Has anyone out there any experience of Steyr trucks , have heard they were good trucks in their day but had a bit of a Skoda image at the time .?
Used to run out to Steyr, Austria, with Eaton Fuller gearboxes from Newton Aycliffe. I always enjoyed nosing around the factory whilst being unloaded. They used to make them upside-down and then turn 'em over to put the cab on. Quality product, I always thought.
This didn’t last as long in service as the bigger one but did make an appearance in Dr. Who, hooked up to the Tardis.
Evening all, Steyr, superb engineers, ran around for years untill their surrogate parent MAN found them trying to establish themselves in their (MANs),biggest export market…the UK!! So they jumped on them…and that was the end of Steyr.
Cliff Groves, (RIP), (probably the man behind, and truly responsible for Scania sucesses in the UK), left, and started the Steyr importation into the UK. For the life of me I cannot remember his number 2, but he was ex Seddon Akinson, and knew the job!
I put my money out and bought a couple of 4x2 rigid sleeper chassis, and fitted them with Soloman refrigerated bodies. They were very cheap to run, easy to operate, and nice to drive. There was tremendous potential, but MAN pulled the whole thing in house, killed Cliffs operation, and failed to support, (quite deliberately), those Steyrs out in the field.
Pat Blackburn, (Chambers and Cook), and the Sweetings, down in Somerset, as well as Walls ran/converted some of the tractors. Odd looking they may have been, but they were really nice to drive, and operate.
Steyr were the first Euro manufacturer, apart from Berliet, to try to exploit the new Chinese market. Somewhere I have the statistics, and it was this investment, and its lack of short term return, that made MAN seize the control tightly of its subsidiary. For had not MANs stupidity in Iraq nearly bought them to their knees, only to be rescued from the jaws of US General Motors take over, by a highly “odd” Federal German Government sanctioned bale out by Mercedes Benz, (well,well, outside European Union regulation)!!!
Steyr…would have been a viable marque in the UK, but our friends at Swindon killed it, (only ollowing orders do you know)!!!
I shall raise a Bollinger to the memory of Steyr…and of more importance the people behind the marque…and particularly the UK!!
Cheerio for now.
Old bonneted Steyr which was very popular in Austria in the 60th.
THe model was also sold in Benelux and South America.
I had a Puch racing bike that had the name Steyr stamped on the frame and the badge looked a bit like BMW’s (were they all one big happy family?)
A well-written history of the Steyr 90 series here:
zuckerfabrik24.de/steyrpuch/steyr90_1.htm
It seems like a competitive range of vehicles for 1968: smart-looking tilt cab, 320ps V8. I wonder why it was not more successful in Europe?
PS this page has gone oversize. Would a kind moderator or similar please reduce it back to 2.5m wide?
PS this page has gone oversize. Would a kind moderator or similar please reduce it back to 2.5m wide?
fixed 
Rikki-UK:
PS this page has gone oversize. Would a kind moderator or similar please reduce it back to 2.5m wide?
fixed
Excellent response, Rikki. If only the following organisations were as efficient:
Telecoms/internet service providers.
Energy suppliers.
Public transport.
Tax/benefits agencies.
Police.
Etc.
Today’s lesson- put a haulage man in charge of any company involved in the service industry.
Here’s a pic of a rather nice 320bhp V8:
I
There is a photo on here somewhere of one of Shaun Hannahs Tractor units, Regards Larry.
I ran this one.
gb1:
0I ran this one.
What was it like? Was the “Skoda reputation” mentioned in the original post deserved?
[zb]
anorak:
A well-written history of the Steyr 90 series here:
zuckerfabrik24.de/steyrpuch/steyr90_1.htm
It seems like a competitive range of vehicles for 1968: smart-looking tilt cab, 320ps V8. I wonder why it was not more successful in Europe?PS this page has gone oversize. Would a kind moderator or similar please reduce it back to 2.5m wide?
Hallo, for someone who want to know something about Fiat or OM you will find it on this site too.
The same here never liked,but the small bonneted sold very well. The new cab started well but dissapeared as soon as it came,some MAN users bought them because the dealer’s pleased them to buy one or more.
A company in the '50’s and '60’s which gave a lot of work to it’s subcontractors said to them buy a Steyer and you get work.
That company was a MAN user and sucontractors with less cash bought old WWII surplus or bad marques or second hand rubbish. So if they were pushed to buy a Steyr they served the entrepreneur good service without break-downs.
The importer here was Hocké MAN,Steyr,Seddon and Hocké-Steyrs,that were converted steyr’s which arrived knocked down.
Cheers Eric,
I notice nobody’s mentioned that ERF took Steyr cabs for those operators who insisted on a steel version? A firm I worked for had an ERF skip lorry with a Steyr cab, ■■■■■■■ 6-litre, 9 speed Fuller, Rockwell axle. I thought it was great to drive on local work as the lower cab made hopping in & out much easier.
[zb]
anorak:gb1:
0I ran this one.
What was it like? Was the “Skoda reputation” mentioned in the original post deserved?
I suppose that depends on whether you consider Skoda’s to have a good or bad reputation!
I used to tell people it was a poor man’s Globetrotter! Some found it an oddity, but I actually liked the look of it (fortunately).
Agreed, it was cheap to buy, but the quality of the build was very good, and as most of the running-gear were tried and tested proprietry parts,
reliability was never an issue. The twin-splitter gearbox was a major attraction for me.
The only problem I ever had was with an air-pipe that was routed along the bottom of the battery-box. Vibration used to cause the pipe to
fracture, but this was easily resolved by fitting a flexi-pipe as a replacement. Other than that, the truck never let me down, and it was worked hard!
It was traditionally Teutonic to drive, being functional rather than plush. The bottom bunk was rather narrow for me, but access to the wider top bunk was good, so I usually slept ‘upstairs’.
The cab interior had a very good storage cupboard above the driver’s seat, so that most of my luggage and the portable TV fitted in it.
Good suspension & reliable. I had the V8 ,the turbo had a great whistle. I liked it,Swiss reg. Mine was a flat top.
