Well how about that, a late model Benz in one of their classic shades of green! And a heavy-duty dude at that, with its 10×4 drivetrain, operating in the top segment of our concrete mixer trucks. The Arocs is the Mercedes-Benz model for the construction and heavy haulage business.
Historically, the German truck makers Mercedes-Benz and MAN have always had an excellent reputation in the field of heavy on-/off-road trucks and tractors. Factory AWD chassis are available, from 4×4 to 8×8.
Let’s have a closer and thorough look at an impressive piece of the latest machinery. Which brings me to a major advantage of visiting an outdoor truck show: you can take as many pictures as you want without anyone wondering or asking what the heck (or hell) you’re doing.
Bat ear type of mirrors on the cab doors are goners, replaced by cameras on the outside and displays on the inside.
Cab over engine, indeed. The truck is powered by a 10.7 liter inline-six turbodiesel, known as the OM 470 engine. In this Arocs the maximum power output is 456 DIN-hp.
The cab suspension, left rear side.
If you order a Mercedes-Benz chassis-cab, you’ll get a Mercedes-Benz chassis-cab. All powertrain components are in-house products, the transfer cases for AWD trucks and tractors included.
The twin steer set-up with parabolic leaf springs.
Plenty of axle spacing between the rearmost drive axle and the liftable, steering tag axle. Consequently, the tag axle is rated at an axle load of 10 metric tons, which is the maximum for a non-drive axle.
Rearranging these axles must have been an aftermarket job, done by the Veldhuizen company. Mercedes-Benz offers a factory 10×4 chassis for the Dutch market, developed and built by their Custom Tailored Trucks division in Molsheim, France. That chassis is rated at 47 metric tons GVW, whereas the concrete mixer truck at the show is rated at 49 tons (108,027 lbs).
Continental CrossTrac HD3 tires on the drive axles (with hub reduction, obviously) and Continental HSR2 super singles on all steering axles.
The fifth axle comes with air suspension.
Just like the drive axles. You can also clearly see that the frame has been strengthened, another Veldhuizen job.
Getting to the bottom of it.
The Mulder company supplied the mixer body, the drum capacity is 16 m³ (20.9 yd³). The registered payload capacity of the Benz & Mulder couple is 32,080 kg (70,724 lbs).
The 600 liter water tank is sitting on top of the PMP reducer with planetary gearing.
PMP Industries S.p.A. is an Italian company, they also made the hydromotor (left of the reducer) and the PTO driven, hydraulic pump (not visible in the picture).
The rollers at the rear side of the drum.
This is it, both the business- and article end.
Related article:
CC Global: Volvo FMX 10×4 Concrete Mixer And MAN TGS 10×4 Concrete Pump – Fundamental Work
Thanks for this expose on the truck. As always, I enjoy reading about the European marvels of engineering. Tom
Relying on cameras would give me the creeps. First thing I’d do is nail some mirrors to it.
Backing up would scare me I prefer mirrors but havent tried these camera mirrors yet
What I’ve read and heard about these camera systems: you get used to them in no-time, and after that, you don’t want “old school” mirrors any longer.
And note the absence of the usual, serious blind spots behind the big mirrors (from the driver’s point of view).
Nice looking mixer. Thanks for all the shots.
Im becoming surrounded with Mercedes trucks everywhere I go for a job seems to have them now mostly due to COVID they are the only thing available here, theres a serious shortage of new trucks on this planet,
From mid-size panel vans to 250 tons heavy-haulage tractors and everything inbetween, both for on- and off-road use, they build it.
For a thing that’s just a wet concrete holder, that’s a fearsome amount of discrete mechanisms there. Steering, air spring system, all the doo-daddery for the concrete tank, 600litres(!!) of water twenty feet up in the air, a compressor (I presume?), hydro-motors, gearboxes – plus a truck. Brilliant solutions to spreading a huge, dense load and keep it manouverable.
Two ponderings. One, why would the cab-end have leafs and the stonking load end have air? Two, do I spy disc brakes on all these many wheels?
Drum brakes on heavy trucks are a thing of the distant past and almost all heavy trucks and trailers have air suspension and have had for decades better for load carrying as they adjust for the load.But it has old fashioned steel chutes instead of steel framed plastic lined chutes I know which ones I prefer to fit and remove.
Ok! I think I’ve asked the brake question before, but don’t recall the answer being so clear. Gotta ask, are the disks also on the trailers?
Long parabolic leaf springs on the front axle(s) are still commonplace, although truck makers offer front air suspension as an option. By the way, the cabs and seats have their own suspension.
An air suspension system on drive axles, pusher/tag axles, and (semi-)trailer axles is the norm. A constant ride height, a better stability and road holding are the main advantages. The height is also adjustable, which makes (semi-)trailer coupling easier.
Specialties: hydro-pneumatic suspension (Ginaf) and air suspension with auxiliary hydraulic cilinders (Tatra).
What I thought would be a relatively simple (big chunk of metal) chassis is actually quite complex. Thanks to all the great pictures of unique design details us non-truck motorheads simply cannot see.
Right, I always find it interesting to crawl underneath a chassis to see what’s going on there. Which is hard, or even impossible, in the case of modern on-highway tractors: fully covered on all sides. No technology whatsoever to see there.
Me too! What’s underneath is usually more interesting to me than what’s on the outside.