Realised how bad my Actros is

Left my 66 plate Actros for MOT, picked up a 5yr old MAN XXL to bring home, and it’s made me realise how bad my motor is in comparison.

Better, and a lot smoother ride (no coffee spilt on dash for a change :smiley: ) better driving position, I can actually drive layed back as I prefer, instead of being sat bolt upright like a learner driver.
Much more spacious cab, and you don’t need to be Stretch bloody Armstrong to reach into the side lockers.
You get the feel more of driving a ‘big truck’ I reckon and better all round visibility too.
If it didn’t stink of cigarettes (and a bit of a tip tbh even though it’s my mate’s motor :smiley: ), I would be asking to swap even though it’s 5 yrs older with a much higher milage with all the wear and tear that brings.

I’m a bit biased as I was on these MANs on 2 different previous jobs for about 10 yrs, and used to love them as tramper’s motors to live in, but even doing the same motor swap thing last year on a 07 plate Topliner, I still preferred that to the Actros.

So does anybody who is on an Actros actually LIKE it?

Like you I didn’t realise how bad the Actros is until mine was VOR and I spent a couple of days in a similar aged DAF. The DAF was far from perfect but in terms of ride quality it was light years ahead of the Merc. I think when you drive the Merc day in day out you just kind of adapt to and ignore it’s bad points. I’d take my 61 plate Actros back in a heartbeat.

I like the Actros, love it in fact (sarcasm aplenty).
It is like an old roller-coaster ride at Blackpool, the one with the mice. I can’t remember the name and it’s gone now.

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I don’t know if it’s because the door seems to sit a bit lower so you can see more of the driver, but every Merc I drive past, the driver seems to be sat really high. Don’t know if it feels like you are sat high if you actually drive one, just something I’ve always noticed.

Will_161:
I don’t know if it’s because the door seems to sit a bit lower so you can see more of the driver, but every Merc I drive past, the driver seems to be sat really high. Don’t know if it feels like you are sat high if you actually drive one, just something I’ve always noticed.

yep, alway’s thought the same. look’s like the driver is getting ready to jump out the window. :slight_smile:

The flat floors nice but that’s about it for me.
Used a 64 plate last couple of week on night trunks,bounces everywhere with a full load on,always thought steering wheel too small and sat too high up with merc’s,built better then the Iveco hi-ways but no where near as nice to drive.

robroy:
Left my 66 plate Actros for MOT, picked up a 5yr old MAN XXL to bring home, and it’s made me realise how bad my motor is in comparison.

Better, and a lot smoother ride (no coffee spilt on dash for a change :smiley: ) better driving position, I can actually drive layed back as I prefer, instead of being sat bolt upright like a learner driver.
Much more spacious cab, and you don’t need to be Stretch bloody Armstrong to reach into the side lockers.
You get the feel more of driving a ‘big truck’ I reckon and better all round visibility too.
If it didn’t stink of cigarettes (and a bit of a tip tbh even though it’s my mate’s motor :smiley: ), I would be asking to swap even though it’s 5 yrs older with a much higher milage with all the wear and tear that brings.

I’m a bit biased as I was on these MANs on 2 different previous jobs for about 10 yrs, and used to love them as tramper’s motors to live in, but even doing the same motor swap thing last year on a 07 plate Topliner, I still preferred that to the Actros.

So does anybody who is on an Actros actually LIKE it?

Oddly i do.Maybe scans and volvs cut the mustard better but no complaints here :neutral_face:

It’s amazing that Mercedes-Benz hasn’t picked up on this, they think the mp4 is the bees knees.
In many ways it is.
Mine replaces a 60 plate mp3 and the only reason I swapped was the euro 6 thing.
I was shocked just how bad the ride was.
I did have a little test drive in one bobtail and never noticed.
The answer for me was, they changed the front springs from mono leaf, to a two leaf and, it has improved things massively.

Why do you think Rob I swapped my Actros for a 4 year old TGX :wink:
I haven’t looked backed :grimacing:

I came off a TGX to a new 16 plate Actross. Almost everything about the Merc is better,other than the horrendous ride.The air mounted Merc cabs are a better ride but I am coming to the conclusion the problem lies with the front road springs

brandsbybank:
I came off a TGX to a new 16 plate Actross. Almost everything about the Merc is better,other than the horrendous ride.The air mounted Merc cabs are a better ride but I am coming to the conclusion the problem lies with the front road springs

It’s just as harsh under the drive axle (and mid lift) as well so it’s not something specific to the steering axle. The days of Merc being a premium brand are long over. They haven’t built a decent car or van (Vito, Sprinter) that doesn’t rapidly turn to tin dust for the past 15-20 years and the trucks have been going downhill since the Actros and Axor landed with us. I remember actually liking the original Axor tractor unit with the 8 speed slap across box in it, especially in 430 guise. You nearly put your shoulder of its socket trying to get the [zb]er into reverse gear mind, but the 8 forward gears were nicely spaced and the torquey 430 pulled like a train. The ride was decent enough too and although the seat came in for criticism from a lot of drivers I never had any issues with it - it was lack of room for my left leg which annoyed me but I’d still rather put up with that than take a Stralis of that era :open_mouth: .

Then it all went to ■■■■ with the completely gutless 460 engine and more recently the 440 and 450 lumps which can’t pull the skin of a rice pudding, not to mention the ride which is truly horrific if you’ve driven a MAN, Volvo, Renault or DAF of a similar vintage. Even the current Stralis is a fairly decent steer and I’d take the keys for one of those before anything with a Merc badge now :open_mouth: . Strip away the flashy looking exterior to the Mercs and you’re left with a complete dog of a truck as far as driving them goes. How times have changed.

^^^ he’s right, the square Axor in 430 guise preferably 6 x 2 cos longer innit for better ide, was a cracking lorry so long as it had the manual box, saddle it with the autobox from hell and that ruined the vehicle.
Haven’t had an engine that could lug so low and still be pulling strongly since the days of ■■■■■■■ big cams.

I’ve driven the new Actros only now and again, and in all honesty i can’t think of a single redeeming feature, even the cab steps are made of some cheap piece of plastic and you are likely to go for a pearler when trying to get in, especially if you can’t get the door fully open.

Now that Arsetronic has been superceeded/revamped into Traxon (i think that’s what it’s called, and everyone who’s driven it says how much better it is) that leaves the Merc as having the most frustrating auto box to be found anywhere, well done Merc :unamused: i would have thought they would have learned their lesson in unfit gearboxes back in the days of Powerliner, another bloody thing.

When I went to work for the local Mercedes truck dealer 4 years ago, I told the blokes in the workshop that the new Actros had only reached the level that the MAN TGA/X was when it was launched 14 years ago (then). The new Actros is only viable with a good maintenance contract, the amount of bits wearing out and failing is surprising for what the manufacturer thinks is a premium product. Some of the other products are rebadged Renaults and Mitsubishi’s. :unamused:

brandsbybank:
I came off a TGX to a new 16 plate Actross. Almost everything about the Merc is better,other than the horrendous ride.The air mounted Merc cabs are a better ride but I am coming to the conclusion the problem lies with the front road springs

You might have a point there, over the last couple of years I’ve been driving a few different makes, but mostly Merc MP4’s and I’ve grown to quite like them, however they’ve been 4x2 low rides on full air, it’s still not a soft ride, but nothing like what some of you and my brother experience.

At the moment I swap between an MP3 and an MP4 both 4x2 on full air, much prefer the MP4, to me the MP3 feel like driving while trying to balance on top of a spacehopper. :confused:

I’ve driven all incarnations of actros, the only one that was any good was the P reg 1840 with the telegent gearbox. My manual tgx is light years ahead of all actros’s in terms of comfort and pulling ability.
15ish years ago I had an 04 plate 1843 axor with the telegent gearbox and that was a superb workhorse. I was on days and job n knock so I thrashed it mercilessly. In the wet empty it would light up the rears through to 10th gear [emoji23]

One of the more entertaining tricks of my 66 plate Actros is the full-on tantrum it occasionally throws when it can’t decide what gear to give me on a roundabout. It jumps around various gears between 5th and 9th for a bit, then decides it’s had enough, drops it into neutral and whacks the revs up full. It usually then insinuates I’m to blame by flashing up on the dash ‘revs too high. Apply brake’, which obviously isn’t what you really want to do halfway round a roundabout. Luckily I’ve discovered selecting neutral for a second works too, so I can at least get going again without grinding to a complete halt.

Out of the 4 Actros’ we’ve got I seem to be the only lucky one to get this feature.

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Bloody evil things! Poor ride, crap seat. Gearbox that forgets to be beca gearbox. I’d rather anything but!