Swiss roll out the Junior
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IN A FEW weeks' time the 1984 commercial motor show season will open with the Geneva Salon (January 20-29). This event will be the first since the regrouping of the major Swiss vehicle manufacturers into a new organisation in which the production of Sauror and FBW models is to give way to the assembly of certain MercedesBenz models at the two plants concerned.
Although the new NAW set-up (Nutzfahrzeug-Werke Arbon and Wetzikon) does not affect the current building of military highmobility six and 10-tonners under an original Saurer contract with the Swiss Government, the first results emerging from what is virtually a German take-over will be show at Geneva.
While production of the famous Saurer chassis for the civilian market has now ceased, the Arbon works will continue to build light alloy bodies and trailers for Swiss customers.
In the city bus sector Mercedes-Benz has gained further acceptance in Switzerland through a valuable order for 305 G articulated vehicles for the city of Basle. However, in what is seen as a political move to retain a semblance of Swiss domestic participation in this order, the operator is paying a premium for a number of these buses to be bodied at a local firm, FHS Frech-Hoch of Sissach.
One of these vehicles is expected to bean the bodybuilder's stand at Geneva where the company is also introducing the low-floor Junior Bus. This is a wholly Swiss development to meet the increasing demand for midi sized vehicles. It is aimed at the provision of more attractive public transport and also to accommodate wheelchair users and mothers with prams.
The new FHS Junior Bus, of integral construction, is 7.4m long, and in the standard configuration has 19 seats and space for up to 31 standing passengers or a correspondingly lower number when up to three wheelchairs are carried. Use of a rear-mounted power/transmission pack has enabled the buitders to provide a level floor ahead of the rear axle, with a boarding height of only 340nn.
Normally a Mercedes-Benz OM 352 six-cylinder diesel engine of 96kW is fitted although the turbocharged 124kW version of this engine is also available.
Transmission options include a Daimler-Benz five-speed synchromesh box, a D-B automatic transmission or the Allison AT 540 automatic transmission.
Independent suspension on all wheels is used and braking is disks at the front and drums on the rear. The air suspension elements allow the body to be lowered by 80mm for boarding wheelchairs, etc.
The aluminium-panelled body has two doors, those in the centre being 1,200mm wide dual swing-leaf types. Several preproduction units of the novel FHS bus are already in service with Swiss users.