A sunny afternoon in November. Time to hit the road once again! Here’s some modern Americana to start with, a 2020 Ram 1500 5.7 V8 and a Caterpillar tracked excavator. Bigger is not always better, just ask the excavator operator.
No 3.0 V6 EcoDiesel for this self employed earth mover. You might as well drive a VW Amarok. Or a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. A vee-eight, that’s what you want, when going for a brand-new US pickup. Running on LPG, because there are limits you know. More specifically, the height of the €-amount on the fuel bills.
A trio of concrete mixer trucks. The 2007 Mercedes-Benz and 2005 MAN are waiting their turn, while the DAF CF on the right is almost finished unloading. Stay in the flow, when pouring concrete.
Here’s the Benz, an Actros 4141 with a day cab and an 8×4 drivetrain. The number 4141 explained: 41 metric tons GVM (factory rating), 410 DIN-hp maximum power output.
Throughout Europe, a straight 8×4 chassis is the most common configuration in this line of business. All seven European truck makers offer them (Mercedes-Benz, MAN, Volvo, Scania, DAF, Renault and Iveco).
The legal maximum gross weight for such a chassis varies, it all depends on where you live, in the Netherlands it’s normally 37 metric tons (81,571 lbs).
Rather unconventional, since it’s a conventional. This 2015 Scania 6×2 tractor got an aftermarket nose job. Ferocious powerhouse: 730 DIN-hp from a 16.4 liter V8.
Just recently, Scania introduced a 770 hp V8, right now the most powerful factory heavy truck diesel. Ideal for gross weights well over 70 metric tons (154,000 lbs), not to mention heavy~special haulage and Australian road trains.
Some Opel fans live here. On the left a 2019 Adam Opel Opel Adam, on the right a 2019 Opel Grandland X.
The small hatchback, and note that it’s certainly not a stripper, has a 999 cc three-cylinder turbo engine. That’s 90 DIN-hp for a 1,063 kg car (2,344 lbs). The production of the Adam ended in May 2019. The most powerful version had a turbocharged 1.4 liter four-cylinder, good for 150 hp.
The Adam’s family member is also powered by a three-cylinder turbo engine, albeit a 1.2 liter with 130 hp. The Grandland X is rolling on PSA underpinnings.
2003 SsangYong Korando 2.9 TD with a Vlemmix tridem axle lowbed trailer. And there’s the five-cylinder engine for you, a license-built Mercedes-Benz oil burner. The trailer is typically used to haul machinery, but a load of sand will also do just fine.
2010 Renault Trafic 2.0 dCi van. These days, the current Trafic model is also sold with a Fiat, Nissan and Mitsubishi badge on the grille. Meanwhile, Renault has announced they will end the deal with Fiat because of the FCA-PSA merger.
At the weekly market, a 2019 MAN TGE 3.180 2.0 TDI cheese transporter. The cargo compartment is temperature controlled (see Carrier unit, integrated in the van’s roof). The MAN TGE is a rebadged Volkswagen Crafter. It gives the MAN dealerships something small to sell.
Ah, the local clog collector. Wood-on-wood, and there’s plenty of space for much more!
Quite eccentric, as this is not an earth mover’s residence. A Hytec wheel loader and a recently bought 2007 Toyota Tundra 5.7 V8. Big gasoline engine, thus LPG.
Three mobile homes, heading east.
A downsized big rig, I posted a very similar combination here. Carrying that lil’ Yanmar tracked excavator must be a piece of cake for the 2013 Veldhuizen tandem axle semi-trailer. I only caught the rear, but I’m quite sure the tractor is a Nissan Cabstar…
…something like this one. (photo courtesy of Veldhuizen B.V.)
Arriving at its weekend break homebase, a late model DAF XF Super Space Cab 4×2 tractor, towing a 2020 Knapen tridem axle semi-trailer with a walking floor.
And here’s one of the reasons why I like to walk down the embankment road: cars and motorcycles are not allowed. You need a special tool to unlock that metal pole. You can have the tool, but only if duty calls. If you’re a farmer, for example.
motorcycles are retained by those poles ¿¿???¿?
No, but they are by the signs as can be seen in the picture with the downsized big rig.
Large groups of motorcyclists have a tendency to use the curvy embankment roads as a free-entry race track on sunny days, with corresponding noise and downright dangerous situations. That’s why they’re not allowed to ride on many embankment roads in my region. The good got to suffer for the bad, I think the appropriate expression is.
BTW, the truck driver unlocked the pole at that specific spot, as I saw the rig moving on somewhat later.
Sounds like a job for Angle Grinder Man!
(Just kidding!)
Oei oei!
I live in a medium-sized town with a university and a lot of commuters to Silicon Valley 45 miles away, with an eclectic and often high-end variety of passenger cars to be seen. And we are surrounded by a major agricultural area with a mix of small farms and giant global agribusiness, so lots of trucks as well as field equipment. Yet as always, Johannes’ posts show the difference between American and Dutch working vehicles, even for similar jobs. Sure, we have a lot of RAM pickups, but the working trucks are all diesels – and not 3.0 EcoDiesels. Interesting too to see the Tundra. I saw a Tundra in China 7 years ago, but certainly exports (I’m sure all private) must be rare.
Working trucks and vans (regardless the weight segment) are all diesels here too…except US pickups. 🙂
Electric vehicles are making inroads into the commercial vehicle market more and more. From small vans to heavy trucks/tractors. Logically, especially for short distance~city use.
Plus of course the LNG and CNG power units.
The biggest Toyota truck available in our Toyota stores is the HiLux. A Tundra is always a gray import, brand new or used.
When I look around at all the F150s and Escalades, I am amazed at the small vehicles used in other parts of the world. My wife is driving straight through today from Cincinnati to our other home in Port Charlotte FL today, just over 1000 miles, and I REALLY can’t imagine doing that 14 hour drive in a tiny little car. Different situation, different expectations, different vehicles are appropriate.
Oh absolutely, although there’s still a whole spectrum of automobiles (as in anything with 4 wheels) between an Opel Adam and an F150 or Escalade.
In my family’s little “fleet” the average engine size is 3.26 liters, one V8, 2 @ V6, 2 @ 4 cylinder, all 5 have automatic transmission, 3 have AWD or 4WD, 4 of them seat 5, 1 has a 3rd row of seats and I frequently wish we had a bigger vehicle to travel in. Thank heaven for $1.99/gallon unleaded.
Interesting that all pictures except two the road surfaces are a mixture of old and new cobblestone. The other surfaces appear to be bituminous. In Minnesota we only have cobblestone roads left in a few of some of the first cities built. That would make them around 120 – 140 years old. Annual temperature fluctuates from -40° up to 100° and they still look great except for wear grooves.