Sterling Trucks

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Sterling Trucks

Type

Subsidiary of Daimler Trucks North America

Industry

Truck Manufacturers

Headquarters

Redford Township, Michigan,United States

Products

Broad range of highly engineered trucks and tractors.

Website

www.sterlingtrucks.com

Sterling Trucks, was a manufacturer of heavy duty trucks, a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks North America,
based in Portland, Oregon, United States, a member of the Daimler AGTruck Group. It was originally the heavy
truck division of Ford Motor Company, but was purchased and rebranded in 1997.[1] Headquartered in Detroit,
Michigan, its conventional trucks were built in St. Thomas, Ontario. Sterling-brand trucks were sold in the
United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand.
On October 14, 2008, Daimler announced a plan to discontinue the Sterling product line in an effort to
consolidate its North American truck manufacturing operations under theFreightliner and Western Star brands.
The company stopped taking orders for new trucks in January 2009, the St. Thomas manufacturing plant
closed in March 2009, and the Portland, Oregon, plant was closed in June, 2010. [2]
The Sterling name was originally used by an independent truck manufacturer, bought by the White Motor Co.
ca. 1953. It was retired two years later. Although technically the property of the White Motor Co., and conveyed
to its successor, Volvo-White Motor Co., which evolved into Volvo Trucks North America, the trademark had
lain dormant so long that there were no grounds for objection when Daimler-Benz subsidiary Freightliner

whose trucks were distributed by White from the 1950s through 1975resurrected it to supplant the Ford blue
oval on their HN80 ("AeroMax") family of trucks after the purchase.
Sterling built class 8 tractors, as well as a range of medium and heavy duty cab/chassis vehicles. With bodies
added by third-party upfitters/body builders, these cab/chassis vehicles were used for freight distribution as well
as heavy vocational uses, such as construction, snow plowing and refuse collection.
In the last few years of operation, the company also marketed light medium-duty cab/chassis vehicles
manufactured by Mitsubishi Fuso (Sterling 360 models) and Dodge (Sterling Bullet models). These were
typically outfitted with bodies suitable for use as lightervocational trucks those designed to perform jobs
other than straight freight hauling including fire trucks, garbage trucks, dump trucks, concrete mixers, tanker
trucks, and snowplows.
While production and sales of Sterling vehicles will wind down, support for parts and repair of vehicles will
continue at authorized dealers and shops.

[edit]Models

Sterling HX9500 MBE

Sterling Bullet

Sterling 360 - a rebadged Mitsubishi Fuso medium duty cabover sold as the Fuso FE model in the U.S.
and Canada and the Fuso Canter in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand[3]

A-Line - set back

Acterra - used a Ford LNT 9000 body

Bullet - a cab/chassis model based on the third generation Dodge Ram 4500/5500 platform[4]

L-Line - set back, set forward