Magirus Trucks – Designed for America

[kscarbel2]

C.D. Magirus was established in 1866 in Ulm, Germany as a fire apparatus manufacturer. The company, noted for having invented the turntable-mounted ladder, operates today as an Iveco subsidiary (http://www.magirusgroup.com/de/en/home/).

In 1916, the company began producing commercial trucks.

In 1936, Magirus became the truck manufacturing subsidiary of Klöckner Humboldt Deutz (KHD) AG.

Klöckner Humboldt Deutz AG, a designer and producer of a diversified range of air and liquid-cooled diesel engines to this day and known as Deutz AG from 1997, was also a partner with Mack Trucks and Garrett AiResearch in the development of gas turbine engines (http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/32014-the-gt-601-gas-turbine-powered-macks/).

Owing to the Deutz ownership, Magirus trucks were for years referred to as Magirus Deutz trucks and featured Deutz air-cooled engines.

Iveco purchased Magirus from Klöckner Humboldt Deutz AG in 1975*, and continued producing trucks under the Magirus name thru the 1980s.

* Iveco (Industrial Vehicles Corporation) on January 1, 1975 brought together five truck brands: Fiat, Lancia and OM from Italy, France’s Unic and Germany’s Magirus Deutz.

In 1977, popular Mack veteran Ray Reardon* left his position as vice president of international operations at Mack Trucks under Jack Curcio to form Iveco Trucks of North America.

Located in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania (northwest of Philadelphia), the new company's headquarters was conveniently near the Port of Wilmington where Mack Mid-Liners also arrived from Europe.

Ray began importing Magirus trucks and sales started off well. He contacted other Mack dealers and they were thrilled with the idea of having a medium truck offering. It was common to see Magirus trucks on the road in the northeast.

The North American market Magirus trucks, like the upcoming mack Mid-Liner, featured the "Club of Four" cab (officially known as the Euro Truck Development Group), which had been jointly developed by Saviem (merged into Renault), DAF, Magirus and Volvo.

Owing to Fiat’s ownership of Magirus, the Italian owner switched Magirus over from its long time use of air-cooled Deutz engines (with the exception of the Eckhauber models) to its own proprietary liquid-cooled powerplants.

With German engineering and assembly, a modern “European Union” cab and Italian power, the U.S. market Magirus was a solid performer in its intended market segment.

The 160 horsepower model 160A11FL (17,500lb rear axle) and 16A13FL (20,300lb rear axle) rigid (straight truck), with air-over-hydraulic brakes, compared with the upcoming 175 horsepower Mack Mid-Liner model MS200P.

The 200 horsepower model 200A13FL, available as rigid or tractor, with its full air brake system, compared with the upcoming 210-215 horsepower Mack Mid-Liner model MS300P and MS300T.

At the time Mack dealers first began signing distribution agreements with Ray, most were unaware that Mack was exploring the possibility of selling Americanized variants of Renault’s medium truck range in the United States.

By 1979 however, the Mack dealer body was in the loop on the Mid-Liner launch for 1980, and most were compelled to turn their focus to the Mid-Liner product.

Iveco Trucks of North America did live on thru 1990, selling Iveco's Z-Series low-cab-forward light truck.

* Mr. Raymond Reardon was a genuine Mack man, and person of the highest caliber. He passed away in 2006 and is sorely missed.

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[kscarbel2]

Magirus introduced the third generation of its legendary conventional cab series in 1971.

Known as a Magirus-Deutz Eckhauber (meaning conventional truck), they featured air-cooled Deutz engines and became legendary in the vocational and specialty truck segments.

So popular were the all-wheel-drive variants of this truck that Iveco produced it thru 2003 (You can more or less still buy a new Eckhauber today.....from SAMIL in South Africa - http://www.samiltrucks.co.za/).

Photographs of older Magirus-Deutz trucks - http://www.hansreckweg.dk/truckerlinks/engelsk/magirus.htm

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[MD AG ULM 232 D26 6x6 MD]

Hey kscarbel2.  I'm working on a project involving this type of vehicle. Is there any chance we could connect? 

[DM-888]

Thank you for the Magirus information.  From your article, I gather the Magirus quickly lost its potential market share to the Mack Midliner.  I only remember seeing a handful of the Magirus cabovers (with the Club of Four cabs), two straight trucks at a local rental center around 1981, and a fire department rescue squad with the same cab and chassis. 

I'm trying to get more information on that fire truck and I think an estimated build date on the cab and chassis would help.  If the Magirus cabovers entered the North American market around 1980, how many years were they offered over here in the states?  Were they still for sale in 1984?  Even as late as 1985?  Or, perhaps the Club of Four version was marketed under the Iveco name in North America after the initial Magirus launch?

[yarnall]

Here is a Mack Magirus.  1959 B85F with a  100 foot Magirus ladder built for Chicago. Mike 

[DM-888]

Great photo!  I hope this beauty is now in the hands of a collector or museum.  And, does its twin still exist?

On the subject of Magirus, do you know what years the Magirus low cabover (the Magirus version of the Mack Midliner) was offered in the U.S.?