ON THE ROAD
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Overcoming our surprise at finding RHD models at Tatra’s test track, we first tried a 30-tonne GVW 6x6 Phoenix with the 408hp MX. While the Phoenix cab is virtually indistinguishable from a CF85 – apart from the Tatra badge in the wheel boss – it sits 217mm higher off the ground and needs a third, flexible, step to climb into it.
However, it uses the same coil-spring cab suspension as the CF.
At the test facility there were a variety of road surfaces including Belgian pave and what appeared to be large dinosaur eggs cemented into the ground to form an enormous ‘extreme’ cobbled road. We’d normally drive gently across both surfaces at a steady (and modest) speed, but within minutes we were running back and forth across them at up to 70km/h, without any discomfort and very little shock coming up through the floor or wheel. Likewise, when cornering hard, the Phoenix proved very sure-footed with hardly any cab roll – and when putting it across excruciating axle twists its cab stayed remarkably level as each axle met the changing angles of the road surface. For an all-wheel-drive truck, we were also surprised by how little transmission noise there was at speed. With its tipper body half-loaded it climbed a 45% paved slope without any protest, while its retarder and drum brakes (Tatra only fits drums) were more than capable of holding it back on a similarly surfaced 30% downhill test slope.
Although some tipper fleets still view auto boxes with suspicion, the installation of the ZF AS-Tronic in the Phoenix should allay those fears. By far the most impressive of all the test trucks, however, was the 50-tonne GVW