An 18-Wheeler That Feels Like Home

Long-haul truckers make their money traveling far from home, so they want rigs that feel like home. Too often they’re more like cheap motels, something Peter Boatwright and John Cagan changed when they helped big-rig maker Navistar design the interior of its flagship rig. The two Carnegie Mellon University professors didn’t know the first thing […]

Lonestar_truck

Long-haul truckers make their money traveling far from home, so they want rigs that feel like home. Too often they're more like cheap motels, something Peter Boatwright and John Cagan changed when they helped big-rig maker Navistar design the interior of its flagship rig.

The two Carnegie Mellon University professors didn't know the first thing about life on the road when they started work on the International LoneStar, but they knew plenty about design, having written the book, "The Design of Things to Come." That and hours spent chatting up drivers at truck stops helped them create a "lifestyle savvy" interior that packs the comforts of home into a rig as popular among truckers as hot coffee and cheap fuel.

Boatwright and Cagan started by checking out the rigs already on the road and were surprised by what they found. "Most of the trucks out there are pretty Spartan, and people live in them for weeks at a time," Cagan told us.

Indeed. Dave Allendorph, chief designer for Navistar's truck group, says truckers might spend as many as 120 hours a week in their rigs. That's a staggering amount of time, which is why the professors were surprised by how little thought often went into big rig interiors. For example, many trucks have two bunks but only need one. Cagan and Boatwright tossed the bunks in favor of a fold-out bed with a 42-inch mattress, then used the space they saved to install airline-style storage bins.

Other creature comforts include a fold-down desk, a boomin' stereo with 11 speakers and a subwoofer, and a fridge. There's even a hardwood floor, a touch added after students found truckers often customize their cabs with hardwood or Oriental rugs to create a defined transition from the driver's seat to the living space. "They want to make it like their living rooms," Cagan said.

The professors also placed a premium on efficiency, at one point even watching truckers prepare meals and clean up afterward. "We reduced the number of steps and then improved that," Cagan said.

The reworked interior is matched by the redesigned exterior, which features an aerodynamic yet "retro-futuristic" look that's proven popular with truckers. When Navistar unveiled the truck last year, the tattoo artists it hired to ink up potential buyers kept busy. "There was a line of people waiting to get the truck on their arm – sometimes both arms – and most of them hadn’t even driven the truck," Cagan said.

Cagan says working on the project led him and Boatwright to develop "compassion and understanding" for the lives of truckers. But they haven't gotten the tattoos.

UPDATE, 11:10 a.m. Jan 28: Mark Burd, public relations director of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon, wants to ensure due credit is given to all involved in the project and passed along this note: "Design contributions for the components of LoneStar's interior were the result of graduate-level coursework and research projects completed by students and administered by Boatwright, Cagan and other professors at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and coordinated by Navistar's Engineering group."*
*

Images: Navistar.

*Lonestar_04

Lonestar_06

Lonestar_05

Lonestar_02

Lonestar_03