Freightliner Freightliner in Bosnia

[Daxaero]

One of the most attractive trucks at Balkans is definetly the one from the picture below. It's a Freightliner from Sarajevo that is hauling logs every day to a paper factory in my place. The sound and looks of this beauty just breaks all "flats" to tears. This thing is attraction because it's so uniqe and looks powerfull. People often take pictures of it and police officers stops it just to adore it....

 

[Sinister]

Not quite Bosnia, but blizzard strewn Minnesota about three years ago.

13' 6" wide, 116,000 pounds.

Freightliner is sorta considered...less...here in the states. It all comes down to matter of opinion many times, but trade in value tells the real story. Check truckpaper.com for 20 year old Peterbilts and KW vs. Freightliner and International. There a real reason for those differences.

What do euro trucks rate against one another? How does the used truck market work? Are certain brands more commanding of higher prices than others?

 

[Daxaero]

Mercedes keeps the best price and it's not droppinng a lot by years. We bought our first Mercedes Actros in 2007 for 35 000 euros. At that time, it was one year old and had 200 000 kilometers recorded. Now, with 1 200 000 kilometers on itself, we get offers to sell it for 28 000 euros. And that's after seven years and million kilometers more. That's the same with every Mercedes truck here.... they keep the price high. On other hand, we had Renault Premum with Volvo engine inside. We got it for 32 000 euros back in 2009. One year after, it was 19 000 at market.

In EU you have Euro engine regulations. For example:

highway taxes for Euro 3, 4, 5 and 6 engines are not the same.
if a section of highway is, let's say, 10 euros for Euro 3, it will be 8 euros for euro 4, 6 euros for euro5 and 4 euros for euro 6.

Fuel economy plays roll there too. Euro 5 and 6 are consuming less fuel.

In our company we have Euro 5 and 6 engines but replacing older Euro 5 with Euro 6.

Euro 6 has cheapest road taxes against other Euro engines because it's more nature friendly. That forces us to buy them so we can get better profit per haul.

 

[revelation1911]

How does the Scania compare?

 

[Daxaero]

I don't know much about Scania market. It's a nice and reliable truck but not for our conditions. It's not as "driver friendly" as Mercedes and not strong enough for our roads. Fuel consuption is almost equal like in all euro 5 engines. I found Scania to be less comfortable in my opinion and in Bosnia there are no services and parts for it.

 

[Kiwi303]

For the US readers. The Euro 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, etc all run on percentage of pollutants less than baseline.

I believe it was 1998 as baseline, Euro 6 is down to approximately 4% of the emmissions of the baseline engine.

 

[Daxaero]

Seven years in Bosnia, it's a hard work hauling logs to paper factory but this beast is catching attention everywhere it shows. Im impressed with reliability of this thing. There are no spare parts available or service for any USA vehicles but that is not a problem for this Freightliner. She's not breaking that much

 

[Injun]

Seven years in Bosnia, it's a hard work hauling logs to paper factory but this beast is catching attention everywhere it shows. Im impressed with reliability of this thing. There are no spare parts available or service for any USA vehicles but that is not a problem for this Freightliner. She's not breaking that much

Nice lookin' old Shaker.

@Les2 would be proud.

 

[Sinister]

Given the short wheelbase I think that truck probably came from Canada not necessarily the USA.

 

[Kiwi303]

Is the truck behind or with the roof light bar an Atkinson?

 

[Les2]

That's cool!

 

[Daxaero]

@Kiwi303 , The one behind is Mercedes Actros mp2, probably 2005-2008 model

 

[Daxaero]

Another one "long nose" came to Bosnia these days. Very nice and respectfull machine on bosnian roads. Too bad that bosnian law forced a owner of this truck to make some modifications regarding tachograph, lenght and weight.


EDIT: photo is recent, the date on photo is not correct

 

[Daxaero]

Al Capone and gangsters........