The Ford Transcontinental was a heavy goods vehicle tractor and rigid unit manufactured between 1975 and 1983 by Ford of Britain.
Description[]
Assembled at the Ford facility in Amsterdam almost entirely from bought in OEM component parts (e.g., cab shell from Berliet, engine from Cummins, transmission from Eaton) it was introduced to fill a perceived gap in the market in anticipation of the relaxation of weight restrictions on HGVs, and as such had a very strong chassis and heavy duty suspension.
Recognizable by its high cab, it was an extremely advanced vehicle for its time offering a high standard of driver comfort and a high power output for its time, courtesy of the well proven 14 litre Cummins engine with typical outputs of 290-350 HP.
Sales did not live up to expectations, mainly because the tractor unit with its heavy duty construction was too heavy for the 32 ton weight limit in the UK at that time, although it was a popular vehicle with drivers, particularly those who were engaged on long distance continental work.
Versions[]
The truck was built in 2 versions;
- MK 1 - Small cam with Ford in Big letters above the grill
- MK 2 - Large cam engine with a large Ford badge on a black grill (see photo above)
Production[]
Only 8231 units were produced in Fords Amsterdam facility and another 504 units were produced at Foden in England bringing the total to 8735 units of which approx only 1% are believed to survive.[1]
This truck model is now generally out of service and is considered a collectors item. Although a few do remain in revenue earning service throughout Europe. They were originality popular on the Middle East trunk runs in the 80's serving the Oil industry boom.
Preservation[]
Today the Transcontinental is a particularly rare vehicle, much in favour with collectors of vintage commercials.
Registration No. | Make-Model or type no | Build-Year | Engine-Make/Type | Weight/class | Chassis/Body type | Owner (if known) |
Photo | Were seen/Featured | Other info |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
VJN 3S+ | Transcontinental 4435 | ? | Ford | Artic | 6x4 Tractor unit | Owner ? | Classic Commercial Vehicle Show at Gaydon 2013 | ||
FEF 42V+ | Transcontinental 4435 | ? | Ford | Artic | 6x4 Tractor unit | Owner ? | Classic Commercial Vehicle Show at Gaydon 2013 | ||
VLU 4X+ | Transcontinental | ? | Ford | Artic | Tractor unit | Owner ? | Classic Commercial Vehicle Show at Gaydon | ||
KEV 108Y | Transcontinental 4435 | ? | Ford | Artic | 6x4 Tractor unit | Owner ? | Donington Park Commercial Vehicle show 2009 | ||
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See also[]
References / sources[]
Wikipedia for initial article
External links[]
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This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Ford Transcontinental. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons by Attribution License and/or GNU Free Documentation License. Please check page history for when the original article was copied to Wikia |