Commercial Vehicle Thread

[condor]

Originally Posted by 1100D

I had been a big fan of Tata trucks from my early childhood (and all my notebooks were lined with 1210E faces maybe because the Leylands never had a face only names which are as mocho-est as it can get in India - Cheetah, Tusker, Viking ...)

1100D, my thoughts too.

Originally Posted by Jomz

Ot is Not Payload, Itz is Gross Vehicle weight.. Fully loaded
Leyland too has the same nomenclature..

Ishaan, Jomz is right reg the GVW.

Jomz, the numeric nomenclature from Leyland is more recent compare to Tata.

Btw, Jomz, you missed the RHINO

Originally Posted by hvkumar

In TN, once upon a time, in Nilgiris District (Ooty area) and Madurai District (Kodaikanal area), there used to be Tatas for the highlands - now they are all Leylands.

When was this ? I lived in CBE for some time in late 70's, but dont remember seeing a Tata with Cheran Transport Corpn. They were all Leylands. Even in the city, it was difficult to find a Tata.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

I am sure no one will miss the fact that the entire Indian military runs on Leyland Stallions nowadays, having moved away from the earlier Shaktiman (an old Tata model)

Originally Posted by 1100D

.. Defence vehicles were designed in conjunction with VFJ. And similar vehicle can be nomenclatured based on manufacturer but not marketed outside. I have been seeing a lot of Tata 4X4's in the past present and am quite sure will be in the future.

1100D is right - defence vehicles are from VFJ, and there are enough Tata's around. Both VFJ trucks - Tata & AL - look almost the same, you would need to search for the make.


Anyone following the magazine "CV" ? Was able to pick up one issue, but my timing hasnt been good after that.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by condor

When was this ? I lived in CBE for some time in late 70's, but dont remember seeing a Tata with Cheran Transport Corpn. They were all Leylands. Even in the city, it was difficult to find a Tata.

.

Even in the late eighties, all buses plying inside Nilgriris district were Tatas (under Cheran TC banner), although the ones going from Coimbatore to Ooty were Leylands. Similarly, in Kodai region, Rani Mangamma TC also used Tatas in Kumuli, Bodi, Kumbam, etc.

In Coimbatore City, all the N Mahalingam group (ABT) buses were Tata and interestingly, all their registration numbers added up to 9!

While on this topic, if you think private bus operators are superstitious, in the early and mid-eighties, the entire Ashok Leyland company fleet in Madras (that was used to ferry employees to their factory in Ennore) had registration numbers adding up to 9 too.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by ramzsys

But now-a-days tata buses are increasingly used in all TNSTCs.

..

This is interesting news - TNSTCs are diehard Leyland customers!

On the same vein, BEST in Bombay used to be a 100% Leyland fleet for as long as I care to remember - at least since the 70s I have never seen any other model except Leyland.

CNG buses broke the Leyland monopoly and now almost all LNG buses are Tata - and BEST doe snot propose to buy any more regular diesel buses, which means Tata will increasingly take ove rthe BEST fleet of, say, 3000 buses and more. This is a huge victory for Tata. Similarly, the low-floor Starbuses are being procured too - there is a solitary low-floor Leyland bus, that is no comparison to the Tata Starbus in the low-floor, looks department.

[nbr]

[quote=hvkumar;491033]



I am sure no one will miss the fact that the entire Indian military runs on Leyland Stallions nowadays, having moved away from the earlier Shaktiman (an old Tata model)



As far as i know, Shaktiman was never a TATA product,it was manufactured by MAN, It was rugged but trust worthy, i remember travelling in a Shaktiman,10years back when i was an NCC cadet in school. The ride can be compared to a bullock cart.

[hvkumar]

[quote=nbr;492467]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

I am sure no one will miss the fact that the entire Indian military runs on Leyland Stallions nowadays, having moved away from the earlier Shaktiman (an old Tata model)



As far as i know, Shaktiman was never a TATA product,it was manufactured by MAN, It was rugged but trust worthy, i remember travelling in a Shaktiman,10years back when i was an NCC cadet in school. The ride can be compared to a bullock cart.

Maybe you are right, but in the 1960s when the Jabalpur factory was established, it was Tata who licensed out their product for manufacture by the military - in fact, I have one of the old Tata company journals that also has apicture of Nehru inaugrating the factory and the caption that mentions clearly that Tata was the company. Apart from teh Shaktiman, tata also used to supply other types of 4x4 troop/cargo carriers till the Kargil War when the switchover to Leyland Stallion happened (till that time, Leyland used to supply a few solitary Beavers - as the tractors were called, I think - to the armed forces). Anyway, the Shaktiman seems to have done its job very well in the ruggest terrains that it operated in.

[nitrous]

Originally Posted by condor

Anyone following the magazine "CV" ?

For a few months,i was.
Then, the articles weren't interesting and with Adil Jal Darukhanwala,it felt like a business-finance journal.

[rahul_intlad]

Moving away from the big boys,what's everyones take on the latest trend from manufacturers to bring in small CV's [like tata ace]to compete with the three wheeled auto's.

Three wheeler's or four wheelers as CV's whats your take.

[Mpower]

4 wheels are better than 3. Its all about imporving the standard of living.

[condor]

Originally Posted by rahul_intlad

..what's everyones take on the latest trend from manufacturers to bring in small CV's

The three wheelers only choke the roads. Under-powered in the name of FE, over-loaded to squeeze out as much as one can, end result is to clog the roads and cause problems to every one else. Not that the four wheelers are any better, but just that lil bit.

[1100D]

MAN Nutzfahrzeuge - MAN‘s Long Tradition of Military Trucks

Opening picture...thats the Shaktiman. VFJ had collaboration with TATA's to set up shop and possibly alter a few Tata trucks available to suit military needs. Some Shaktimans later employed Tata running gear. However, there are also reports of them emplying Nissan and Leyland engines. So ShaktiMan wasn't Tata or Leyland but predominantly a MAN (pun intended!)

[fx45]

hello everyone..

this is my first post.


there are many shaktiman and nissan trucks which our army and navy used being broken up and scrapped in kalina and kurla areas in mumbai.

[condor]

Originally Posted by 1100D

So ShaktiMan wasn't Tata or Leyland but predominantly a MAN (pun intended!)

I always thought that the Shaktiman traced it's roots back to MAN, not Tata


Shaktiman (4x4) How different does this look from the MAN on MAN's web-site that 110D posted ?

[nitrous]

Originally Posted by rahul

Three wheeler's or four wheelers as CV's whats your take.

Its quite a convenient vehicle for small loads and smaller lanes. Its cost-effective when we have very small payload and don't need a 407.
The Bajaj Minidor we have is quite reliable and not very fussy.
We'd bought if before the ACE was released.If we knew about the ACE, we wouldn't think twice to invest in the Tata.

[directinjection]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

As far as i know, Shaktiman was never a TATA product,it was manufactured by MAN, It was rugged but trust worthy, i remember travelling in a Shaktiman,10years back when i was an NCC cadet in school. The ride can be compared to a bullock cart.

Shaktiman was a MAN truck that was license-manufactured in India by the Defence Vehicle Factory at Jabalpur. It had permanently-engaged 4X4 and it also had multi-fuel capability.

In mid-nineties, Shakimans were inducted by the Municipal Corporation Delhi for carrying garbage. They failed miserably at MCD and from what I remember, there were frequent clutch breakdowns.

[directinjection]

Originally Posted by 1100D

But then did 608 have a different engine from the 407?

Even now 712 ex (is the most probably the DICOR-ised 407 engine) but 410 EX?

Just guessing though 709 could be turbocharged 407 engine.

608 engine was the six cylinder version of the 407 engine, with a cubic capacity of about 4.4 litres. Bore and stroke were identical: 97 MM X 100 MM.

4.4 litre engine was too big for an LCV and so 608 failed miserably in the market. It had the load carrying capability of an LCV but the fuel consumption of a MCV!

608 model (together with the engine) was soon phased out and replaced by 609 which was soon designated 709 since Leyland was launching Iveco LCV with the model designated as 709. Tata 609/709 had a 3.8 litre 4 cylinder engine that was derived from the bigger Tata 697 engine (that did duty on Tata's bigger trucks) simply by slicing off two cylinders. Hence the identical bore and stroke figures: 97 MM X 128 MM, compared to 697.

712 EX engine is different from 407 engine. 712 EX's engine is simply the Euro-III compliant version of 709's earlier engine. It is not DICOR but nevertheless uses a new fuel pump and has several other improvements, leading to improved power, torque as well increased intervals between oil changes.

For ensuring Euro-III compliance, the 407 engine also got the same treatment as the 709 engine and in the process its power increased from 70 to 100, besides other improvements.