Mercedes-Benz bus with Allison fully-automatic transmission goes far
Mercedes-Benz Argentina and its official dealer COLCAR have teamed up with Allison to develop a bus for public passenger transportation.
The front-engine OF1621 chassis is equipped with a T 270 fully-automatic transmission, which features a retarder to extend the brake life and reduce maintenance costs.
During development, the bus operated for local fleet Nueva Metropol. After 168,000km, the bus’s rear brake linings still had 1.3mm of braking material. To cover that same distance, a bus with a manual transmission would have required six replacement brake linings, two replacement brake bands for the rear brakes, two replacement clutches and five lubricating oil changes.
Allison Automatics are designed for reliability and durability, while helping protect the vehicle driveline. With Continuous Power Technology, drivers achieve faster acceleration, greater operational flexibility and increased productivity.
This also enables Allison transmissions to outperform manual and automated manual transmissions (AMTs), which lose power and torque with every shift – resulting in wasted time and fuel.