Friday, April 16, 2010

Iveco Massif

Iveco Massif, 2008





Iveco is one of the few makers worldwide to offer a full range of all-wheel-drive vehicles. With Iveco Massif, the new 4x4, the Italian company breaks into a completely new professional transport segment, harking back to the memory of a glorious ancestor that won Fiat Group a prominent place in the history of off-road vehicles: the Fiat Campagnola.

A Serious Off Road Working Vehicle
The new Iveco Massif is a rugged 4 wheel drive vehicle for serious off-road applications. The vehicle is based on the structure that was used for the first sports off-road vehicles, before they were "urbanised" into sport utility vehicles, mainly for on-road use. It signals a return to the roots of 4x4 utility vehicles, removing the off-road/on-road compromise: this is, in short, a serious, professional, off-road workhorse and it intends to be seen as such. But seen with style, courtesy of Giugiaro.

Iveco - a full range of all-wheel-drive vehicles
Iveco Massif 4x4 competes in a small but very important niche market of 4x4 work vehicles. Iveco Massif is produced jointly with Spanish maker Santana: their original vehicle was completely revised by Iveco experts with support on a massive scale in terms of technologies and solutions derived from the Daily. Iveco Massif is actually the true heir to the Daily 4x4 floor plan, well-known for its performance in military and civilian situations in the form of the VM 90, used by the armed forces and civil defence corps of many countries. Iveco Massif shares its engageable all-wheel-drive architecture, with the transfer box flanged to the gearbox to lower the vehicle's profile as far as possible, making it perfectly adapted for long, rapid on-road transfers and demanding off-road missions at the destination. The end result of this extensive re-engineering is a vehicle that's ready to take on missions that would need an "off-road lorry". Iveco's expertise in the 4x4 market spreads right across the commercial vehicle range, from light to heavy - Daily, Eurocargo and Trakker - covering every type of mission and all working conditions.

Maximum cab comfort
The cab interior is perfectly designed to give maximum comfort to the driver and passengers, even in the turbulent off-road driving conditions for which the Iveco Massif range is designed. Seat upholstery is in fabric or leather, but for heavy-duty missions a robust synthetic material is available. The rubber floor mats in the cab are easy to clean. The in-cab instrumentation meets the requirements of a serious off-road machine. The gear shift and transfer box controls are floor-mounted and within easy reach of the driver. Air conditioning is optionally available to further improve driver and passenger comfort.

The values of Iveco Massif
Iveco Massif was created from sharing the same values that made the All Blacks the most famous rugby team in the world, following in the tyre tracks of the new Stralis, Trakker and Daily 4x4 models.

Reliability
For Iveco Massif, Reliability means keeping promises: product reliability, durability and high safety standards in every situation. Reliability for Iveco Massif also means flexibility for body builder intervention supported by a wide range of transmission and transfer box PTOs, easily accessible electric connections for bodywork, and more besides.

Performance
For Iveco Massif, Performance is supporting the customer's business value. It means raising productivity and reducing running costs. Iveco Massif's assets are optimised bodybuilder intervention, servicing downtime, and consumption. Periodic maintenance time is minimised so that the vehicle spends as little time as possible in the workshop. And an always-present, vital consideration is fuel cost: Massif's Euro 4 engine returns excellent fuel consumption.

IVECO MASSIF in detail
The Iveco Massif vehicle and the industry sector in which it competes is new to Iveco. Today Iveco offers customers in this important niche products and services that fill the entire range of their customers' needs. When commercial vehicles are required to go off road in the most arduous of conditions - both weather and terrain - it is never just to supply equipment: there are people in that vehicle, too. Iveco's all-wheel-drive products - Trakker, Eurocargo 4x4 and Daily 4x4 - handle this task perfectly. And Iveco Massif completes this range, being able to take the crew required to do the work, together with their tools.

Cab and chassis features
All Iveco Massif versions are mounted on a separate chassis with axles mounted on parabolic leaf springs. This is a no-compromise solution: a separate chassis ensures the high structural stresses incurred during serious off road applications are not carried into the body structure to the extent that body durability is compromised. The road springs assist axle location and body suspension without the need for extra drive- and braking-force reaction members or axle location links to the vehicle chassis.

Giugiaro style
Massif bears the Iveco family appearance with its radiator grille. Body styles are available in 3 and 5-door station wagons, a pick-up with integrated load carrying area, and a chassis cab only version for third party body mounting. The separate chassis provides for passenger/load compartment body mounting, and driven front and rear drive axle mounting connected to the remote transfer box.

The external body appearance reflects Giugiaro styling in a highly functional manner, reflecting the serious off road mission of Iveco Massif. Scuff resistant body parts around the wheel arches, lower door panels and around the rear light units recognise that the vehicle will obviously be used to travel on terrain that will deliver bumps and scrapes aplenty, as you would expect on a serious off-road mission. For customers who would wish to have the vehicle's capabilities less obvious, the plastic parts and roof are available in the same colour as the body Tinted windows to the rear of the driver's compartment and aluminium wheels are all available to complete the picture.

Interior enhancements such as cloth or leather seat covering materials are available, as is a leather-covered steering wheel rim. For missions where severe (pressure hose) cleaning of the cab interior is required, there are variants with highly-resistant rubber floor mats and vinyl seat covering.

Radio/CD player and satellite navigation systems are available to order. Seat availability is matched to body type; the chassis cab and pick-up versions are available only with the standard driver and single passenger seat, the 3-door station wagon has a 4-seat (2+2) layout with the simple 2 seating rows option and the 5-door station wagon has a 5-seat (2+3) layout with the simple 2 seating rows option or a 7-seat (2+3+2) option.

State of the art engines
At the heart of Iveco Massif is the FPT 3.0 litre HPI engine derived from the Daily range. This 4 cylinder, 16 valve turbocharged Diesel engine with high pressure common rail fuel injection system is very much state of the art, providing excellent fuel economy and performance. A maximum of 350 Nm of torque is available over an engine speed range of 1400 - 2800 revs/min. The maximum power of 146 Cv is provided at engine speeds from 3000 - 3500 revs/min. The engine is certified to the Euro 4 exhaust emissions requirements using exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to control combustion-generated NOx and an oxidising catalyst to fully oxidise all exhaust gas components. Iveco Massif is also available with the 3.0 litre HPT engine, equipped with a variable geometry turbocharger with a rated power of 176 Cv at an engine speed of 3200 - 3500 rev/min and a maximum torque of 400 Nm at 1250 - 3000 rev/min; a power unit unique in its category.

Transmission and transfer Box
The ZF 6S400 overdrive 6-speed transmission is coupled to the remote-mounted Santana transfer box, providing either 4x2 or 4x4 traction. In high range the drive is to the rear wheels only, unless the specific selector is set to 4-wheel-drive. Selecting low range automatically engages 4-wheel-drive. The transfer box is not equipped with a differential facility and so, under 4-wheel-drive conditions, loss of adherence by either the front or rear wheels does not result in loss of traction. In addition an optional rear axle differential lock is available, as is an automatic front hub freewheel facility which reduces transmission wind-up when 4-wheel-drive is used on firm surfaces. The transmission in combination with the transfer box provides for 12 forward gear ratios and 2 reverse gear ratios.

Front and rear driven axles
Beam drive axles are used both front and rear and have a common final drive ratio of 3.909:1. The final drive gearing used on the front axle is helicoidal whereas that on the rear axle is a hypoid gear set in order to provide improved ground clearance for the centrally-mounted drive shaft.

Wheels and tyres
The standard version comes with 235/85R16 all-terrain tyres. Off-road tyres mounted on steel wheel rims are available as an option, as are aluminium wheel rims.

Suspension system
Parabolic leaf springs are used for the front and rear axles, performing the dual role of chassis suspension and drive axle location. This relatively simple suspension layout provides for better drive and braking torque reactions without the need for extra links and bracketry, a definite plus for the serious off-road vehicle. Double action hydraulic dampers are used for the front axle and double action gas dampers are used for the rear, and anti-roll stabiliser bars are fitted front and rear.

Maximum front and rear axle plated masses are 1072 kg and 2150 kg respectively; plated vehicle mass is 3050 kg.

Braking system
A double 'H' hydraulic circuit with vacuum servo-assistance is used to actuate ventilated disc brakes on the front axle and simple discs on the rear axle. The parking brake is a cable-actuated drum brake mounted on the transmission transfer box and therefore giving the advantage of the park brake torque with a multiplication factor equal to the drive axle ratio. Mechanical brake force distribution is used for all models when the vehicle is under 4-wheel-drive operation, and the optional Antilock Brake System (ABS) provides an electronic brake force distribution under 4x2 driving conditions. The ABS can be deactivated for certain off-road conditions.

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