Bernard (commercial vehicle manufacturer)
Camions Bernard was a French commercial vehicle manufacturer who is remembered primarily for its heavy trucks .
The company began in 1923 under the name "SA des Bennes Basculantes E. Bernard" in Arcueil near Paris with the manufacture of trucks with a payload of 2 tons. In 1926 a bus chassis with a low frame and an American engine was introduced. In 1929 the company was renamed "Camions Bernard" and began producing its own engines. In the period that followed, hoods - trucks of various payload classes were derived from the bus chassis . A heavy model for a payload of 6.5 tons appeared in 1932, and license production of diesel engines began a short time later . In 1935 a three-axle truck with a payload of 15 tons was very heavy for the time.
In the post-war period, Bernard finally turned to the exclusive manufacture of trucks. The engine output rose to around 200 hp by the end of the 1950s. At the beginning of the 1960s, the somewhat older-looking models no longer met the taste of the times and production declined. In 1963 modern forward control vehicles were brought onto the market. The small manufacturer, however, could not really recover. Bernard was taken over by the American truck manufacturer Mack Trucks in 1963 and changed the name to "Automobiles Bernard". The trucks now got engines and transmissions from Mack. Nevertheless, Bernard had to close in 1966.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Short story and images. Accessed March 19, 2014