Mercedes-Benz Custom Tailored Trucks (CTT), the department for tailor-made conversions from Mercedes-Benz Trucks, has successfully converted its 300,000th vehicle. The anniversary vehicle is an Actros 8×4/4 Full-SLT for use in the heavy-duty sector.
Marc Schulz, Head of Product Development and Marketing at Mercedes-Benz Custom Tailored Trucks: “In a world of increasing complexity, the right vehicle for a specific transport demand might not be available in series production. Custom Tailored Trucks offers solutions where the wide range of standard and optional equipment from Mercedes-Benz Trucks reaches its limits. As a central point of contact for customer special requests, we at CTT deliver unique, tailor-made solutions for our customers.”
For more than 20 years, the teams at CTT have been developing tailor-made solutions. It is now possible to retrofit the necessary parts for the stringent demands in heavy-duty transport, install an additional axle, adapt wheelbases or install a crewcab for additional seats. The conversions are carried out at the Wörth truck plant, at the CTT plant in Molsheim, France, 100 kilometers from Wörth and by the CTT conversion partner network. In total, up to 70 CTT vehicles can be converted daily thanks to these production capacities.
The Actros 8×4/4 Full-SLT anniversary vehicle
After the Actros rolled off the production line in Wörth, the original 3-axle truck was converted into a 4-axle, full-size SLT with two driven axles in Molsheim and at TITAN in Sulzbach to be able to use it as a semitrailer truck for heavy-duty transport. For this purpose, an 8-ton leading axle was installed and frame mounted behind the cab, offering space for a 900-liter fuel tank, a compressed-air vessel and a rear-mounted cooling system for cooling in fueled operation and retarder mode. The likewise retrofitted fifth-wheel coupling and the slider allow efficient axle load distribution. The frame, including components, was then equipped with a side trim.
Custom Tailored (e)Trucks – eActros 300 Lowliner for stringent demands
Electric trucks play an important role in implementing the Mercedes-Benz Trucks strategy of locally CO2- neutral transportation. Based on the eActros 300 semitrailer truck, CTT is currently building a “lowliner” variant of the electric truck in Molsheim as a pilot project, which is suitable for use with megatrailers and in automotive logistics. The eActros 300 can also be a suitable solution for high-volume transport that requires an interior height of up to three meters as a lowliner. The completed lowliners are initially to be usedby selected customers in plant logistics at Mercedes-Benz Trucks.
