For the past years, September has been my yearly peak truck show month, with three interesting annual events. This year will be no exception, if everything goes as planned. I still had plenty of pictures taken at the 2024 and 2025 editions in store, I’d better post them before this year’s arrivals.
The walk-around starts with five knuckle boomers, the first of them is a 2019 Scania R520 V8 8×2*6 truck.
2022 Scania R500 8×2*6 tractor with a short, detachable flatbed body.
2019 Scania 6×2*4 truck, load included (no idea what it is). As an aside, I have yet to see a knuckle boomer without a trailer coupling.
2017 Scania 8×2*6 truck, carrying a temperature controlled rental container.
2024 Volvo FM 8×2*6 Wide Spread truck. Its GVWR is 41.5 tonnes (91,500 lbs), which is the absolute maximum for a chassis with an 8×2 drivetrain. The maximum legal axle loads in tonnes, from front to back: 10, 10, 11.5, and 10.
‘Wide Spread’ refers to the increased axle spacing between the drive axle and the counter-steering tag axle (an aftermarket conversion job).
It’s big rig time, here’s a 2018 Scania S580 V8 6×2/4 tractor with a 2008 Broshuis quad-axle semi-low loader, carrying a Cormach tracked knuckle boom crane.
2016 Scania R450 6×2/4 tractor, towing a 1999 Pacton tri-axle flatbed semi-trailer with a rolloader crane.
2016 Scania R520 V8 6×2*4 truck with a center-axle trailer, forming an impressive reefer couple.
Mercedes-Benz Actros L ProCabin 2548 6×2/4 tractor in silver. At first sight, one would think it’s a BEV, but the Benz is diesel powered. The eActros BEV does have the exact same cab, by the way.
That other German, a 2021 MAN TGX 18.510 4×2 tractor in gold.
A multifunctional Scania 460G XT 8×4*4 truck with a Hyva hooklift hoist and HMF grab crane. This Scania has been sold to Kuijlen groundworks, I’m just translating what it says on the windshield.
A specialty from the Czech Republic, a 2018 Tatra Phoenix 6×6 truck with a two-way dump body and counter-steering rear wheels. An HMF grab crane is hiding behind the DAF CF-series’ day cab. All Tatra Phoenix trucks and tractors are powered by DAF-Paccar turbodiesels.
Another 6×6, with a common ladder frame chassis and live axles, though. The 2016 MAN TGS 33.480 6×6 Wide Spread truck also has a two-way dump body, a counter-steering rearmost drive axle, and is equipped with a Palfinger grab crane. It’s a short MAN for sure, yet with an imposing GVWR of 33 tonnes (72,750 lbs).
1990 Scania 143M 450 V8 4×2 tractor.
2009 Scania P420 10×4 heavy-haulage tractor with a lowered and flattened cab roof. Clearly a former Van der Vlist vehicle, given its color scheme.
Here’s a diesel-less combination, a 2024 Volvo FH Electric 4×2 tractor with a 2021 Vogelzang tri-axle flatbed semi-trailer.
Off-tracking is much less of a problem with an axle setup like this. Of course, the rolloader crane is also a BEV, sort of.
2024 Scania 40R 6×2*4 BEV truck with a curtainside swap body and a 100% silent truck-mounted forklift. Still 100% silent when at work, I assume.
2024 Renault E-Tech T 4×2 demo tractor.
Back to Rudolf Diesel Power, a 2024 Renault T-High 480 Turbo Compound. Full-size Renaults come with Volvo hardware, no surprise there.
2022 Renault D-Wide 4×2 truck with a curtainside swap body and Dhollandia slider lift gate.
Renault D 4×2 truck with a Brinks box body and Dhollandia cantilever lift gate, undoubtedly a demo vehicle. The cab of the Renault D is also used by Volvo, DAF, Peterbilt, and Kenworth (all of these cabs are made in France).
There you go, two generations of DAF LF trucks with the same cab, which dates back to 2000. Initially, the tilt cab was only used by Renault on the 2000 Midlum (let’s not forget the Mack Midlum/Freedom) and by DAF on the 2001, first gen LF-series, the ‘Light Forte’.
1966 Mack R-607T 4×2 tractor, working as a genuine hobby vehicle.
The last one was parked across the street, a 2005 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter ‘dually’ box truck. The driver just might be at work at the event location. As a caterer, for instance.
That MB Actros shows a very clear styling direction away from the very huge (exaggerated) chromed grilles. That’s a bit overdue, as it was becoming overdone. So how do they manage to keep the radiator and intercooler cool? I say that tongue-in-cheek, because I’ve had commenters here tell me that the giant tall grilles that are universal on the big pickups here are necessary for the radiators and intercoolers. Not.
It seems that this new styling trend is EV-inspired.
Right, it’s all about better aerodynamics. And you can always have a ‘spray-on grille’…
Next to last photo, finally something I’m familiar with. 🙂
Fun to see all these. Questions:
1) How are BEV tractors doing in the market? Growing market share?
2) There has been a lot of reporting about Chines electric cars enjoying strong and growing sales in Europe. Are the Chinese doing anything in the big rig segments that you cover?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks to the current situation in the world of fossil fuels -we all know what’s happening right now- and stricter emission regulations, especially in city centers, the market share of heavy electric commercial vehicles will grow rapidly. This year, almost 10% of new truck/tractor registrations in NL is an EV.
Many hauling companies, especially the bigger ones, have their own charging station and a large roof full of solar panels.
The leader right now is Mercedes-Benz, the truck maker’s eActros 600 is doing really well in the top segment. Below an extra long and heavy ecocombi (in the form of a B-train) with an eActros 600 tractor ‘in charge’.
No heavy Chinese vehicles yet. Keep in mind that the market for heavy commercial vehicles is completely different from the market for home appliances. I mean cars.
Is this BEV adoption for trucks that mostly see regional (short distance) use? And can charge overnight back at the yard? Given the success of Tesla cars in the European market, do you think the Tesla Semi has any chance of success in Europe, or is the “conventional” form factor a non-starter? I’m surprised how frequently I see them when I travel outside my local area in California, though still in Central/Eastern California and once in Nevada.
The latest top models (like the Benz above) do both, national and international transport.
I’m sure the Tesla Semi does fine in the US, rolling down the highway at a very comfy and relaxing 80,000 lbs maximum gross combination weight. But that’s not how trucking works in the rest of the world. In its current form, it is and will be completely irrelevant here. Short wheelbase cabover tractors with a 4×2 or 6×2/4 drivetrain rule.
Some time if you have the chance, Johannes, I’d love to see a post explaining why and how the Dutch or perhaps greater Northern European market has so many multi-axle (more than three) trucks as well as the mounted cranes and forklifts. Here in the US I rarely see more than three axles, I rarely see lift able tags or pushers except maybe on dump trucks, and with specific exceptions for construction or landscaping materials, I rarely see even forklifts let alone cranes mounted to trucks.
We are getting a lot more commercial BEV’s here. In adddition to the (few) Tesla Semi’s I’ve seen, most FedEx delivery in my town is done with Chevrolet BrightDrop vans, and many communities get serviced by Amazon’s Rivian BEV vans. I see lots of local small businesses using Ford eTransit vans, as well as Ford, Rivian, and Chevrolet electric pickups, and our State Parks and Highway Departments have quite a few of the latter two. Oddly not the Fords despite that company seeming to dominate gas and diesel trucks in the State fleets.
From a Dutch POV: five axles will do for 50 tonnes (110,000 lbs) gross weight, either in straight truck form or in big rig form. Said gross weight is the national, legal maximum on-road limit. It’s 60 tonnes (132,000 lbs) for the longer ecocombis.
The article’s Volvo FM 8×2*6 says it all: 91,500 lbs gross weight on just four axles. After the wide spread axle conversion, that is.
And with a knuckle boom or grab crane, the truck driver is also a crane operator. You don’t need another guy/girl with a self-propelled crane. Independent and efficient, which also applies to the truck-mounted forklifts, of course.
In Europe, you’ll find the heaviest big rigs in Sweden and Finland, way over 70 tonnes (154,000 lbs) gross weight.
It’s funny, we Americans think of Europe, with its long history, as having a lot of traditions. But in trucking, the higher GVW’s with more axles to distribute the load, shorter overall lengths, and bring your own material handling equipment with you sure seem more innovative than our long-nose behemoths.
I guess the US trucking business is seriously hampered by the low axle weights/gross vehicle weights. Any additional equipment, like a decent crane, is simply eating into the vehicle’s payload capacity too much.
Once again, thanks for the tour and to you gents for your comments on usage.