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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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 😅

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

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

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.

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).

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.

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

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🤘❤️

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

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

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

I‘m sure this is somewhere in the previous comments, but just to make sure, Porsche made tractors too! Way older, but they look awesome!

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

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

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!

In my youth when you saw a farmer with a MBTrac, you knew he is rich and has enough money to buy one and maintain it.

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

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

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

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🤠

We always called it the "telephone cabin"... 😂

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

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.

The MB trac was sure thirty percent more expensive than a comparable Deutz Tractor with FR drive or a Hanomag around 1972/73. It took MB quite a while to amortize the production line after this they pulled the plug.

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 ;-)

Pretty sure that could be interesting... "Germany's Oldest Street-Legal Car | 1894 Benz Victoria | German Cars"

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.

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.

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...

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.

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

These MB Tracs are very popular for 16 year old kids here in Norway, they love to style them with lights and other accessories.

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.

MB-trac definitely is amongst the most iconic European tractors ever built. At its time of production from the early seventies until the nineties, Mercedes-Benz had been amongst the leaders in sales volume within the range of 130 up to 180 hp, at that time those engines where large-scale tractors on European farms, despite the fact that MB-trac was one of the most expensive tractors.

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.

Not that rear here in Norway back in the 1980s and '90s, but but nowadays you almost never see them. They were expensive though, compared to the more common John Deeres, Massey Fergusons and Fords.

I grew up on a small farm in Finland and such machinery interested me back then, as a kid I had many toy tractors but the MB-Trac was always my favourite. The most biggest mansion of the region had two MB-Tracs and what a magnificent sight it was when they plowed the vast fields. Later my friends dad who had earth moving company got one of those and I got to have a ride on it, it was old at that point but still very special and very different that i had used to. What an unexpected video to bring back nice memories.

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.

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.

As a Child in the 80’s here in Ireland, these were a rare sight but I used to love seeing them. They always seemed so different to every other tractor on the roads at the time and I wasn’t even really into tractors or big machinery but these caught my attention. As a kid I always thought they looked more like a lorry/truck than a tractor

The mustache 😮 I haven’t been here in a minute

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

Thats a hell of a tracktor, nice video keep It up

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

The small ones were used in the Royal Netherlands Air Force to move jetplanes and ground equipment. Actuallly Porsche also made tractors, at least they gave their name to it.

Of all MB Trac's that were built, over 95% are in function/use

I used to work on a farm and had the opportunity to work with the top of the line 1800 intercooler.. man that tractor was a beast.. had a 24 ton dump trailer towing just fine. Now a days you need at least 250 horse to compare. The only downside I could think of, where the drumbreaks. Other than that everyone loved this tractor.. some of the 1800 intercooler got a bigger intercooler mounted to the motor and put out 240 horses no problem. Some put in a gearbox of a Unimog and those tractors ran up to 80 kph. Now a days the tractors are worth the money in euro, what they once cost in deutschmark.. so about double the price 🤷🏼‍♂️❤️

I see them quite often here in the south of germany. Lovely beasts❤

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

I think the biggest names for agriculture machinery in Germany are Claas and Fendt. Not just for tractors but all sorts of stuff, from a simple trailor to giant harvesters. I guess Claas is one of the leading brands in the world for that. And the Fendt tractors are amazing, they are like a Rolls Royce with 8 ft wheels. And with the same kind of price tag than a RR.

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. - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bZ6Rrdd11crdgJ8.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...

Lol the one major brand you know when it comes to tractors, did not originate in the US. And yes, I mean John Deere. That brand originated as its founder did in Hungary.

As far as I know, both Lamborghini (the brand even started with that) and Porche had a tractor.

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.

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.

Popular tractor brands... here in Germany are or were Eicher, Allgeier, Deutz, Fahr, Claas, Lanz, IHC and Porsche of course (yes, THIS Porsche). There is a Italian brand, who perhaps is also mostly unknown as tractor brand: Lamborghini. They build tractors till today.

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.

All I remember about this tractor was it could haul like hell 😎

My neighbor had one, a MB trac 800. Thing drove really nice front axle suspension and was a fast runner. Oh and it is not a cabover design, engine is in front of the cab.

what about the old Porsche Traktor!! just saying.

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

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

And they even make luxury cars ! 😜

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.

The descriction of the tractor as a "cab over" design is down to it having the operators cab further forward than the normal European tractors (at least of the day, there are still a few make tractors with a central mounted cab) where the drivers cab is pretty much all over the rear wheels. While not a cab-over in the same extend as a semitrailer cab would be, it still covers parts of the rear of the engine. If you watch one of the MB Tracs running unloaded on a road at cruising speed (or any of the similar styles today like the JCB fasttrac) they are far more stable at speed, and less prone to the bouncing effect seen on traditional styled tractors. (At least from the viewpoint when driving behind them)

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.

They also make fire engines and ambulances.

Similar little bit of old soviet Kirovec tractor. 😂

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

Where im from the most common tractors i see are John Deere ,Kubota and Massey Ferguson

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

seen a lot of those when i was young . was the first higher speed tractor if i remember correctly

popular tractor brands AGCO (Fendt, New Holland, Case/IHC/McCormack, Massey Ferguson) Deutz (Humboldt Klöckner AG aus Köln Deutz im Ursprung) Claas John Deere those to are the major ones Kubota and a variety of eastern European manufactures (Minsker Traktoren Werk)

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

Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche build Tractors too

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 😂✌

Valmet /Valtra is a Finnish brand. This is a brand that you should look at. Large tractors with a lot of power.

Fact the MB TRAC is a variation on the UNIMOG, and was born out of necessity as some of the agricultural markets which Mercedes wanted to place the latter were closed to Truck type vehicles. JCB Fast-Trac is the spiritual successor

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.

Small side note Porsche built tractors with diesel engines in 50's to 1963. The Unimog is also available in Argar (farm) version. Unimog Video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hM9mdNqX2NbYZXU.html de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche-Diesel_Motorenbau

A friends family had one of thoose. He used to drive it to soccer practice back in the 90s. They were great on somethings not that great on other things and very expensive to own.

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!

i know someone with a MB-trac and i driven it ones and it was great fun 😎

Similar Tractors: Steiger (America), Rába Steiger with Rába Engine (Hungary), Kirovets (Russia), and the very special looking and unique, special, because of its special wheel arrangement, the Dutra (Hungary), It therefore had a very good grip as it delivered power over a small area. The largest versions already using the big turbo engines used in the Rába Steiger and the legendary Hungarian busmanufacturer, Ikarus buses. It was powerful enough for a trip to Greece with a bus full of passengers and stuff going up a serpentine road (this was not a negligible fact in the 60-80s.) and also for ploughing earth in such a big tractor etc. Of course, there are now more similar tractors: New Holland, Case, Challenger, John Deere, of course, there are now also rubber-tracked versions.

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

Just wait untill you hear about Lamborghini tractors..

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

Some fun facts. 1. The MB Trac shares a lot of parts with the Mercedes Benz truck line-up which makes spare parts availability quite good even though it's a 30+ yrs old machine. 2. The cab is located over the gearbox and there's a hack to make it faster. How? The gearbox is sourced from the...guess what....yes... the unimog which has 8 forward gears and runs 80 kph. In the tractor they simply blocked the 7th and 8th gear...just remove that blockage and voila...your tractor runs 60+ kph...depending on final drive and wheel size. Stock they ran 40kph. In theory you could go on the german autobahn with your speed hacked MB trac as it requires a minimum speed of 62 kph...no big deal if it wasn't illegal. 3. The engine, which is sourced...oh wonder...from their truck line-up can handle a lot abuse...many farmers added turbochargers to their otherwise N/A machines...so there were MB trac 1000 with well over 150HP while coming stock with ~100HP that makes a solid 50% power gain over stock. Weakest point in the drivetrain was the final drive which can't handle all that much power and had to be upgraded as well. 4. Some models in good condition are worth 100.000 to 150.000 € and even more depending on condition model and year. They're highly sought-after machines. And some of them are still working everyday on farms.

These new tractors are HUGE

Jay Leno does a bit with Jeff Foxworthy where they race a Porsche and a Lamborghini, both tractors.

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

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