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History of DAF Trucks

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History of DAF Trucks

Hubert van Doome founded the company “Commanditaire Vennootschap Hub van Doorne’s Machinefabriek” only in 1932 was the company named “DAF”. Another significant moment in the early 30’s was the “swing axle” it consisted of 2 short axles mounted next to one another in a transverse direction.

Hubert van Doome founded the company “Commanditaire Vennootschap Hub van Doorne’s Machinefabriek” only in 1932 was the company named “DAF”. Another significant moment in the early 30’s was the “swing axle” it consisted of 2 short axles mounted next to one another in a transverse direction. This allowed the actual axle load to be increased a significant amount (9600kg) which was incredible back in those days. When the year 1935 came around DAF was considered a trailblazer in the trailer industry with the DAF demount trailer, developed for loading standardised railway containers from trains onto a truck and vice versa. It was the first container trailer. This breakthrough not only solved the solution for what was later called intermodal transport they actually opened up a completely new distribution concept. This concept is still used to this current day and most likely will be involved in solutions for the future. After World War 2 DAF’s big opportunity arose, in 1949 they started to manufacture trucks, trailers and buses.

The first model created was the DAF A30. Then through the 50’s DAF became a major player in the re-equipping of the Netherlands army vehicles. Before 1957 DAF would install Hercules and Perkins petrol and diesel engines, but from 1957 they started to build and manufacture their own DAF branded engines. Over the proceeding years they improved the diesel engine by adding something which revolutionised the trucking industry, they added a turbo charger. At the time this was ground breaking. They were also the very first to introduce turbo-intercooling in the early to mid 70’s. This improved many different aspects to the performance of the truck, one of which being cleaner exhaust emissions. In the 80’s DAF then launched Advanced Turbo Intercooling (ATI). This provided more power and better efficiency gains because they improved injection technology and changed the shape of the combustion chamber.

DAF also started to consider driver comfort through these years, specifically in 1962 when they launched the first European truck that could be spec’d with a fully functional sleeper cab. The bunk had a mattress, and its driver comfort was considered revolutionary. They then, in 1985, put a space cab onto a long-distance lorry and later introduced the spacious super space cab, “the ultimate in driver comfort” This cab is still one of the most spacious cabs available in the trucking world.

We then move into the millennium, 2005 to be exact. DAF released the Paccar MX engine which is now used in all of DAF’s HGV’s and over 35% of the Kenworth built trucks. Nowadays they have the MX-13 and MX-11 engines have features like ridiculously efficient down speeded engines, efficient rear axles that result in high torque being available at very low engine speeds and intelligent drive lines. This results in very good fuel efficiency and best of all excellent driver comfort. All this paired up with the advanced vehicle software algorithms, decent aerodynamics and a compact after treatment system results in a gain on of 7% in fuel efficiency. The largest gain in the history of the company.

Being associated and working closely with a company like this is incredibly valuable in many ways to us. One of the main reasons is product knowledge. Knowing that the brands we supply are no less quality than the parts supplied by the main dealer and more than double the price.

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