1418 Mercedes Benz Top Road Speed

Most times it was at TNT car carrying in them days. Sometimes I travelled with a mate with a car carrier & I just drove into his front.
I forgot one was up there once but the awning at Pt Augusta roadhouse reminded me!!!

Hey Bruce, great pic mate! As I said in the previous post, my dad had a heap of these 1418's as car carriers when I was a kid, and of course I listened avidly to every little bit i could about them...

As Humey says, they were 54mph flat out at 2250 RPM.
I know you could bust that bit off the rack on the injector pump and get them flying, but as swishy says, there is no way I'd recommend it, even if I'd ever actually done it myself.
I also know that the diffs were pretty crappy, (about 5.29 ratio I think) and people replaced them with various No 4 and No 5 Eatons etc. Mine has an No 4 Eaton, I think out of a Commer- but still the same ratio dammitt!
Is yours still the Benz diff? if not it could be an eaton etc, that has an even worse ratio than the standard.
I also know that the early Benz's, the Low windscreen model, had a 48MPH diff in them. I know this because I helped change one. My father thought he'd found a higher speed diff from a Benz, he's spun it up and counted the turns etc, we spent a whole weekend fitting it (on the side of the road outside our house in the suburbs, as you did back then) then after w fitted it we found that instead of doing 54MPH, it did 48mph...
Counted wrongly didn't we....
(So after the next trip to Brisbane, out it came again,
and a 4.1 Eaton was fitted- but then it hated pulling top gear when it was loaded, and it kept tearing the centre out of clutches.) This was actually a 1918 Low windscreen- i've never seen another one. It had all the 1418 running gear, but a heavier chassis, full air brakes and trilex rims. Bloody ugly, but it was dads favorite Benz- and he'd had heaps. It looked similar to this-



SO it could be that you have an early model diff, if your original diff buggered up and was swapped for some reason many years ago. They may not have checked the ratio and then once in, too bad.

Next possible problem- Another truck that wouldn't pull the skin off the proverbial pudding was this one-



Drove Dad crazy- hard on fuel and slow. Wouldn't pull over 50mph, like yours, although everything was the same mechanically.
Eventually it was found that it had the injector pump timing one tooth retarded. Fixed that- different truck. This was another favorite, I remember doing a trip to Darwin in it with him.


So! Check your revs, it should be doing 2250 at 54MPH. If not, check your diff brand, check your diff ratio,
if it is doing the correct revs but just takes three hours to get there, check the injector timing (and all the other stuff, eg pinched fuel line, air cleaner etc...A dead rat fell out of my LPS 1418 when I got it home!!!)

And above all remember that they were bloody slow anyway. Great, but slow! Did I say slow???? I meant SLOW!!!!
Good luck with it, keep us posted, and photo's please!!!!
Cheers
Richard

Don't want to upset any-one, but 1418's had a 48 mph log truck diff as well. And a 10 overdrive still wouldn't give you 100kph. A number 5 eaton diff [KM bedford best] would give you about 94 kph with the 5 speed in it[still quick enough to get knocked off in the day] but it would lose the ability to climb the Adelaide hills with 24 ton on a tri. Dragging around the concrete wall I would let it drop to 800 rpm in low first, then push the starter button. That gave it just enough power to drag the tri around the corner. Nev.

i agree with slow i pedalled a 1217 benz to melb last year truck was comfy but gutless and the 8 speed ZF? box was a horror to change (to get the top gears your arm is at over full stretch heading towards the passengers door) top speed was around 90kmh ..fuel consumption wasnt great either . . .

Here's a photo from 1973 at Scone NSW over length steel fabrications for a new skin store, daylight travel from Melbourne, Mercedes 1418 cab over, 54/5 mph top speed, never blew smoke, and ages to get up to speed, 5 speed and 2 speed diff, I was informed never split 4th and 5th gears as it was a waste of time, I remember my first trip from melbourne to Sydney in the benz on the Hume highway near the Wagga turn off there was a bit of a downhill stretch where I knocked it into angel and over top speed about 60, up the other side of the slope I pulled it back into gear about 55 and all was well speed dropping off I decided to split top, dropped the button and clutch, instantly the front of the cab nearly hit the road the drive must have locked up momentarily with a screech from the tyres, I remember being flung forward nutting the windscreen and my thighs slamming against the steering wheel, by the time I was flicked back into the seat I was travelling still uphill as if nothing had happened but in low range, I never ever split 4th and 5th after this. This photo was not the first load with the benz.

gday old bugga,
yep splitting downwards is a mistake isn't it! My benz has the switch backwards, and as I rarely drive it I always seem to forget, and switch down by mistake.... did it just the other day, dammit!
Now this Benz of yours--looks awfully like this one, yes?
Wondering if you took these photos? They are off biglorryblog, hope they (or you) don't mind me pasting them here!









Regardless, thanks for your pic! Always great to see pics of the old days I reckon.
Specially of 1418's!
Cheers
Richard

Yep they are mine, I put them on BLB before I saw this forum.

Great pics, I had them saved just cos I like em....
Where were they taken? When?
Cmon oldbugga, stories please!

Taken 1972/3, The top one is the unit in Bighaul yard, francis street, yarraville, melb. Behind it is the trailer covered in general tarps, I lent my cap tarp to one of their subbies at Toll Chadwicks yard Newcastle, NSW, The trailer was loaded with Cable drums and wire, I got my cap tarp off him at the yard. In the background there is one of two double drive Macks the company had, I can't remember if it was a C motor or maxidyne, they also had two single drive pups. These vehicles were originally owned by Eagles and braham, Rouse Street, Port Melb, but they went bust. The second photo is taken on Gwydir highway NSW with timber for Melb. The last one is my house a 1418 cab. Here is another 1418 photo taken at Wingham NSW with logs for Melbourne I have already put this on this site.

Been up the bush in the 1418 today. The old girl climb out of a valley with 6.5 tonne on her back and kept up with a kenworth T904 B double log truck at the same time. (Power to the classic).

Unfortunately when we hit the main road he was gone and I pulled over to let another two log trucks passed before heading into town. I'm not expecting to keep up with a 600hp plus log truck.
What I was starting to think is that the diff ratio might have been changed. The old girl climes the hills with ease and gets up to speed pretty quick.
I read in this thread that some of the early benz had a log Diff??
How would I determine if mine has such a diff ratio?
Which is the cheapest option change the diff out to higher ratio or look into get another gearbox?
I really don't want to sell the old girl as she is a really weapon in the bush and has great ground clearance but I still need to get from job as quick as possible.