These days, heavy-duty Fords with the biggest engines and highest towing capacity come from Turkey. The Ford Otosan company brought out a special, limited edition of their successful F-Max 4×2 tractor, called the Blackline. The truck maker built 250 of them, all in moon dust gray.
The F-Max is blending in very nicely with the other offerings, having all the characteristics of the quintessential long-distance tractor unit. The full-size Ford is set and ready to tow any tridem axle/super singles semi-trailer, forming a 40 tons (88,185 lbs) combination for international transport throughout Europe. Ford’s 500 hp, 12.7 liter Ecotorq inline-six engine fits the bill perfectly too.
No gear stick, ZF TraXon automated manual transmissions only.
The Blackline on display came from Belgium. Ford is aiming at a 5% market share in the 80 countries where the F-Max is or will be sold, western European nations included. The competitors on that major market are DAF, Scania, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, MAN, Renault and Iveco. In the heavy, on-highway tractor class, DAF is the market leader in Europe.
Like father, like son. Both rolling along just fine!
Many more pictures of the Ford F-Max Blackline can be found on the manufacturer’s website.
Related article:
CC Global: The Ford F-Max 4×2 Tractor – Turkish Built Ford Tough
When I previewed this post last night, I had a WTF? moment. I must have missed your previous post on the F-Max and was totally oblivious to the fact that Ford (sort of) was active in HD trucks in Europe.
Of course it’s probably more accurate to call this an Otosan, as undoubtedly they did a lot of the development work, but nevertheless. I went to their website and see that they also have a somewhat smaller truck too.
I didn’t have time to look it up, but is that Duratorque engine their own design/development? Remarkable, if so.
It’s just based on a Ford design (Ford Cargo, previously manufactured in Brazil until 2019) and produced by a Ford 50/50 joint venture.
They designed and produce the engine in-house.
The Ford F-Max has nothing to do with all those long-in-the-tooth Cargo models from Brazil and/or Turkey, certainly not cab-wise.
The F-Max is only available as a 4×2 tractor and was introduced in 2018 by Ford Otosan as a brand-new alternative to the established 7 Euro-brands.
It bears a striking resenblance to one of the various Chinese brand trucks I see around here but cannot remember which one I’ll be looking more closely today.
Another one, a Ginaf mining truck. Ford Cargo cab and Cummins power.
Prior to the Ecotorq engine, Ford Otosan used FPT engines (Fiat Powertrain Technologies) in all their heavy trucks and tractors.
It’s hard to find in-depth information about its true origins, but my best guess (after some searching in the past years) is that it’s essentially based on the 12.7 liter FPT engine for agricultural/construction machinery, not the bigger 12.9 liter “Cursor 13” engines as used in Iveco vehicles.
Basically what’s also said here, 6 years ago:
https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/47891-the-story-behind-ford-trucks-13l-ecotorq-engine/
That makes sense.
Looks ok but in 4×2 doesnt really suit the market here 8×4 is the big seller here with weights up to 61 tonnes, semi trailers with triaxles are getting rarer too quads are more prevalent or rigids towing drawbar 5 and 5 axle trailers, even the ancient Freightliner Century Im trapped in runs a 50 tonne sticker but only has capacity for 30 tonnes of bulk liquid so grosses 47.5 most days it needs a bigger trailer to carry more,
Being on a tiny island in the far corner of the pacific new trucks are actually hard to get even parts are hard to obtain now thanx to supply chain restrictions but automated manual transmissions have taken over now and theres a shortage of drivers who can drive crash box manuals and that will only get worse.
Such a 4×2 tractor as the Ford F-Max is the “one size fits all” long-distance tractor on the continent. When driving from, say, the Netherlands to Poland, 40 tons is the gross weight limit, regardless the (higher) national weight limits. A 500 hp 4×2 tractor will do that job just fine, regardless flat or hills/mountains.
50 tons GCVW with a 4×2 tractor is doable, here’s an example (the Volvo FH with the tanker semi-trailer):
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-global-two-foodstuff-transporters-for-different-end-users/
The Ford truck international YouTube channel has a great short video of one of these trucks on frozen Lake Baikal.
This looks like a worthy successor to the Ford Transcontinental. For better or for worse Ford left the class 8 market in the US in 1997 when the Louisville and Cargo lines were sold to Freightliner leaving the class 7 F750 as the biggest North American market Ford.