The TAM 190 was one of the heavier trucks built by the Maribor factory in Yugoslavia. Its full factory name, 190 T 11, is the example the company’s own history uses to explain how every TAM truck was named.
TAM 190 at a glance
| Maker | Tovarna avtomobilov Maribor, Slovenia |
|---|---|
| Factory designation | TAM 190 T 11 |
| Engine output | 190 hp, from the model number |
| Gross vehicle weight | 11 tonnes, from the model number |
| Class | Heavy commercial truck |
| Plant | Maribor, Slovenia, then Yugoslavia |
| Model range | TAM 75, 80, 90, 100, 110, 125, 130, 150, 162, 170, 190, 260 |
| Nearest listed model | TAM 150 T11 B/BV (1979–1991) |
| Naming system | power in hp, T for tovornjak, gross weight in tonnes |
| Company in the 1970s–80s | the largest truck and bus maker in Yugoslavia |
| Company dissolved | 1996 |
TAM has no separate article on the 190. The model appears in the past product line of the articles on the company, and its output and weight follow the naming convention explained there.
History of the TAM 190
190 T 11: how TAM named a truck
The factory’s name for this model is a small specification. The first number is engine power in horsepower, the letter T stands for tovornjak, and the second number is the maximum permissible total weight in tonnes, payload and tare together. A 190 T 11 is therefore a 190 hp truck rated at eleven tonnes. TAM dropped the system when it turned to buses.
A heavy truck from the biggest maker in Yugoslavia
TAM began in Maribor after the Second World War and grew into the country’s leading producer of trucks and buses. The 1957 licence from Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz gave it the technology for 4.5-tonne trucks with about 30 percent domestically made parts, and in 1961 the renamed Tovarna avtomobilov in motorjev Maribor presented the TAM 2000 family and began building military trucks for the JLA. Exports went mainly to the non-aligned countries.
The last years of the range
The 190 belongs to the final decades of the old factory. In 1986 it built its 200,000th vehicle and employed 8,175 people; the economic decline of the 1980s followed, and the company was dissolved in 1996. Its successor TVM made MAN trucks under licence from 2001 until it failed in 2011, and the TAM name returned in 2014 as TAM-Europe, building buses in Maribor.
Design and features
- Factory numbering: 190 hp, T for truck, eleven tonnes gross weight.
- Heavy end of the range: above the 110 T7 and the 150 T11, below the 260.
- Part of a complete programme: TAM offered trucks from 75 to 260 hp in the same numbered scheme.
- Built at Maribor: the largest truck and bus factory in Yugoslavia.
TAM 190 versions
- 190 T 11: the form TAM used to explain its naming system.
- TAM 150 T11 B/BV (1979–1991): the nearest listed model, with the same eleven-tonne rating.
- TAM 260: the most powerful number in the old truck range.
- TAM 2001 and TAM 6500: the later models that close the list.
The TAM 110 T7 was the seven-tonne truck below it in the same range, and the TAM 75 was the smallest of all. More vehicles from the factory are in the TAM collection.
Video: TAM 190 T15B
Video by Viktor Gjorgjievski on YouTube.
Sources
- TAM-Europe, English Wikipedia: naming example, model list, company history
- Tovarna avtomobilov Maribor, Slovenian Wikipedia: licence, 1961 range, production figures
