New on board..Info on Mercedes 814 ecopower 7.5t

Wondered if anyone can point me in the right direction to get mechanical specs on the above truck,most of the stuff I’ve come across on the net is from foreign sites.
The year of the truck is 1997,box truck with sleeper cab,not a newy,but I’m hoping a solid one.
Cheers :slight_smile:
M

Solid little truck, good chassis, and powerful brakes.
Watch for wear on balljoints, and kingpins, if well maintained they last forever.
Speak to a Mercedes dealer, in the past they could get you workshop handbooks for different models.

I am not sure of the significance of the ecopower tag, but there seem to be workshop manuals advertised on Google for the 814. I used to maintain a fleet of these and would agree that they were a solidly built quality vehicle which compared well with the competition at the time. They were however a bit underpowered, the only time I ever drove one fully loaded for any distance I was quite surprised by just how sluggish it was. It really struggled along the length of the M4 westbound. On a very windy day it was difficult to get more than 45 mph out of it.

Mechanically apart from oil leaks, particularly from the compressor drain into the engine and the oil filler cap on the rocker cover the OM366 engine didn’t give any trouble unless abused. Expect to find the adjuster for both the compressor drive belts and the one for the alternator belt seized . The brakes on the other hand, which are a Rockwell copy, were a constant pain the automatic adjustment didn’t, so manually adjusting or winding off was a real chore. Added to that like many 7.5 tonners of the day, there were many complaints about pulling to one side or squealing. The things also ate brake drums almost as quickly as they used diesel because the linings were so hard. As mentioned the ball joints need careful observation because once wear starts deterioration is rapid. The gear linkage on any vehicle still about is likely to be severely worn and the hand throttle probably won’t work. Again as mentioned the kingpins wear quite quickly, but replacing the needle roller bearings is straightforward and the pins come out OK. The other main things to watch out for from an MOT point of view are the large front engine mounting bolt which is often loose, failure of the rear fog light switch bulb,seizure of the load sensing valve linkage, an insecure or leaking compressor pipe and worn anti roll bar bushes. One of the more annoying traits was the cab tilt jamming half unlocked.

I have probably got a clutch and a headlight still in their Merc boxes somewhere, I know I did have.

Them and the 7.5ton MAN are defiantly the better offers, would take them any time over a Daf 45 or worse Iveco Cargo, full airbrakes and good sturdy chassis and interiors.
And yes a 5 speed and approx 140 BNP never is going to blast you home, but you will get there.

Never understood why all these horsebox people are going for old DAF and Iveco’s with air over hydraulic, rotting chassis and shock absorbers mounts cracking or rotting off.
The Germans offer a much better option.

By the way if you can buy a 12 tonnes of 15 tonnes with a more powerful engine, and downplate it, you end up with a better truck with bigger brakes and bigger wheels.

caledoniandream:
Them and the 7.5ton MAN are defiantly the better offers, would take them any time over a Daf 45 or worse Iveco Cargo, full airbrakes and good sturdy chassis and interiors.
And yes a 5 speed and approx 140 BNP never is going to blast you home, but you will get there.

Never understood why all these horsebox people are going for old DAF and Iveco’s with air over hydraulic, rotting chassis and shock absorbers mounts cracking or rotting off.
The Germans offer a much better option.

By the way if you can buy a 12 tonnes of 15 tonnes with a more powerful engine, and downplate it, you end up with a better truck with bigger brakes and bigger wheels.

I can’t remember the exact model designation, but it might have been a Merc 1111 which had an unnecessarily fiendishly complicated braking set up. I may be thinking of two different models however, in which one had a bird’s nest of springs and linkages inside the brake drums - rather like the 1313 Ford Cargo - and the other had an hydraulic over air over hydraulic operating system. Whether you got both on the same abortion I can’t recall.

Really thankfull for the replies and advise,my step son has just been and had a look at this particular truck and says it drive well and is in v.good condition,[1997],plenty of history with it too,although what history I don’t know yet.He knows a bit about driving trucks[class 2] but is no mechanic,bit like me :laughing: …that’s why I wanted a manual,still can’t seem to find one yet.
It’s done 325,000 klms,not a lot for that age.