(first posted 7/24/2016) Round two of the recently held truck show in Stroe, the Netherlands, starts with a 1958 Ford Thames 500E. Until 1957 this truck model was known as the Fordson Thames ET (English Truck), the first new post-war truck of Ford Europe. The chrome 4D logo says it’s powered by the Ford 4D diesel engine, a 4-cylinder with 3.6 liter (220 ci) engine displacement. Originally it was a Fordson farm tractor engine, it became available in the Thames truck in 1954.
Before I visited the show I didn’t even know that Borgward also built trucks, let alone a truck with an in-house diesel engine. Pictured a 1959 Borgward B622 with a 70 hp 4-cylinder diesel. Given its registered power rating and the information I found on a German website that must be Borgward’s D4M 3,3 II diesel engine, a water cooled 4-stroke 3.3 liter engine.
1973 Scania L110 towing a low bed semi-trailer, loaded with a 1967 Scania-Vabis L36. There’s a 5.2 liter 4-cylinder diesel engine under the short nose of the L36, the Scania 6-cylinder conventionals had a longer nose.
1969 DAF V1600 4×4 tow truck.
1971 Volvo F88 tractor with a 260 hp 9.6 liter 6-cylinder turbodiesel. The F88 was introduced in 1965, joined in 1970 by the more powerful F89 with a 12 liter turbodiesel. Both models were replaced by the Volvo F10 and F12 in 1977.
1975 Scania LS 140 Super 6×2 tractor with a 350 hp 14 liter V8. In the seventies the conventional Scania model with a V8 had nothing in common with its contemporary 6-cylinder family members, simply because the 6-cylinder conventionals were still based on the old Scania-Vabis L75, introduced in 1958. The conventional model with a V8 was introduced in 1972 and was based on the 1969 Scania 140 cabover.
A Swedish duo, this 1987 Volvo F12 Globetrotter and 1991 Scania 143m. The Scania 3-series was introduced in 1987 and from that series on the power rating is specified on the grille.
1973 (MAN) Büssing 16.320 U refrigerated truck. Büssing was a renowned German truck and bus maker, founded in 1903. MAN took over Büssing in 1971, the trucks were initially sold as MAN-Büssing and were registered as MAN (like the truck above). Later the Büssing name and cabs were phased out.
I made a mistake here, I forgot to take a picture of the truck’s underfloor engine. The fact that the cab doesn’t have an open grille is a dead giveaway. Do you see that lion on the front ? It’s Büssing’s Braunschweiger Löwe logo. Now on the front of MAN trucks.
From the same owner, a 1952 Büssing 5500, towing a 1965 Zwalve drawbar trailer.
1987 DAF FTG 3600 ATi (Advanced Turbo Intercooling) tractor with a steerable pusher axle, powered by DAF’s 373 hp DKZ 1160 engine. DAF introduced intercooling on its turbodiesels in 1973, other truck makers followed years later. The tractor has the standard sleeper cab, there was also a much taller Space Cab.
DAF’s 1160 -11.6 liter displacement- engine series was introduced in the late sixties and originated from Leyland’s O.680 engine. It was replaced by a new 12.6 liter engine in the 1997 DAF 95XF-series, and that engine evolved into the PACCAR MX-13 (12.9 liter displacement).
1980 Scania 141 with a 375 hp 14 liter V8 engine. Note the small window and mirror in the door.
Now here’s a truck brand that most of you may never have heard of, a Dutch Kromhout truck. The Amsterdam based shipyard ‘t Kromhout dates back to the mid-18th century. The shipyard was sold in 1911 and in the 20th century Kromhout built engines (mainly for ships), trucks and buses.
Kromhout built trucks from 1935 to 1958, though the production of diesel engines continued. Pictured above a wonderful 1956 Kromhout 4VS-AN flatbed truck with a 85 hp 4-cylinder diesel engine. In 1966 Kromhout became a part of the renowned Stork company.
Well how about that, another Borgward truck ! A conventional 1957 B1500 model with a 1,758 cc 4-cylinder gasoline engine.
Also present at the show was a number of old and recent fire department trucks. The first is a 1974 Magirus-Deutz 135 D12F ladder truck.
The Dutch branch of the Henkel company was the first owner of this 1980 Volkswagen T3.
1999 Mercedes-Benz Actros 1835 4×4.
1995 Ginaf F 3328 ATi 6×6. Ginaf (Van Ginkel’s Automobiel Fabriek) is best known for their heavy-duty on/off-road trucks, using DAF components like engines and cabs. Available from 4×4 to 10×8.
2013 Iveco Trakker 8×8 with a roll-off system and crane. Powered by an FPT Cursor 13 engine, 450 hp.
The last of the fire department trucks is this 1963 Commer with a 6 cylinder gasoline engine.
1972 DAF FA 1200 tanker truck.
This 1967 Scania-Vabis L36 is carrying a 1988 Nissan 300ZX.
1968 Volvo N86 flatbed truck. At least in the Netherlands the conventional Scania trucks and tractors sold much better than the contemporary Volvo noses.
A brute of a Scania R-series tractor, with a brute of a crane mounted on its frame.
1955 Magirus-Deutz Rundhauber SH-3504. Under its hood a 5.3 liter 4-cylinder diesel engine. Air cooled, of course.
Things are getting heavy now. When a Dutch trucking company wanted a heavy-haulage tractor in the seventies and eighties, they often called FTF Trucks. The 1985 tractor above, with a lowered cab, is powered by a 2-stroke Detroit Diesel V8 engine. To give you an impression, the front axle has a 10 metric ton (22,000 lbs) axle load; a lot, even to today’s standards. The screamin’ Detroit is good for 414 hp.
DAF Torpedo truck with a dump bed, obviously.
1973 Scania 110 flatbed truck with a day cab.
Old school hauling of bagged goods with this 1970 DAF A1600. Non-palletized jute bags, in this case. The registered payload capacity of this truck is 7,970 kg (17,570 lbs). But in this type of transport overloading was a must.
1971 Ford DA2818 tractor, a fine representant of Ford’s 1965-1981 D-series. Mind you, powered by a 7.7 liter Cummins V8.
One Volvo F88 helping the other. The tow truck is from 1975, the other F88 is 5 years older.
1963 Scania-Vabis 75 Super 6×2 truck with a 205 hp turbocharged 10.3 liter diesel engine. The 76-series replaced the 75 in 1963 and got an 11 liter engine.
1994 Scania 143 6×2 bulk tipper. The removable sideboards on this type of trucks were common in the past, you see them less and less. An advantage is that this Scania can also be used as a flatbed truck for hauling palletized bagged goods. Or anything else that fits on the bed.
Usually this Scania tows a matching drawbar trailer with 3 axles. That’s a total of 6 axles, a typical example of a Dutch 50 ton (110,000 lbs GVM) rig as they have been driving around here for many years.
No load today, so the tag axles are up.
Classic Citroën cars never look middle of the road, and neither do their trucks…Here we have a 1970 Citroën 350 NDP with a dump bed, powered by a 4-cylinder Perkins diesel engine. Citroën introduced this series of trucks in 1965.
All dressed up, this 1983 DAF 3300 Turbo Intercooling 6×2 tractor. The 3300 was DAF’s top model in the early eighties, in this tractor DAF’s 11.6 liter engine is good for 330 hp.
1968 Mercedes-Benz L710.
1977 DAF 2000 with a roll-off system. This series of DAF trucks replaced the renowned Frog DAFs in 1970 and it was the first DAF with a tilt cab.
While this grille looked good on the Mercedes-Benz conventional trucks, it made their cabover trucks look rather sad. Pictured a 1962 Mercedes-Benz LP323.
A bright looking 1973 Scania 110. That’s it for now, the third and last article with European trucks will follow soon.
Thank you for sharing this fabulous collection of old trucks, many of which I have very fond memories as a child in Austria in the 50s. The Bussing was a special treat, as I there were some around. But those big long-nosed conventional trucks with the drawbar trailers really brought back vivid memories of similar trucks tackling the old Brenner highway that wound its way up to the high Alpine Pass from Innsbruck. needless to say, the traffic up that very historic road was very slooooow.
I couldn’t find a picture, but this one from a movie will have to do.
When I first saw that Borgward pickup, my first reaction was early 50s International. Those Mercedes and Magirus Deutz trucks look like they share the VW headlight design.
The ’55 Magirus-Deutz looks kind of VW-ish overall, with the rounded nose and those fenders.
I had no idea Citroën made trucks, but looking at that one, I have to say, that is pretty much what I would expect a Citroën truck to look like.
The Magirus-Deutz is wild in that color scheme. I hope none of these modern designers who insist on giving everything an overwrought grille for brand identification see it; they might get ideas.
That’s an awesome collection of trucks. The Cursor 13 is a beast, acceleration was instantaneous and stronger compared to its mechanical injected brothers.
Any buses in there?
Wonder how much are the maintenance costs of those things?
I saw one bus, a Den Oudsten DAF, it’s in part one (see link at the bottom of the article).
The interesting thing for me here is the older diesel trucks, especially the relatively small ones from the early 1950’s-60’s. Here in Canada, anyway, I can’t recall anything that old that was diesel. They would all be big gas engines like the Chevy big block 366 or Ford FE in its many variations. There wasn’t a lot of diesel around here for under five tons until the 1980’s when gasoline prices started to make diesel attractive.
Of course, in Europe, there was a large price advantage for diesel in those days, and most of it isn’t terribly hilly like much of Canada is. I can still recall driving an old Chevy five ton just loaded to the bump-stops with gravel. To get it up a steep hill meant bull low and low ratio in the rear end, top speed 5 mph, and split shifts until maybe 15 mph, which is as fast as it would go up hill and that was with a 366! I can only imagine a 80 hp diesel.
There are a few trucks with gasoline engines in part 3. Don’t expect big and powerful V8s though. More like 80 to 100 hp 6-cylinders…
In the post-war decades gasoline engines were still available. Trucks in the segment of the Ford(son) Thames, see first picture, and their successors. In case of the Ford(son): the Ford Thames Trader and the Ford D-series.
Cummins was one of the engine options on the D series 300 gas was the other end of the scale and I have seen one with a 240 fitted but it may not have been factory it was a small 5 tonner with a luton peak body we hauled roof insulation fluff and a blower in, good old trucks even the Thames, thats a later version of the garden art one I found nearby.
Nice selection of trucks seldom seen here in working order anymore.
As always, Johannes, they’re lovely to see. The old European trucks are fascinating, as they never really appeared down under until the seventies.
Interesting as always Johannes, many trucks I’ve never seen before. Perhaps I will have to do a post on the local classic truck show.
Fascinating stuff – great pictures – love to see these old European trucks.
A 14-litre V8 in the Scanias? Wow.
I think the DAFs look interesting, but I’m in love with the Borgwards. Cool stuff.
The Scania 14 liter V8 was introduced in 1969 in the 140-series, back then 350 hp. As time went by it got more and more power.
It was the most powerful series-production Euro-truck diesel for many, many years.
Meanwhile Scania’s V8 has grown to 16.4 liter displacement, the most powerful version is 730 hp. The only series-production diesel with more power is Volvo’s 750 hp 16.1 liter inline-6.
What a great range of trucks. Loving the Daf 3600 and 1200 variations of my favourite cab shape, but those Borgwards are fantastic, so are the Citroen and Magirus Deutz and 63 Commer. Thanks Johannes.
+1 on that from me!
Thanks for the post!
Always fascinating to see so many new-to-me trucks. I recognize a few–had a Matchbox scale model of the DAF 3300 as a child.
The Borgward COE and Citroen in particular are quite stylish!
Johannes,
Fascinating look at a world of trucks that didn’t make it over here to the US, although like Chris M., I had European trucks among my toy cars as a small child. For some reason, when my parents bought a batch of toy cars for us, most of them were Majorettes made in France, so I had a lot of miniature European cars and trucks whose identities I was never able to figure out.
I have a question that I would like to ask you offline about classic trucks in Europe. Can you send me a personal message to discuss it? My email address is robertkim99@hotmail.com
You’ve got mail.
A number of Scanias made it to the US, many years ago. IIRC the 2- and 3-series cabovers and conventionals (so 112-113, maybe the V8s 142 and 143). East Coast, New Jersey.
There’s actually a Scania specialist over there, called Abreu Truck Service. Below their Scania V8 of a more recent date. The guys got several YouTube videos.
A truly outstanding collection Johannes. Beautifully presented, as always. I’ve mentioned this before, but I think International owed Scania some serious royalty money, back in the mid 1970s. As the North American International S-Series trucks introduced in 1977, appeared to owe much of their cab design/styling directly to the Scania LS140 introduced for 1974.
I collected a lot of die cast cars as a kid, and had several LS140s as manufactured by France’s Majorette.
Had at least three Scania LS140s. This tanker was the coolest.
No Scanias during my part-time childhood truck driver jobs. I did drive a tanker though, a Hanomag-Henschel tractor with a Schwelm semi-trailer. Early seventies.
Thanks Daniel. As an aside, note that the cab of the V8 conventional (L-LS-LT 140) is the same as used for the 110/140-cabover (LB-LBS-LBT), introduced in 1969. Compare the 140 conventional with the 110 and also the 141 cabover, as pictured in the article.
You can still have a brand new Scania V8 conventional, if you really want one. Custom-built by the Dutch Vlastuin company. Of course, 100% based on the factory cabover.
That DAF 4×4 tow truck looks great, I bet it’s one of a kind at this point.
Based on my very recent brief trip to London it seems like the fire trucks are still roughly the same. I even saw a ladder truck that looked much like the first one pictured here. They are so much smaller than the monstrosities one sees in the US. I wonder is that because of narrow streets etc, or a different philosophy altogether, or some other reason?
The DAF V1600 4×4 was a typical municipal truck, as it was a great all-rounder, both on- and off-road. Normally equipped with a dump bed and a crane behind the cab, see fine example below. They were built way into the seventies, when all regular models already had the tilt cab.
Fire trucks for public road use (cities, towns, villages included) are all based on standard truck chassis, from 4×2 to 8×8 and everything inbetween. A specialist starts with a rolling chassis-cab (factory double cabs are available) and builds the fire truck body and everything that comes with it.
A great post and wonderful trucks, even if I’m six years late to say so. Thanks Johannes. As other Americans have commented, quite a few of these trucks from the sixties and early seventies are quite familiar, though only as 1/87 or 1/43 scale die cast toys.
Thanks dman! So far, this has been the very best show (cars, trucks, other machinery) I ever visited. By a wide margin.
That Fordson/Thames diesel was common here once upon a time and Fordson tractor diesels were retrofitted to many flathead V8 American Ford trucks to keep them working when the flatheads wore out.