THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

April 2008

What does a gearbox have to do with global warming? Quite a lot actually as became evident when Mercedes-Benz chose to highlight to the world press the advantages of the fully automated manual Power-Shift transmission as fitted to the Axor 1843 LS. Patrick O’Leary was there. 

Have you ever been out of control while at the same time in control? Yeah, I know many of you are going to think back to last Saturday night’s braai but I’m not talking about that sort of ‘out of control’. What I’m referring to is when you’re actually in control of all your senses but out of control of the things going on around you – and yet everything is in control. Am I making sense? Not really hey! Let me explain. 

It all came about when FleetWatch was invited by the good people at Mercedes-Benz SA to join them and their colleagues from Germany and Turkey on an exercise designed to give a hands-on demonstration of the advantages of the new Power- Shift transmission. The hands-on part of it took the form of getting into the cab of an Axor 1843 LS 4x2 truck tractor – fitted with a Power- Shift transmission - hauling a trailer loaded to 24 tons and driving the rig about 450 kms from a place called Aksaray to a place called Antalya. 

ACE TRUCK driver Richard Schneider was an apt instructor and great companion for the trip. Drivers in Germany just love the features of the Power- Shift.

AFTER TOURING the fascinating and historical Cappadokia area where one sees Turkey’s version of early squatter camps in the way of caves where people actually lived, the ultra modern, high-tech Aksaray plant of Mercedes-Benz Türk AŞ – from where we set off on the trip - came as a complete contrast to an area whose history goes back to 8000 BC. The production facilities at this plant operate to the same high standards as the German plants. Turkey really is a land of contrasts.

The journey involved many kilometers of flat terrain over rather dicey roads shared with rather dicey trucks followed by a huge climb up a mountain range and then down the other side to end up at sea-level at a place called Belek in Antalya. Each journalist was allocated a truck and a professional driver to accompany him/her on the trip and show him/her the ropes. My companion was a guy by the name of Richard Schneider from Mercedes-Benz in Germany. Richard took the wheel for the first 50 or so kilometers and then pulled off for me to take over. Having been talked through and shown the workings of the Power-Shift by this highly professional man, I felt confident that I could handle it over the next few hundred kilometers. 

OK. We’re comfortably seated, steering wheel adjusted to my liking and we’re ready to roll. Flicker on, check the mirrors for a gap in the traffic, accelerator pedal down and there we go. As we head down the road, you feel the smooth change of gears – there’s 12 forward gears and, wait for it, four reverse gears - and you’re doing nothing but keeping your foot on the accelerator pedal and your eye on what’s happening on the road. There’s no over-revving, no missing gears, no crunching of the box. It’s all so smooth. The Power-Shift does it all for you. It’s all out of your control but you feel so much in control. It’s doing the thinking, doing the work, doing the calculations, doing everything for you as you sit back, around you and enjoy the ride. 

Sitting behind the wheel of a topclass truck and seeing some of those Turkish rigs coming at you with loads protruding from all sides gave some hairy moments on those narrow, bumpy roads. Most important was full concentration on steering the rig so as to avoid hitting those protuberances. This is where the Power-Shift comes into its own. The trend in modern truck driving is for the driver to be able to concentrate on the environmental influences around him that could jeopardize his safety bubble – other traffic, weather conditions, road conditions, pedestrians, cyclists and such like. His job is to be aware of everything around him so as to pilot the truck safely through the  many ‘obstacles’ that the long-haul road throws his way. Allowing the driver to do this for maximum safety are innovative products such as the Power-Shift where the technology does the work that would have been done by the driver in the past. 
 

THE OPEN road stretches far into the distance before reaching the mountains. Note the roadfix patches as tell tale sign, of past neglect.

HEADING DOWN the mountain showed the wisdom of using modern braking technology. This local truck’s brakes were ‘cooking’ as it went down whereas we were laid back and comfortably cruising using the retarder.

HEADING UP the mountain towards a peak of 1 940m above sea-level, the Axor took it in its stride handling gear changes for us while we enjoyed the view.

EASY TO read instrumentation tells you what mode - full auto, semi-auto or manual - and what gear you are in thus keeping you fully informed what the Power-Shift transmission is doing to ease the road ahead.

AND HERE she is, the techno-marvel Mercedes-Benz Power-Shift. This photo shows the 12-gear version of the direct drive transmission designed especially for longdistance haulage.

WITHOUT GOING into all the technical details of the Power-Shift, the essence of it is that this automated, non-synchromesh manual transmission dispenses with various mechanical elements – for example synchronizer rings – that are required in synchromesh transmissions. Instead of this, the matching of gear ratios to engine speed at the output shaft and the gearwheel is performed by an intelligent engine, clutch and transmission control. And that’s it.

What this allows for is smoother, more comfortable and faster gear changes than even highly experienced drivers are usually able to manage with manual or semiautomated transmissions. And I can vouch for that because I am certainly not a professional driver and with the help of the Power-Shift, that 450 km trip was a breeze. And that’s saying a lot because the climb up that mountain took us up some hefty gradients to a height of 1 940 metres above sea level. Power-Shift does, by the way, offer the driver the option of choosing between fully automated, semi-automated or manual gear shifting at the mere push of a button. 

I must add that going down the mountain was also a breeze made even more so by the workings of the Voith R 115 HV retarder. Driving behind some of the local trucks down that mountain also showed, in a practical way, the wisdom of using modern technology. We could smell the brakes big-time from the local trucks ahead and were just waiting for brake fade to kick-in. It didn’t happen. Or maybe it did. We didn’t hang around to see as we overtook those slow, turgid trucks as soon as it was safe to do so and continued down on our merry, easy, breezy way. 

So what has the Power-Shift got to do with global warming? Here’s what. Truck operators are not producers but rather consumers of fuel. They can’t make cleaner diesel or even biodiesel. What they can do, however, is ensure that every drop counts and their role in fighting global warming is to implement policies and strategies within their companies to ensure optimum fuel consumption so as not to waste this resource and emit further emissions. 

Without doubt – and the proof is there – the use of the Power-Shift transmission optimizes fuel consumption through perfect gear changes at precisely the ideal revs thereby saving not only the operator money but also saving our environment. If you can’t affect improvements in the making of the fuel, then at least affect them in the use of the fuel. The Power-Shift is one of the aids that will allow operators to do so. It’s a winner from whichever way you look at it. 

Editor’s Note: The Power-Shift is not available in Axor models in South Africa. They were, however, introduced into the Mercedes-Benz Actros 440 V6 and the 500 V8 model ranges last year. 

The driver’s job is to pilot the truck safely through 
the ‘obstacles’ the road throws his way. 

MODERN TRUCKS and coaches share the narrow roads with farm tractors and others. All are important in the grand scheme of the economy. It makes for pretty hairy driving though.

THE ROADS throw up a mix of new, old and terrible making driver concentration essential to road safety. The Power-Shift certainly helps focus this concentration by doing the hard work.

HOW ARE these for cuties? Never have I witnessed such a mix of transport vehicles as I did in Turkey. It must be a mechanic’s paradise for many look shagged but perform the task anyway.

HUNDREDS OF one or two pump fuel stations are peppered along Turkey’s inter-city roads yet you don’t see many vehicles filling up. How do they all make money?

A COUNTRY of contrasts in transport modes. One horse and donkey-power being overtaken by 430 horses in an Axor.

PATRICK O’LEARY - still fresh enough after 450 kms to play a quick nine holes of golf before dinner. So the Power-Shift even helps your golf.