Because you’re allowed to drive a rig like this with a BE driver’s license in the Netherlands, the tractor unit is typically called a BE tractor. The letter B for vehicles up to 3,500 kg (7,716 lbs) GVM and the letter E for trailers and semi-trailers towed by such vehicles. Shortly said, you don’t need a commercial driver’s license to get behind the wheel of one of these.
Combinations like the one I caught on camera have become very common in the past years. They really are downsized big rigs. Sometimes even with a double cab; I have yet to see a big heavy-duty tractor with two rows of seats…
The semi-trailer is a 2013 Veldhuizen lowbed, built for transporting construction machinery. The GVM of the semi-tailer is 5,200 kg (11,464 lbs); no problem for the Iveco, as it may legally tow a semi-trailer up to 7,450 kg (16,424 lbs) GVM. Clearly visible is the semi-trailer’s own registration plate. No need to change the plate when changing the tractor unit.
The load is a Volvo ECR25D compact excavator.
Commercial vehicles in this segment, and the smaller ones, have always been available as a van and as a chassis-cab. It’s just a small step from a short wheelbase chassis-cab to a full tractor unit, as the picture shows. The Iveco Daily is RWD and is offered with single or dual rear wheels. Some competitors are the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, the Renault Master and the Ford Transit.
The 2006-2011 4th generation of the Iveco Daily has a friendly face. Does it show that it’s a Giugiaro design ? There’s a 145 hp 3.0 liter 4-cylinder diesel engine under its short and sloping hood.
The dashboard of the 4th generation. The first series of the Iveco Daily commercial vehicles was introduced in 1978.
Here’s the current 6th generation of the Iveco Daily, meeting today’s Euro 6 emission standard.
The dashboard of the latest model. The Iveco Daily is basically the Fiat Ducato’s big and more trucklike brother. Or as I read somewhere: it’s a van driver’s truck and a truck driver’s van.
Well, I’d say that this Daily chassis-cab is a truck driver’s truck.
Rigs like this to me are the epitome of versatile usefulness to me. Trailers are the answer to a lot of problems . Friend of mine had a 20′ gooseneck and he could get it into places you couldn’t put a much shorter trailer hooked to the bumper. Several years ago in the Houston area Frito Lay had a batch of step vans with flatbed like this. They had cabover vans that were pretty long. Seemed like a good idea to me but it didn’t fly. Possibly drivers were more skilled with flatbeds or possibly downtown was just too crowded. Who knows.
Nice rig. Thanks for showing it.
So far gooseneck trailers haven’t caught on here, although they are being built. I have yet so see one on the road.
About that Frito Lay. Of course I just had to look it up, I think you mean these. Small picture, but the website I found it on says it’s a 1984 P30 Grumman.
That’s it. They were all over Houston for about a year. Saw one just last week didn’t look like it it run in a long time
And Johannes, you could tell that in our ‘wonderful’ European Union one has to pay per kilometer in countries like Belgium, Germany and other countries onehas to pay toll with a truck over 3500 kilos and wit avoids the toll abroad and one does not have to comply with other rules of vehicles that are officially registered over 3500 kilo and that are regarded as real trucks !
In Europe some long distance trucks can have as many as six or seven electronic toll boxes on the windshield for different countries !!!!!!!
One Europe,yes but if we can rob the truckers it is everyman to himself !
Admit it, Rammstein. In Europe we live in Big Truck Paradise, we’re heavy weight big rig-huggers. Together with the Scandinavians. The rest ? Not so much.
Very nice set up there. Small and compact, would be really sweet for getting in and out of tight city streets here in North America.
However on studying that second photo a little closer, I can’t say the same for the lash up job on the mini excavator there. Unless there are few chain binders hidden from view behind the fender wells of that trailer….this excavator and trailer will soon be going separate ways in a roll over. Excavator boom and bucket also need to be lashed down.
So unless the operator is in process of loading/unloading, that would be “fail” tie down here in Canada.
It certainly isn’t a fail tie down here. Not even close. Must be a hell of a tie down if you want heavy construction machinery to stay on the cargo bed in case of a roll over.
I once drove a 26 tonne beavertail “plant truck” for a living, and we always put 2 ratchet straps on a mini digger. Big ones got chained, but as Johannes said, it won’t stay where it is in a rollover anyway.
Edited to say I should say 3 straps including bucket.
Strops are 2500kg rated two are plenty for a toy digger like that or you could chain it,
I would agree with Busman that this is a tie down fail. That rear ratchet strap doesn’t appear to be holding anything, as the trailer sides prevent any down force being applied to the load.
Front one looks ok, but I would have one on the bucket as well.
Unless the photo was taken before he finished strapping it down.
I think he was finished strapping it down. That tracked excavator, with a low center of gravity, parked on a lowbed semi-trailer, another low center of gravity, won’t move an inch on its 10 km ride home. On flat and tiptop roads, I have to add. That rig is as stable as a brick lying flat on the ground.
Never mind falling over, how about keeping it out of the cab if you crash?
A concrete sewer pipe hauler once told me: strap down all you want, it won’t help a bit in a crash, a brisk manoeuvre or when cornering too fast.
If that digger lands in the cab, then the frontal impact was probably so serious that there won’t be a cab left anyway to land into.
Cool wee rig, here you can drive a vehicle or combination of 6000 kgs on your car license but not if its earning money or for wages, then you need a heavy vehicle license, We have plenty of this sized rigs but usually used Japanese cabover trucks are the tow vehicle, some are alarmingly underpowered they are legal, some do have enough grunt but cost more Iveco has a large presence here with the Daily range and the heavy duty trucks.
The Iveco Daily is in the same size segment as the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and Ford Transit, to name a few. But it goes beyond them when it comes to GVM (up to 7 metric ton for the Daily), robustness (just compare their chassis) and power (up to 210 hp for Iveco’s 3.0 liter Euro 6 diesel).
That’s why the Iveco is the preferred choice when it comes to the top-end of the “wee rigs”. Here’s the latest model:
i had once rented an iveco daily van of one or two generations prior to the featured one for hauling furniture, still not sure if it has been legal or not, since its been the heavier grade one with long wheelbase and duals in the rear and me with a weewee class b license.
The rental company consisted of a windowed container in some depressing outskirts of nürnberg, surrounded by nearly dead vans. The sprinter, i wanted to have in the first place, stood amongst them, recently deceased of gearbox failure, as the lady with heavy eastern european accent told me while leading me to the iveco.
It was running sweetly on the autobahn, though the interior showed that it has seen some abuse, with humble drinking behaviour of just below 10l/100km. But in cramped downtown stuttgart it got me sweating by its sheer size, since the largest beast i had to deal with before was a 70s swb VW LT camper. But contrary to the latter it had precise power steering without a dead point of two hands width, so i managed without causing damage.
Nice story. The biggest Iveco Daily van ? I think we should call it an integral box truck, or something like that. And looking at this, the Fiat Ducato / Ram ProMaster certainly isn’t a “fullsize van”….
Apparently, a lot of companies in the U.S. who previously bought cutaway E-350s with a box now just got a Transit 350 LWB extended-length high roof.
The Ducato and its Ford competitor, the Transit Custom (not the standard Transit), seem to occupy a strange “mid-size” niche. They’re physically as wide as a full-size van, and can be just as long and tall in certain configurations, but are FWD unibody.
Although the Fiat Ducato is also available as a chassis-cab, unlike the Transit Custom.
They’re widely used as light flatbed trucks with a single or double cab. Also, the Fiat Ducato is very common as the basis for campers. Since it’s FWD you can build pretty much anything you want behind the cab.
The US variant of the Transit is RWD, I suspect so they can use Ford’s domestic light-truck power trains.
Neil the 4th Gen Transit is a global model.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Transit#Fourth_generation_.282013.E2.80.93present.29
The big Transit here in Europe is RWD too but there’s a mid-size Transit Custom which is FWD like the Ducato.
Ford hiving off “Transit” as a sub-brand (Transit, Transit Custom, Transit Connect and Transit Courier in descending size order) doesn’t help with the confusion!
Neil, it’s all a bit confusing. The Ford Transit Custom (the one DrZ is referring to) is FWD and is smaller than the Ford Transit. Edit: see splateagle’s comment above.
I was confused because I though that “Drzh…“ was discussing the US market, where the only FWD Transit is the Connect, and “Custom” was in the past a name Ford used only for a trim level, not a whole different model!
It seems the nearest thing to a Transit Custom here is the NV200.
Actually, I just did some searching; there will be a Nissan NV300 soon, fully based on the current generation Renault Trafic (see below). The previous generation was also sold as a Nissan, the Primastar.
That means that we have one and the same van with five different badges:
Renault Trafic, Opel and Vauxhall Vivaro, Fiat Talento, Nissan NV300.
Clearly in the same segment as the Ford Transit Custom.
Here’s the front of the “new ” Nissan NV300. The rest: see Renault Trafic above.
The Transit Custom is a little smaller than the Ducato etc, and not really comparable. It is more like the size of a VW Transporter.
Interesting post Johannes, it would be a lot more common to see an Isuzu NPR doing the same job here.
Thanks. The only Japanese trucks available here are the Fuso Canter and Isuzu N-series. Light COE-trucks that sell in very small numbers.
Heavy-duty Japanese trucks have never been offered here. The thing is this: the evolution of the European heavy-duty COE-truck went so fast in the seventies and early eighties that by the mid-eighties everything else was some sort of medieval relic (tongue-in-sheek, tongue-in-sheek…). Of course, after that era the evolution continued and continued.
I’m talking about comfort, ergonomics, handling, power, payload and load volume and efficiency (fuel efficiency included). Plus the fact that vertical integration, as practiced by the Euro-truckmakers, turned out to be the right path into the future.
There’s a reason that Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Iveco and VW (through MAN and Scania) control the global heavy-duty truck market.
No Hino in the Netherlands? They’re not common in the UK, but I have seen a Hino 32 tonne tipper once or twice. Maybe they don’t do LHD markets?
No Hino here. I believe Hino (Toyota) has some sort of back office / parts depot in Belgium, but that’s all I ever heard of them. A few years ago the light Toyota Dyna COE was also withdrawn from our market.
By the way, Fuso (Mitsubishi) is a Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) company.
The Isuzu N-series is 7.5 ton GVM max, and the Fuso Canter 8.55 ton. There’s also the light-weight Nissan NT400 Cabstar, forgot about that one.
No air brakes on the trailer? I don’t see any glad hands on the back of the cab
Its a light vehicle not air braked like a proper heavy truck.
The glad hands are not on the back of the cab. I found this picture of a similar Iveco Daily tractor, ready for towing a semi-trailer with air brakes.
I have no experience with something like this and have zero interesting information to add but just wanted to note that I do find this stuff fascinating and find the comments very interesting as well from those that have actual experience. Keep it up!