Overland transport from Northwestern Europe to far destinations like Iran (Persia), Pakistan and Afghanistan. Being away from home for three months, while driving around 20,000 km in harsh conditions (harsh in the widest sense of the word). In Europe, the seventies was peak long distance trucking for sure.
You were the king when driving a 300+ hp tractor, like a Volvo F89 or Scania 140/141. But somewhere between 250 and 300 hp under the cab was more common. Communication devices? Sat nav? Luxurious, tall sleeper cab? Non existent.
These are the three big rigs -owned by the Rynart hauling company- as shown in the 1975 video. A trio of heavy Fiat tractors, on their way from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to Karachi, Pakistan. One Fiat 619 T1 4×2 and two Fiat 697 T 6×4 tractor units. Rynart has a long history of Middle East transport.
In that specific branch of long distance transport, Fiat had an excellent reputation, back in the seventies. Especially the stout 6×4 tractors could cope with bad road conditions really well. Overbuilt, that’s the best way to describe them.
The 697 was the 6×4 version of the contemporary 619-series of heavy trucks and tractors, equipped with Fiat’s H-cab, as introduced in 1970. The 697 N was the truck chassis, the 697 T was the tractor unit.
They were powered by a Fiat 8210-02 diesel engine, a massive inline-six with 13.8 liter displacement and a maximum power output of 260 DIN-hp. The transmission was an Eaton-Fuller eight-speed.
You’d better take this set of wheels seriously. El Bruto, that’s a nickname I found when searching the web for Fiat 619-697 information. The drive axles come with hub reduction, which has been the norm on Euro dual-drive tandems for tough (weight-wise) and rough (off-road wise) jobs for ages. Dump and concrete mixer trucks, logging, heavy haulage, that kind of work. And for doing Middle East runs, obviously.
The cab that was also used by French Unic and later, when Iveco was formed also by Magirus Deutz, was later nicknamed the ” birdcage “, as it became too small over the years.
It stayed in production until the early nineties and by then it was long overtaken by the competition, not in the last place by RVI (Renault Trucks) that launched its AE, the truck that would set the standard for the future.
Anyway Johannes thanks, I always believed these had a sympathetic touch, but yours truly who sometimes drove a real F89 Volvo Turbo must confess that these only had 250 Swedish (Belgian) horses, the one I drove had a 8 speed splitted gearbox resulting in 16 gears, impossible to shift on a cold winters day !
Back then the French Unic model had a 340 HP V8 as their top notch model.
250 horses? Strange, the turbocharged 12 liter engine in the F89 was 330 hp. I clearly remember the red bumper stickers with “330 pk” in white. Confirmed by Volvo’s own website.
Then again, Belgian workhorses are really big…
The one I drove had the big black grille, black headlight surrounds and a blue and white bumpersticker saying 250 pk
250 horses sounds about right for a naturally aspirated 12 liter diesel, back then. But I can’t find any information that there ever was such an F89.
12 liter turbodiesel only, 330 hp, throughout the whole 1970-1977 production run of the F89.
Any link to or an example of such a low-power F89?
No I guess the bright orange one I drove is long gone it was a reefer with a sleeper cab and a ringfeder seat
I never gave the horsepower a second thought, apart from that bumper sticker but maybe someone stuck an F89 grille on an F88.
It was old back then and was used when the company was busy, I always did the Rungis run with it.
Reminds me a little of “Ice Road Truckers : Deadliest Roads “. White knuckle drives on twisty mountain passes.
Just one issue on these trips was the firm change of temperatures. From -30 °C (-22 °F) in the Turkish mountains to more than 40 °C (104 °F) in Pakistan.
Had to Google map this one, for a visual idea of a route.
A mere 7,178 km, 1,426 hours. Then the return.
Remarkable video and travel conditions, and I’ve never heard of these big Fiat trucks.
I was interested enough after watching this, that I followed some other similar Youtube links — interesting to me to see modern equivalents of this 1975 ride. Road conditions seem (generally) better, but it’s still an extraordinary journey, with obstacles (like multi-day waits for border crossings) that seem unimaginable.
Fiat’s truck division evolved/merged into Iveco in the mid-seventies, together with Magirus-Deutz and some others. Fiat was by far the biggest truck maker of the bunch.
The company’s current, fairly new long distance top model is the Iveco S-Way:
And included Ford of Europe’s truck heavy truck business too
How did the drivers get paid? By the route? Hourly? Yearly salary?
If they had to wait days at border crossings, did they get paid for their time?
In Holland you get a monthly salary, topped by a bonus for being away from home, expences are paid and overtime is paid .
So saturdays ans sundays are paid by the boss.
Those Fiats did fuel tanker duty over here theres still the odd one found in going order on a farm or transport company junk lot 300hp is seriously weak now but they did the same jobs that are now done with 6+700 hp trucks just slower on the hills,
Hell I spent the day in a R500 manual Scania tractor pulling a quad semi and its gutless compared to gthe 600hp Volvo I was in earlier in the week but the Scania copes with downhill well where the Volvos dont, cant beat Globetrotter comfort though lovely trucks to drive
Rumours are there will be a 770 hp Scania soon, possibly from a 17 liter V8. Ideal for the 70+ tons combinations, as used in northern Europe.
Thanks for posting this Johannes. I must confess that I´m a big fan of this famous Transorient theme and still join some sites that are dedicated to this. I´ve read the same there about the toughness of the big Fiats. And that they were buildt as Fiat Otoyol in Turkey.
Around a zillion of Middle East trucking pictures here, the website of Dutch former ME-drivers:
https://www.mocn.nl/Foto-s/
Thanks for that link, looks promising
Great link!
And a great looking and sounding truck too.
OOI, were the trucks running close together for the cameras – given all that dust visibility must have a challenge?
I remember this truck in my childhood here in Argentina in the late 80s and 90s. It was common to see it on the roads along with the Mercedes Kurshauber, and the old Ford, Dodge and Scania.
The engine was 13,700 liters and 260 horsepower. This made it quite fast compared to the other trucks. The maximum speed was 60 miles fully loaded.
Some are abandoned in remote places but others continue working.