The other day I visited a classic MAN and Büssing show in the East Netherlands. A rather lonely and not-so-young German big rig caught my attention, the combination was clearly not retired yet. It looked as if the owner/driver made a last-minute decision to join the event, or simply could find the time to hit the road for an unpaid trip.
No company name, no model designation, and no Dutch license plates to check things out. But what I do know is that the truck is a 19 tonnes (because 4×2 chassis), MAN F2000 Evolution, offered from 1998 to 2003. Not so young anymore, indeed.
The truck has the tall, air-suspended ‘Roadhaus’ cab, MAN’s biggest tilt cab in that era.
Together with the full trailer, the MAN forms a 40 tonnes (88,185 lbs) trans-European combination vehicle. Plenty of diesel fuel can be taken along for sure, given those tanks on the right side.
As an aside, the letters ST on the license plate indicate that the vehicle hails from the Stuttgart Steinfurt region in Nordrhein-Westfalen, at a short distance from the event location (as it turned out after a li’l bit of googling).
The control room of a 1995 MAN F2000, basically an upgraded 1986-1994 F90-series, which naturally applies to the F2000 Evolution as well. Front disc brakes and electronically controlled turbodiesels were some of those upgrades.
The manual transmission is a synchronized, Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen 16-speed. All European truck makers that didn’t build their own transmissions used it in their heavy models. Back then, non-synchronized manuals were already long gone.
Luckily, there was some more information on the truck’s rear splash guards. Carrozzeria Pezzaioli from Italy (where else?) is a renowned manufacturer of livestock truck bodies, full trailers, center-axle trailers, and semi-trailers.
This senior MAN is all set for the next cattle drive. Moo!
That’s an attractive, and attractively understated, rig, the dark green suits it very well and the orange turn signals and large lights remind me of late 1980s, early 1990s German Autobahnrenner, before the front signals turned to clear with amber bulbs and the lighting shapes started to get more convoluted…
Yes, Stuttgart would be a lone S at the beginning of the license plate being that it’s a larger “Landkreis” (regional/land circle), along with B Berlin, M Munich, H Hannover, F Frankfurt, and a few others (although some are Hansestaedte such as Hamburg and Bremen which is HH and HB adding the first H but quite large, but otherwise two letters denote a smaller circle (FR Freiburg, MZ Mainz, IN Ingolstadt, etc) and then three letters are smaller yet again (WOB Wolfsburg, etc) and really small places just belong to one of the larger ones within their circle. We were FR-plated as we were in the Freiburg Landkreis but in a smaller village 20 or so miles away.
Freiburg, lovely place/region to be! And just a two hours drive (plus a few minutes) to the Zahnradfabrik.
Yes it is, Staufen was actually my place…still a village after all these years but with some industry including Schladerer, the fine liquor maker.
Schladerer? Doesn’t ring a bell, unlike Zwiefalter Klosterbräu, not too far away.
Yeah, mainly Schnapps (Himbeergeist, Kirschwasser, etc) and the like but now also gin and other distilled spirits. The traditional 750ml bottles are sort of rectangular with a cut crystal finish…
Cute little rig 4 wheeler towing a 6 wheel trailer, Class 2 stock trucks do exist here cadet trucks basically to train drivers on stock untill they can qualify to class 4 (6 or 8 wheeler) and on to class 5 is heavy trailer,
This looks like a farm truck rather than a commercial operation, though we had one of those MANs as a round town truck at one place I worked 6 speed syncro box, I did actually drive it once but nothing about it stands out.
I never thought of the term Carrozzeria being applied to livestock trailers, but – that’s a good looking trailer. Looks like it has closable vents, and a nice low load height. Kind of the Ferrari of the cattle trade.
I guess just like in car shows, sometimes the most interesting stuff is parked just outside the gates.
Ventilation (a system going beyond simple vents), climate control, a drinking water system and a decent straw bed (or something similar) are mostly standard livestock-hauling vehicle features across the EU. Then there are the regular technical inspections and strict driving time limits.
Transporting livestock, certainly international, is not a side show of on-road transport. The job is only done by dedicated and experienced specialists.
Many livestock (semi-)trailers come with independent wheel suspension these days, so there are no axles connecting the wheels, and thanks to the air suspension, the trailer floor can sink all the way to ‘ground level’.
I know here in the USA we call them “bull haulers” And the ones that run the infinetly long and straight highways of Texas, Kansas, Nebraska etc absolutely fly, they drive 90, maybe close to 100mph.
It really stresses the cows out, they can lose up to 80lbs in transport if its a big steer and its a long 10 plus hour ride. Thus why they haul ass.
Quite different from the stock haulers I see coming through my town. We tend not to see heavy rigids towing trailers around here; on the odd occasion I see one I tend to take notice. Not a common combination in Australia. And never with the low floor and small wheels on the trailer. I can see why you’d do that; it makes a lot of sense.
The body seems a fascinating halfway house between an enclosed body and the more open style. And variable ventilation too; again, makes a lot of sense.
Heavy rigid trucks towing a full trailer are very common in both national and international livestock hauling. But there’s also plenty of choice when you want a semi-trailer for the same job.
For many examples, click on the link below the picture with the splash guard, scroll down a bit, and select ‘trailers’ (or one of the others). It’s all in English.