Thanks to Jay Laverick from www.truck-driver.co.uk for bringing this scary close call to my attention.
Ice Cold Close Call
2
It’s Benz But Not As You Know It!
BharatBenz. That’s the name that all Indian truckers have on their lips…..perhaps.Yesterday a few Indian journalists were given a sneak preview of the BharatBenz. Daimler Truck’s subsidiary Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) revealed the new BharatBenz brand heavy-duty truck. This is the first-ever truck “Made in India”. BharatBenz will enter the ever growing Indian market for medium heavy-duty and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. This PR comes courtesy of Daimler. So you may well be able to see that the the truck has used the Mercedes Benz Atego/Axor cab and mirrors.
Andreas Renschler, the Daimler Board of Management Member responsible for Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses, said; “The trucks are based on existing Daimler commercial vehicle platforms. Indian specialists developed the trucks for the local market, where they are also built. This is the most effective way for us to participate in the growth of India’s volume segment. Our product range focuses on quality, reliability, and efficiency and particularly targets the modern domestic segment, which shows huge growth potential and reflects the growing demands of Indian customers.”
You’ll have to wait til the 2nd March before the complete BharatBenz lineup in the 6 to 49-ton range is unveiled. The Daimler PR says; The BharatBenz heavy-duty truck will be built on the Mercedes-Benz Axor platform, and the future light and medium-duty trucks will be based on the Fuso Canter and Fighter series. The new trucks will meet India’s BS III emissions standard this is a similar standard to our Euro 3 emissions.
The PR goes on to say; “The light, medium-duty, and heavy-duty range of BharatBenz commercial vehicles will be manufactured at the new plant in Oragadam near Chennai in Southern India. Construction of the plant on an area of 160 hectares is almost completed, and production trial runs for engines and transmissions have already begun. The production facility has a total dedicated investment of over 44 billion Indian rupees (approximately €700 million). The plant’s initial production capacity will be 36,000 units per year and can be ramped up to 70,000 units per year. By the end of the year, the company’s dealership network will encompass around 70 locations throughout India.”
I often think how resourceful trucks are when it comes to third world markets. We have a range of trucks released over here, then 10 or so years later the same cab / truck is still being released as a new truck some where else in the world. So the Mercedes Axor cab isn’t exactly old but it’s being used in a new guise, apply a new grill (considered to be the face of a vehicle by many!), stick on a new set of badges and Bingo! you have a new truck range. I just thought you might like to read a bit what else is going on in the world of trucks, sometimes to much European stuff need’s to be broken up by a little “World News” and also it gives you some thing new to tell the wife!
Did you know you can still buy a brand new Iveco Turbostar cab?? Now on a Russian built Ural truck.
Are you Sitting Comfortably Ask Scania
A new year a new you? Is one of your new year’s resolution health related? This usefull PR has been put out by Scania. I’m sure you can apply it to what ever your daily seating arrangment is, whether it’s in a big Swede or not!;
The driving position in a Scania cab can suit the tallest, smallest or heaviest driver. But what is the ideal position to reduce the load on the back, neck and shoulders? We have put together a driver’s guide to help you decide.
1. Raise the seat to a comfortable position. To sit correctly, you should have an upright seating position.
2. Tip the seat forward. This increases the chance of an upright position.
3.Tilt the backrest backward so that the hip angle is at 100 to 110 degrees. This means that the centre of gravity of the body is closer to the spine, which relieves the load on the discs and spinal joints and reduces the load on the hip joints.
4. Set the lumbar support so that it follows the shape of your back.
5. Adjust the seat to a fist’s width away from the back of your knees.
6. Move the entire seat to a position where you can press down the pedals fully without straining.
7. With the adjustable steering column position, adjust the steering wheel so it’s as close as possible to your body. This reduces the forward torsion on your body, relieving the load on your back and neck.
A MAN’s MAN
A few weeks back my bossman had to make a unexpected trip out to the continent in his car. Seeing as there was an overnight stay it would have been rude for him not to come back via the Dutch German border at Venlo to see what was lingering at the parking area. Among other things in the early morning light still yet to open it’s curtains was this flexible MAN. Wearing the colours of Gartner KG based in Lambach, Austria, this MAN was loaded with MEN or should that be MAN’s?!
I think what caught the boss’s eye was just how adjustable this truck is. Now seeing as I am writing this and we are not actually stood next to the truck, it’s very difficult to show you just how many parts of both the truck and trailer can be moved in order to accommodate what ever vehicles / load is required. The rear truck’s front axle is on a bed that extends in or out, it retracts back so the rear lights are almost flush with the red side skirt of the trailer, make sense? You can also see that all the wheel wells have small inserts to help raise or lower the vehicle. The rear axle of the front truck on the trailer is on a highly maneuverable ramp as you can see it can raise right up, sort of as it sits now or it will also fold right down and sit flat on the trailer. In turn the front axle of the front truck on the trailer is also sat on a hydraulic ramp that can be raised or lowered. Are you getting the all the raising and lowering!? Also not the slight spacing between the first and second axle, also for a wheel well. All in all with all that raising and lowering, I don’t think there will be many vehicles you can’t load.
You can see the front ramp on the trailer clearly in the above photo. Also note just for extra flexibility the wheel chocks that are secured into set of holes on the ramps depending on what is required. Now as for the rear of the truck, it looks like the rear section slides up and down to different heights and / or it tilts. There is also has retractable ramps either side of the marker board.
The truck and trailer have been expertly built by German company FVG Fahrzeugbau GmbH and you can actually see one of Gartners trucks in the gallery pages. I think it’s pretty damn clever how they manage to build a truck like this and fit everything in to such tight dimensions in order to maximise the load capability (that’s a bit technical for me – sorry!).
The other thing we were trying to work out is where he was taking his load of MEN. It looks like the truck is Polish registered and the trailer has Austria plates on so no real clues there. The trucks could have been made in Munich or Salzgitter in Germany, Krakow, Poland or a good guess would be Steyr in Austria as I think they make small trucks, such as the MAN TGL there, but I could be wrong. I can only think he would be taking them to a port such as Rotterdam or Zeebrugge to ship them to the UK as all 3 trucks on the load are Right Hand Drive. Any way that’s enough from me, smart truck, good photo’s and plenty to chat about amongst you techno-phobes!
All that is left to do is apologise on my bosses behalf to the driver for making him jump as he opened his curtains. The boss was busy taking photo’s and having a nose round thinking the driver was fast asleep, so when the driver drew his curtains he obviously thought, “I best be off!” so he hoped in his seat and buggered off down the road……..he must of stopped down the road to do his daily walkround checks!
Princess & The Giant
A Princess 32M and HC Wilsons European Giant that is! No delightful Christmas based fairy tale here, just a few Million GBP of top engineering. The Princess in our tale is The Princess 32M Luxury Cruising Yacht and the Giant is HC Wilson, European Giant, a V8 Scania 164 580hp. A good match perhaps, although the price difference between the 2 vehicles is fairly substantial. The fairy god mother marrying the two together is a monster Ainscough crane sat on the banks of the River Thames.
The Princess arrived at Excel London the last weekend before Christmas. The job was arranged by boat transportation specialist Abbey Transport from Norwich. Abbey and Wilson’s have always had a good working relationship, and as Abbey dont have a trailer large enough to carry the Princess, they use HC Wilson. Last year Wilson’s were only involved in removing the boat from the show hall back to the banks of the Thames, as the haulier who took the boat into the hall managed to have a little “incident” on the way in through the door. When the boat in question is 32m Long, 7.5m wide, 10.5m high and weighs in excess of 105 tons, a specialist truck and driver team are required; Que the Abbey and HC Wilson Transport combination.
The boat arrived in London in time to have the rest of it’s display built around it in time for the London Boat Show that starts at the Excel London on the 6th January 2012 and runs right through to the 15th January. First up, the 9 (I think) axle Ainscough crane lifts the Princess 32 clear out of the Thames and the then gently slews round to find the stillages that are already attached to HC Wilson 12 axle Scheuerle trailer. You can see the blue stillages clearly in the photo above. The boat is lowered into the stillages and thats where it will stay untill it is lifted back out into the Thames at the end of January. Once loaded onto the Wilson’s trailer it is only a short, although slow, drive across the Excel carparks to the the show hall. The total loaded drive is approx 200 yards.
The Princess 32 is a proper high class motor yacht, you just have to see the photo gallery on the Princess website to know what I mean. The boat will set you back some where between £6-£8 Million, depending on your spec of course. I think some one said at the 2011 show Princess sold 8 of these 32 metre super yachts, but don’t quote me! I am also informed by Mick Bond, the photographer and Wilson’s 2nd Man, that at full power the boat will use a 1000 litres of fuel an hour, that puts the big Scania V8 to shame! For now I will leave you with the rear view of the loaded truck, until the return leg back to the Thames at the end of January. The Scheuerle trailer is 2.75m wide so the full 7.5m width of the boat looks huge, in fact the whole boat looks huge, it really does look like a fish out of water doesn’t it. I have to say I think I prefer the blue paint scheme over the completely white boat we did in January.
Just so you don’t think i’m biased in any way, here is Abbey Tranport’s DAF being loaded with a slightly smaller boat.
Alcoa 17.5 Inch Rims
How on earth I have missed this I have no idea! It’s only thanks to my G’day Mate Julian from Australia sending me the Alcoa April 2011 Newsletter I found out. When I went to the IAA Show in Hanover at the end of 2010, I found (and fell in love with!!) a little white MAN TGL which had fitted a set of 17.5 Alcoa wheels. I hunted and hunted about and asked in my best German and could not get any answers. Please read the following short snippet from Alcoa’s April Newsletter;
From April 2011 onwards, the MAN TGL series can be ordered with Alcoa forged aluminium wheels. The 17.5” x 6.75” hub piloted 6 studs on 245 mm bolt circle wheel is available at MAN in two finishes: Brushed and Dura-Bright®. MAN is the first truck OEM offering this new Alcoa wheel for trucks of 6-12 tons GVW. The wheel can also be fitted on the MB Atego, but is not yet available at Mercedes-Benz. Retrofitting can be arranged via the Alcoa distributors. For mounting the wheel on 6-12 tons trucks from other brands, please seek the advice of the Alcoa Sales Managers or contact us on info.wheels@alcoa.com.
NEWS: Scania to Slow Production Rate
Is the current world climate begining to take a toll on truck buying? Seems that Scania think so. This is what todays’s press release has to say;
Scania foresees a continued slowdown in demand in various markets and, starting in January, will lower the production rate at its units in Europe and Latin America. This adjustment will be handled within the terms of existing flexibility agreements at the company. Economic worries in Europe and the world have made customers more hesitant about investing in new products. In November 2011, Scania cut back its production rate by about 15 percent at the global level, but since then demand has deteriorated further.
“The slowdown in Europe and the Middle East has continued. Meanwhile we are also seeing a lower rate of order bookings from other markets.” says Martin Lundstedt, Executive Vice President in charge of Scania’s sales and marketing.
In Brazil there is uncertainty about the market trend during the first half of 2012 in light of the transition to new Euro 5 emission legislation and the trend of global demand for agricultural products and other commodities. At the global level, Scania will lower its production rate by about 15 percent starting in January. The adjustment of production levels will occur at Scania’s production units in Europe and Latin America and will be handled within the terms of the existing flexibility agreements between the company and the respective trade unions.
“This implies that we must gradually adjust staffing, which unfortunately means that we will be unable to renew the contracts of more than 1,000 fixed term temporary employees in our global production network,” says Anders Nielsen, Executive Vice President in charge of Scania’s production and logistics.
As a result of the production cutback that Scania carried out in November, the contracts of 900 of a total of 1,400 fixed term temporary employees at European production units were not renewed. The adjustment that has now been decided will mean that most of the remaining number of fixed term temporary employees in Europe will be affected, along with a majority of the fixed term temporary employees in Latin America.
For nearly two years, Scania has been working with short and stable delivery times, approximately 8 weeks in Europe, with the aim of getting the right signals to the production network as early as possible when changes occur in order bookings. This minimises inventory build-up.
Thanks to Wilson Pra for the photo from Brazil’s Fenatran Show.
Axel Dubois Thermo Transit – Belgium
A few weeks back while I was traipsing through the undergrowth of the Internet at endless truck photo’s I came across what I can only describe as an almost perfect truck. you know how in your head you have a picture of what your perfect truck would be, the colours, the truck, the wheels and accessories, if you had your own truck you know how you make it look. Having had my own trucks before, I have a rough idea of what I like. Blues and whites for colours, with a few accessories but nothing over the top. I have owned an airbrushed truck before and in all honesty I don’t think I would do it again. I’d rather have a simple but affective paint job. I also like painted accessories rather than stainless steel ones, things such as light bars and I even tend to favour a painted wheel at the moment over a shiny set of Alcoa’s. Having said all this you will now have a better idea of why this truck seems to be almost my perfect truck.
As you can see it has everything I like. Even better that it’s on a V8 Scania! The truck belongs to a small Belgian haulier who goe’s by the name of Axel Dubois Thermo Transit. Where to start??! The simple but stunning paint job, the painted light bars, cab steps, grill and wheels, the few spot lights, grill lights, the light box on the headboard and the aftermarket sun-visor. All in all I don’t think I can say much more other than it is virtually perfect. Even coupled to it’s plain-ish white fridge trailer it still looks good. I guess some of you prefer a painted trailer rather than the white. I can’t say I disagree, but in some case’s such as this I think the plain trailer makes the tractor unit stand out more. On the other hand if you painted the trailer the same scheme as the cab it would look very very impressive, but would it be too much?? They do say you can have too much of a good thing! The truck runs all over Europe pulling it’s fridge trailer mainly, but I have seen photo’s of it pulling a Euro-liner as well.
The other thing I really like about the paint job is the big star on the side and the smaller stars dotted about on the midnight blue part of the cab. When I had my airbrushed Mercedes Atego I had stars and planets painted in the background and I think it looks good. It breaks up the big expanse of one colour. Also note the little Polar Bear and the painted A-frame holding the air lines. The painted wheels look great, although I do wonder if Mr Dubois had as much trouble making his white nut covers as I did when I was making white ones for my old Scania 141. At this point I would like to thank Patrick Pawluk from www.padborg-express.com for allowing me to use the above 2 photo’s. They are both Patrick’s own. To see more of his handy camera work go to Padborg-express.com when you have finished reading this. I don’t know who’s the next 3 photo’s are, so apologies for not crediting you if they are yours!
The trailer is also simple but effective. Lots of marker lights but not they are not over the top, the LED rear burger lights are great and oh so red when you see them in the dark. In these 2 photo’s the truck has a set of ally wheels, I wonder which came first the painted or the shiny? Did / does the trailer have painted wheels? One of you must know the answer? Leave a comment or email me: ben@truckblog.co.uk
All in all I think i’d be hard pressed to find a truck better suited to my requirements, unless of course I ever get round to owning my own truck again. I just hope Mr Dubois isn’t one to keep adding little bits to the truck. When you find drivers who keep adding bits to their truck, eventually it becomes to much and it starts to look too busy and over the top. If it stays like it is, then perfect! I best get pally with Axel Dubois so I can copy the paint job!! Would it suit my little 12 ton MAN TGL LX?? I’d be happy to try and find out that’s for sure………..As it goes I have sent Mr Dubois a friend request on Facebook, but had no acceptance yet, then again can you blame him??!!
Still No Activ Update!!
One of my drivers was told by the staff at Bremen based Activ Cars that they’d send soe photo’s to the blog soon………..nothing yet!
After a delivery not far from Activ Cars base in Bremen one of our drivers had 30 mins to spare so he called in at Activ HQ. After a lengthy conversation they decided that he’d be allowed to take some photo’s all the great blog cause, only for the decision to be overtuned by the boss as all the Mercedes trucks were all dirty and they would email over some new fleet photo’s once they had a few trucks back and they had been washed and brushed up. Now I suppose it could be true that at this time of year it can be difficult to get any fleet clean, so i’ll keep my fingers crossed for a Christmas holiday surprise! My driver did say there is an English man working in the office who seemed quite keen on the blog so hopefully one of these days he’ll make contact!!
For now i’ll just have to make do with the few photo’s they emailed a few years back, how hard done by am I!! If any of you have any contact with Activ Cars (they do come to all Airbus facilities in the UK each week) drivers or vehicles then email over your Activ Spots; ben@truckblog.co.uk
Freightline Europe Update
Last weekend I put a post on HERE about Dutch company Freightline Europe’s unfortunate mishap in the snow. Just thought you might like to know that once it was upright again the damage didn’t look to bad! I reckon they could fix it or put a new cab on and a body and use it again. I guess it depends on what the insurers say and if the chassis has had a twist! The big Scania’s next move is unknown, but i’m sure if Freightline Europe do put it back on the road, we’ll soon find out. Thanks to Neil Jarrold of www.euro-wheels.com for the photo!
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