The world’s first truck

Lack of interest in Germany

Despite of this, Gottlieb Daimler did not enjoy success with his first truck in Germany. Nevertheless, a buyer was found in the mother country of industrialization, in England. In that country, steam-powered vehicles had long since managed the step from rail to road – where these fossils did not become extinct before the 1950s. At the same time, however, England was a country in which coke and coal were particularly cheap – which is why a vehicle with a gasoline engine was hardly given a chance. On the other hand, it was on the British Isles that the Red Flag Act was abandoned in 1896. This was a decree with which the horse lobby successfully defended itself against the machine-driven means of transport for a long time. Until 1896, horseless vehicles were not allowed to drive faster than four miles an hour and had to carry a crew of three people: two for operating the vehicle and one for walking ahead of the vehicle, red flag in hand, to warn other road users.

Green light in the mother country of industrialization

It was a lucky coincidence that the Red Flag Act was abrogated in 1896. Daimler’s “Motorized goods vehicle order no. 81 ... for the transport of 1,500 kg”, as the entry in the order book of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft reads, was given the green light in the mother country of industrialization. It was nevertheless not before 1901 that a truck proved to be superior to the steam-powered truck, customary on the island at the time, in a comparative test in Liverpool.

It goes without saying that the engineering needed time to mature. Nevertheless, Daimler rapidly advanced into the five-ton payload category. The output of the first truck range launched soon afterwards ranged from four to ten hp, payload capacity from 1,500 to 5,000 kilograms. Shortly after the world’s first truck had been supplied to England, Daimler presented a range comprising as many as four models which he offered from September 1896. In the same year, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach moved the six-hp two-cylinder Phoenix engine, previously mounted at the rear in the style of an underfloor engine from Büssing, to underneath the driver’s seat, and the four-speed belt transmission equally moved to the front.

Decisive improvements as early as 1897

However, this solution still left a lot to be desired, especially as the belt transmission, which had proved itself in passenger cars, was suitable for heavyweights only to a limited extent. Therefore, as early as 1897, just one year later, the truck was finally given a face that clearly distinguished it from the car and paved the way towards ever greater output and payload. The engine found its traditional place right at the front, ahead of the steered axle, and transmitted its output via a four-speed gearbox and a full-length longitudinal shaft and pinions to the rear wheels which continued to be iron-clad. Inventor Gottlieb Daimler improved not only the powertrain but also the engine. The glow-tube ignition was replaced by a new low-voltage magneto ignition from Bosch, which ignited the gasoline/air mixture in the engine which had been enlarged to 2.2 liters. A completely new design principle was adopted for the radiator. In April 1897, Wilhelm Maybach had completed his groundbreaking tests with the tubular radiator which represented a decisive improvement of the cooling system – an indispensable precondition for a higher power output.

Practical testing in brickworks

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