Why no front wheel drive trucks ???
Well for you Americans, you guys are just too conservative. Nobody would buy it because it aint what youre used to !!
For us here in Europe, Mercedes had a 1 ton minivan, the Vito, which was the successor of the old line of Hanomag-Henschel rear wheel drive light vans that were taken over by MB in the 70's.
The first generation, and its facelifted version, had front wheel drive but lots of problems with the CV joints. There was a little too much torque on them, with a 2800kg GVW and a 2 tonne trailer.
The 2nd generation was rear wheel drive again, with the same CV joints but because of the rear wheel drive they didnt have to cope with extreme steering angle.
At a previous employer we built 5th wheel trailers on Merc Sprinters, and some Fiat dealer wanted us to build one behind a Ducato (Ram Promaster) even though the 3 liter 176hp diesel was the same as the one in the Iveco Daily 3.5 to 6.5 ton series of trucks, we told the customer our worries about the CV joints in this heavy application.
So why no front wheel drive trucks ? theres nothing stronger than a straight floating axle driven by a U joint driveshaft with minimal angles...
