The Sterling 360 was not a Sterling design at all. It was a rebadged Mitsubishi Fuso Canter, the medium-duty cabover that Daimler group companies sold around the world, and it arrived in the Sterling range only in the brand’s last years of operation.
Sterling 360 at a glance
| Maker | Sterling Trucks Corporation (Daimler) |
|---|---|
| Origin | Mitsubishi Fuso Canter |
| Type | medium-duty cabover |
| Same truck sold as | Fuso FE in the United States and Canada |
| Also known as | Fuso Canter in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand |
| Position in range | lightest Sterling truck |
| Period | last years of the brand, until 2009 |
| Typical bodies | fire, refuse, tipper, mixer, tanker and snow-plough bodies |
| Assembly | St. Thomas, Ontario; Portland, Oregon (Sterling premises) |
| Brand discontinued | 2009 |
There is no separate Wikipedia article on the Sterling 360; this page uses the model section of the English article on Sterling Trucks and the German article on the marque.
History of the Sterling 360
Borrowing from a sister brand
In its last years Sterling stopped relying only on its own Ford-derived conventional trucks and began to market lighter vehicles from corporate siblings within Daimler. The 360 was one of them: a rebadged Mitsubishi Fuso Canter, the medium-duty cabover that was sold as the Fuso FE in the United States and Canada and as the Fuso Canter in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The other was the Bullet, a cab/chassis model based on the third-generation Dodge Ram 4500/5500 platform.
A cabover in a conventional range
The 360 was a cabover, unlike the L-line and A-line conventionals that made up the core of the Sterling range, and it gave the brand an entry point in the lighter medium-duty classes. These trucks were typically outfitted with bodies for lighter vocational work rather than straight freight hauling: fire trucks, garbage trucks, dump trucks, concrete mixers, tanker trucks and snowploughs. Sterling itself was positioned within the Freightliner organisation between Freightliner and the flagship Western Star.
End of the brand
Daimler announced on 14 October 2008 that it would discontinue the Sterling line to consolidate North American production under Freightliner and Western Star. New orders stopped in January 2009, the St. Thomas plant closed in March 2009 and the Portland, Oregon plant in June 2010. The 360 disappeared with the badge, while the Canter it was based on continued in production under Mitsubishi Fuso.
Design and features
- Fuso engineering: a Mitsubishi Fuso Canter under a Sterling badge.
- Cabover layout: the only cabover in this group of Sterling trucks.
- Light vocational work: bodied for fire, refuse, tipper, mixer and tanker duties.
- Group sharing: one of the Daimler-sourced models added at the end of the brand’s life.
Sterling 360 versions
- Sterling 360: the badge-engineered Canter as sold by Sterling.
- Fuso FE: the same vehicle under its Mitsubishi Fuso name in the United States and Canada.
- Fuso Canter: the name used in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
- Sterling Bullet: the other borrowed model, based on the Dodge Ram 4500/5500 chassis.
The conventional heavy trucks of the same range were the L-Line and A-Line, and the medium-duty Acterra sat above the 360. More trucks are in the Sterling collection.
Video: 2007 Sterling 360 Used Cars Denver bucket trucks
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Sterling Trucks, English Wikipedia: 360 origin and names, body types, brand history
- Sterling (Nutzfahrzeugmarke), German Wikipedia: Daimler takeover, closure dates
