Overland 12: Ivecos 1 World Truck Expedition Video

[Beowulf]

Found this video on youtube. Anyone know more about it? have any links or other videos?

[Beowulf]

I think I found their homepage:

http://www.overland.org/

[Beowulf]

Tons of videos. Not in english though.

http://www.overland.tv/

[haven]

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.

[haven]

Expedition #12 involved transporting a medical team through West Africa and Central Africa for 6 months. Several Iveco vhicles were used on the trip, including Trakker 6x6 heavy trucks, Massif 4x4 SUV, and Daily 4x4 van.

[Beowulf]

These guys are doing some amazing stuff. I'm not sure why I haven't read of them before.

[Pophamrt1]

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?

[haven]

"...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/2011...NEWS/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.

[hochung]

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.