Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website 125 Years of Experience in Construction: From Daimler's vehicles with a payload of five metric tons to Arocs with MirrorCam
dicembre 21, 2021 - Mercedes-Benz Trucks

125 Years of Experience in Construction: From Daimler's vehicles with a payload of five metric tons to Arocs with MirrorCam

Comunicato Stampa disponibile solo in lingua originale. 

  • Already on the move in 1897 with five tons of building material
  • In 1937, the heaviest #truck, the Mercedes-Benz LK 10000, was able to shift ten tons
  • Two-axle dump trucks supported reconstruction of Germany's war wounds in the 1950s
  • As of 1960, short-nosed and long-nosed trucks captured the market
  • In 1973, the forward-control trucks of the “NG New Generation” were initially presented as dump trucks
  • The new 2019 Arocs: Special #truck class for the construction industry

Stuttgart – Almost every third construction vehicle in Germany carries a star on its radiator grille. And the construction business has a great tradition in relying on the brand with the star: Mercedes-Benz can now look back on some 125 years of experience in the construction industry.

From the outset, trucks carried construction #truck genes

Gottlieb #Daimler introduced the world’s first #truck at the end of the 19th century. The new trucks were not only used for general cargo transport but were also quickly discovered by tradesmen and builders for transporting tools and building material. In 1897, just one year after Gottlieb #Daimler invented the #truck, Daimler-Motorengesellschaft (Daimler Motor Corporation) was able to showcase a vehicle with a payload of five metric tons. The new 5-ton #truck was used for the first time to transport building materials, as #Daimler personally carried out the test drives at a roof tile factory.

The introduction of so-called winched tippers in 1904 paved the way for heavy bulk cargo transport: A loading bridge could be raised on one side using a crank and rack. Only two people were able to handle five tons of cargo with a corresponding transmission of the crank using only two winches per #truck. This procedure remained state-of-the-art until the 1920s, when the hydraulic tipper press successively replaced the manual work on the dumping body. This was the birth of the three-way dumper #truck: The hydraulic strut as a driving force made it possible for bulk material to slide off in three directions instead of just two.

Forward-thinking technology in the first truck

It is remarkable that the first #truck 125 years ago anticipated the planetary axles that are still common today, especially in construction vehicles: The belt transmission sends the power of the engine onto a shaft mounted across the longitudinal axis of the carriage, the two ends of which are provided with a pinion. Each of these pinions now engages in the internal gearing of a ring gear, which is firmly connected to the wheel to be driven. In modern planetary axles, this shaft ends in the wheel hubs in a sun gear connected to 3 to 5 planetary gears. These run on a stationary ring gear and thus drive the wheels. This is how, in principle, the planetary axles of heavy #mercedesbenztrucks have been working ever since right up to the current Arocs series.

With the exception of the ten-tons vehicle, such as the three-axle LK 10000 from 1937, Mercedes-Benz was able to increase the payload of the dump #truck in the pre-war period. This was one of the first real heavy-duty trucks on the road. The powerful vehicle had an output of 150 hp and a double-drive rear axle (axle configuration 6x4).

Squared two-axle dump trucks introduced as of 1949 with reconstruction after the war

Post-war production was quickly getting back on its feet. The provisionally improvised L 4500 with its square wooden cab was born at the heavily destroyed Gaggenau factory.

Launched in 1949, the bestselling L 3250 was one of the tough pragmatists that helped the Federal Republic of Germany, which was founded in the same year, set course for the economic Miracle on the Rhine. A somewhat heavier vehicle that joined the team in 1953, helped out. Known as the L 4500, then called the L 312, it was extremely successful in supporting the 3.5-ton #truck as an almost identical vehicle – with just one ton of added payload. These new models both immediately became market leaders in their class and were able to easily maintain this leading position until they were replaced in 1961.

The L 6600 was introduced as a real workhorse for heavy situations

In order to generate a mere 145 hp at the beginning of the 1950s, it took more than 4.6 liters of displacement, delivered by the 1949 OM 312 diesel engine.

As a further milestone, the L 6600 with a higher payload of 6600 kilograms was the first new development at Daimler-Benz in 1950. The L 6600, a vehicle fully focused on the heavy-duty class, with its 145 hp and 8.3 litre OM 315 pre-chamber diesel engine was produced at the Gaggenau plant. By the mid-1950s, heavy two-axle dump trucks, such as the LK 6600, were added to the range. However, it took until the 1960s before Daimler-Benz also manufactured three-axle vehicles for construction.

Further information in the press release to download

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