The Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana trucking scene

[davidoff]

Welcome to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The truck scene is much the same in its nature, but the products are quite different. Here the French have ruled for decades and so Renault and its former affiliates. We will come back to that.

But to start, here is a good old MB, I think it said 1935 on the door but of course that may well have been a later decoration.

Like in Ghana, they like their decorations. They are very christian here in the South, numerous references to the lord, often phrased very colourfully.

Some more decoration “think of tomorrow” it says on the back of that trailer

“Thank god” it says

Some more in the coming days Gentlemen.
Good night

[jacko123]

Brilliant photos! I love to see how other countries operate, your photos give a great insight!

[davidoff]

Getting home after a fairly long and busy week, but not without a little sprinkling of pictures.

Starting with this beauty, sorry I could only shoot the back of it.
This is a SAVIEM S53 from the last generation, actually badged Renault because these were still in production well into the 80’s. As you can see this vehicle likely had a first life in the French Brittany County of Morbihan (I believe Monsieur Fergie47 will know where that is)/
I don’t know exactly when these were eventually pulled out of the catalogue, but I m sure Monsieur SAVIEM might know. (In fact it would be nice to hear from him again, it has been some time since his last contribution).
These coaches had a flat six-in-line originating from MAN. I remember them well from my boyhood in France, they were our schoolbuses. Their sound was unmistakable.

I was trying to find a caption for this one.
NOT out of Africa…
Move that 5th wheel backward not forward driver…
A Merc LA never dies…
This lorry has taken numerous beatings. Amazing she should still be there in active use (which she was). The hole in the back of the cabin looked recent, the metal was still fresh and shiny. A really sorry sight.

Another one who might have met her fate. The vegetation engulfing a parked-up lorry probably offers a good reading of the owner’s determination to bring his vehicle back on the road. In this case prospects look grim.
I cannot help but think of how beautiful those newly-delivered lorries are when they come from the dealer’s, and then they end up like this
A shame because Scania enjoys a good second-hand resale value, even when destined for Africa or the M-E exports. Surprising to see that even an African will have failed in getting her up and running again. This will probably have been a costly operation.

[davidoff]

And then finally a response to our friend Michel who commented on one of my earlier posts that there seemed to be so few really old lorries. Well, there are still a few of these, but they are getting few and far between. And many parked up in bushes quite far off he roads, often quite likely their last resting place…

Still for Messieurs Michel and SAVIEM, here are the few representatives I could see of their favourite marque

SAVIEM SG2 or SG3.
When I first came to Abidjan in 2005, there were still plenty of these left. Ten years on and they have all but gone, this is the ONLY one I saw.

Former French municipal services, they all had the same livery.

Renault Magnum 2nd series.

Here is an interesting one!!
I had never seen an RI357 in my life EVER and I thought it was some sort of hoax. Until my French mate Julien (the one who owns a Renault R “le Centaure”) had the answer, as usual. This was an Italian-specific model designed to comply with Italy’s 8hp/tonne regulation.
Apparently this is just a beefed-up R340, especially for our Italian friends.

[robert1952]

Davidoff:
Another one who might have met her fate. The vegetation engulfing a parked-up lorry probably offers a good reading of the owner’s determination to bring his vehicle back on the road. In this case prospects look grim.
I cannot help but think of how beautiful those newly-delivered lorries are when they come from the dealer’s, and then they end up like this
A shame because Scania enjoys a good second-hand resale value, even when destined for Africa or the M-E exports. Surprising to see that even an African will have failed in getting her up and running again. This will probably have been a costly operation.
0

That’s interesting, because I interpreted the picture as depicting a bloke who has simply pulled off the road to take refreshment at that tea stall next to the unit; perhaps he’s nipped home to see the missus and is awaiting his next assignment. All over Africa and the Middle-East there are back roads like that running parallel with modern motorways. Who knows! Robert

[robert1952]

Davidoff:
And then finally a response to our friend Michel who commented on one of my earlier posts that there seemed to be so few really old lorries. Well, there are still a few of these, but they are getting few and far between. And many parked up in bushes quite far off he roads, often quite likely their last resting place…
6

Still for Messieurs Michel and SAVIEM, here are the few representatives I could see of their favourite marque
5

SAVIEM SG2 or SG3.
When I first came to Abidjan in 2005, there were still plenty of these left. Ten years on and they have all but gone, this is the ONLY one I saw.
4

Former French municipal services, they all had the same livery.
3

Renault Magnum 2nd series.
2

Here is an interesting one!!
I had never seen an RI357 in my life EVER and I thought it was some sort of hoax. Until my French mate Julien (the one who owns a Renault R “le Centaure”) had the answer, as usual. This was an Italian-specific model designed to comply with Italy’s 8hp/tonne regulation.
Apparently this is just a beefed-up R340, especially for our Italian friends.
1
0

An excellent discovery, Davidoff! And well done for bothering to research it. Robert

[davidoff]

I thought I might drift off of the specific topic of trucks a little to provide an idea of streetlife in Côte d’Ivoire.

This is apparently the world’s largest religious edifice. Built towards the end of the reign of Côte d’Ivoire’s first independant President, Félix Houphouët-Boigny.
A devout christian, he decided he would replicate the famous Basilica in Rome and build this monumental church. The story has it that the vatican actually objected to such an enormous spend and demanded that a hospital and various other community-beneficial investments be made at the same time.
Apparently, the Basilica was completed in 1989, the hospital only in 2013…
When challenged on the budget of such a construction in the context of the Country’s prevailing poverty (apparently it cost roughly 5% of Côte d’Ivoire’s Gross domestic product), Houphouët-Boigny simply responded that he had financed it with his “own” money not the taxpayer’s.
Since when did he make that distinction?

“Basilique Notre Dame de la Paix de Yamoussoukro”

I personally never heard of a King or Emperor named Delmas the first, but here you go.

Incredible this was. I could not capture the one we overtook, but it is still quite telling.
Basically they load a good amount of (preferably solid and resilient) cargo on the bottom, then cover it with some canopy and the upper floor thus obtained becomes an enclosure. When you overtake this doing 80kph on the motorway it is really quite a sight!

[davidoff]

robert1952:

Davidoff:
And then finally a response to our friend Michel who commented on one of my earlier posts that there seemed to be so few really old lorries. Well, there are still a few of these, but they are getting few and far between. And many parked up in bushes quite far off he roads, often quite likely their last resting place…
6

Still for Messieurs Michel and SAVIEM, here are the few representatives I could see of their favourite marque
5

SAVIEM SG2 or SG3.
When I first came to Abidjan in 2005, there were still plenty of these left. Ten years on and they have all but gone, this is the ONLY one I saw.
4

Former French municipal services, they all had the same livery.
3

Renault Magnum 2nd series.
2

Here is an interesting one!!
I had never seen an RI357 in my life EVER and I thought it was some sort of hoax. Until my French mate Julien (the one who owns a Renault R “le Centaure”) had the answer, as usual. This was an Italian-specific model designed to comply with Italy’s 8hp/tonne regulation.
Apparently this is just a beefed-up R340, especially for our Italian friends.
1
0

An excellent discovery, Davidoff! And well done for bothering to research it. Robert

Thanks Robert.
Well, Julien and SAVIEM are a true match to each other when it comes to being experts on Berliet, SAVIEM and Renault. Truly amazing knowledge they both have. Hopefully one day we will be able to get them to meet in person.
More amazingly, Julien is not yet 30, and the proud owner of no less than 5 magnificent units consisting of some (now very rare) Renault R V8s, one beautiful SAVIEM, and some more. But that will be the subject of another post one of these days…

[chrisarbon]

A very interesting thread. Thank you, Davidoff, for taking the time and taking the photographs. Love the picture of the red Scania. Nice-one.

[davidoff]

Roadside repairs.
Many, many, many of them.

I imagine that the lorries that make it down to Africa rarely have less than a million on them. Kilometres, sometimes miles… So scenes like the ones below are bound to happen.

I loved the way one of the blokes decided to perch himself on top of the elevator to give his mechanical challenges a more elevated perspective

Click on the photo to enlarge, and you will see that there was not so much work going on

When you think of the condition in which the lorries arrive in Africa, then the conditions under which they are kept and operated, then it is no surprise really to see so many roadside repairs.
But Africans have this remarkable resilience, resourcefulness replacing the availability of actual new spare parts and equipment. Hats off to them

[davidoff]

Another roadside repair which I missed on the last post. Ex-Dutch lorry.
What always surprises me is when a cab is being tipped without the doors being shut. Puts a lot of strain on the hinges. Oh well…

Some more streetlife. I guess they are fine as long as they have some room to spare under the bridges, most of which are restricted at 4.50 metres.

Liked this one…

Euro 0 bananas…

Wherever public transport is needed, a bus stop is immediately improvised

Rainforest on wheels.
My colleagues explained that there’s only about 10% of the native rainforest remaining in its original state. Reforestation funds are largely being diverted via obscure and opaque channels. Grim outlook here again

Michel asked the question why there seemed to be so few really old lorries left. Well, I guess the answer is that an average lorry runs a 1/10 chance of crashing every year (my own personal guesstimation). So any lorry surviving more than 10 years on these roads is really lucky!
Like this DAF XF95 whose cab had been badly damaged on this crash (I decided NOT to take a picture as I was not sure if everybody on board was safe). So basically after several years on these roads many lorries end up serving as part donors for other similar lorries…
From what I could see, this one was beyond repair even by African standards…

[spardo]

Finally found your thread, David. The search function on here is a bit iffy and only turned up one result for ‘Ghana’ which nevertheless took me to a very interesting thread (‘India’ in the Euro section) which I had been involved in way back in 2004 Thanks go to Bullitt who re-directed me here.

Nice chatting the other evening, Look forward to meeting up again if you are in the Perigord. But phone first as I still get about all over Europe with the dogs.

My favourites from this excellent thread? 2 old friends of course, the Magnum and that ‘Flintstone’ Mack.

[davidoff]

Hello David and thanks for your kind words.
I am not surprised that you loved the Magnum, yours at Gauthier was a beautiful one and I know you used to love the old girl accordingly.
Please do update that dogblog sometime if you get a chance, I am sure there are many regular followers on here who like me enjoy your colourful adventures - and the cause you do it for!

[davidoff]

Time for some more pictures of this trip, I have been quite busy the last week and did not take the time to post an update.

During my trip I visited one of the local stations collecting and bagging the cocoa beans which my employer is trading and processing into cocoa and chocolate products.

I quickly became mates with our local site Manager, a Frenchman from Brittany, one of those true adventurers and larger-then-life characters.
In fairness, only with this kind of character can anyone survive in this environment where doing business is painstakingly slow, unpredictable, ridden with all sorts of visible and intangible obstacles.

This was the first sight I got as we drove into the yard.

To collect the cocoa beans from the farmers, the local Team went out in search of a small fleet of tipper trucks and somehow laid hands on a bunch of ex-British Army Scanias (that’s what he told me), a model which personally I had never seen before.
They are contemporary to the 1-series (I think the doors are exactly the same as the 1-series) but has an unusual cab design.

A closer look

Inside the cab

Some technical data

So bizarre you have to go to French-speaking Africa to stumble upon this kind of blast from the British past… At the same time, the fact that they are LHD would belie the theory of them being of British pedigree.
I am sure there will be various members on here who will be able to share their knowledge and insights.

To supplement our fleet of lorries, we also have a few pick-ups (called “utes” in Australia or “bakkies” in South Africa ).
Now the problem is that no amount of surveillance was able to prevent unwanted “evaporation” of our diesel (at this rate our pick-ups would soon be running at 1mpg), and so a decision was made each morning to only provide the minimum amount of fuel required for the day’s journey. Apparently there is a thriving black market for diesel.
Sure enough, with the near-100% humidity levels prevailing here in Ivory Coast, condensation formed inside the diesel tank, and after a long battle our engines finally packed up one after the other. The below is representative of what came out of the drained tank.

And these are the conditions under which repairs are being done…

To finalise this chapter, please find below the latest and greatest in handwash technology and workplace hygiene (click on the picture to get it upright ).

1. apply foot pressure on the pedal
2. the water-dispensing implement will immediately deliver a regular trickle of warm water
3. use the automatic soap dispensing equipment to form suitable lather
4. apply foot pressure again and rinse copiously

[spardo]

My old girl, as you put it, is very likely not too far away from all your pictures in West Africa by now. I had her from new in February 2000 and I think she disappeared from the fleet about 4 or 5 years later.

That Scania cab is new to me, from the first picture I immediately thought Fiat. LHD, if ex British Army, is not so unusual, I think many military vehicles are specified thus.

But you have really taken my fancy with the hand washer. That sort of ingenuity really appeals to me and, as I have come up with many such ideas in my life, not all successful, I reckon I must have some Heath Robinson in my genes.

[stupot]

http://www.trucks.nl/vehicle-detail/2179689/scania-tgb-40-6x6

Seems to be a few of these Scanias for sale in Denmark

[davidoff]

That looks exactly like the vehicle I saw there. The Scania TGB 40 6x6. Thanks Stupot, good find.
And whilst there I did take a look behind the cab and was able to see the engine plate which read DS11. But too dark to take a photo.

They all seem to have automatic gearboxes, ours in Côte d’Ivoire certainly do.
Sadly, of the four we have, two are grounded with broken down gearboxes, and one seems on the verge of packing up as well.

My colleague down there mentioned that he has been looking for a good mechanic for some time without luck. It seems difficult to attract European experts down there even with a decent package, and they are really screaming for help.
If there is anyone on here who feels he (or she) is a qualified mechanic and would not mind experimenting the Ivorian bush for a few weeks (Yamoussoukro area) to get some fresh air and a different perspective on life, then they are welcome to PM me. Even a few weeks would do, just to get some of the machines fixed and some basic streamlining (read: “European thinking”) into our maintenance operations.
(Small detail - candidates must have at least decent notions of French…)

[zb_anorak]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scania_SBA111
Here’s a blown-up image of the chassis plate you posted:

[davidoff]

In fact I just realised that we have a mix of 4x4s and 6x6s!

IIRC I took the picture you enlarged in the lorry parked up further back in the yard, which would be a Scania SBA111, designated Terrängbil 30 (Tgb 30), the one in the foreground being a 6x6 Scania SBAT111S, designated Terrängbil 40 (Tgb 40) with turbocharged engine (copy/paste from your wikipedia link).
The rest is sitting in the back of the yard and looks like it’s been grounded for some time and is covered under a basic plastic sheet. Vegetation is making rapid progress into its bowels