It‘s been a year since we saw the arrival of the Mercedes-Benz New Dimension Truck range: the Actros, Arocs, Atego, and Econic to New Zealand.

One of the early adopters of the new Arocs and first to put it into the logging industry is Leon Edge of Northern Linehaul Ltd. Leon bought his Arocs 3263L 8×4 with OM473 Inline 6, 630Hp, 460Kw, 3000Nm, 15.6L engine, and a large sleeper cab, in mid2017. Over the last year Leon has put it to the test contracting to Rotorua Forest Haulage, and now with 280,000km on the clock, we caught up with him to see how it is performing.

“It‘s a good truck, strong, and very reliable” are the first words that Leon has to say about his truck. “It has great fuel economy with 1.8km to the litre overall, 1.9km from time to time. We service it every 20,000km – 40,000km and there is no oil required in between”, he says.

The truck is home to four drivers who work it around the clock, “it‘s on the road seven days and five nights a week, and they love driving it”, says Leon. “It‘s very comfortable and safe, which comes with the European design and engineering,” he says. The truck has a slightly heavier tare weight than other trucks on the market at 12,180kg. However Leon believes that economics work out with the savings in servicing intervals, reliability, and fuel consumption. “It all balances out”, he says. “And it‘s important to me to keep my drivers comfortable and happy,” he adds. Leon and his wife Julie, have a fleet of four vehicles. Leon‘s been an owner-driver for 16 years. He has always been around transport and had a keen interest in trucks stemming from his farming and agricultural background. In 2011 he purchased his first logger and now they have three. Leon says “he plans to add another Mercedes-Benz Arocs to his fleet in the near future.” Trucks & Trailers are specialists in the sales, servicing, and parts of Mercedes-Benz Trucks.

Written by: Kelly Fry www.trucksandtrailers.co.nz 0800 327 777