[julupani]

Well to put it more clearly, the basic idea of a bogie suspension is actually that two adjacent;y placed axles are suspended by the same unit rather than having two independent suspension units linked to each other. The most common place where you find a bogie is actually a railway coach, where two axles share one suspension unit.

For heavy trucks, generally a set of shared inverted parabolic leaf springs are used for bogie suspension. They generally provide for less effect on one axle due to the movement of the other axle, which is especially important if it is a tandem axle system and not one live and one dead axle.

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by julupani

They generally provide for less effect on one axle due to the movement of the other axle, which is especially important if it is a tandem axle system and not one live and one dead axle.

Either it may be 2 live axles or 1 live and the other dead, the main function of Bogie suspension is Uniform Load Distribution to both axles, especially when one axle is in a bump or vice versa.

[arvi86]

While I was travelling in the NH4 (Chennai-Bangalore Highway), I saw a couple of BharatBenz (Daimler) multi-axle trucks being tested. I chased them for a couple of kms, parked my car, got out and managed to take these snaps. In one of the snaps, you can even see the person sitting in the passenger side of one of the trucks waving his hand signalling me to stop taking snaps, but I never really bothered. So, here are my observations and the pictures.

Most of the design elements in both the trucks were similar except for some exceptions like the taillights and the rear crash guard. At first glance, you can immediately notice the solid build quality in the body of these trucks and everything looked fit enough to withstand abuse on our roads. Also impressive was the truck’s amazing stability in an emergency braking situation that was encountered.

The front end of the trucks were partially camouflaged hiding most parts of the grille and the bumper with integrated headlights. The overall design bears strong resemblance to the other popular global models of Mercedes-Benz like the Actros. In one of the trucks, the slotted grille and positioning of the round BharatBenz logo can also be seen. Overall, I can see a very high quality product coming out of BharatBenz that is sure to give tough competition to the Tatas and Ashok Leylands.

[julupani]

The more times I see some spy pics of the Bharat Benz trucks the more I am convinced that they will not bother the legacy range of either Tata or Leyland.

But ALL will have some serious competition for its U-truck and Tata for its Prima, if Daimler can invest enough to price them properly and invest enough to provide a very strong nationwide service back-up which these trucks will require in case of break-downs.

But I have to say, I am surprised to see that the cabs of what seems to be a 31 and a 25 ton rigid not being shared. I dont seem to be able to make out any body panels being shared by the 2 cabs.

Also, though its not something that may be final, the load-body seems to be a low height for Indian conditions.

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by julupani

But ALL will have some serious competition for its U-truck and Tata for its Prima, if Daimler can invest enough to price them properly and invest enough to provide a very strong nationwide service back-up which these trucks will require in case of break-downs.

But I have to say, I am surprised to see that the cabs of what seems to be a 31 and a 25 ton rigid not being shared. I dont seem to be able to make out any body panels being shared by the 2 cabs.

I agree. If Daimler prices these trucks competitively or even with a slight premium over its competitors, these trucks have the potential to seriously dent the Prima and the U Truck.

Also, as you said, though many design elements were similar, the cab and the body panels were different in both the trucks. BTW, how did you guess that these were 31 and 25 ton trucks? Its just for improving my knowledge.

[tushky]

is it a TATA TRUCK in the last photo?? as i can see the tailamps are very much TATA TYPE.

[julupani]

@tushky

That is just a simple move by Daimler to may be confuse the people who see it as a Tata truck instead of a Bharat Benz one. Just buy an after market Tata rear light console and attach it. If you want confirmation that it is indeed a Bharat Benz one, check out the temp registration numbers, they are consecutive.

@arvi86

The last two pics show a truck with 4 axles rather than 3 and the front 2 axles have single wheels on them. Such an arrangemet is a 31ton GVW vehicle in India.

Also something I notice now, Daimler have gone for an arrangement similar to the Tata 3118, ie is the rear 3 axles are bunched together. So most likely the extra front axle will be liftable and non-steerable, unlike the Leyland 31-tonners which have non-liftable but steerable 2nd front axles. The Tata/Bharat Benz type arrangement is, I think, more suitable for Indian conditions as the operator would like to reduce costs by lifting the extra axle when not required and compromising on turning raduis.

OT: When will we see 5-axle, 37ton GVW, rigids in India??? Considering how quickly the 31tonners are increasing its share, I think time is ripe for introducing 5-axle rigids.

[AlphaKilo]

One of my german friend, did his Internship in Bharatbenz(daimler trucks division) in the Structural analysis division. He had to say was, that these are 25, 37, 49 tonne range trucks. They were comparing it agains the U-trucks and the Tata 2523 ranges. I am not sure if it was prima, but for sure diamler is looking onto the markets like 25tonne dumper, mine vehicle(actros range) and 25 tonne day cab transporter ranges.

His words about AL's and Tatas are, "How do you even drive these trucks? No cabs, not safety, no seat belts, no A/C and not even proper seats" They had done some endurance tests and found the quality of AL's and Tatas to be really really very poor against the Mercs. He was astonished to hear that we had 16-18tonners with 150hp engines. He was laughing really hard on hearing that but their test trucks were with 180, 230 hp cummins and hino engines.

But another news is that now even Bharatbenz is considering to sell chassis only like local manufacturers. Their current strength is that most of the staff are from AL and they have easily given the know-how(or the drawbacks/market info) and benz is using this to the fullest.

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

"How do you even drive these trucks? No cabs, not safety, no seat belts, no A/C and not even proper seats" They had done some endurance tests and found the quality of AL's and Tatas to be really really very poor against the Mercs.

Sometimes, I pity truck drivers for this reason only. They don't even have proper seats and the transporters expect them to drive all day long. That is why disaster strikes when tiredness takes over. Just by looking at these prototypes, its clearly obvious that the build quality is way ahead of Tatas and Ashok Leylands.

[figo_mba]

I like the fact that the lights are lower than most of the trucks in India and that should allow the ones with personal vehicle to drive comfortably.

The tail lamp as pointed out here looks like Tata but then that could come from Tata component Suppliers also.

And the cabin from outside looks snug and comfortable. With better roads, better trucks Trucking is not going to be bad after all in the years to come.
Should become an acceptable vocation just my thought

[julupani]

Originally Posted by figo_mba

I like the fact that the lights are lower than most of the trucks in India and that should allow the ones with personal vehicle to drive comfortably.

The tail lamp as pointed out here looks like Tata but then that could come from Tata component Suppliers also.

And the cabin from outside looks snug and comfortable. With better roads, better trucks Trucking is not going to be bad after all in the years to come.
Should become an acceptable vocation just my thought

There are certain regulations to be met with regard to how high the lights can be positioned and how high the main beam of the head light reaches under full load conditions. All the new trucks meet these norms, at least in factory condition. But real life condition is something different.

If your are thinking that Bharat Benz is going to be breaking some new ground in introducing good quality can taking into account driver comfort, think again. Leyland, MAN Force, MNAL, AMW all have high comfort cabs available, which will be as good as the ones offered by Bharat Benz. The Tata Prima cab, when specced out to the max will be as good, if not better, than the kind of cabs on offer in Europe by all the leading truck manufacturers.

[AlphaKilo]

Also important to been seen is the market. How are they going to price it? Will it be against the MNAL, Prima and the MAN or they will place it between the very comfortable Prima range and the normal chassis only trucks. Moreover, the very name Benz, will add up some spice and some brand image too. I still would have preferred to hear it as Diamler-Benz trucks rather than Bharat Benz.

[G-BoleroBoy]

Saw these trucks on Nice road 2 days back. I thought it may be AL. Truck was speeding almost around 100+. Cleaner had a sharp eye to spot me trying to take pics from rear seat of the car which also was running at 80+ speeds. Driver slowed down considerably to maintain distance with us. Managed few - but apologise for bad quality (taken from mobile phone on running car).

[julupani]

The above pic shows a 25tonner with a cab like the 31tonner caught by arvi. May be they will be offering two different cab options.

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

Also important to been seen is the market. How are they going to price it? Will it be against the MNAL, Prima and the MAN or they will place it between the very comfortable Prima range and the normal chassis only trucks. Moreover, the very name Benz, will add up some spice and some brand image too. I still would have preferred to hear it as Diamler-Benz trucks rather than Bharat Benz.

As far as I know, the Prima is priced slightly higher than the MNAL, MAN, AMW etc. Largely because the engines used a bit more up-to-date and the fact that Tata doesnt offer a bare bones cab option. You cant skip the AC, the suspended seats, fog lights, projector headlamps, steering controls etc etc. even on a basic cab.

I think Bharat Benz will try to straddle both the MNAL, MAN, AMW etc range while offering enough options to go over to the Prima.

[Ashley2]

so with test mules of various categories been tested, the news is Daimler will launch its multi axle tipper as the first product and followed by multi axle haulage models.
Also they are working in the LDV - Light Duty Vehicle by Daimler's language and ICV in our language.This may have its DNA from the Fuso range.
The MDV range will have been lifted from Axor range of haulage instead of Actros as speculated.
Daimler's decision for going Cowl only option is very unique as they are not offering this in any of their portfolio in global markets. But India is as usual unique and as Daimler wants to be in the mass market segment wanted to go for Cowl only option.
Its to be noted that cowl options are still very popular in the rigid haulage segment unlike Tippers.