Berliet Type L

The Berliet Type L was one of the first trucks built by Berliet, made from 1907 to 1909 at the Monplaisir factory in Lyon and designed by Marius Berliet. The Mines Service approved it in October 1907. To launch it Berliet knocked on the doors of the flour millers around Lyon, since sacks of wheat and flour are compact heavy loads, and entered it in the Limonest hill climb, which it won in its class for speed and efficiency. It had a single engine, an inline four cylinder cast in pairs, a three speed manual gearbox and chain drive to a rear differential with twin rear wheels, a simple and sturdy layout that could be repaired easily. It had no front brakes, only two shoe brakes inside the rear wheels and a foot brake on the differential output shaft. The open cab could be covered with a canvas hood, and the payload ran from 3,000 to 5,000 kg depending on the number of teeth on the drive sprockets.