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Cab-over, also known as Cab Over Engine (COE), cab forward (U.S. English), or forward control (British English), is a body style of truck, bus, or van that has a vertical front or "flat face", with the cab of the truck sitting above (or forward of) the front axle. This contrasts with a conventional truck where the engine is mounted in front of the driver. This truck configuration is currently common among European and Japanese truck manufacturers, because the laws governing overall vehicle lengths are strict and the body style allows longer trailers (in the case of a tractor-trailer truck) or a longer cargo area (in the case of a "straight" truck, a truck with a single rigid frame supporting all components and the load) for the same overall length. Although popular among United States heavy truckers and trucking companies during the 1970s because of strict length laws in many states, when those length laws were repealed, most heavy-truck makers moved to other body styles. It is, however, still very popular in the light- and medium-duty truck segment. ==History== The first truck in the United States was built by Autocar in 1899 using a format then called "engine-under-the-seat" and was available with optional 5 or 8 horsepower motors.〔http://www.autocartruck.com/Page/Company/#history〕 Although early Autocar trucks were not exactly "cab-over", since the truck did not have a cab, per se, they were the fore-runners to COEs. The Sternberg company of Wisconsin produced cab-over trucks as early as 1907, though by 1914 only their seven-ton model was a cab-over. They reintroduced the cab-over layout in 1933 with their "Camel Back" model, which allowed the cab to be tilted to access the engine. The introduction of the first modern cab-over layout in the U.S. is credited to industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost, who, with engineer Ray Spiller, designed a cab-over truck for the White Motor Company in 1932. Schreckengost was later joined by other designers such as Raymond Loewy who designed the Metro series of vans and trucks for International Harvester. The bodies for these vehicles were initially produced by the Metropolitan Body Company (MBC). The company produced a wide variety of truck and commercial bodies for several vehicle manufacturers such as Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge Bros., and International Harvester until 1948 when they were purchased by the latter. MBC was instrumental in the development of COE route delivery bodies in the 1930s.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Metropolitan Auto and Carriage Co., Metropolitan Body Co. )〕 The laws of the time limited overall truck length to on highways. Setting the cab over the engine and front axle shaved several feet off the length of the tractor, feet which could then be added to the length of the trailer while keeping the dimensions of the entire truck within the permissible limit. Schreckengost patented the design in 1934. Autocar reintroduced the engine-under-the-seat format with their Model U in 1933, which became a staple of US roads and the US Military through World War II and well into the 1950s.〔 White-Freightliner introduced its first tilting cab-over design in 1958, which allowed the entire cab to tilt forward for access to the engine.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cab over」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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