Hello Group
one of my main interests in heavy haulage in general are trucks produced by the french company Nicolas
Nicolas, after the downfall of traditional heavy haulage producers in France, has decided to start making itsa own trucks to match its trailer prodicts and to sell complete rigs on the world market.
that strategy did not work out perfectly as expected, the trucks remained rather small in numbers.
however the products themselves are very fascinating. pure components trucks, Nicolas bought the cabs, engines, gearboxes and axles and put them together on in-hoouse built frames. the customer was totally free in its choices and could choose whatever equipment he wanted to have on its truck
that was back in 1977 when the first Nicolas Tractomas tractor saw the light of the day.
those trucks are still produced today are the latest model, called TR1010 D100 is the biggeest on-road heavy haulage truck ever built on the world. bar none.
all four of these 912 hp 10x10 drive giants are working in South Africa for the company Rotran, a subisdiary of Southafrican energy supplier Eskom, and work hauling transformators, generators and similar equipment in what is without doubt one of the toughtest on-road heavy haulage applications worldwide.
Rotran replaces bit by bit its whole old pacific fleet by those trucks, four 10x10 and three 8x8 so far
Nicolas Tractomas rigs worked and work all over the planet, in a multitude of countries, which makes tracing them not easy at all, be it in Argentina, Corea, Thailand, Lybia, Emirates, Iraq or Cuba
Nicolas proposed four series of trucks: A, B, C and D
A are long hood versions, offered in a joint venture with UK manufacturer Unipower. Afaik no Nicolas-branded truck was ever sold
B are Tractomas in 3m wide version
C are 2m50 wide thus standard road width in Europe for example
D are ultra heavy series with 3m30
Engines choices were/are (with codes):
D - Caterpillar (C was already taken)
C - Cummins
G - General Motors Detroit Diesel
M - MAN
O - Mercedes-Benz OM...
gearboxes:
A - Allison
C - Clark
R - Renk
Z - ZF
axles:
K - Kessler
R - Renault RVI
S - Soma
U - Unipower
a Nicolas Tractomas type number would look like that:
TR66 C6C
= on road tractor TR, 6x6 drive, Cummins engine. the 6 means different power rating for that model, thus 600 instead of 520 hp, then Clark gearbox
the trucks that haul pieces in China for the Three Gorges Dam project are the type:
TR88 MCK D90
8x8 road tractor, MAN engine, Clark tranny, Kessler Axles, D = 3m30 wide version, 90 metric tons Gross vehicle weight
Rotran 10x10 monsters are TR1010 D9RK D100
together with a good friend from France, Patrick Comelli, who some might know throough the great custom brass models he makes, we try to get the full history of all Nicolas tractomas trucks together.
therefore i have started to make a list.
ANY additional info, esp. photos are welcome. this goes for example out to our UK friends here:
there were two known Tractomas in Great britain: one went to Sunters and came later to Econofreight, the other went to Brackmills. where are those trucks today? what was their fate? sold? scrapped? standing idle?
my list file can be accessed here, as MS Excel sheet:
http://www.box.net/shared/6ymp720ms4it is under my copyright of course, that means its public domain since i share it, but its not open source
any corrections and addditions welcome via mail or PM, you´d make my day, be sure
the second sheet of that file shows the full logic of the tractomas type system, maybe just something for hardcore fans, but you never know
i know this is a very special and limited interest subject, hope i didn´t bore you too much with it. questions and comments welcome
