Fuso in India

[kerry]

Just got back from 8 days in India. Given the comments on this forum about how Fuso's are sold virtually everywhere, I expected to see some. To the contrary, I saw not a single one. I saw probably thousands of trucks on the intercity roads. Virtually all were Indian made Tatas. A few Eichners (?) No Isuzus. No Mercedes Benz. No Mitsubishi. No Hinos. No US trucks. Also, not a single recreational truck at all.
Driving in India is a nightmare. It would take considerable time for a North American driver to adapt to the chaos.

 

[taco2go]

There's been a decades-long history of "collaboration" though, going back to their independance in 1947. Most of the 'Fuso' sized trucks plying the roads nowadays are products of such partnerships.

TATA/Benz
Ashoka/Leyland
Eicher/Mitsubishi
Swaraj/Mazda
DCM/Toyota

ya, unlike neighbouring Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which import all of their heavy vehicles, you will not see much if any of the parent brands.

 

[kerry]

The Eicher do resemble cabover Mitsubishis. The full size Tatas don't resemble MB's at all. The medium duty Tata cabs look almost exactly like MB 408d vans/trucks. The only Ashoka/Leylands I saw were Indian army trucks. Perhaps there were a couple of others. The only Swaraj/Mazdas I saw were buses.

 

[taco2go]

If I recall correctly, I think Swaraj Mazda is now partnering with Isuzu in their medium and light duty truck division- got some pics off the interweb

Here is one of the old (literally!) TATA 1210 E's based on the 60's Benz and the newer TATA 407 that has the Mog lines.

 

[haven]

Fuso will start building light and medium trucks in India in 2012.
The plan is to sell 50,000 trucks a year. Mercedes, Fuso's parent
company, recently completed construction of a plant in India to
manufacture Mercedes Benz cars, heavy trucks, and buses.

Fuso has a joint venture with Kamaz to start production in Russia, too.

 

[kerry]

If I recall correctly, I think Swaraj Mazda is now partnering with Isuzu in their medium and light duty truck division- got some pics off the interweb

Here is one of the old (literally!) TATA 1210 E's based on the 60's Benz and the newer TATA 407 that has the Mog lines.

That bottom one has the cab of a 408/508d from the mid 80's. I saw some of the 1210's but didn't think they resembled MB's at all. I wonder what powers them. I was surprised at how clean all the trucks ran, even the older ones. Only saw one or two give a big belch of black soot. Expected to see a lot more diesel pollution.
I didn't see any of those Indian Isuzu's, although 99.999999% of Tata heavy duty trucks are painted that orange color. I wonder why?

I didn't see any 4x4 trucks apart from army models.

 

[dhackney]

Kerry,

Congratulations on your trip and the opportunity to learn about India.

Agreed about the traffic there. It is quite an adjustment.

Our experiences there mirrored yours. All domestic made, almost all Tatas.

We spent most of our time up in the Himalayas, where the typical view of a Tata is coming around a hairpin corner at a decent clip and meeting this:

Or waiting for a chance to pass on a brief straight while following this:

Most were orange:

But not all.

All were highly decorated and personalized:

There was (and still is) quite a bit of Army activity in West Bengal, and we did see a variety of Tata 4x4 Army vehicles of different sizes, but due to the circumstances, I didn't have the opportunity to get any photos.


For lightweight vehicles, these are popular as taxis in the mountains:

 

[dhackney]

But overall, they are vastly outnumbered by more common means of travel:

 

[dhackney]

As to the traffic, yes, it does require some adjustment.

But all in all, I'd rather share the road with camels, cattle and elephants, along with swams of buzzing scooters carrying families of six, roaring Tata trucks and rocketing busses than ride or drive down the 405 dodging commuters simultaneously talking on the phone, texting, putting on makeup, whacking the kids in the back seat and shouting approval at the radio.

When I'm on the road in the developing world, I try to adopt the attitude of the locals. No matter what passes by, they don't ever seem all that impressed.

 

[kerry]

Yes, the Indians certainly know how to utilize all possible kinds of conveyance devices. Were you able to figure out what kind of vehicle lay behind the one pictured with the bag of potatoes (?) beside the green engine. I saw a fair number of those and they seemed to be some kind of cross between a truck and a tractor, possibly a truck with the cab removed.
We were on a commercial tour and apart from city traffic, the only roads we saw were the 4 lane highways connecting Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. Perhaps more rural roads are tamer, but driving on those highways seemed to border on the suicidal. We saw quite a number of truck accidents given the short time we were there.
What's the deal with the orange paint? Almost all the Tata heavy duty trucks were painted that color.
I would have liked to have gotten up into the Himalayas because, being a river guy, the impression I got from urban India was not positive. Every body of water I saw was for all intents and purposes a cesspool.

 

[taco2go]

Great pictures! And what a way to experience the sights (and smells) of the subcontintent- motorbikes.

Yes, the Indians certainly know how to utilize all possible kinds of conveyance devices. Were you able to figure out what kind of vehicle lay behind the one pictured with the bag of potatoes (?) beside the green engine. I saw a fair number of those and they seemed to be some kind of cross between a truck and a tractor, possibly a truck with the cab removed.

That picture cracked me up! That little item is quite literally an agricultural water pump, MacGyvered together together with some planks, axles and tires to make a motor vehicle. It is a common sight in rural India and serves as a cheap and primitive mode of transportation.
It's called a 'Jugaad'- I don't quite know how to translate that word other than, yes, "MacGuyvered". Very often a choice the poor are left with: making do with limited resources. A common sight in the North Indian plains-I see them on the Delhi to Uttrakhand highway every year. I'm not so sure about the south.

India is definitely a study in mind-blowing contrasts.

Wiki link if you really want to know more about this hot-rodded water pump.

 

[whatcharterboat]

From Taco2go's link

Jugaad is a survival tactic, whereas a hack is an intellectual art form; i.e. Jugaad is the wile of the poor, and hack the pastime of the affluent cerebral. Jugaad is a hack to get around or deal with a lack of or limited resources, and has a class component to it - jugaad are things poor but clever people do to make the most of the resources they have.

How true but this was the best bit..........

They do what they need to do, without regard to what is supposed to be possible.

 

[DzlToy]

good thing the diesel trucks dont smoke

 

[kerry]

Where are those pictures taken? I was repulsed by the fact that no Indian stream or river I saw looked any better than that one.

 

[DzlToy]

googled india pics and those are some of the ones that came up... what a $hit hole of a country....if their streets and rivers really do look like that...not a place i would care to visit