Overland 12: Ivecos 1 World Truck Expedition Video
- Thread starter Beowulf
- Start date
According to the web site, the Overland Project has been involved in adventure travel since 1995. There have been 13 expeditions in the 17 years since. The Overland Project is well sponsored, and each expedition is videotaped for Italian TV.
The 2010 project involved driving a group of four Piaggio Porter vans from Italy to Shanghai. The Porter vans are powered by electric motors, giving them a top speed of about 35 mph. The vans had enough battery capacity to travel for about 4 hours before recharging. The team carried gasoline powered generators to juice up the vans when they stopped away from a town.
Two of the vans were able to drive autonomously using a computer system that evaluated input from tv cameras and lasers mounted on the roof of the vehicle. A human sat in the driver's seat to take over in the event of a miscalculation, but reportedly this was rarely needed.
This adventure took about 3 months, and covered 12,000 miles.
The 2010 project involved driving a group of four Piaggio Porter vans from Italy to Shanghai. The Porter vans are powered by electric motors, giving them a top speed of about 35 mph. The vans had enough battery capacity to travel for about 4 hours before recharging. The team carried gasoline powered generators to juice up the vans when they stopped away from a town.
Two of the vans were able to drive autonomously using a computer system that evaluated input from tv cameras and lasers mounted on the roof of the vehicle. A human sat in the driver's seat to take over in the event of a miscalculation, but reportedly this was rarely needed.
This adventure took about 3 months, and covered 12,000 miles.
Iveco for those in N. America not familiar...
For those in N. America only familiar with Mack, Freightliner, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, etc., Iveco is apparently poised to re-enter the US Market sometime next year. Since being chased out by Isuzu and Federal regs in the early 1990s, they've been a significant player in virtually all other commercial truck markets with the exception of N. America. With Fiat's acquisition of Chrysler, it appears that similar to Fiat (recent 500 introduction) Iveco, the commercial truck segment of Fiat will finally re-enter the US market. One of the first moves Fiat made was to split Dodge Trucks off as a separate brand and cancel the Mercedes Sprinter contract, leaving it the orphaned nephew of only Freightliner and making room for a few new horses in the stable. Shortly after, Iveco announced its plan to re-enter the US market with its variant of the Sprinter, branded of course as Dodge. This should be interesting given Iveco's penchant for 4 wheel and 6 wheel drive light, mid and heavy commercial trucks, as present in Europe and the rest of the world. As a footnote, Iveco appears to have a past relationship with Dodge, having equipped its light commercial trucks from 1980-1991 with Dodge 727 transmissions, and the Dodge Cummins 5.9L 12v appears to be the progeny of the Iveco 5.9L through a joint venture for commercial farm equipment. Anyone know the initial "link" in the relationship between Iveco and Chrysler?
For those in N. America only familiar with Mack, Freightliner, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, etc., Iveco is apparently poised to re-enter the US Market sometime next year. Since being chased out by Isuzu and Federal regs in the early 1990s, they've been a significant player in virtually all other commercial truck markets with the exception of N. America. With Fiat's acquisition of Chrysler, it appears that similar to Fiat (recent 500 introduction) Iveco, the commercial truck segment of Fiat will finally re-enter the US market. One of the first moves Fiat made was to split Dodge Trucks off as a separate brand and cancel the Mercedes Sprinter contract, leaving it the orphaned nephew of only Freightliner and making room for a few new horses in the stable. Shortly after, Iveco announced its plan to re-enter the US market with its variant of the Sprinter, branded of course as Dodge. This should be interesting given Iveco's penchant for 4 wheel and 6 wheel drive light, mid and heavy commercial trucks, as present in Europe and the rest of the world. As a footnote, Iveco appears to have a past relationship with Dodge, having equipped its light commercial trucks from 1980-1991 with Dodge 727 transmissions, and the Dodge Cummins 5.9L 12v appears to be the progeny of the Iveco 5.9L through a joint venture for commercial farm equipment. Anyone know the initial "link" in the relationship between Iveco and Chrysler?
"...cancel the Mercedes Sprinter contract, leaving it the orphaned nephew of only Freightliner...
Actually, it was Mercedes that canceled the contract with Chrysler once Fiat took over control of the company. Today, the Sprinter is sold and serviced in USA by about 40 Freightliner dealers, and more than 100 Mercedes dealers. (Freightliner, Fuso and Western Star are subsidiaries of Daimler.)
"Iveco announced its plan to re-enter the US market with its variant of the Sprinter, branded of course as Dodge."
It looks like Dodge will sell versions of the Fiat Doblo (a small van like the Ford Transit Connect) and the Fiat Ducato. Ducato is a midsize van with front wheel drive. 4x4 is optional in some markets. Fiat will import the trucks as knock-down kits in late 2012 or early 2013. Later, Fiat will manufacture the Ducato in a plant in Mexico. The Doblos will be provided by a plant in Turkey, just like the Transit Connect is.
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20110916/CARNEWS/110919911
It's less clear when, or if, the Iveco Daily rear wheel drive van will appear here. The Daily has a greater payload than the Ducato, and optional dual rear wheels, so it's more like the larger Sprinters.
Actually, it was Mercedes that canceled the contract with Chrysler once Fiat took over control of the company. Today, the Sprinter is sold and serviced in USA by about 40 Freightliner dealers, and more than 100 Mercedes dealers. (Freightliner, Fuso and Western Star are subsidiaries of Daimler.)
"Iveco announced its plan to re-enter the US market with its variant of the Sprinter, branded of course as Dodge."
It looks like Dodge will sell versions of the Fiat Doblo (a small van like the Ford Transit Connect) and the Fiat Ducato. Ducato is a midsize van with front wheel drive. 4x4 is optional in some markets. Fiat will import the trucks as knock-down kits in late 2012 or early 2013. Later, Fiat will manufacture the Ducato in a plant in Mexico. The Doblos will be provided by a plant in Turkey, just like the Transit Connect is.
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20110916/CARNEWS/110919911
It's less clear when, or if, the Iveco Daily rear wheel drive van will appear here. The Daily has a greater payload than the Ducato, and optional dual rear wheels, so it's more like the larger Sprinters.
biotect
Designer
Hi Beowolf,
Thought I'd revive this thread with links to another. Only came across your thread after I posted a fairly exhaustive account of Beppe Tenti and his epic series of “Overland” expeditions, at http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...pedition-RV-w-Rigid-Torsion-Free-Frame/page22 (bottom of the page), http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...pedition-RV-w-Rigid-Torsion-Free-Frame/page23 , and http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...pedition-RV-w-Rigid-Torsion-Free-Frame/page24 . Pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about Overland 12 is posted there, with abundant video links, and links to relevant web-pages. In many places the links provided are to pages that will automatically translate from the Italian, courtesy of “google translate”.
Note that that I posted about Overland 12 and Overland 13 mainly because they raise interesting questions about the comparative drive-ability of different continents.
I found Overland 12 interesting, for instance, mainly because it's a relatively recent, well-documented, and well-photographed example of the circumnavigation of Africa using 6x6 IVECOs, i.e. using vehicles that resemble the prospective size and format of the “TerraLiner”, a vehicle that I am designing for my MFA thesis project. Overland 12 seems to demonstrate that even most African “Third World” countries, and so too some African “Fourth World” countries, might prove reasonably accessible to a large 6x6 vehicle, if one were to chose routes a bit more cautiously, avoiding secondary roads in the Congo in particular
And I found Overland 13 interesting, because it seems to demonstrates that there is now a continuous stretch of reasonably good roadway running all the way from Milan to Shanghai. The Piaggio minivans that were the technology demonstrators on Overland 13 did not travel driverless in typical overlanding conditions on rough roads, and they were not equipped as expedition vehicles. Even the large campers that provided support and accommodation en-route did not seem particularly equipped as off-road or bad-road “expedition grade” vehicles. And yet they managed to travel all the way from Milan to Shanghai.
For me, this raises questions about comparative road conditions between countries and continents, and how these might reflect wider socio-economic indicators like the HDI, or “human development index”.
All best wishes,
Biotect
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biotect
Designer
Fully agreed, Beowolf, they are doing some amazing stuff.
The answer to your perplexity seems simple enough: even the developed "First World" is still deeply divided into linguistic bubbles, namely, the Anglosphere; the Francosphere or “Franocophonie”; the Teutonosphere; the Hispanosphere or “Hispanidad”; the “Lusosphere” for Portuguese, etc. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglosphere , http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/d...-but-i-wonder-whether-it-needs-a-better-name/ , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_internationale_de_la_Francophonie , http://www.francophonie.org/Welcome-to-the-International.html , http://www.francophonie.org , http://www.myfrenchlife.org , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanidad , http://www.hispanidad.com , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanophone , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusophone , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_Portuguese_is_an_official_language , etc. So perhaps it's unlikely that overlanding documentary footage, produced by the Italian bubble, would automatically spill over to the Anglospheric one?
Huge amounts of pop-culture never crosses borders, and Italian rock music, French pop, or Latin rap are worlds removed from their Anglophonic equivalents. Sure, a small handful of British and American bands enjoy wide international exposure, for instance, the Beatles and U2. But as anyone who has lived in continental Europe knows, continental radio stations play music sung in local languages at least 80 % of the time. Italian radio stations are in fact more likely to play Spanish-language music than Anglophonic.
Granted, there is constant spill-over in other domains, particularly TV and cinema, where Anglospheric products tend to dominate. But the spillover here is uni-directional. Although continental Europeans were big fans of "Dallas" as far back as the early 1980's, and although they've been watching every conceivable kind of American TV programming since then, the Anglosphere does not reciprocates, and almost never imports continental-European television series. So it seems unlikely that the Anglosphere would import an Italian documentary about overlanding. It's also worth noting that when Hollywood likes a European or Asian film, it will usually do an American-style remake, instead of giving the original film wide distribution in Anglosphere cinemas.
However, it also seems that Beppe Tenti's “Overland” project is specifically aimed at generating a taste for overlanding travel – and adventure travel more generally – amongst Italians. See http://www.overland.org/chi-siamo.html and http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.overland.org/chi-siamo.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.overland.org/chi-siamo.html%26biw%3D1607%26bih%3D1102 . Tenti doesn't seem to have imagined his project along the lines of Jacques Cousteau, as a series of voyages whose purpose was to raise global awareness, at a planet-wide level. I could be wrong about this, but everything in his videos and on his website suggests that Tenti always had a specifically Italian audience in mind. After all, his website is written only in Italian, and one has to go to IVECO's website to get a very abridged English account of Overland 12, without pictures -- see http://www.iveco.com/uk/company/pages/sponsorships-overland-project.aspx .
All best wishes,
Biotect
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UK4X4
Expedition Leader
meanwhile back to the thread
"Iveco? These are just delivery trucks down in Brasil. It's like putting the big camper shell on a knudsen delivery tuck, and call it the unicat. "
mmmm just a delivery truck eh
Iveco unicat ....!!!!
6 speed transmission (sixth overdrive) is coupled to the central transfer box with two reduction gears in order to obtain:
• 24 forward gear ratios: 12 for mixed routes and 12 for offroad routes (6x2 + 6x2)
• and 4 reverse - three differential locks
"Iveco? These are just delivery trucks down in Brasil. It's like putting the big camper shell on a knudsen delivery tuck, and call it the unicat. "
mmmm just a delivery truck eh
Iveco unicat ....!!!!
6 speed transmission (sixth overdrive) is coupled to the central transfer box with two reduction gears in order to obtain:
• 24 forward gear ratios: 12 for mixed routes and 12 for offroad routes (6x2 + 6x2)
• and 4 reverse - three differential locks
