Mercedes-Benz Trucks – More than 100 years

A company's brand name and trademark are symbolic. They embrace everything - the products, the services and the company itself. It is the customers' and the public's first point of reference. Its origins and history are therefore every bit as revealing and interesting as its current status on the market.

Gottlieb Daimler built the world's first truck in 1896 – a vehicle reminiscent of a motorised cart in the early days of the automobile. Daimler supplied this truck to London – transport had long since become an international business by the end of the nineteenth century. As in the car business, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz were tough competitors in truck sales for decades. While Daimler produced his first truck, Benz worked on what he called delivery vehicles, the precursors of today's vans. In 1923, three years before the merger, the two companies developed, quite independently of each other, their first diesel-engined trucks, thereby initiating a revolution in truck propulsion.

The history of trucks bearing the Mercedes star has also been a history of mergers from an early stage onwards. Numerous renowned brands in truck history have been incorporated in what is today the Mercedes-Benz Group. It started as early as 1911 with the takeover of Süddeutsche Automobil-fabrik (SAF, South German Automotive Factory) in Gaggenau by Benz, used from then on as Benz's commercial vehicle plant. Brands incorporated at a later stage included parts of Auto Union, Hanomag-Henschel, Krupp and the American Freightliner; they all represent the diverse roots of today's globally successful commercial vehicles from Mercedes-Benz.

The Mercedes-Benz truck history is rich in highlights, and there are any number of models whose designations still bring a gleam to the truck connoisseurs' eyes today. There was, for instance, an 1898 truck with a gearwheel transmission and tubular radiator (an invention of Daimler's close collaborator Wilhelm Maybach). Or the first diesel-engined trucks of 1923. During the same period, loading was made easier by low-frame trucks. The Mercedes-Benz Lo 2000 of 1932 was the first lightweight production truck with a diesel engine; impressive examples of heavy-duty trucks in the mid-thirties were the L 6500, L 8500 and L 10000 models.

Daimler-Benz started out successfully in the post-war era with the L 311 and later on with numerous trucks derived from this model, as well as with the new Unimog. The heavy-duty L 6600 developed into the standard truck among the heavyweights. With rather idiosyncratic designs such as the LP 333 and its two steered front axles, the company complied with equally idiosyncratic legislation in the fifties. Similar constraints in the late fifties gave rise to the design of new short-nose trucks. In the mid-sixties, the cab-over-engine trucks in the LP series ushered in the end of conventional trucks in Europe. In the following truck generations, the NG ("New Generation"), LK ("Light Class") and SK ("Heavy-duty Class"), the COE had already become a matter-of-course design concept. Mercedes-Benz introduced an opposite trend in the design of vans, by changing from the COE to the short-nose design with the T1 series from 1977.

Vito, Sprinter, Vario, Atego, Actros: Since 1995 all new vans and trucks have been given names. At the same time, Mercedes-Benz launched an unparalleled renewal programme, replacing all model series within an extremely short time. Pioneering electronic control systems were introduced for the powertrain and brakes, providing an enormous technological boost to the entire commercial vehicle industry.

1 October 1896. This date turned out later to be of great historical significance. On that day, the following was entered in the production records of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in Cannstatt near Stuttgart: "Motorised goods vehicle, order no. 81, vehicle no. 42, four hp two-cylinder engine, weight of the complete vehicle: 1,200 kilograms for carrying a load of 1,500 kilograms, invoiced to British Motor Syndicate Ltd. London." Ten years after the invention of the first car, Gottlieb Daimler had built the world's first truck.

The world's first truck looked like a horse-drawn cart without a drawbar. The driver was seated on the coach-box ahead of the front axle, out in the open air. Hence the truck was a cab-over-engine unit.

The engine was installed in the rear – a Daimler "Phoenix" two-cylinder engine which developed 4 hp from a displacement of 1.1 litres. Engine power was transmitted to the rear axle by a belt system, a design resembling that of the planetary hub reduction axles introduced decades later.

Rapid progress in engineering

According to the first brochure, Daimler supplied the truck in 4, 6, 8 and 10 hp versions, with payload capacity ratings between 1,500 and 5,000 kilograms and top speeds of up to 12 km/h. However, Gottlieb Daimler and his collaborator Wilhelm Maybach were not content with the rear engine configuration. In the next models, the engine was installed in the frame underneath the driver's seat and the rear axle was driven by means of a chain. Power was conveyed by a gearwheel transmission, the engine was cooled by Wilhelm Maybach's tubular radiator and started by means of low-voltage magneto ignition. In the next generation, the engine was placed under a bonnet above the front axle – and the conventional truck was born.

Market upturn thanks to the "subsidy truck"

The armed forces started taking an interest in trucks at an early stage. The Prussian army administration issued regulations for the construction of military motor vehicles as early as 1898 and a year later, transportation units set up a motorised vehicle detachment on a trial basis. From 1908, the armed forces directly supported motorisation by creating the "subsidy truck": the army administration subsidised the procurement and operation of trucks, provided the buyers undertook to make these vehicles available to the army in the event of mobilisation. Coupled with the financial support were specifications of the size, engineering and equipment of the trucks. Numerous companies availed themselves of this support and when World War I broke out in 1914, the German army had some 5,000 subsidised trucks at its disposal, among them numerous five-tonners (with reference to the payload capacity) with 28 and 40 hp from the Benz-Werke Gaggenau and with 22 and 35 hp from DMG in Berlin

Daimler and Benz: High-pressure work on the diesel engine

One of the pioneers of the diesel engine was Prosper L’Orange, a member of the board of management of Benz & Cie. He headed engine production in Mannheim where, after the expiry of the basic diesel patents in 1907, production of diesel engines was started as early as 1909, though not yet for driving vehicles. In the same year, L’Orange also developed the prechamber diesel engine and obtained a patent for this design.

After the end of World War I, L’Orange resumed development work on the diesel engine and in 1923 Benz installed the first operational diesel engines suitable for road vehicles in five-tonne trucks. The first production diesel engines for vehicles were four-cylinder prechamber engines of the OB 2 type. They generated 45 – 50 hp from a displacement of 8.8 litres. The first tests were successfully completed near Gaggenau on 10 September 1923.

1924: Three truck producers, three diesel systems

At the 1924 Motor Show in Berlin, three competitors lined up with three different systems – Benz with the prechamber engine, Daimler with compressed-air injection and MAN with direct injection. But it was still several years before the diesel engine became "presentable". Parallel to the development of the diesel engine, Benz introduced another innovation: a low-frame chassis. Originally designed to facilitate the dustmen's job, the low offset frame section between the axles enhanced the comfort of buses from 1925 – the first step in bus development away from truck design.

1935-1938: L 6500 - L 10000, the powerful top models

In the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II, the fleet of commercial vehicles in Germany increased by some 150 percent. Mercedes-Benz trucks fully participated in this growth. Increases were not only recorded in production figures, however: the production range was also expanded step by step. Higher payload versions were added, as well as more powerful engines. Heavy-duty trucks like the three-axle Mercedes-Benz L 6500, L 8500 and L 10000 rounded off the range at the upper end, their prominent identifying feature being the endless bonnet. Underneath was no longer a petrol engine but a large diesel powerpack: the six-cylinder in-line engine with a displacement of 12.5 litres developed abundant power at up to 150 hp. This was quite necessary, too, with the growth in long-distance transport at the time – the giant Mercedes-Benz L 10000 solo truck tipped the scales at as high a gross weight as 18.5 tonnes.

But it was not only the engineering that was further developed. From 1938, a harmoniously shaped, rounded cab with an undivided windscreen replaced the previous angular designs. This approach to cab design was to persevere for a long time. The first generation of short-nose trucks after World War II carried this cab right into the early sixties. The great demand called for the restructuring of production. From 1936 and, even more energetically from 1939, a new, additional generation of light trucks – the Mercedes-Benz L 1100 – L 2000 with the engine of the 260 D diesel car – came off the production lines in Stuttgart, the forerunner of today's vans, though still in the conventional short-nose design. Daimler-Benz produced these models in opposition to new government specifications.

Mercedes-Benz L 3250, the first post-war development

In May 1949, the export trade fair in Hanover, forerunner of today's Hanover industrial fair, provided Daimler-Benz with just the right stage for launching the L 3250, its first new post-war development. The Deutschmark was just one year old and the Federal Republic of Germany had been founded. Reconstruction of the war-torn country had begun and new means of transport were urgently required.

The rounded cab of the L 3250 dated back to the thirties; the rounded contours of the bonnet replaced the angular shapes of earlier days. With its payload capacity of three tonnes and a gross weight of 6.5 tonnes, the L 3250 quickly developed into a jack-of-all-trades. Upgraded to the L 3500 as early as 1950, it was a versatile best-seller in its weight category right from the start and one of the motors of the blossoming economic miracle.

Under the bonnet of this truck, an OM 312 six-cylinder diesel engine with a displacement of 4.6 litres generated 90 hp. The new lightweight truck was built in Mannheim, where the authorities' command to produce the Opel Blitz had since expired. The plant had one major advantage at the time in that, contrary to the company's other factories, war damage was limited. Moreover, the American occupational forces had given the green light for resumed truck production in Mannheim early on.

The COE truck may not have been Daimler-Benz's favourite for quite some time, but this was to change dramatically in 1963. The vehicles continued to carry the LP designation, but the new products from Gaggenau no longer had anything in common with the previous COE trucks. This already began with the model designations. The LP 1620, for instance, was a truck with a gross weight of 16 tonnes and an engine output of 200 hp – the era of mysterious design codes being used as model designations from 1955 had come to an end.

The new series impressed buyers with the clear-cut, cubic design of its cabs. The latter were generously glazed and soon after also available in an extended version with sleeper compartment for long-distance haulage. Underneath the distinctive cab were the proven six-cylinder in-line engines, with which the step from the prechamber principle to the economically more efficient direct injection system with output ratings up to 210 hp had been achieved in 1964. Output and displacement were raised over the years. In addition, Daimler-Benz introduced three-axle trucks and, in late 1969, a tilt cab that significantly facilitated access to the major components.

The tilt cab was just the outward sign of a genuine revolution taking place under the sheet metal. At the same time, the heavy-duty COE trucks were enhanced by new engines.

Daimler-Benz replaced the modular six-cylinder in-line engines by particularly compact V8 and V10 units from the new 400 series. The latter was to be further developed during the subsequent two-and-a-half decades, thereby acquiring an outstanding reputation. The V8 and V10 were joined by V6 units as well as by six-cylinder in-line engines for short-nose trucks and service buses. The Mercedes-Benz LP 1632 flagship boasted impressive performance with, initially, 320 hp from the 16 litres of its OM 403 engine. But the 256 hp from the eight-cylinder unit were equally convincing. The company initially produced the new heavy-duty LP trucks in Gaggenau before moving production to the newly constructed Wörth plant a few years later.

Whilst the heavy-duty LP trucks were updated from 1970 with new V-engines from the 400 series and tilt cabs, preparations were already underway behind the scenes for a new feat. In 1973, Daimler-Benz presented the new generation trucks, internally shortened to NG. The first new models from this series were construction site vehicles. Only a year later, however, the complete series was available, including two and three-axle trucks in the 16 – 22 tonne gvw category and a long cab with sleeper compartment for long-distance haulage. The newly designed cabs with all-round springing, an angled windscreen and low-drop side windows were mounted on either the 256 or 320 hp V-engines from the LP, still recent but already well known, and complemented by a 192 hp V6 unit. For the first time, the flexibility of the modular system for the 400 engine series came into its own. New planetary hub reduction axles transmitted high engine torque ratings and permitted transmissions with a wide ratio range.

Two years after the launch of the NG trucks, in 1975, it was the medium-duty class' turn for renewal. Models with gross weights of 10, 12 and 14 tonnes created an extremely closely graded offer, complemented by an additional engine. The light versions were powered by the small OM 352 six-cylinder engine, with 130 hp in the naturally aspirated version and 168 hp in the turbocharged unit. Customers requiring a medium-duty truck with a particularly powerful engine were now able to opt for a 14 or 16-tonner with 240 hp V8 engine. In the years which followed, refined technical systems and safety features were incorporated, for instance the torque converter lockup clutch (WSK) for semitrailer tractors and, in 1981, the anti-lock braking system (ABS) – the latter representing enormous progress in terms of safety.

Ten years after the introduction of the 400 engine series, in late 1979, a new direction was taken in the development of the V8 engine. The eight-cylinder was given a longer stroke and a displacement of 14.6 litres. The derated version developed 250 hp, the naturally aspirated version 280 hp, the turbocharged version 330 hp and a powerpack with turbocharger and intercooler as much as 375 hp – in other words, a single engine with unchanged displacement covered a power output band with a 50 percent rise from the smallest to the most powerful version. Alongside the power boost, reduced fuel consumption was a major objective against the background of the oil crisis a few years earlier. New, finely graduated transmissions with 16 speeds went a long way towards achieving this objective.

The dump trucks of the time were powered by a mighty naturally aspirated V10, the short-radius distribution trucks by a V6 – made possible by the modular system of the 400 series within economically acceptable limits. But that was not all. With the introduction of electronic power shift (EPS) in 1985, Daimler-Benz achieved a pioneering breakthrough in the field of automated manual transmissions. For the first time, the conventional shift lever was replaced by an easy-to-use joystick. At the same time, the new V8 version with 354 hp made a name for itself. Like the transmission, this engine received electronic control: Electronic Diesel Control (EDC), launched in the same year, 1985.

With this step, the development potential of the NG series was still far from being exhausted. In 1988, Daimler-Benz developed the heavy-duty class (SK) from the NG (new generation). In terms of appearance, it was recognisable at first glance, with new windows, an angled cowling and a broad, impressive radiator grille. The contours of the cab may have remained largely unchanged after 15 years in production, but the changes underneath the sheet metal skin were enormous. There was the newly designed cockpit, but first and foremost, there were thoroughly re-engineered powerplants with new 260, 290, 354 and 435 hp versions. Top-of-the-pops was a V8 with 475 hp – for its day and age the most powerful road-going truck in the whole of Europe. Progress was made, however, not only in power output but also in brake design. The engine brake with constantly open throttle valve – later renamed decompression valve engine brake – has substantially boosted the engines' braking performance since 1989.