American Reacts to The Mercedes Benz MB-Trac 

MBTrac is absolutely cult in Germany. Anyone who still has one now will certainly not give it away. ❤

Mb tracs are the most expensive vintage tractors there are. In Germany, 30-year-old vehicles often sell for over $100,000. They have also been exported to South Africa and Australia. They are so popular that the Germans bring them back to Germany in containers. The quality was simply super, typical for Mercedes Benz. But to produce only 2500 cars per year was not profitable for such a huge company and so they were discontinued. Today Mercedes regrets that. Grettings from Germany.

The original Unimog was designed partly as a tractor replacement that could also be used on the road, combining a tractor and a truck. But after the initial decade or so, its use in agriculture declined which led to the idea of building something much more tractor-like that used a lot of Unimog technology. The MBTrac was the result. One cool (optional) feature was the ability to rotate the driver’s seat including pedals and steering wheel to drive the MB Trac easily in the opposite direction. The symmetrical position of the cab made that easier, as did 4-wheel drive and equally-sized front and back tires. Though of course you ended up with rear-wheel steering. Many (all?) Unimogs having the same number of forward as backward gears is probably related to that. Some Unimogs have something akin to this enabling the on-the-spot conversion from left-hand to right-hand drive.

I was born in "Mercedes Benz county" (aka Stuttgart area in southwest Germany) in the 1960's. About anything on four wheels was Mercedes Benz. Their range of products was so much larger back then. And of course it was a given for a farmer in that region to own a MB tractor.

Mercedes is actually also involved in the US trucking business, with brands like Western Star and Frightliner.

The original "high speed" tractor. Up to 40 mph, and air brakes etc. Very sought after now, a lot that were working in UK etc have been bought and brought back home to Germany. They ruled the roost untill the JCB Fast-track came along.

I think they wanted to say "cab over transmission" instead of engine. It is because older tractors used to have a seat and floor mounted to transmission, causing vibrations and noise, where separate cab over transmission dampens that.

Lamborghini started out making tractors before getting into cars years later - and they're still made to this day (even though they're separate companies now).

One 1989 M-B Trac 1600T was recently sold at a Finnish military equipment auction for 52 000 €. They sell old vehicles for civilians. But nothing armoured or so on.

You need to listen to the sound clips, especially the 6 cylinders. A super nice sound

In there day, they were the only tractor to do 40kph without modification, had full air and hydraulic brakes and front suspension. They were way ahead of their time. In the uk the were one of the most expensive tractors you could buy. And yeah I do own one lol

When it came out in the late 70s, it got some recognition in the tractor market, because Mercedes had all the resources to deliver something on another level. They took well tested and reliable parts from their Unimogs and from the Lorries and fittet them to the MB-Trac. Like pneumatic brakes for example, that weren´t common in the tractor sector in the 70s. And the cab was on another level too, regarding driver´s comfort. Even 4wd was not that common back than, and 4wd with 4 wheels of the same size was something new. In the early 90s, Mercedes even made trains :D When they were a key part of ADtranz = ABB, Daimler-Benz, Transportation

Hi Ian Even Porsche made tractors. And outside Germany, FiatAgri in Italy and Renault in France make tractors. And as I know you love Citroëns, some collectioners have rare Citroën tractors.

JCB Fastrac has the same design, produced up to date. High speed tractors, with induvidual suspention that makes it more road handeling . 4 wheel stearing to, I belive

Tractors 🚜 are awesome The big Guys are John Deere,Claas from Germany 🇩🇪,New Holland, Fendt from Germany 🇩🇪,Fahr Deutz and Case Poclain and many more

Tractors 🚜 are awesome The big Guys are John Deere,Claas from Germany 🇩🇪,New Holland, Fendt from Germany 🇩🇪,Fahr Deutz and Case Poclain and many more

Being German built the build quality was phenomenal equivalent fords etc would be looking as some overhaul needing done at 6000 hrs these things will do 15,20000 hrs and still going, German built IH’s Fendts etc being similar and obviously price was a premium, the equal sized wheels and more “automotive “ style was an influence on jcbs fastrac design years later…. The addition of front linkage and front pto was ahead of its time also much like the USA 4wd was uncommon until the mid 80’s… here in Scotland the typical tractor size was 80-100hp horsepower so there only was a market for the smaller ones bigger ones were for specialists by but to put it in perspective, a typical 100hp would be pulling a 10 ton trailer at 17mph with hydraulic brakes, the MB Trac of similar size could be pulling 18-20 ton with tandem trailers and airbrakes

The Irony is that lots of European agricultural brands are now owned by a US companny. f.e Massey ferguson once a Canadaian/UK brand and Fendt a German brand are now a part of AGCO in the US. John Deere bought also several smaller companies and factories to widen their product portofolio and are now selling them under the John Deere brand name

most poppular brands here in northern germany are Fendt, Claas, john Deere and Deutz-Fahr

You can't buy a tractor from Mecedes anymore. ☹ But you still can buy on from Lamborghini. 😁

This reminds me of My parents P144 and R230 . When i was a child we owned a Nursery and gardencentre and when i told kids in school we had a Porsche and Lamborghini i was laughed at and even accused of lying by the teacher, coz they were thinking of the cars and we werent made of money, and they even approached my parents about it, but they got schooled by my dad 😂 big time, he drove the old Porsche P144 to the parent teacher meeting with me at his side, a most joyfull and epic middle finger moment i cherish dearly. I will never forget the faces of defeat when we arrived, check mate by a 9yr old, must have hurt 😂. Thanks for having my back dad🤘❤️

These were probably the first high-speed tractors that could also be used on the road at 50 km/h. Today almost all tractors run that fast and are allowed to do so. Fast tractors are often used here on construction sites for short distances because they can load more with agricultural tippers than a semitruck, their wide tires do not get stuck as quickly, they are more manoeuvrable, the trailers do not tip over as quickly (and if they do, an excavator can set them up again and let's continue, a semi dipper is R.I.P after that) and very importantly, a tractor is not subject to the statutory driving and rest times and has no tachograph and no truck driver's license or statutory regular driver training is required.

They also make fire engines and ambulances.

There is a lot of information missing and misinformation in that video. "The WF Trac is the current version of a tractor developed by Mercedes-Benz and based on their Unimog platform. It was originally known as the MB Trac. The MB Trac was successful on the market, though it did not meet the high expectations Mercedes-Benz had set. Daimler-Benz later merged the MB Trac with the agricultural machinery activities of Deutz AG The Unimog first model was designed by Albert Friedrich and Heinrich Rößler shortly after World War II to be used in agriculture as a self-propelled machine providing a power take-off to operate saws in forests or harvesting machines on fields. It was designed with rear-wheel drive and switchable front-wheel drive, with equal-size wheels, in order to be driven on roads at higher speeds than standard farm tractors. With their very high ground clearance and a flexible frame that is essentially a part of the suspension, Unimogs are not designed to carry as much load as regular trucks, was quite successful although it was originally intended as an agricultural platform. As a result, Daimler-Benz produced a new vehicle in 1972, the MB Trac, designed to be more oriented for larger-scale mechanical farming. The new tractor combined the Unimog all-wheel-drive technology and a power transmission onto four large wheels with the appearance of a tractor- a slim hood, behind it an angular, highly rising driver cab ( not COE like they say ). In contrast to conventional tractors (for that time ), the cab is situated between the axles, similar to large four-wheel-drive wheel loaders. However, the driver does not steer with an articulated front and rear but with a normal steerable front axle." Best regards ;-)

Oh dear, bless your heart. You found the probably worst video on youtube about the MB Trac.

I'm not a farmer, but this tractor is awesome! unbelievably great sound and power! Greetings from Germany :)

what about the old Porsche Traktor!! just saying.

They are still in use today. I didn't realized that they stopped in '91. Thats crazy. 😂 The MBTrac has many parts shared with the Unimog.

I never saw an Unimog until yesterday, i was visiting the German city Düsseldorf and we took the tram. Another tram broke down and we had to get off one stop early, on the way back I saw this Mercedes thing haul the defunct tram back to wherever they repair these things. because of your channel i realized it must have been this Unimog thing, and I was able to take a nice picture

You must hear the sound of the engine. Awesome.

I think in this case "Cab Over" means the cabin is mounted higher and further forward compared to regular tractor layouts, so the rear end of the engine is underneath the front end of the cabin. As others have said this was based on the Unimog so was a solidly built. They simply got out priced by other more established Brands.

I live out in the country in Bavaria, and in our village one of the biggest farmers owned an MB Trac and kept and maintained it like his highest treasure. Everyone was jealous of that thing. When he died a few years ago nobody really cared about the farm itself, everyone from far around just tried to get their hands on that tractor 😅

I still remember these well, during the early 90s during winter. Both in snowplowing and salt/sand spreader. That.. lovely enginesound...

These new tractors are HUGE

Many car brands in Europe made or still make tractors as well -Renault till 2004, now Claas -Ford -Fiat(agri), which became New Holland together with Ford. -Volvo, now part of Valtra -Lamborghini (although technically a tractor brand that started making super cars) My favorite is Schlüter, that was a small manufacturer in Germany but they made some very cool machines.

Not only Mercedes makes tractors, but also Fiat, Lamborghini and Porsche have tractors in their model ranges. 🚜🚜🚜 😎👍

You should check Porsche tractor!

Almost 20 years production time shows that this MB Trac did well.

You asked if it was a 4WD. Tractors that i have driven could be set to 2WD, 4WD or differential lock. If the weight on the back of the tractor is too high to use the steering wheels, you can seperate the 2 brake pedals, and steer using the brakes. Further, you have high and low gear next to the 'normal' numbered gears. With these features, you can drive a tractor almost anywhere. If you get a chance, go drive a tractor. They are just so much fun to drive. Love your videos!

MB Trac was (and is) one hell of a tractor. (Cab Over in this case means: highly raised driver cab. situated between the axles. For trucks its a "flat nose") Really popular for transporting since it was so much faster than any other tractor. And it was strong (for the time) so it could haul!. Now its almost impossible to buy a good working one at an affordable price. There are a few around the area where i live (kind of central Norway) but they do get more and more rare to see being used. The folks wanting a fast big tractor now go for the Fendt's or even Valtra. (Though, most tractors you see is MF, JD, Mac Gormic) If you want something in the same class you need to get a Claas Xerion. That one is bigger in all ways. Even pretty big in American standards 😂✌

These MBTracs had been famous all over Europe, but then - like mentioned - they were "underpowered" for today's needs... There's an almost similar version out - the british JCB Fastrac. - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-78aztDpdyPk.html they can pull almost everything. They can pull agricultural machinery, truck trailers and semi-trailers. Once in the area I grew up in (a small village in east-Germany) a semitruck crashed (went off the road and against a tree - the driver got out unharmed) and a local farmer used his Fastrac to get the semi-trailer off the road because this road was a small country road...

the mb trac is mainly and practically only famous in germany here a legendary tractor is the fiatagri 180 90 but i see it's popular all over europe and the us under the hesston brand.

As a Mercedes-Benz fan from Europe you know about it, although it's been a while since i've last seen one.

Because they exceeded the minimum speed requirement, they were allowed running on the German Autobahn. At lest the larger models.

6:54 It Is almost the Same here Europe but the American Cars are expensive... 8:23 I think everyone in Germany knows of the MB trac, but the American brands Like Case or Massey Ferguson are less popular. I think Here in Europe the most Common Tractor brands are Fendt, Jon Deere, Claas and New Holland. Jcb ist also getting more popular.

I Love this tractor...one of the best i guess...sad there gone...sadly...😮😢

I saw them a lot around in the 80s, especially those in that middle series (forgot the number). I live in Baden-Württemberg, the state where mercedes is headquartered. My guess is that this was distributed in Europe, especially Germany more than the USA.

Porche and Lamborghini also used to make tractors. The brand Lamborghini still exists but it is now part on Deutz. MB tracks used to be very popular. But they are now replaced by Fendt. Mercedes sold there concept to JCB. It in now the JCB fast trac

Looks like you've got the man cave going

Mercedes is the biggest semi-truck producer companies like freigthliner and western star are actually also mercedes

Greetings fromm Germany 😊! I drove. MB 's and Unimogs in my Job a. Unimogs in the German Armee These Machines are fantastic!😅

I love the design, having the same tires on each axel makes changing the tires of the tractor to any cool stuff very easy! As you don't have to calculate the gear ratios. Love it!

Mercedes tractor is very cool I am not sure if you are aware Lamborghini started out with tractors first before they make cars

Lamborghini used to build only tractors

Groundbreaking tractor. Kind of replaced in 1991 by the JCB 'Fastrac'. From the British 'digger/excavator' manufacture J. C. B.

Based on the Unimog, a lot of parts are interchangeable Almost no aftermarket parts avaliable means parts are very expensive. You picked an Ai based video by the way.

Finland it was used on military.. of course they blocked few gears so it would go only 60 km/h.. if i remember correct civil version would go 80 km/ h... and here was in law tractor.. in farm use could go under 50km/h.. 50- 60km/h speed was counted as comersial.. so you need truck driving lienee on publiikki roads and now licence to drive as professional truck driver... lot of byrocracy and Cost.. so it limited fast tractors use only on comersial use....

speaking from a farmes perspective (i am not a farmer, but i live amongst them here in finland9 spareparts, spareparts,spareparts, right to repair

The MB Trac is not the first tractor from Mercedes. They build the Mercedes OE (Oelmotor- Einzylinder; Diesel Engine- single Piston) between 1928 and 1933.

Did you know it had a "Cabover engine design"? /s Repeat ad nauseam!

This was cool and cab over egin is like the old American cabover the egin being underneath the cab. Didnt exspect Mercedes benzs mad a tractor. I know Lamborghini made a tractor sires to for awhile. So this was pretty cool to see.

Actually Mercedes-Benz is stil making tractors and other agriculture vehicles. Their Brand for that is called Claas. You might wana check out the new Claas Xerion 6000 that was released this year

In the 1980 and 1990 100 hp tractor was huge when average farm tractor was 60 to 80 hp

It was based on UNIMOG undercarrige. Redesigned millitary puller, the German military did not acquire, according to European entries. Unimog's has become less prominent in Farming, being replaced by regualr truck tractor. Or rough terrain/dump trucks.

Mercedes is the biggest Truck Company in the World ownes for example Detroit Diesel , react to the 5 biggest Truck companys

You did not know Mercedes Benz had a tractor? I just find that a little funny given you are aware of the Unimog 😇 Wait till you find out Porsche and Lamborghini also got tractors! Also I always find it so interesting how people find mercedes to be expensive to maintain, maybe with the newer models, or because i am european. Of course mostly because I did things myself, but Mercedes parts was among the cheapest of any car I worked on, was never any point of buying non-mercedes parts as the original parts was virtually the same as any offbrand part. BMW was expensive in parts, and dont get me started on Toyota and Nissan, I would guess it is mostly depending on how far the parts travel. But toyota was always at least twise of what one would expect to pay for a equalent mb part. I do know that mercedes garages probably are not cheap, just in my experience when I fixed them they where quite cheap in parts. And btw I am only talking about "old" mercedes, back when they imo where still a kind better quality, and is just my own experiences as a northern european.

Mercedes Benz Porsche Lamborghini Ferrari Renault Volvo European car makers that used or still make tractors

It actually is quite a shame, that they didn’t continue making the MB Track. It was and still is a very capable tractor. And the argument, that there is competition is utterly weak. With that logic, they should have ended making cars as well. There’s always competition and the MB Track was no flop whatsoever, that they could have justified their decision with the competition being better at it. If they’d stick to it, the MB Track would be a hell of a success today. I think, tractors just didn’t fit in the image of Mercedes-Benz, even less than the trucks.

Mercedes tried to get into the agricultural market with he initial Unimog design. That didn't work as planned because the technical demands of agriculture are too different from the technical demands of municipal work, construction, military and extreme off road trucking. That's why they were quickly forced to make a decision: Use the experience from the Unimog to design a dedicated tractor, or pull out of agriculture completely. Mercedes decided to follow the first option. Back in the 70s there still were quite a number of tractor manufactures competing for the market. It was a challenging market for sure. Mercedes had the advantage of having a fully developed, highly reliable all wheel drive system available without further delays, while the majority of tractor manufacturers still focussed on rear wheel drive and were busy with figuring out how all wheel drive is done. That gave Mercedes a strong foothold in the market for (by the time) heavy tractors. By the late 80s, the market had changed a lot. There was a much smaller number of much larger competitors that were about to get a technical advantage over Mercedes. The market share of Mercedes was about to decline, which forced the company to a decision: Invest big money into a renewed technical leadership, or pull out of the market. This time, Mercedes decided to pull out. The MB Trac is not dead though. It was sold, with all tooling, drawings and so on to Werner Forst- und Industrietechnik. That company had been doing highly specialized conversions of MB Tracs for logging work before. They still make their heavily modernized versions of the design today under the brand WF trac. Engines and several mechanical parts are still made by Mercedes. It's not a real cab-over design. The engine still is in front of the cab. But the nose is quite short for a tractor nose and the rear end of the motor is directly under the windshield. There is not much room for convenient maintenance. The gearbox is under the cab. If something is broken in there, you can't simply split the tractor in half, like you can do with most other designs. Like every machine that reached a kind of a cult status, original MB Tracs are becoming increasingly expensive.

Any big shot farmer here(Belgium/EU) will buy these just for bragging rights. They are very expensive collectables.

They have used this knowledge for their trucks. And lamborgin. Also started with tractors.

Here is anotther shocking fact for you :)) Lamborghini builds traktors too:))

I only saw. That little bit of green. And immediately Mercedes. I had this as a model with a baler. And plastic bales. Not the round one, but the old rectangular one.

I had a MB Trac 700. I think they where to much ahead of time. PTO/threepoint hitch in the front, air/disc brakes, passenger seat, spring suspension, some with turnable driving position seat and steering. More comfortable than other tractors at the time🤠

Ever wondered where or what the Aston Martin DB stands for.....well its David Brown a (you guessed it) a Tractor Manufacturer.

My uncle bought one back in 1979. Still in very good condition.

Over here in my corner of Spain we usually see John Deere, Case IH, Masseys especially as they were made under licence by Ebro so are seen as a legacy brand, some New Holland/FiatAgri, but we're starting to see a lot of Valtras lately I noticed.

Lambo is still maling one i gues.. but porche was making them

I have the feeling that NEW HOLLAND completely destroyed the tractor-market in germany. At least in my region you don´t see any else 😒

Doppstadt build Tractors with the MB trac Design after Mercedes stopped the production.

Dude, there is actually hair on this head. Never seen before :)

Lamborghini (just for those who don't know, you probably do), are make top tier tractors. Before making super cars even, they started as a tractor company. And still today, most of the european farmers whant a lambo tractor

Here's another Lister the GT Racing Car maker started off making stationery agricultural engines.

Hm... Now, I know what inspired creation of Soviet K150 tractor

I think the rise of John Deere and Caterpillar really drove out competition like Ford and Mercedes

I wasn't aware of this tractor, neat. Other brands you may not know that made or still make tractors are Lamborghini (still making them, but to my understanding they are now legally separate entities), Porsche, Renault. There is a Ferrari brand of tractors but they are unrelated to the other Ferrari. Peugeot didn't made tractors but at some point any tractor in France that wasn't a Diesel used a Peugeot engine.

Here in FInland, our own local brand Valmet/Valtra is the most popular tractor brand, but you also see some John Deeres, some Fendts, Claes, and for smaller tractors Kubota are also relatively common

Lamborghini makes tractors, it's where they started. Why be surprised?

We had one on our farm here in Australia.great tractor for it’s day. Who ever was narrating the video doesn’t know what they are talking about definitely not cab over and very easy to work on.

MB was in the Agrarindustrie since the unimog they startet the unimog for the farmers and baset on this they made the MB trac and in the thime they startet with it they was to modern and expensive

Next on a list. A Lamborghini tractor. Jeremy Clarkson has one.

Fendt is the ,,mercedes,, of tractors so you can kind of call Fendt a continator of the MB-Trac

Time to really blow your mind: Lamborghini make Tractors as well 🤯

If you own a MB trac in today its even more worth than when it was new... They had a lot of advantages in that time. My uncel used to have a 900 turbo, i used to drive it a lot...

Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche build Tractors too

New Unimog clip 🎉

I know a guy who used to have 2 of these. He only has 1 now i think. And i have seen 2 more. All of them use them for hauling stuff and trees and everything.

i think mercedes have a new mb trac but a jcb fastrac in there green i think

Just wait untill you hear about Lamborghini tractors..

Volvo bm 2654🇸🇪