1990 MWG Esarco 8X8 truck (UK)

[Alaskossie]

ArmyMan,

Thanks for telling me what to do in attaching photos. I'm attaching three photos of my 1990 MWG Esarco 8X8, as a test. If it works, I'll post a few more. Hope they're not too large.

The truck is Land Rover-based, with a 4-cyl Perkins turbo diesel engine and auto transmission. With the weight of the truck, it is underpowered.

It has a 2-speed transfer case, and four-wheel steering (front and rear axles). Suspension is by coil springs and track rods all around. The drive train layout is unique, using two transfer cases.

There were only three prototypes and one production example of this 8X8 truck made. MWG lost out on the British Army contract to Steyr-Puch, and that was it. Of the four made, only two prototypes survive. I have the only one outside of UK. I found it in a Land Rover magazine classified ad, and it took 5 years of going around and around with EPA, DOT and US Customs to get it out of bonded storage at the Port of Anchorage, and into my back yard. (Don't think that wasn't expensive, and money down the drain, to boot!).

The drive train layout is like the S&S300 made under license from Esarco in Texas, but the advantage of mine is tht it is a crew cab.

Alaskossie

 

[Alaskossie]

Looks like I can only attach one photo at a time. So here's another.

Alaskossie

 

[Alaskossie]

And here's another.

Alaskossie

 

[Alaskossie]

And here is the drive train.

Alaskossie

 

[cranetruck]

Cute! What is the payload capacity?

 

[bigbee]

Nice truck. Even more rare than the XM410 which was a Chrysler prototype from 1959. Does Esarco make another 8x8? I thought I saw an ad for one (not a hard top crew cab) a long time ago.

 

[Sarge]

8x8

That is AWESOME!!!!
I want one!
Incredible drivetrain but a pity about the tiny engine.
I've always been a big fan of Land Rovers, it's the first thing I ever drove in the military.
Must be a buggar getting 8 snow chains on it. If you ever get tired of it, I'm interested.
Is it aluminum (aluminium)?
-Sarge

 

[Alaskossie]

MWG Esarco 8X8 truck (UK)

To answer the questions:

The cab is aluminum (aluminium) with the curved-profile doors from the familiar Land Rover Defender. The bed is steel.

The unladen weight of the truck is 7837 lb. and the payload is 4415 lb. I guess it could be called a2-ton truck.

Esarco made some earlier 6X6 prototypes (extremely nose-heavy!) and 8X8 protptypes, but these all had slab-sided bodies, and most had soft tops. A friend in UK is attempting to negotiate the purchase of one of the surviving slab-sided 8X8's right now. It was sold about 6 months ago on eBay UK.

Here is a photo of my prototype 008, taken in UK when it was near-new, with Terra-tires fitted.

Alaskossie

 

[tatra813]

very nice I really like the crew cab!!

 

[bigbee]

Found this AD

Found this ad in my file from about 1990--came from one of the Auto Trader magazines. Don't know what happened to it . Doesn't look much larger than the Ramcharger behind it.

The pic is a blow up of one very small ad, so I hope the image comes through ok.

 

[tatra813]

Wow the stuff I like is never cheap!!!

 

[Alaskossie]

Bigbee,

Very interesting! I had no idea that there may be another Esarco 8X8 in the US. Wonder what happened to this one?

This is the earlier model with the flat-sided cab, some were open-topped. See one that was on eBay not too long ago:

http://s177.photobucket.com/albums/w220/chris_sherwood/Esarco/Prototype/

One reason that price was pretty high in the ad you posted was that the vehicle was only three years old at the time. Mine was 10 years old when I bought it, for $26,000.

Nevertheless, the owner of the other prototype like mine says that MWG put £3 million into developing the three prototypes like mine; that is $2 million per vehicle. so anyway you look at it, I've got a bargain (at least, that is what I tell my wife!).

Alaskossie

 

[maddawg308]

Why did someone name an MV after a French snail dish?

 

[cranetruck]

Why did someone name an MV after a French snail dish?

Funny Mike, perhaps a little off in the spelling though, "escargot", love'm!

 

[Alaskossie]

Why did someone name an MV after a French snail dish?

Funny Mike, perhaps a little off in the spelling though, "escargot", loveThe Esarco is pretty slow, after all.

Alaskossie

 

[cavesurfer]

Hi. Bit of a late comment here - I see your original conversation was 3 years ago, but my dad was the chief designer on the original esarco 8x8, MWG 8x8 and Stewart & Stevenson 8x8 vehicles. I was talking to him about them last week. His comments were that the Esarco (13 prototypes made) and MWG (only 3 prototypes made) were definitely the best. The S & S version were too heavy and little suspension travel left when loaded. I have a friend who would be interested in getting hold of one - where did you get yours? All 3 MWG vehicles were taken by the administrators in lieu of unpaid depts when the company went bust. How's it going anyway? Do you use it much? Dad would love to know. He used them quite a lot during development to put some test miles on them. For a while he had an open top 6x6 as a commuting vehicle - very noisy but great fun.

 

[NRS91]

Sorry to revive an ancient thread but I have just bought an Esarco 8x8 and I have set up a facebook group to try and collect info about these unique vehicles:
www.facebook.com/groups/esarco

Feel free to join us!

​

 

[landylady]

ArmyMan,

Thanks for telling me what to do in attaching photos. I'm attaching three photos of my 1990 MWG Esarco 8X8, as a test. If it works, I'll post a few more. Hope they're not too large.

The truck is Land Rover-based, with a 4-cyl Perkins turbo diesel engine and auto transmission. With the weight of the truck, it is underpowered.

It has a 2-speed transfer case, and four-wheel steering (front and rear axles). Suspension is by coil springs and track rods all around. The drive train layout is unique, using two transfer cases.

There were only three prototypes and one production example of this 8X8 truck made. MWG lost out on the British Army contract to Steyr-Puch, and that was it. Of the four made, only two prototypes survive. I have the only one outside of UK. I found it in a Land Rover magazine classified ad, and it took 5 years of going around and around with EPA, DOT and US Customs to get it out of bonded storage at the Port of Anchorage, and into my back yard. (Don't think that wasn't expensive, and money down the drain, to boot!).

The drive train layout is like the S&S300 made under license from Esarco in Texas, but the advantage of mine is tht it is a crew cab.

Alaskossie

I also have one of these