US DREAM MACHINE
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Ford America's AeroMax is a typical homestead on wheels that US coast-to-coast truckies spend their driving-lives in. So when Ford UK asked if anyone at Commercial Motor fancied crossing the Alps in one there was instant melee. Bryan Jarvis emerged victorious and happily took off for Milan.
His verdict: it's stylish, comfortable, powerful and makes Magnum drivers feel wonderfully inferior, Rarely do US class 8 tractor units get to within spitting distance of the Mont Blanc glacier but when they do, the gnomes stop yodelling. Fellow travellers fair drooled when Ford's shapely 6x4 AeroMax, resplendent in rich royal plum and Holland-hitched to an old Fruehauf trailer, swept by. With scarcely enough payload to make a Cat 3406E growl, it purred past everything in sight on its way to the Alps, but stylishly. One glimpse was enough to cause the jaws of most truck drivers to drop and their eyes to pop. Worst affected were Renault Magnum drivers who almost tumbled from their lofty perches, many falling victim to that green-eyed monster as we surged past.
AeroMax's are well into normal production at Ford's Louisville, Kentucky plant so they are a common enough sight in the States. Ours, though, was a pre-production version which Ford sent across the pond to earn some European exposure. Ford is looking to attract the interest of operators using major European routes leading eastwards through Belarus and the Ukraine into Russia's vast hinterland.
Its twin 150-gallon tanks cut out long-distance fuel supply problems while the huge cabin's driver friendliness, the proven Cat or Cummins/Fuller/ Rockwell driveline with Hendrickson suspension adds to the attraction. Of course, if local operators wanted large bonneted tractors for east European/Russian general haulage there are the familiar Scania, Volvo, even Sisu models.
On the other hand, should North American class 8s take on a sort of cowboy cult appeal over the Steppes, then Ford is not the only supplier able to meet such a demand. Renault has Mack Trucks; Mercedes has Freightliner and Volvo owns White. There's also Leyland Daf and Foden's llo•