Trucks Equipped with Allison Transmissions Shine at Rally Dakar 2019
The operational reliability and ease of handling of Allison gearbox solutions proved to be highly efficient in Dakar 2019, one of the world’s challenging racing competitions.
This year, truck-racing teams that relied on Allison automatics have become central figures of the whole competition - taking 1-st, 3-rd and 4-th places in the truck division. Each year famous racing teams (approx. 200) from all over the world come to South America to take part in the 10-day rally-marathon (the total distance - 3,440 miles (5,537 km)).
The 5
competitive groups participating in the rally raid include the following: motorcycles,
quads, the cars class, off-road buggies (UTVs), and trucks. Major vehicle
makers and providers of car components consider the rally's severe conditions
as an excellent testing ground and a great chance to present all advantages of
their products, and Allison is not an exception.
Allison 4000 Series
Allison offered its 4000 Series gearbox, which
is specifically developed to make trucks operate at full capacity ensuring a
perfect combination of performance and fuel efficiency.
This year, the Dakar rally-raid was hosted in
Peru and included 10 special stages (of different duration) through deserts in
the south of the country. Racers had to move at high speeds under the pressure
of knowing that any risky maneuver or navigation error could lead to a serious
accident (or vehicle breakdown) and affect the race results.
Gerard de Rooy and his
IVECO truck
Gerard de Rooy, the Dutch racer of Iveco team who finished 3-rd, was pleased with the operation of the Allison gearbox. He explained that Dakar’s sandy terrain gives significant loads on the vehicle’s suspension, axles, and transmission. If you have a mechanical issue, you can say forget about any chances to win the race. The gearbox durability frequently becomes crucial at decisive moments of the competition, thus de Rooy and his team selected Allison’s 4000 Series transmission. In addition to impressive performance characteristics, this significantly improves the vehicle’s drivability. With Allison you have constant power and don’t lose momentum or time with shifting.
This gearbox is available with close- or wide-ratio gearing and up to 7 speeds including 2 overdrive ratios and a 2-nd reverse gear. The PTO mechanism is also available as an option. Operation is further improved by Allison’s 5th Generation sophisticated TCU, which also have prognostics capacities. Thanks to its numerous features, the 4000 Series solution can be adopted to operation under different conditions.
