Growing flowers and potted plants is big business in the Netherlands. Consequently, an immense armada of dedicated trucks and combination vehicles to transport the end products is roaming the roads, day and night, nationally and internationally. Slick and glossy, that’s how they roll. Just like this fairly new Scania G-series truck.
The G is the third cab model in Scania’s current product line, after the low entry L-series and the P-series (short distance) delivery trucks and tractors. It comes in three roof heights: low, normal and high.
Next in line are the bigger R cab and the high-end S with a flat floor. All in all, the G finds itself precisely in the middle. It’s a perfect all-rounder.
There’s the whole Scania trucking family alright, modular building at its finest. The factory conventionals are long gone, there was no business case anymore in what had become a tiny niche market.
An impressive piece of equipment, exactly 12.00 m (39’4”) long, equal to the maximum overall length for a straight truck in the EU. Long wheelbase, long rear overhang, with a 6×2*4 drivetrain. That’s a 6×2 chassis with a steering (thank goodness, in this case!) and liftable tag axle.
The Scania is powered by a 9.3 liter, inline-five turbodiesel and is rated at a GVW of 27,000 kg (59,525 lbs). That’s the simple sum of the axle loads, the GVWR is not influenced by wheelbase, overall length or anything else. A short wheelbase tractor unit with this axle set-up would have been rated at the exact same gross vehicle weight.
Evidently, a vos is a fox. Look how it mingles in with the potted plant, as if the fox is sitting in its natural habitat. Or is just lying down, with its head resting on its tail, that’s what I also see. Anyway, what a great idea to express both the owner’s surname and his profession. Very well done!
Now to some pictures from coachbuilder Heiwo. On the right side, the retailers can comfortably step inside to check out the merchandise.
Just some straightforward side underride guards? Way too ordinary. Instead, pivoting stainless steel side panels, mounted underneath the cargo body with piano style hinges. Yes, flower haulers -and the coachbuilers- have a great sense of style.
A platform like this is called a cantilever tail lift. The wheeled trolleys are rolled on the platform manually and into the isothermal body they go.
An inner length of 9.55 m (31’4”) and plenty of lighting. The interior is as tight as the exterior. What a splendid truck, and some more flower power is coming up soon.
Note that there are exceptions to EU regulations vis a vis truck lengths. Finland has a number of such exceptions including one which allows a “lorry or trailer” to be up to 18 meters long and “road trains” to be up to 34.5 meters long. They can be quite a sight. Many of these trailers even have steerable wheels to facilitate the navigation of traffic circles.
Oh absolutely, but those are not straight (rigid) trucks.
Very sharp looking truck. Lot of work put in the design of the body.
What a killer race/vintage car hauler that would make! Sweet truck 🙂
Certainly! It would also be a great starting point for a motorhome conversion, after its retirement as a flower/plant hauler. It already has a fine entrance and isothermal body.
Nice, always liked most Scanias to drive though there are exceptions, the manual shift R500s we had on the rubbish were very ordinary and underpowered for the job and pushing the clutch to the floor to shift gets old quick in traffic but they are smooth on the road and usually quiet inside,
Flowers here go in curtain siders nice light loads easy work, those tail lifts are really handy wish we had them in the old days of hand unloading.
The only way of transporting flowers and plants I know is by using the so called Danish containers, trolleys with a variable number of shelves. Standard sized, so all growers can and do use them. The wheeled containers can also be coupled to form a train, for example at the auction.
Therefore, all flower trucks and combination vehicles have a tail lift platform for loading and unloading. And all of them have a fully enclosed, isothermal body.
Just so long as that fox stays out of my hen house!
The fox is specialized in growing potted plants, he’s quite harmless.