A typical April 27 King’s Day fair, as held in each and every Dutch small town, yet supplemented with a collection of modern trucks and old farm tractors. Let’s stroll down the main road through Hedel -one of those small towns- transformed into a pedestrian zone for the occasion.
First in line was a superbly 2016 Scania R490 6×2*4 truck, towing a GS end dump trailer from the same year.
Collecting manure that comes from these guys, that’s what it’s all about. Horse manure is a major raw material for mushroom cultivation.
A full trailer with three axles, coupled to a straight truck with three axles, thus forming a 110,000 lbs big rig. Still a very common configuration in the Netherlands.
2014 Scania P450 8×2*6 flatbed truck with a mighty HMF crane behind the cab and plenty of tool boxes.
Just outside the temporary pedestrian zone, idling and ready to go, this 2011 MAN TGM 18.340 sweeper truck.
2017 Scania R450 6×2/4 tractor.
Two 4×2 tractors, owned by the same company, a 2020 Volvo FH and a 2023 DAF XG 450 FT.
The DAF has a substantially longer tilt cab with a more slanted and rounded front. The truck maker took full advantage of the latest EU length regulations that went into effect on September 1, 2020.
DAF just kept on updating the former XF cab -its history goes back to 1987- until they knew exactly how those new regulations would work out and could be implemented in their new XF / XG / XG+ top models, introduced in June 2021. To this day, none of the competitors came up with an answer yet. DAF wins, big time.
Over to the mid-size trucking segment with a 2022 DAF CF 300 FA curtainsider.
How nice, senior and junior, side by side. The successor to the CF, the XD-series on the right, is all set and ready.
There you go, a brand new DAF XD 300 FA box truck.
The smallest DAF model is the LF, its cab is built by Renault. Here we have a 2018 DAF LF 210 FA curtainsider.
2021 MAN TGM 4×2 fire truck, same function as this one.
Also working for the local fire department, a 2022 Mercedes-Benz Actros 2842 6×2*4 HAD (hydraulic auxiliary drive on the front axle) tanker truck. The tank capacity is 15,000 liters (3,963 US gallons).
The tanker body was made by IFFS (Innovative Fire Fighting Solutions), the Ruberg company supplied the pump. Further info for the fire fighters: the maximum pump capacity at low pressure is 4,000 liters (1,057 US gallons) per minute.
And now we’re going up the country…
…with a 1965 Deutz D8005, for example. Luftgekühlt, na klar!
The Ford 7000 and 7700 brothers.
Magnificent, a 1965 Case 930 Comfort King.
Meanwhile, the local BBQ seems to burn at full throttle.
Downsizing with a Case 200.
1968 John Deere 1120, 49 hp from its three-cylinder engine.
Made in the Czech Republic, a Zetor 5511. The model 5511 was offered from 1968 to 1972 and has a 3.1 liter, four-cylinder engine.
1954 Hanomag R16. I’m old enough to remember that utterly basic, raincoat type of protection against the elements.
According to agribusiness legend, Hanomag made the best farm tractors ever. Quality- and durability-wise, it’s said they had no equal. Note there once was an unbelievable number of tractor manufacturers in post-war Germany. Or as an old farmer once told me, “almost every German village had its own tractor factory”.
Today’s last King’s Day Special, a SAME Aurora 45. SAME comes from Italy and stands for Società Accomandita Motori Endotermici, its history goes back to 1927. The 1971-1982 Aurora was powered by a three-cylinder, 2.7 liter engine. The number 45 needs no Google translate, it refers to the tractor’s hp-rating.
Including upside down flags on the little Case!
(Farmers use this to protest new government rules)
There’s a little Case alright…but I see only one flag in its picture and it’s in the correct position.
oops, you’re right.
That’s an amazingly clean manure truck! And that’s quite a setup, with a crane on the truck that lifts the container to/from the trailer.
I was curious about the company’s operation, so I looked up its website. If I’m understanding it correctly, a farm or stables will rent a manure trailer – the company will drop off the trailer, and farm staff will gradually fill it with horse manure, and then the company will come back and exchange the trailer for a new one. (I suppose G&J van Leeuwen must sell the resulting fertilizer for a pretty steep price to recoup those costs.) Very impressive operation – and great artwork on the rear doors too.
This video gives a good overview of how the truck, crane and trailer work:
Excellent! Yes, that’s one way to do it, but most of the time, the manure (or whatever) is loaded directly into the beds by using the truck mounted crane.
Unloading: the trucks dump sideways, the bed opens up like a giant mouth (see below), whereas the trailers are more down-to-earth end dump trailers. (photo courtesy of pluimveeweb.nl/Walkro)
Love the old tractors! In my last summer with the Mennonites in Iowa, a distant neighbor got a really big Case like that 9500, and it used to come by their farm hauling a big grain wagon to the elevator from time to time. For me and the two younger kids on that farm, it was the equivalent of a new Ferrari roaring by. The mightiest tractor in the land!
Interesting what you say about the Hanomag; I don’t know enough about old German tractors. But yes, there were so many brands of them. Meanwhile in Austria, Steyr utterly dominated the market.
Probably one of the most revolutionary industrial changes was John Deere’s switch from horizontal two cylinder engines to the completely new line of modern vertical engines like that 1120. These have turned out to be as legendarily well built as the two-cylinder Johnny-Poppers.
Thanks for being tour guide!
Zetors and SAME tractors were sold here along with most other brands mostly gone now all I see are Deeres and New Holland nothing is red or orange.
Our 2021 Top 10 (new tractors sold):
1. John Deere
2. New Holland
3. Fendt
4. Case-IH
5. Massey Ferguson
6. Deutz-Fahr
7. Claas
8. Valtra
9. Steyr
10. Kubota
(source: Brancheorganisatie Fedecom)
I have a vague recollection that when Mercedes-Benz broke up Hanomag-Henschel, Volvo-BM bought the tractor business and the Diesel engine plant. The small Volvo Diesel was derived from the Hanomag unit and continued in the F4 etc.
But I haven’t found anything on the internet to confirm it.
Many of those tractors are now made by the same few, massive conglomerates now.
Google-translate the text below, no Hanomag/Volvo-BM connection whatsoever, according to
http://www.landtechnik-historisch.de/historische-landmaschinen-von-a-bis-z/h/hanomag/ that is:
“Nach der Auflösung der Vereinigten Stahlwerke übernahm 1952 der Rheinstahl-Konzern (siehe hier) die Hanomag, die zu diesem Zeitpunkt Marktführer im Bereich der Dieselschlepper war. Die Nutzfahrzeugsparte des Unternehmens fusionierte daraufhin mit den Henschel-Werken zur Marke „Hanomag-Henschel“, die 1971 von Daimler Benz übernommen wurde. Im selben Jahr stellte Hanomag auch seine Traktorenproduktion ein.
1974 verkaufte der Rheinstahl-Konzern Hanomag weiter an Massey-Ferguson. Nur wenige Jahre später -1980 – übernahm der Unternehmer Horst-Dieter Esch (IBH-Holding) die Hanomag und gliederte sie in einen Zusammenschluss mehrerer sanierungswürdiger mittelständischer Landwirtschaftsunternehmen ein. Diese IBH-Holding war mehrere Jahre erfolgreich, bis sie 1983 zusammenbrach und Esch zu einer mehrjährigen Gefängnisstrafe verurteilt wurde.
Auch Hanomag ging daraufhin 1984 in Konkurs, es blieb eine Auffanggesellschaft – die Hanomag GmbH – die 1988 in eine AG umgewandelt und 1989 teilweise vom japanischen Unternehmen Komatsu übernommen wurde. Seit 2002 ist Hanomag komplett in die Komatsu Ltd. eingegliedert und firmiert unter der Bezeichnung „Komatsu-Hanomag GmbH“. Nach wie vor in Hannover ansässig, produziert das Werk heute Radlader, Mobilbagger und Muldenkipper”.
The Dutch flower trucks arriving in Germany are always freshly washed. Even, during unpleasant weather conditions