shugg:
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Hi Graham,
It is the opposite for myself, I run MAN 440 tractor units, only have 5 left on the fleet now but they have always been serviced by a main dealer and have never put a foot wrong, the ages range from an 11 plate to a 66 plate. The 18 tonner I had, well that was aquired through a take over and to be fair to the motor it had had a hard life, don’t think it had ever had the sump plug out so you can’t blame the motor if it was neglected, Cheer’s Pete
Which proves proper maintenance is the way ahead , far to many operators out there never put a spanner near a motor then complain when they go wrong .
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Which doesn’t apply in any company I have ever worked for, thank you. The engine(s) problem I refer to was with the Euro 5 version, well known for being troublesome.
The 6x4 MAN we run or don’t at the moment was on R&M this was extended after the initial deal so the only people who touched it were MAN theirselves in fact come to think of it they were all on R &M to start with and 2 engines blew under warranty and they didn’t want to know at the start. One blew again and is now parked up for spares
ERF-NGC-European:
Juddian:
Those old 331s (and the 280s before that) with the stick-shift 13-sp Fuller in them were good tools. Also good were the early F90s with the Eaton Twin-splitters that followed them. Shame they went over the sluggish ZF Eco-split sychro box. Ro
Agreed, twin splitter could have been made for MAN engines, quick to rev and equally fast for the revs to drop made the best use of twin splitter box i had the pleasure of, if the clutch/gearbox brake was kept adjusted and used correctly when needed on steep hill climbing, gearchanges could be so rapid and smooth that apart from the change in engine revs a passenger would never know a gearchange had taken place, this smooth uninterrupted progress is something all modern boxes (apart from maybe Volvo’s twin clutch, which i haven’t driven) fail dismally at.
Coming up to date Traxon (latest version of ZF’s arsetronic) is ok, but if you still drive the box in manual mode as and when required resulting in better progress/economy for obvious reasons, then Traxon is a retrograde step to the AS tronic it replaced because the auto function now insists on interfering at moving junctions when it didn’t to the same extent in the previous box.
Other than that minor criticism, which to be fair affects not than many drivers these days, current properly specced MAN’s are back at the top of their game.
I love this wagon I was gutted when it was sold.
