March 19, 2023, 7:10 p.m
Elijah Thomas
For a few weeks now, we have focused our attention on ATP Trucks Truston trucks, produced in Baia Mare, Romania, at the multiple prompts of our readers. In February we published a first video article with 15 dump trucks delivered to work on the A7 highway in Romania, and at the same time we asked the ATP people for detailed information on a long series of questions about how exactly they produce Truston trucks in Romania, where do the components come from, the engineering and everything which should be known by all of us. Because there were too many unanswered questions from the public and even critics that these trucks would be derived directly from Chinese models and would be assembled in Baia Mare, with all the components brought from China. Obtaining information from the first source from ATP and documenting ourselves additionally, we published an article about the way Truston trucks are produced in Romania, and I promised separate articles dedicated to the engineering of each of the trucks. Last week we talked about Truson 4×2 tractor head, the only tractor truck currently produced in Romania, and this week we also have the Truston tipper in our sights. Meanwhile, the manufacturer from Baia Mare has published several video materials, which show the 15 trucks mentioned above, plus 5 others, working on the construction of the A7 highway.
In the previous articles we explored in detail the Chinese source of many components on the trucks at Baia Mare, I directly and bluntly asked the people from ATP Trucks if these trucks are clones of the Chinese Shacman trucks, and on the example of the tractor head we found the Chinese inspiration of the cabin and I had also found out where the engine and gearbox come from. However, the truck’s hard frame, axles and suspension are adapted or designed in Romania, and these components have a much higher degree of local labor than anything else the truck contains. And those from ATP Trucks have official manufacturer status, assigning their own VIN codes to the trucks produced in Baia Mare, therefore it is not wrong to say a truck “produced” in Baia Mare, not just “assembled”, although it is clear that a most of the components come from China and we have no problem going into the depth of the engineering and specifying which ones. In a previous article, I also quoted a response from those from Baia Mare, who said that over time they want to increase the supply of suppliers and components produced in Romania in the final trucks.
So, currently 20 dump trucks produced in Baia Mare are working on the A7 highway construction site, and the video below illustrates them as clearly as possible in action. All tippers are in the 8×4 formula, with two driving rear axles. The curb weight of such a truck is 17,165 kg, and the total permissible weight is 42,600 kg, so it results in a payload of over 25 tons. The volume of the trunk of the Truston truck is 20 cubic meters.
And here, if we still got to the point, there would be a lot to say about its construction, or, in a dump truck, it provides the main functionality. As we saw in the first article in which we explored how these trucks are manufactured in Baia Mare, and talked about which works and components are manufactured in Romania, the wells were among the parts welded in Baia Mare, by Romanian workers.
In the technical sheet of these tippers, it is mentioned that the rails are made of Hardox steel, which is one of the most well-known brands of steel resistant to extreme abrasion. This means that the bena should be extraordinarily resistant over time to all kinds of stones, sand and any other materials that the truck will transport.
The steel thickness of the bucket is 6 mm on the sides and 8 mm on the bottom. And the hydraulic cylinder that actuates it for unloading has the ATP mark. However, the ATP emblem is also applied on the axles and on the gearbox, in the case of the transmission, it is a gearbox produced in China, in a regime usually called “white branding”, when the brand of the person who orders the product for manufacturing is applied .
The engine of the Truston tipper also comes from the Chinese manufacturer Weichai, as in the case of the tractor head, but here it no longer has 480 HP, but 430 HP, delivered at 1,900 rpm. The maximum torque reaches 2,192 Nm, delivered at 1,100 rpm. It’s a 11,596cc, 4-stroke, liquid-cooled, turbocharged, in-line 6-cylinder diesel engine with intercooler.
Unlike the tractor truck, the tipper can only be equipped with a manual gearbox, ATP Trucks informed us, at least at this stage. Again, the manual box has the ATP mark on it and the people from Baia Mare did not want to tell us another origin of it. According to the code name, however, of 16JSDX240T, we can see that Shaanxi also produces it in China, being a model installed both on Shacman trucks and on several other brands of trucks in China. The box has 16 forward gears and 2 reverse gears. The clutch is produced by the American company Eaton, which, by the way, also has locations in Romania, including in Arad. We could not confirm, however, if the clutch is delivered directly from Romania for Truston trucks.
When we asked the people at ATP about two essential things they pride themselves on their dump trucks, they mentioned the ultra-strong chassis, with two nested C-profiles of 7mm and 8mm, which ensure the structural rigidity of the truck, but also the suspension designed in Romania, with a greater number of leaf springs — 11 leaf springs on the front and 13 leaf springs for the rear axles. This construction should guarantee robustness and durability over time, without frequent returns to service, said those from ATP:
By the way, although the production of Truston trucks was launched in 2019, a facelift took place in 2021, which changed the central optical blocks, the design of the grille and bar, and also the interior. The multimedia system with touch screen is offered as standard, as is the air conditioning. The cabin is fixed on pneumatic suspension and its folding takes place by electric actuation.
In terms of safety, the Truston tipper has ABS, EBS, ESC, ASR traction control system. The lane keeping system, present on a tractor, is missing, but its absence is somewhat natural on a tipper. There is a smart digital tachograph, cruise control, and rain and light sensors — so a decent and modern ambience on board.
But, most importantly, these trucks have already started working in large numbers on a large infrastructure project, building the A7 highway. This will be their best real-life test, to demonstrate their viability and reliability not just in manufacturer promises, but in the realistic way these trucks stand up to hard work.
In Baia Mare, in the assembly halls of ATP Trucks, 100 people work on these trucks. Of course, there are not the thousands of employees as there were once at Roman, but, as I said before, we are not talking about a state company, but a private one, with Romanian capital, which has the freedom to organize its business model as wants, as long as it conforms to the standards. However, we have in front of us a truck that tries to be competitive and modern on the market, not an archaism from other times, from those that only appeal to nostalgia and patriotism in an attempt to convince you to buy it. In this case, when asked about patriotism, the people from ATP said that for them, the best form of it would be to revitalize Romanian industry, and they want to prove that Romanians can have production capacity, not just consumption.
An interesting specific and different from other manufacturers, revealed by those from ATP Trucks, is that they gather a lot of feedback from the field from those who operate their trucks. The manufacturer from Baia Mare is still a small one for now, from 2019 until the end of 2022, over 200 trucks have been produced, and this allows them to gather direct information from the operation of their trucks, finding out the opinions of those who operate them, from drivers to conductors of construction site. It’s actually one of the best strategies as a young producer to gather real-life information and get better in a short time.
Therefore, yes, there is a large share of Chinese components in this truck, the cab being almost entirely a Chinese parallel from Shacman, the engine and gearbox also coming from China, even if the transmission has the ATP badge applied to it. But there is also added value in Romania in the whole equation. Perhaps more modest than many of us would like now, but even 50-60 years ago, many of today’s famous manufacturers started in a similar way, accumulating components from others on their own truck. And since the trucks usually work intensively and quickly accumulate hundreds of thousands of kilometers, in a relatively short time the real operation of these trucks assembled in Baia Mare will have a precious demonstration of their durability or lack of durability. At least, at this stage, it is an admirable fact that these trucks have already started working on large and important projects in Romania, such as the A7 highway.
See Truston trucks working on the A7 motorway in the video below.
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