Introduction
It seems that truck manufacturers aren’t offering a complete line-up these days unless they have a tractor with automatic transmission on their books. Latest to join the clutchless club is MAN with its two-pedal TipMatic, which our German contacts assures us derives from tip as in fingertip, not tip as in unload or fall over!
This test not only looks closely at TipMatic, but is also our first test of an MAN TG-A tractor with the narrower L cab. And just to add to the string of dubious “firsts”, it’s our first test of any Euro-3 MAN and any Euro-3 40-tonner. So whatever happens, the TG-A 360L is guaranteed a place in the CM Hall of Fame.
Product Profile
The two cabs that emerged from the clouds of dry ice at the TG-A launch last year have now increased to five. First there was the XL and XXL full-width sleepers with regular and high roofs respectively. Then, earlier this year, they were joined by the M, L and LX cabs, featuring the same styling but with 200mm lopped out of the width. The M is the standard-height day-cab, the L, as tested here, gains a sleeper extension; and the LX adds a semi-high roof to that. As they share the front axle width, the easy way to spot the narrow TG-A version is by the flared wheel arches and the way the crinkle-cut air deflectors curve out to the full width.
The MAN TipMatic transmission under that L cab is more formally known to its makers , ZF, as the 12 AS 2301, a twin-countershaft three-speeder combined with a two-speed splitter and a two-speed epicyclic range change to give the dozen forward ratios. The main gears are unsynchronised, their dog clutches being engaged silently to an electronically controlled transmission brake. Unlike MAN’s semi-automated Comfort Shift, no clutch pedal is provided, and the conventional dry plate clutch being actuated by air, again under electronic control.
TipMatic has no conventional gear lever either, the operation being controlled instead by a combination of a rotary knob where the gear lever would normally be and the right hand column stalk. Start off gears and direction of travel are selected on the knob, while manual over-ride functions are handled via the stalk.
As well as the benefits in the areas of enhanced clutch life and enhanced driver comfort, the Tipmatic offers operators the more tangible benefit of a 60kg weight reduction compared with the standard manual box. it is also available equipped with a fully integrated ZF Intarder as well as a range of power take-off options.
Productivity
What! 355hp hauling 40 tonnes? Why, that’s less than 9hp per tonne, and everyone knows that you need at least 10, don’t they? MAN’s not so sure, though, and swiftly declined our offer to run at 38 tonnes as we normally would for a truck of this power.
We actually ran the MAN around our Scottish route twice, 20 miles of stationary traffic on the M6 and some appalling weather between Gretna and Glasgow rendering the figures for the first run unreliable. On the second, problem-free run it managed a respectable overall consumption of 8.13mpg – a full half a mile better than the first attempt. The cumulative effect of the small but measurable performance deficit from that lowish power-to-weight ratio did manifest itself as an average speed for the whole route of 69.6km/h; it’s rare these days for anything to drop through the 70km/h barrier. The speed deficiency was more apparent on faster sections, while on roads the lower limits held its own surprisingly well.
With the savings from the TipMatic and the alloy wheels more than compensating for the air management kit and the sliding coolbox, our test truck weighed in at 7,175kg ready to roll, combining with our notional 7,000kg trailer to give a payload a prop-forward short of 26 tonnes, on the right side of the average for the class.
