A lavish exterior, combined with a high-end paint job. Prevalent on heavy Scania, Volvo and DAF tractors that are driven by owner/operators. Those are the premium truck brands; at least, that’s the consensus among truck drivers here as long as I can remember. It’s good to see a big Renault got the full treatment for a welcome change.
These days, a trend in on-higway trucking in the Netherlands is going old school, recreating the style of the long-distance tractors from the seventies and eighties. Some major exterior characteristics: stacks (shiny or in matte black), a sleeper cab with a low roof sans spoiler, a roof rack and a lightbox. A decent sunvisor also comes with the package.
Back in the day, a roof rack was used for storing rolled-up tarps. But with today’s curtainsiders and automated cover systems, they’ve become pretty much obsolete.
Honed to perfection by Van Kessel Truckstyling. No plain dark gray plastic on this Renault 6×2 tractor, there’s not even the slightest unpainted or uncovered part. I like the end result very much. Well done, far from overdone.
Behind the cab, everything is integrated in this storage locker unit. Even the company name at the top. A fully covered frame is obligatory on such a classy heavy tractor. That bit of extra weight is considered utterly irrelevant once you’ve decided to go all the way.
Things always get better with a matching semi-trailer, color- and livery-wise. The 390 kW/530 DIN-hp Renault is also used to tow an end-dump semi-trailer or a flatbed with a rolloader crane for hauling bricks and such. The Witmix company is a supplier of all kinds of building materials.
The curtainsider is a 2007 Tracon, rated at a GVW of 39 metric tons (85,980 lbs), which is a piece of cake for the hefty Renault. The semi-trailer’s registered payload capacity is 32,340 kg (71,297 lbs).
I’m sure the portable forklift must be a Moffett-Kooi, roughly as old as the Tracon. Naturally it comes with tail lights and the semi-trailer’s license plate.
And now for some truck-mounted forklift history. Dutchman Hessel Kooi developed the concept in the seventies and it became a huge commercial success. When everything was said and done, the forklifts were marketed under the Kooiaap (Kooi-Ape) brand name. Well, they are clinging on to the back of a truck or (semi-) trailer like an ape, after all.
Later on, the Irish Moffett company took over the whole Kooi operation. To this day, everybody in NL still calls a truck-mounted forklift a kooiaap, regardless the manufacturer.
When you’re leaving the kooiaap at home, this trio has to be fold out on either side of the semi-trailer.
Taking pride in your rolling machinery with a Retro-Renault. En route!
Nice rig a 6×2 would be unusual on our roads but not completely unseen in that I did see a Scania tractor unit with a lazy axle recently, at least it doesnt have the idiotic drop visor that has become popular lately.
Drop visor, never heard of it. This was the most extreme example that popped up after an image search.
Thanks for giving us States folk a look at a Renault and a good tour. Why do they prefer the single driving axle and dummy axle? Is this common in Europe?
Yes, such liftable tag axles are widely used in Europe and go way back. Way-pre-air suspension, that is. The Scandinavians were the first. See 1964 Scania-Vabis 6×2 tractor below, for example. Initially for getting more traction (weight) on the drive axle by lifting the tag axle.
In on-highway trucking they save tires when driving around empty or only partly loaded. When cornering a lot (which is the norm in Europe), there’s less stress on the suspension/chassis and less pavement wear and tear, especially on hot days (“melting” asphalt). Furthermore, the turning circle is smaller when the tag axle is up, then you basically drive a 4×2 with a long rear overhang.
More common these days is the so-called 6×2/4 set-up with a single-wheeled, liftable and steering pusher axle (so the rearmost axle is the drive axle). Same total axle load for the tandem, 19 metric tons, just like the article’s Renault 6×2.
Note that the Scandinavians -there they are, one again- can offer a liftable drive axle these days. Example: a 6×4 tractor with a liftable rearmost drive axle.
Fuel efficiency, Volvo was selling tractors with the 6×2 set up here in the US more than 30 years ago. They didn’t have a lift axle and the rear most axle was the non-driven one. The custom ones used a lifting axle in front of the drive axle, it required a big dip in the axle to clear the driveline. Lighter weight truck by eliminating the heavy power divider differential. Less power wasted, only driving one differential vs three, yes three, differentials. A power divider contains two differentials, one to split power between the drive axles and one to split power side to side. Lastly if its has a lifting axle reduced drag when the axle is up and also reduced tire wear. The only down side complained about is reduced traction in snow and wet conditions. Locking diff and lifting axle mitigates this issue.
Absolutely! I was too much focused on the liftable-aspect, as a tag axle is liftable here as a rule.
I like the storage cabinets on the back of the cab though I’m not sure why the lower outer doors have the latch on the inside instead of the outside. If they were on the outside you could probably open them while still standing on the ground.