Berliet T100

The Berliet T100 was a truck manufactured by Berliet in the 1950s. It was, at the time, the largest truck in the world.[1]

Berliet T100 on display at the Fondation Marius Berliet in October 2018.

Design

Three trucks were built with normal control (with the cab behind the front axle); the fourth was built with forward control (cab-over-engine design (and sleeping accommodation)). They had 29.6-litre Cummins V12 engines, providing 600 hp (441 kW) and later 700 hp (515 kW). The trucks were intended for off-road use, in the oil and mining industries, in particular petroleum exploration in the Sahara.[2] Steering was powered by a separate small Panhard engine.

The first two trucks were 6x6 flatbeds with gross weights of 103 tonnes; the third was built as a 6x4 dumper truck, for the uranium mine at Bessines-sur-Gartempe; the fourth was another flatbed truck with 102 tonne gross weight, or 190 tonnes as a tractor. It was experimentally fitted with a Turbomeca gas turbine in 1962, but fuel consumption was excessive, so the conventional diesel engine was fitted again.

History

The trucks were designed and built in secret, and with a tight deadline; the first was finished after nine months, at the factory in Courbevoie. It was unveiled, by surprise, at the 1957 Paris car show.[3] However, it was too big to fit in the main exhibition hall, so Berliet built a special external pavilion to exhibit the huge new truck. It was then shown at various other car shows - Lyon, Avignon, Helsinki, Casablanca, Frankfurt, and Geneva. It went to work in the oil and gas fields of the Sahara; after Algerian independence it became property of the Algerian government, and was eventually preserved in Hassi-Messaoud.[4]

The second T100 was built in 1958 and two more in 1959.

The second T100, having worked in Algeria, was later returned to the Berliet Foundation's museum in 1981.[5]

The trucks were stablemates of the Berliet GBO15, a 60-ton 6x6 truck which had been released in 1956. 45 were built, most exported to Algeria.[6]

See also

References
  1. "Biggest Truck Goes To US". British Pathe. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  2. Lecat, Gilbert (2010). Berliet T100 - Les géants du désert [The Desert Giants]. Antony: ETAI. ISBN 978-2-7268-9482-8. OCLC 758879793.
  3. "EL BERLIET T-100, EL GIGANTE FRANCÉS" (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  4. "le Berliet T-100 en Algérie…". 12 December 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  5. "Le plus gros camion du monde : BERLIET T100, 600 cv" (in French). UIM Marine. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  6. "LE BERLIET GBO15 P 6X6 SEIGNEUR DU DÉSERT: REPORTAGE PHOTOS INÉDIT" (in French). Fondation Berliet. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
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