The core business of the Patrick van der Mark Shitgroup is collecting fresh horse manure. This super clean dream machine is the company’s only Iveco, the rest of the fleet consists of Volvo and Scania trucks and tractor units. An Italian job, with no less than 570 prancing horses.
Since we’re on the subject of manure and horses, horse manure -straw included- is a major component of the compost used for the cultivation process of edible mushrooms, mostly champignons.
Back to the muck collector. Iveco’s parent company is CNH Industrial. The brand name is an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, founded in 1975. Basically it was a merger of some Italian commercial vehicle manufacturers, plus a French and a German truck maker. Fiat’s truck division was the largest (by far) and leading company in the whole process.
The 2017 Iveco Stralis 6×2 truck as shown here is powered by a 12.9 liter inline-six FPT engine, better known as the FPT Cursor 13. FPT is short for Fiat Powertrain Technologies; their line of industrial diesels is used in vans, buses, trucks, agricultural machinery, construction machinery and the marine. All over the globe, that is.
Both the truck and the trailer are loaded with this crane, so a self loader indeed. Unloading by tipping. To avoid any confusion, the truck is a side tipper.
The Iveco is rated at a legal maximum GVM of 28 metric tons, so is the GS Meppel drawbar trailer. That’s a grand total of 56 metric tons. But that’s not important right now, simply because the gross weight limit for such a big rig is 50 metric tons in the Netherlands. It’s what we call a genuine vijftigtonner, a fifty-tons combination.
The company’s name started as a joke, a comical hint to the not-all-too-big companies that use the Groep/Group reference in their name. “From now on, given my line of business, I represent the Shitgroup”.
Now enjoy your mushrooms! Any kind, I don’t mind.
Ha!
At least they were the ones making the joke.
In Germany there is a bus company called “fücker” or “fuecker”.
Foreigners started making jokes. They ended up embracing the joke, as they no longer have the umlaut on the name
And then there’s this town in Austria. They have a recurring problem with stolen signs.
They even tried to change the name but couldn’t… Poor Austrians
I thought this was bullshit. But this is a horse of a different color.
Love mushrooms they are great kai(food), I drove an IVECO for a while the model before the Stralis with a 500hp Cursor engine and 16 speed autoshift ZF transmission, it was a 6×4 tractor unit pulling a specialised light weight B train set up for parcel post 16tonne tare weight, the trailers were a very low height chassis and the turntable (fith wheel) was lowered to suit it handled beautifully, full ABS braking system it had been designed to average 90kimh on any road to suit the delivery schedule the company I worked for had a fleet of them based in major post didtribution centres around NZ, it was a trailer swap operation carrying regular freight out returning with parcels in cages, great truck to drive very stable quiet and comfortable, that was 12 years ago and Ive seen my old tractor and its swap partner still in service as recently as last year so quite durable trucks their mileage would be in the millions by now.
I would really like to read more about your driving and working experiences, kiwibryce. I’ve been fascinated with trucks since I was a wee lad and enjoy the details and experiences I’ve read about here on CC. Cheers!
Beautiful truck, though I’m sure the company name must lead to some awkward moments.
“Mom! Dad! I got my first real job!”
“Wonderful, son! With whom?”
“Van der Mark mumble shurfle mumble….”
There is something to be said for keeping a working vehicle in this sort of condition. I remember a story about a concreter who had a Holden one tonner painted black with lots of chrome, and his mixer was done to match. He said that people would say “if your work is as good as how you keep your equipment, you can have the job”.
Paved country roads, albeit narrow, and fully paved farmyards. That’s what best helps to keep working vehicles in a good condition and clean.
The numerous times my dad’s trucks got stuck in the mud at farmyards, back in the “good” ol’ days. A thing from the past, the biggest rigs (50-tonners) with only one drive axle -like the combination in the article- can enter any farmyard without the driver having to worry about a muddy mess bound to happen…