Engineering:Berliet T100
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The Berliet T100 was a truck manufactured by Berliet in the 1950s. It was, at the time, the largest truck in the world.[1]
Design
Three trucks were built with normal control (with the cab behind the front axle); the fourth was built with forward control (cab-over-engine design (and sleeping accommodation)). They had 29.6-litre Cummins V12 engines, providing 600 hp (441 kW) and later 700 hp (515 kW). The trucks were intended for off-road use, in the oil and mining industries, in particular petroleum exploration in the Sahara.[2] Steering was powered by a separate small Panhard engine.
The first two trucks were 6x6 flatbeds with gross weights of 103 tonnes; the third was built as a 6x4 dumper truck, for the uranium mine at Bessines-sur-Gartempe; the fourth was another flatbed truck with 102 tonne gross weight, or 190 tonnes as a tractor. It was experimentally fitted with a Turbomeca gas turbine in 1962, but fuel consumption was excessive, so the conventional diesel engine was fitted again.
History
The trucks were designed and built in secret, and with a tight deadline; the first was finished after nine months, at the factory in Courbevoie. It was unveiled, by surprise, at the 1957 Paris car show.[3] However, it was too big to fit in the main exhibition hall, so Berliet built a special external pavilion to exhibit the huge new truck. It was then shown at various other car shows - Lyon, Avignon, Helsinki, Casablanca, Frankfurt, and Geneva. It went to work in the oil and gas fields of the Sahara; after Algerian independence it became property of the Algerian government, and was eventually preserved in Hassi-Messaoud.[4]
The second T100 was built in 1958 and two more in 1959.
The second T100, having worked in Algeria, was later returned to the Berliet Foundation's museum in 1981.[5]
The trucks were stablemates of the Berliet GBO15, a 60-ton 6x6 truck which had been released in 1956. 45 were built, most exported to Algeria.[6]
See also
- Missions Berliet-Ténéré
References
- ↑ "Biggest Truck Goes To US". British Pathe. http://www.britishpathe.com/video/biggest-truck-goes-to-us/query/truck. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
- ↑ Lecat, Gilbert (2010). Berliet T100 - Les géants du désert. Antony: ETAI. ISBN 978-2-7268-9482-8. OCLC 758879793. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/758879793.
- ↑ "EL BERLIET T-100, EL GIGANTE FRANCÉS" (in Spanish). http://www.cosasexclusivas.com/2009/11/el-berliet-t-100-el-gigante-frances.html. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
- ↑ "le Berliet T-100 en Algérie…". 12 December 2011. http://www.enattendantmieux.org/avant/?p=652. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
- ↑ "Le plus gros camion du monde : BERLIET T100, 600 cv" (in French). UIM Marine. http://uim.marine.free.fr/hisnav/archives/navires_uim/op-com/perregaux-opc.htm. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
- ↑ "LE BERLIET GBO15 P 6X6 SEIGNEUR DU DÉSERT: REPORTAGE PHOTOS INÉDIT" (in French). Fondation Berliet. http://www.fondationberliet.org/ressources-documentaires/berliet-gbo15p-algerie-sahara/. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
External links
- Berliet Foundation page on the T100
- Photos from the Berliet museum
- History of the T100
- Berliets desert trucks
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