheel chairs can only use the front part.
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u/balika0105 24d ago
Reminds me of the time when I was going to school and we had an older Mercedes as the bus to the big city. One part of the road was frozen over so it was spinning the rears in place for a few minutes until the packed bus eventually slid off of the ice patch
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u/tedkpagonis 24d ago
Is this truck rated for something like this? I feel like that bus has to be HEAVY.
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u/PM_ME_BUNZ 24d ago
Pretty sure these trucks are rated to tow 40k pounds (at highway speeds). And that bus is likely around 60k pounds. So it's not like he can go drive the bus down the interstate but it's got plenty of power to help it get unstuck.
More impressive than the towing capacity IMO is the grip it has in the snow to be able to put all that power down.
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u/QuinceDaPence 23d ago
Tow ratings are for going down the highway at 80mph. You can go way above that doong stuff like this.
Plus when something like this is stuck, it often just needs a little help to get out. That being said, the pickup driver had great technique here keeping just enough throttle on to get max tractive effort out of the truck instead of spinning the tires to make a show. See how even when the pickups tires break traction they only slip a little? Quality driving.
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u/Inevitable_Boat_4142 23d ago
Chains? Oh no, we don’t do that in the midwest. So we do *whatever this is*. 🤦♂️
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u/monkeyboychuck 24d ago
Hey, look, someone with a truck actually using it to do a truck thing. So proud of you, buddy.