Van Doorne's Bedrijfswagenfabriek bv was founded in 1942. It was specialised in producing trailers, semi-trailers and military vehicles. In 1948, a 32-seat single deck trolleybus was produced and this marked its first civilian model. Then it prodjced petrol and diesel prototype buses with removable engines mounted in the front and it was renamed Doorne's Aanhangenwagenfabriek nv and Van Doorne's Automobielfabriek NV. Started from 1949, Leyland influenced the manufacture of trucks by supplying engines and parts, and the first Leyland engined bus was manufactured in 1953. Later in 1956, the 0.350 engine was license-built in the DAF plant in Eindhoven. In 1957, DAF established their own engine factory and in 1958 they started to make their axles. In 1969 DAF introduced the MB200DKDL600 prototype underfloor buses which resembled the Leyland counterparts widely used in the Netherlands at that time. The bus was powered with a DAF DKDL engine, which was indeed a license built Leyland 0.680 engine. In 1970s, partial acquisitions by International and Volvo were made to DAF, making the Dutch shareholder Van Doorne Holding Co having less than half of the company's shares. However, in that period DAF gradually took over from Leyland in the Dutch bus market. The major model in 1970s and 1980s included MB200 mid-engined bus, SB200 and SB201 rear-engined integral bus chassis. However, DAF has never built a complete bus. In 1989, DAF Bus was split off of DAF and bacame a part of United Bus with Bova, Den Oudsten, DAB, Ramseier & Jenzer and Optare. United Bus went bankrupt in 1993 and DAF bus was saved by some businessman and brought under the VDL Group. The products, including single and double deck bus and coach chassis are currently named after VDL bus, as it was taken over by VDL in 1993.
The DAF chassis are named as
follows:
B = Bus (old type with engine over first axle and entrance behind front
axle)
TB =Trambus (set back front axle with entrance ahead of front axle, front
engine)
MB =Mid engine (engine under the floor between the axles)
MBG =articulated mid engine (G = geleed = articulated in Dutch)
SB =rear engine (S from staart = tail)
SBG =articulated rear engine SBR =15-meter rear engine
Then comes a code for the chassis type. The last digit is a variant only of the main type.
Then comes the engine type followed by the wheelbase in cm. For example: The MB200DKDL600 is a mid engined chassis of the 200-series type with a DKDL engine and a 600 cm wheelbase.
In modern buses and coaches the wheelbase is not mentioned anymore as the "chassis" merely consist of a front and rear end module that are put together by the body builder, so the wheelbase is variable. Also, nowadays an SB3000WS chassis will be shown on the chassis plate as DE03WS SB3000.
DAF started building buses around 1949, first only B-type (until 1975!), from 1959 until 1979 the TB type (for export this is still built), from 1966 until 1995 the MB types and from 1966 until now the SB types. The first B-types were the B425 and B510, followed by B50, B52 and B62. Then came the B1100, B1300, B1500, B1502, B1503, B1527 and B1600. The last ones around 1975.
The TB types were:
TB100: 1959-1961
TB102: 1959-1964
TB160: 1959-1974 (1979)
TB163: 1962-1975
TB300: 1959-1960 (3 axle)
TB302: 1961 (3 axle)
TB2100 and TB2105 are currently built for export to Africa.
The MB types were:
MB200: 1966-1988 (based on the Leyland Worldmaster design)
MB205: 1984-1990 (just a few)
MB210: 1978 (1 prototype only)
MB230: 1985-1995
MBG200: 1978 (1 prototype only)
MBG205: 1982-1988
The SB city bus types (with a
floor as low as possible):
SB200: 1966-1974
SB201: 1973-1988
SB210: 198? (for Belgium, variant on SB201 with one step towards the rear
instead of a sloping floor)
SB220: 1988-1998
SBG220: 1999-1993
SB225: 1992-1995 (semi-coach version with higher floor of SB220)
The SB low-floor buses,
semi-integral:
SB120: 2002-current SB200: 2001-current
SB250: 1997-current
The SB coaches:
SB1600: 1968-1973
SB1602: 1970-1979
SB1605: 1976-1979
SB2000: 1979-1981
SB2005: 1979-1984
SB2300: 1984 (1 prototype only)
SB2305: 1982-1992
SB2700: 1992
SB2705: 1991-1992
SB2750: 1996-2001
SB3000: 1984-2001
SBR3000 / 3015: 1995-1997
SB4000: 1997-current
SBR4000: 1996-current
Information courtesy: Johnannes Veerkamp.
DAF / VDL DB250 (Isle of Man, Turkey, United Kingdom)
DAF / VDL SB120 (United Kingdom)
DAF / VDL SB200 (Isle of Man, United Kingdom)
DAF SB220 (Singapore, United Kingdom)
DAF SB2000 (Czech Republic)
DAF SB2300 (United Kingdom)
DAF SB 3000 (Austria, China, Czech Republic, Hungary, United Kingdom)
DAF SBR 3000 (Turkey)
DAF SB4000 (Hong Kong, United Kingdom)
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Page created: 31 January 2000
Last updated: 11 October 2009