SHAH ALAM: Turkish delights for five tonners?. Malaysian Defence has previously reported that the Army in the last five years or so had procured an unknown number of five-tonne GS 4X4 cargo trucks to supplement the Hicom Handalan three-tonne trucks in the Army fleet. The trucks are mostly Iveco Eurotrekkers and MAN TGM five-tonners.
As part of the Army recapitalisation project – the Mobility Phase II and III – at least another 22 vehicles are being sought. At least 10 of the five tonners have been contracted to High Point Worldwide Sdn Bhd for a tender issued out in 2020. Another RFB issued for 12 five-tonners in 2019 is however missing as there was no notice of the winner. Perhaps the 2020 tender was the replacement for it.
Iveco 5 tonne GS trucks of the Depo Simpanan Pertahanan (Defence Storage Depot) being readied for deployment at the height of the 2014 floods. Internet.
Anyhow as usual the eperolehan notice did not revealed what truck was offered by High Point for its winning bid though it did say the contract awarded was RM5.4 million. As High Point according to my sources had bid for the Unifil 4X4 APC RFB with the BMC Kirpi, I am going out on a limb here by saying that the truck they offered was the BMC 5 Tons 245-16 P.
BMC five tonne 245-16 P truck. BMC Defence
From BMC website:
BMC 5 Tons 245-16 P Tactical Wheeled Vehicles are capable of reaching to a speed of 100 km/h thanks to the 6-cylinder turbo diesel engine. The vehicle can climb slopes of up to 60 %, and move on side-slopes of up to 30%. Standing out with high level of maneuverability, BMC 5 Tons Tactical Wheeled Vehicles have been used successfully for years by numerous armies
I could be wrong of course but since the Iveco and MAN trucks are/were offered by other local companies, it may well be High Point did offer the BMC truck for this tender. Anyhow the make of the trucks will be confirmed once these vehicles are delivered as the Army – this days – seemed happy to issue releases whenever they received deliveries of vehicles.
For example on June 3, BTDM reported that the Army took the delivery of at least six fourty-four-seat buses from Deftech.
— Malaysian Defence
At Rm540k a pop? Hmm ok, if it were either Iveco or MAN or other conti brands, yeah its worth it as their civvie trucks cost about as much and that meant the 3rd party didn’t make a single sen from this deal. Highly unlikely right? So the guess with Turkish (or perhaps Eastern European?) truck is probably spot on. Japanese brands 5tonner go for 250-350k so that Turk, using 6cyl Cummins engine & Allison autobox, I would guess would be around RM400-450k. That gives this new kid on the block a gross profit of RM 1-1.5mil. Either that or we go for DEFTECH rebadged of a TATA India truck (Handalan 3).
I’ll second buying a Tata truck. It’s just a truck, not a tank! Get something that is cheap, yet durable. No need for bells and whistles mate.
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I was told that the Tata 5 tonne lost to the MAN 5 tonne truck in the previous tender. The MAN was cheaper I was told
Just curious though, are these trucks the same as the ones in the civilian market, or do they have some extras on it?
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Basically the same apart from the gun racks in the cabin and foldable seats in the rear
@Taib
The older Mercedes based TATAs are reliable but newer generation TATAs are unknown really, certainly they have not gained such a reputation as their predecessor, and the fact that DRB has been pushing them, there is little takeup from civvie sector. These trucks are daily workhorses so uptime & performance is ultimate importance, if its something cheap you want, sure, you can get China trucks usually at 1/3 to 1/4 the price of an equivalent conti.
If MAN is cheaper than Tata, I’ll eat my shoes 😁
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It was I was told by the Tata guy himself. Probably they will make money from the spare parts…
Taib – “! Get something that is cheap, yet durable”
That’s a conundrum. Not everything’s that “cheap” is “durable”. Depends. We can go for some really “cheap” stuff but with heavy usage they’ll only last a few years. Volvo owns Chinese brands which are offered at fraction of the cost of higher end Western ones but one get what one pays for.
Maintenance/support issues also play a big part. The Handalans (like the 911s before) require generally less maintenance than say the Mans and are “durable”; to an extent. On the other hand the Pinzgsuers for us were highly problematic because of the unique drive train assembly. We also have to standardise rather than adding new types of vehicles.
It’s good that we’ve standardised our standard utility/cargo types (Handalans; as well as certain other specialtised vehicles (Man and Mercedes for radars, bridging equipment etc) but we also need to cut down on the types of “weapons carriers” (all unfortunately with zero ballistic protection despite mounting direct fire weapons which in turn exposes them to return direct fire).
@Taib,
Well, Taib you really have to eat your shoes 😀
@ASM
Civvie trucks are usually rear wheel driven, but these militarised trucks, iinm, are typically all wheel driven inc the front wheels. You can see the BMC truck pics have a prop shaft from central diff going to the front axles.
Militarised trucks also typically have a bigger engine than equivalent tonnage civvie trucks. An Isuzu Forward 5 tonner would have a 4cyl 4.8L engine while this BMC has a 6cyl 6.7L engine.
.. Why not using TOC as tool for commercial ? If the the bidders qualified at technical part ranking based by performance the TOC tool can be used for commercial part..
You got the data from previous truck so no issue if cheap truck but heavy cost on spares part.or maintenance cost… .
@ASM
I’ll eat my shoes alrighty… because like I said, these are just ‘trucks’. I like our Handalans having seen them work with PDRM Immigrations Rela and Bomba among others. Perhaps if we have the toolings for these, perhaps with updates, they will go on in service for another 20 years. With the 5 tonners, youi spoit for choice but it’s a no -brainer. Price is the criteria that will separate a buy from a shortlist. If Joe here says the newer Tata’s are suspect unlike their Merc-based predecessors, perhaps there’s a product out there that’s cheap and durable.
I personally like the Dongfeng 240/2080 military trucks powered by a Cummins or cloned Cummins 6.7litre powerplant. You buy Chinese with a Stateside powertrain. But that’s just me. Incidentally, Peru bought 400 of these China-manufactured trucks. …just a truck mate.
Taib – “just a truck mate”
Sorry but there’s a lorry (I personally don’t use the word “truck”) and there’s a lorry.
Depend on what one wants and how it fits in the overall scheme of things. Does one want something which will last for a while or something “cheap” but which with heavy usage won’t last long? One gets what one pays for …
@Taib
Don’t kid yourself, these Handalans are rebadged Isuzus(Handalan2) and TATAs(Handalan3). We are just CKD the trucks so we don’t have toolings for them, to buy these is a costly venture (if they even willing to sell). Spareparts for mechanicals will still be available for 20 years, as these are based off commercial trucks.
China trucks are cheap for a reason, they are as disposable as disposable underwears. Technically sound and quite reliable when new but they don’t tend to last very long, so often these trucks are used intensively during their short lifespan ie construction & mining. Basically pakai buang, when a truck suffers major breakdown it is discarded and cannibalised for parts until the whole fleet is ran down. There are some exceptions but these owners would have to give lotsa TLC to keep them running.