T he Mercedes-Benz Eurocab took part in our cab test last
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year but has been through minor cosmetic surgery since then, Apart from a nose job, it has stripey new seat and bunk trim and a smaller steering wheel. There isn't a whole lot more to tell but that is notnecessarily a bad thing. The Eurocab offers standing headroom and stacks of stowage space. Raised bunks, compared with the standard sleeper cab, give space for a deep compartment beneath the bottom bunk.
There are cavernous lockers in the header rail, another over the top bunk and a zip-up wardrobe at the end of the bunks.
There's plenty of oddments space too.
We were less impressed by the header rail locker's roller shutter front, which takes up half the locker space when it's opened. A top-hinged lid would be better.
Raising and lowering the top bunk is fiddly and timeconsuming but with the top bunk in place access to the lower berth is hampered by a fixed bar, presumably intended to stop the occupant from falling out. Fitting a swivelling passenger seat (like the ERF's) and a folding bar (like the MAN's) would help a lot.
Once in the bottom bunk the driver will find that the switch panel for the heater also contains a light switch for the bunk, but no switches for the cab lights or radio. Getting out of the bunk involves another Houdini-style effort and with the lights out we found that the thin
grey curtains did not keep enough light out of the cab. The bunks are not as generously proportioned as some rivals but we had a comfortable night in the Merc with enough room to dress and undress in comfort.
The heater operates through the cab air ducts and works well, though there was a fiddly sequence of heater control positions to remember before firing up the system. Using the existing heater matrix means that heat is well distributed around the cab, and the screen can be demisted ready for the road. The Mere takes our award for the noisiest cab in the
constant-speed tests, probably due to its ageing design when compared with some rivals. Vertical movement affects the Eurocab most but, as the figures show, the seat effectively damped these movements. Cab pitching was also well controlled.
All in all the Mercedes Eurocab is good but flawed. It's a pity that M-B did not spend a little more money in the cab facelift to make the interior more driver
friendly. Bunkaccessible light and radio switches and \ improved bunk access \ would make a lot of difference at little additional cost in a \ top-spec cab.