Guys I drove a unit like this only once. Never even used CC since it would only do 53. But ■■■■ these comments seem bad. I cried to the boss to give me the 11 plate DAF back [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
Even know when I go to a company if I have a choice between the two I take the DAF all the time, or an MAN if available [emoji2357]
You’d think Mercedes can make good cars but horrible trucks, how come ?
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I think steering wheel attendant is just about within your skill set.
Just don’t try to chew chewing gum at the same time and you’ll be fine
I’ve not driven anything with the “terrain following” GPS stuff, but I have driven a 7.5T Daf and an Iveco unit with the Adaptive Cruise Control. I thought that the little Daf coped well with it, but my impression with the Iveco was that it was OK at lighter weights, but when running at 40+ tonnes it simply doesn’t have the driver’s eye view of traffic etc well up ahead that is needed to adjust speed etc in advance. The radar etc sensors can only “see” the vehicle immediately in front and react accordingly. If that vehicle is significantly smaller/lighter then the system simply cannot react appropriately unless it goes for a full-on application of the brakes even though a human operator could have easily dropped the CC and/or gone for a light application of brakes/retarder much earlier.
Don’t want any of that tat.
hipsway:
I’ve got one of these new Actros, and although all the hi-tech stuff is quite clever in how it works, and from a safety point of view are good, however in the real world of everyday driving it has it’s drawbacks. Approaching a roundabout for example with all tech enabled (default is on) in some cases it starts to slow really early and seems to pick up speed again rather lethargically, other times for example going downhill on the A500 Queensway towards the roundabout for the A519 at Jct15 it brakes too late and too hard! The “best bit” is if the truck is about to tackle a long steep decent for example on the 66 at Stainmore heading west, leaving the truck to it’s own devices the systems slows you down quite harshly IMO as it’s about to hit the downward gradient using service brakes to slow down to under 40mph! (It’s very rude and abrupt doing this!) while at the same time dropping two gears with exhauster engaged, high revs and lots of noise! ( I am aware the exhaust brake is most effective at high rpm) more service braking keeping the speed low 40s and remaining in 10th gear. All great this if you are just moseying along and nobody following you ( I wouldn’t like to be ) and if your not particularly in a hurry! As for the mirror cam system, it has it’s good points and really bad ones. Yes it gives good coverage of blind spots and a wider field of view behind you, but it has serious drawbacks especially driving at night which are compounded when it rains and definitely no improvement over ordinary mirrors in this respect.
And that is both easier and an improvement on actually ‘driving’ the thing yourself,.using your own judgement and initiative is it?? 
…and the old way is harder??
Right ok then,thanks for all that Mercedes.
Socketset:
It’s getting like the manufacturers are saying we’ll build so much tech into them a moron can drive them - .
Nail on head, they are catering for the many morons who have managed to blag a licence and go on to ‘drive’ their trucks as they would a car,.and the rest who can actually DRIVE a truck without the aid of all this ■■■■■■■■ have to endure it. 
isaac hunt:
I think steering wheel attendant
I’m happy to be a steering wheel attendant. Least amount of effort for the most amount of pay. I’ve put my time in doing things the hard way, doing stuff like stood on top of stacks of timber on the dock side in wind and rain trying to sheet down the load, stripping and rebuilding tilts, trying to shut curtains in a force 10 gale with no shelter, going up and down 16 speed boxes up Windy Hill and doing 100 gear changes in a mile in rush hour traffic on the M62. Done it and worn the t-shirt. And all I’ve got in return for doing all of that is three knackered discs in my back and a left leg that only partially works. So sod all of that. If there’s something that can be fitted to a truck which means I have to do even less then I’m all for it.
I have driven Mercedes Benz trucks right from the beggining of my 32 year career, and just when you think they are just about to produce a really good truck they go and completely **** it up the current model being a perfect example.
The adaptive cruise the op speaks of is scary to use it breaks and downshifts erattically the mirror cams are useless at gauging the distance of approaching traffic, there is far to much happening on the dash to make sense of there are no heating controls that come to hand you have to take your eyes off the road for far longer than is safe to operate the radio (speakers supplied by Poundland) the suspension settings and various other controls are the same.
We have around 20 of them a mixture of 4 and 6 wheel and the majority of them the steering pulls annoyingly to the left.
And the handbrake Jesus Christ by the time you’ve done your best Michael Flatley impression on the brake pedal the bleeding lights have changed back to red.
And it won European truck of the year work that one out.
Conor:
isaac hunt:
I think steering wheel attendantI’m happy to be a steering wheel attendant. Least amount of effort for the most amount of pay. I’ve put my time in doing things the hard way, doing stuff like stood on top of stacks of timber on the dock side in wind and rain trying to sheet down the load, stripping and rebuilding tilts, trying to shut curtains in a force 10 gale with no shelter, going up and down 16 speed boxes up Windy Hill and doing 100 gear changes in a mile in rush hour traffic on the M62. Done it and worn the t-shirt. And all I’ve got in return for doing all of that is three knackered discs in my back and a left leg that only partially works. So sod all of that. If there’s something that can be fitted to a truck which means I have to do even less then I’m all for it.
That kinda shows you up to being a bit useless. A good driver would leave a big gap and maintain a steady speed in one gear, not “100s”. I’m as lazy as they get but would still prefer to take a ZF16 manual over any auto. Heavy traffic in particular is where a lot of the truck auto boxes show themselves up.
DCPCFML:
That kinda shows you up to being a bit useless. A good driver would leave a big gap and maintain a steady speed in one gear, not “100s”. I’m as lazy as they get but would still prefer to take a ZF16 manual over any auto. Heavy traffic in particular is where a lot of the truck auto boxes show themselves up.
That kinda shows you never drove a manual gearbox. How do you leave a big gap and maintain a steady speed in one gear on the M62 around the top of Manchester or the M42 or M6 around Birmingham in the middle of rush hour? I’ve never had an auto box show itself up in heavy traffic in the 15+ years I’ve driven them.
Conor:
DCPCFML:
That kinda shows you up to being a bit useless. A good driver would leave a big gap and maintain a steady speed in one gear, not “100s”. I’m as lazy as they get but would still prefer to take a ZF16 manual over any auto. Heavy traffic in particular is where a lot of the truck auto boxes show themselves up.That kinda shows you never drove a manual gearbox. How do you leave a big gap and maintain a steady speed in one gear on the M62 around the top of Manchester or the M42 or M6 around Birmingham in the middle of rush hour? I’ve never had an auto box show itself up in heavy traffic in the 15+ years I’ve driven them.
Not sure if serious or just being a bit dumb ? Big gap + steady speed = only need one gear. You’re not accelerating or braking so why would you need any other gears? Big gap allows you to monitor the usual speeding up and braking 5 seconds later by everyone else and maintain a steady speed. The fact that you’ve asked this shows that you don’t have a clue how to drive efficiently or never driven a manual box truck which is probably true seeing as you can’t manage to get from one end of the A66 to the other without a load of drama.
If you’ve never had an auto box show itself up in 15 years of driving in traffic then you’ve clearly never driven a loaded tanker.
All Mercs should come with automatic blindfolds for approaching hills all ours die as soon as they see one
We currently have one on hire, a 16 plate 450hp with 723k on it, and apart from the uncomfortable seat, I don’t mind it. I like using the cruise once you have slowed down, as I just reactivate it, and away it goes on it’s own. We rarely run full, (10t on average.) so the power is ample and it is returning 11mpg.
We have 2 x 510hp Gigaspace on 71 plate coming next month, and I have been assured by the boss, the seat is better. I hope the sound system is too, as the one in the hire truck is dire.
For us it’s overkill, as we double shift the trucks, but we aren’t complaining.
Ken.
adam277:
I’ve yet to get a mirrorless merc though, although I work for Tesco so only a matter of time until I get handed the keys to one. From what I have heard they are crap. Especially if there is a sun glare or something.
A company I worked for last year as their TM, got a demo in from Mercedes, and when I went out in it, I said to the guy that the mirrorless system was crap. He said it eradicated a blindspot, to which I replied that it hadn’t, and all Mercedes have done, is put it on the A pillar inside the cab.
He couldn’t answer that.
Ken.
Quinny:
We currently have one on hire, a 16 plate 450hp with 723k on it, and apart from the uncomfortable seat, I don’t mind it. I like using the cruise once you have slowed down, as I just reactivate it, and away it goes on it’s own. We rarely run full, (10t on average.) so the power is ample and it is returning 11mpg.We have 2 x 510hp Gigaspace on 71 plate coming next month, and I have been assured by the boss, the seat is better. I hope the sound system is too, as the one in the hire truck is dire.
For us it’s overkill, as we double shift the trucks, but we aren’t complaining.
Ken.
We’ve got a 510hp 6x2 Gigaspace on a 68 plate and you can believe me that the ride is just as bad as all the others. It’s already for motorway work, but the very tall cab combined with a crashy ride makes for unpleasant local driving, especially going round roundabouts and turns. You need the arm rests down to brace yourself from being thrown out of the seat, and that’s just at ‘normal’ speeds, not flying around like you’re in a grand prix. It goes alright but a 20 year old Axor 430 8 speed slap-across would still leave it for dust.
Another thing that annoys me about the Mercs is that with the seat at the ‘right’ height to be comfortable at the wheel and foot pedals, why is your entire body except your lower legs higher than the door? Every other truck the window ledge is the ‘right’ height to rest your arm on, but in Mercs it feels like you’re in a goldfish bowl when driving them. They are a horribly designed truck and the worst make on the road by far. I can’t think of a single thing on them which is done better than other marques.
Compare the horn of a Mercedes car to the horn of a Mercedes truck; it tells you a lot about what Mercedes thinks of truck drivers.
Trucks make them money, but as a company they do not like truck drivers.
Quinny:
We currently have one on hire, a 16 plate 450hp with 723k on it, and apart from the uncomfortable seat, I don’t mind it. I like using the cruise once you have slowed down, as I just reactivate it, and away it goes on it’s own. We rarely run full, (10t on average.) so the power is ample and it is returning 11mpg.We have 2 x 510hp Gigaspace on 71 plate coming next month, and I have been assured by the boss, the seat is better. I hope the sound system is too, as the one in the hire truck is dire.
For us it’s overkill, as we double shift the trucks, but we aren’t complaining.
Ken.
I’m sorry to break it down to you mate, but the seats are exactly as they were on the previous one and the gearbox is just as bad…
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DCPCFML:
Quinny:
We currently have one on hire, a 16 plate 450hp with 723k on it, and apart from the uncomfortable seat, I don’t mind it. I like using the cruise once you have slowed down, as I just reactivate it, and away it goes on it’s own. We rarely run full, (10t on average.) so the power is ample and it is returning 11mpg.We have 2 x 510hp Gigaspace on 71 plate coming next month, and I have been assured by the boss, the seat is better. I hope the sound system is too, as the one in the hire truck is dire.
For us it’s overkill, as we double shift the trucks, but we aren’t complaining.
Ken.
We’ve got a 510hp 6x2 Gigaspace on a 68 plate and you can believe me that the ride is just as bad as all the others. It’s already for motorway work, but the very tall cab combined with a crashy ride makes for unpleasant local driving, especially going round roundabouts and turns. You need the arm rests down to brace yourself from being thrown out of the seat, and that’s just at ‘normal’ speeds, not flying around like you’re in a grand prix. It goes alright but a 20 year old Axor 430 8 speed slap-across would still leave it for dust.
Another thing that annoys me about the Mercs is that with the seat at the ‘right’ height to be comfortable at the wheel and foot pedals, why is your entire body except your lower legs higher than the door? Every other truck the window ledge is the ‘right’ height to rest your arm on, but in Mercs it feels like you’re in a goldfish bowl when driving them. They are a horribly designed truck and the worst make on the road by far. I can’t think of a single thing on them which is done better than other marques.
I agree with the seat comment , when i have the misfortune of taking one of ours out , if i set the seat at the correct height for me i have to duck down to see out of the side window and am in eye line of the tacho . Back ache motor , much worse than the 2800s and TKs
Conor:
I’ve never had an auto box show itself up in heavy traffic in the 15+ years I’ve driven them.
+1…
Aside from an Iveco which got confused and angry pulling a full load of bottled water out of Elland and up the big hill onto the M62 in bumper to bumper traffic. It didn’t matter if I left in 1st manual or auto, after 10 minutes of getting hot and bothered I could smell the clutch cooking up and it started juddering. It stopped engaging at all randomly and I nearly rolled back on the hill. It was fine after it got onto the M62 and up to ramming speed.
It didn’t fail but it got ever so stroppy.
I’m currently on week 4 of 5 on Mercs, 2 with cameras and one older one with mirrors, haven’t really got a good word for them drive wise but the giga space is massive, I sleep out all week. Cannot understand the point of the cameras, very poor picture quality esp in rain and very hard to judge distance. One more week and an S500 cometh thank god!