Marcel Klingebeil and his job amongst the trees

Story

Through the forest to the airfield.

The Edition 2 is one of 2021’s most exciting trucks. RoadStars was on hand for a journey far away from the motorway.


Marcel Klingebeil had a feeling about what was to come. It’s not his first autumn on the go, after all – and the weather forecast was pretty clear: it’s going to be stormy. The driver from Brandenburg doesn’t want to lose much time this morning, because he has to unload 26 tonnes of lime from the tipper body before the storm comes later. So it’s off to the forest. “And I don’t need to deal with that in stormy weather” says Marcel, who is currently stopped at a car park along the B4 to the east of the Lüneburg Heath with his Actros Edition 2. A short break to discuss the tipping site with the materials planner in Dortmund.



“The load has to go to LP 5,” he says after his phone call. “LP”, that stands for Landeplatz, German for “airfield”. The tipping sites that the trucks belonging to the company Frachtente travel to also serve as the landing sites for the helicopter that distributes lime across the forest.

The lime improves the pH value of the forest floor, which benefits the trees and other plants. Marcel and his colleagues will bring 2.500 tonnes of lime to the area over the coming weeks. The deeper Marcel and the other drivers penetrate into the forest, the shorter the distance the helicopter must fly to reload. And that pays off: flight time is extremely expensive. Today, however, the helicopter remains on the ground. Don’t even think about flying in this weather.



Stuck? No problem.

This isn’t the first time that RoadStars is on hand for a job done by a Frachtente truck. But a limited-edition model like the Edition 2, limited to 400 vehicles, doesn’t find itself driving over a muddy forest floor every day.

Marcel copies the tip location coordinates from the email he just received from the materials planner and enters them into the navigation app of his smartphone. Thanks to Apple CarPlay, the app now guides him in the direction of LP 5 on the secondary display.


The mud comes after the barrier.

Marcel has turned off of the A-road. The trip takes about 25 minutes to reach a parking area for hikers. From there, the trip goes through barrier to the forest road. “This is where it gets muddy,” says the 41-year-old. A moment ago at the parking area, he once again checked the weather on his smartphone. The trip this morning should be fine, but there isn’t much time to waste. Getting stuck in the forest with no one to pull him out – that’s a situation he would like to avoid.

“With this configuration, I should be fine here,” says Marcel. His Actros 1953 has full winter tyres on year-round. In front of the barrier, he changes the driving height up one level, which provides a great deal more space to the ground for the forest road. Marcel now shifts from Economy to Power driving mode.


He’s proud that the Edition 2 isn’t just an off-the-rack truck. His colleague has been driving the Edition 1 for a while, and he drove an Actros for years. “The boss then asked what I thought about the Edition 2. And I couldn’t say no, of course,” says Marcel with a smile. The truck thrilled him straight away. “To that point, I really only knew that I wanted another Actros with SoloStar Concept.” He doesn’t want to give up the cosy corner with comfortable seating. After all, he’s usually on the road all week. “All the better that I ended up with the Edition 2!” Marcel picked up the truck himself in Wörth. Since then, he has driven some 3.000 kilometres every week.



Favourite feature: MirrorCam.

His favourite feature is the MirrorCam, by the way, which comes as standard in the Actros. “In weather like this, I would have to wipe off the mirror three times on this trip otherwise.” It has started to rain. The storm is on the horizon.

Marcel was immediately won over by what the Edition 2 has to offer in terms of equipment and design details. “The Edition 2 emblem alone in the cab entrance is quite the highlight.”

Considering the high number on the tachometer, the Actros is making its way through the forest fairly slowly. “If I should get stuck somewhere here, I need immediate performance – that’s difficult at under 1.500 revolutions per minute,” he says and points to the tachometer. After five minutes, he has reached the clearing and thus also LP 5.

Climbing back in after tipping his load, he straightens his cap and takes in the inclement conditions: gusts of wind and the increasing rain foreshadow the coming storm. It’s time for him to get out of there. Ten minutes later, he’s back on the A-road headed north. Via the secondary display, he turns on the heat – his time outside the cab was chilly. Marcel leans back in the driving seat. He still has to pick up a load later this afternoon in Schleswig-Holstein. But, after that, it’s time to call it a day.



Photos and video: Alexander Tempel

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