August 15, 2007 Vol. 3, No. 16

Another quiet week at Lake Wobegon product-wise, but it sure wasn’t quiet just 10 days ago up at Notre-dame-du-nord in Quebec. The noise was deafening at the 27th running of the wild and woolly Rodeo du Camion. And as usual I spent the whole weekend wondering why more engine and drivetrain parts don’t break when subjected to the punishment that trucks take at this comprehensively unique trucking event.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Rodeo, it’s a charity-driven party in a little French town 6 or 7 hours due north of Toronto. A town of 1200 souls that swells to 70,000 for one weekend in August every year. And some of those 70,000 folks are sober.

The weekend includes a show-and-shine competition and more, but it’s really focused on truck races. They’re drag races actually, in which pairs of trucks in six horsepower classes race against each other up a short 7% grade on one of the town’s main streets. Each class is divided into two competitions, one with bobtail tractors facing off and the other with loaded B-trains trailing behind. And that’s where the strain on driveline parts shows.

Pulling 63,500 kg up that grade with your right foot stuck to the floor and your right hand moving the shifter faster
than the eye can see, how could you possibly assume that your U-joints and driveshafts and power dividers and turbos and all the rest of your mechanical bits could take the abuse?

For the most part, with the exception of the purpose-built racing trucks in the Open Class, these are working machines that would be hauling log trailers or flatdecks if they weren’t having a blast on this once-a-year track.