The Scania-Vabis L10/L40/L51 was a series of

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

s produced by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

automaker The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % such a ...

Scania-Vabis Scania AB is a major Swedish manufacturer headquartered in Södertälje, focusing on commercial vehicles—specifically heavy lorries, trucks and buses. It also manufactures diesel engines for heavy vehicles as well as marine and general indus ...

between 1944 and 1959.

Scania-Vabis L10

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Scania-Vabis’ entire production went to the

Swedish Armed Forces The Swedish Armed Forces ( sv, Försvarsmakten, "the Defense Force") is the government agency that forms the armed forces of Sweden, tasked with the defense of the country as well as with promoting Sweden's wider interests, supporting internati ...

and other public institutions. The company designed a new generation of trucks for post war times, when the pent-up demand for new trucks was expected to boom. The first post-war model, L10, was introduced in 1944.Scania Group - history
It was the first Scania-Vabis truck with

left hand drive Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to ...

. The L10 Series had a four-cylinder variant of the module engine Scania-Vabis had introduced in the late 1930s, which was also built in the six- and eight cylinder versions, as

petrol Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

. The diesel engine in the L10 series was a pre-chamber engine. The truck could also be delivered with

four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...

, a version known as the F10. It had a war time

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

and military trucks were also sold with petrol engine. Before the war, Scania-Vabis purchased many components from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, but these were now largely replaced by Swedish-made components. Unfortunately, production was in several cases started without adequate testing and those first postwar trucks suffered quality problems that cost Scania-Vabis both money and reputation to repair.Scania trucks: A century on the road
/ref>

Scania-Vabis L40

At the end of 1949, Scania-Vabis introduced a direct injected diesel development of their module engine. It had been designed in collaboration with British truck manufacturer

Leyland Motors Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 and 1 ...

. With the new engine, the four-cylinder truck got its name changed to L40. Otherwise the truck was mostly unchanged. In early 1950 there were also a small number of the four-wheel drive F40 built, before that model disappeared because of low market demand. In 1951 the old fashioned non-synchro four-speed

gear box Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...

was replaced by a synchronized five-speed transmission.

Scania-Vabis L51 Drabant

In the spring of 1953 the final development of Scania-Vabis’ module engines were introduced, with larger displacement. The four-cylinder truck was now called L51 Drabant, with a payload capacity of 5.5 to 6

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s. It was also the first Scania-Vabis truck with a proper name.

Engines

Gallery

File:Scania-Vabis L12 Truck 1946.jpg, 1946 Scania-Vabis L12 File:Scania-Vabis L44 Truck 1949.jpg, 1949 Scania-Vabis L44 File:Scania-Vabis L5146 Truck 1954.jpg, 1954 Scania-Vabis L51

References

External links

Scania Group - history

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scania-Vabis L10 L10 Vehicles introduced in 1944