Iveco (Industrial Vehicles Corporation), nowadays a CNH Industrial Company, was founded in 1975. It was a major merger between Fiat’s truck division and the truckmakers OM from Italy, Unic from France and Magirus-Deutz from Germany. Initially Fiat owned 80% of the Iveco shares, in 1980 that percentage increased to the full 100%.
Since 2002 Iveco’s line-up of heavy duty construction and off-road trucks is called the Trakker, it superseded the EuroTrakker. Mainly through Magirus-Deutz the Iveco company got a fabulous expertise in building heavy duty off-road vehicles.
The maximum axle load of each rear axle is 9,500 kg. Add the 9,000 kg of the front axle and you get a 28,000 kg (61,700 lbs) GVWR for this 6×6 dump truck. Heavy duty 4×4, 6×6, 8×8 and 10×8 trucks are very common around here.
They’re all cabovers these days, but I vividly remember the conventional 6×6 dump trucks from my childhood in the (early) seventies. The conventionals I saw on our roads back then were built by Ginaf, Terberg, Mercedes-Benz, MAN, Hanomag-Henschel, Magirus-Deutz and Tatra.
The Iveco is also equipped with a PTO-driven crane. Trucks like this have a hard life, not only due to the nature of their full-time daily job, but also because these are used during the winter season for salt spreading and snow plowing.
The crane is mounted on the truck’s frame, right inbetween the tilt cab and dump bed.
The rear side of the chassis, with a drawbar coupling. Typically this kind of on-/off-road trucks tows a lowbed trailer to transport construction machinery. In that case the legal maximum GVWR of the whole combination is 50,000 kg, which explains the 400+ hp engines in these short distance cabover trucks with their day cabs.
The cab is related to the Iveco Stralis long distance trucks and tractors, the Trakkers have a steel bumper though. This Trakker is powered by an Iveco 13 liter 6-cylinder diesel engine, good for 440 hp. Note the super singles on the front axle.
A steering axle with super singles on it. I’m sure that Jenna appreciates power steering.
Quite common to put supers on the steer of 6 wheel tippers, I drove an Iveco tractor unit Cursor model dynoed at 500hp there was a fleet of them set up for high speed long haul postal deliveries very tight schedules and quite a quick B train set up.
Cursor is the engine name, 500 hp would be a Cursor 13 engine (13 liter displacement). Also used in something like this:
It went really well, lowered turntable lightweight low height B train short long set up, handled like a dream and it would drive the twisties flat out on the 103kmh limiter rain shine or ice, the problem was I had to drive it like that every night to make delivery times 212kms mostly thru mountain ranges two and a half hours to do it in two lane blacktop not freeway.
The most powerful (factory) FPT Cursor 13 truck engine is 560 hp. There are bigger Cursor engines, as far as I know not used in Iveco trucks (yet).
Super singles on the steering axles of on/off-road trucks is common practice. This 10×8 has 3 steering axles (the 3th axle is both steerable and liftable) with super singles.
Thanks for the insight. Did not know they were a FIAT owned company.
I think I remember reading that Iveco and CHN have been spun off (along with Ferrari) of what is now FCA. I believe Exor is still the holding company for all these organizations. If true, one has to wonder if Exor’s ultimate goal is to sell off FCA. They sure can’t seem to find a ‘merger’ partner……..
The powertrains have also been spun off. FPT Industrial (mainly powertrains for CNH and Iveco) is also a part of CNH Industrial.
In short, CNH Industrial’s products are Case and New Holland farm- and construction machinery, Iveco commercial vehicles and all their powertrains.
I always thought these would make a good plow rig, but I’ve never seen one so set up in that states.
These things are absolute beasts. In LATAM, the combined GVWR was 72 tons.
Much much stronger build than the Eurotech/Stralis. Stronger chassis, rear hub reduction, heavy duty suspension, metal front bumper bars…
Cursor engines were a huge improvement compared to the old mechanical diesels.
That’s correct, the whole truck has been beefed up compared to its highway family members. This article’s truck, while short and equipped with a day cab, weighs over 15,000 kg empty. That about wraps it up.
I know them up close. The switch from EuroTrakker to Trakker also brought an improved cabin suspension (vastly better than the previous setup) and a new interior.
The cabin itself, mostly CO, is very modular. It can be easily configured in either LHD or RHD, day or sleeper and low/medium/high roof.
And as some of the Aussie ‘team members’ noted below, these are a rare sight down here. Most of the time I see Kenworth, Mack or Volvo trucks in configurations similar to the above
Speaking of Aussie, a Dutch Iveco dealership group builds the Iveco Strator conventional. It’s based on the Australian Iveco PowerStar model. Under its hood the latest Euro 6 (SCR only) technology.
Website (in English): http://www.strator.nl/home-en
The Argentinians (where their LATAM MD/HD trucks PD sits) tried their hand with the PowerStar too.
The cab is the same as the COE versions, with some cladding and modifications.
You will find one of the local concoctions very interesting. Look for the IVECO ACCO, very popular with the refuse collection fleets down here.
The obvious next step when the FX4 or Superduty is coming up short. Add some truck nuts, deer catcher, gallon sized cupholders and lifted a bit and you have the perfect moronmobile yahoowagon for the masses.
Oh, best not forget the metal “toolbox” for the bed, along with the spray in bedliner.
Serious question: is there some sort of official requirement to be called “heavy duty” or “super duty” ? Like GVM, towing capacity or engine power. Or is it partly marketing language ?
Interesting one Johannes, not something I see often as most of these in Australia will be at the mines or other remote areas. Most construction use wouldn’t need a 6×6 but I saw some (may have been MANs) in an electricity utility company yard a while back.
Take away the driven front axle and this sort of truck is not uncommon here although not with a low-sided dump body like this one. Instead you would see a crane and flat or dropside bed for freight handling, or a taller-sided dump body without a crane as a dedicated dump truck.
On the Iveco website they claim 33 ton GVM for Australia, which is higher than the ‘on paper’ axle mass limits would suggest but there are mechanisms to raise load limits with ‘road friendly’ suspension and other systems.
Because we’re on soft soil, 4×4, 6×6 etc. heavy duty trucks (mostly with a dump bed, of course) are widely used. The orange Iveco 10×8 pictured above has a 49 ton on-road GVM, so roughly 10 ton axle load per axle. Super singles on the steering axles not only because the larger foot print on soft soil, but also because standard sized single wheels can never carry that kind of weight.
We like our trucks compact, highly maneuverable and -above all- HEAVY. The GVM of surrounding countries is our payload.
Regarding maneuverable, plenty of straight trucks with 5 axles have 4 steerable axles: axles 1,2,3 and 5.
Super singles are probably the answer for heavier steer axle weight here too. I see them on prime movers sometimes too. The Astra 8×8 is listed as 48 ton GVM on the Iveco website. Incidentally, they are still building the Acco! 30 ton GVM for the 8×4 which even has stability control, they say 85% local content which is well above the local car manufacturing these days.
Speaking of soft ground, I remember years ago my uncle sold a semi-trailer load of hay, but the driver had parked in the wrong place (paddock beside the hay shed, not in the yard) so his truck had sunk about 150mm into the ground, and had to be pulled out with a tractor.
“Mainly through Magirus-Deutz the Iveco company got a fabulous expertise in building heavy duty off-road vehicles.”
They also own Astra, which was/is a company specialized in dumpers and military trucks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astra_(company)
Stuff like this :
Or this :
Thanks for the extra info. I’ve heard of the Astra trucks, although they were not sold in my country and I never saw one in person.