OM54

In 1934 Daimler-Benz renewed the top of its commercial range with the Lo 8500, a further development of the older N 56 rather than a new design, and gave it a new engine. The OM 54 was a water-cooled prechamber six of 125 × 170 mm, fed by a Bosch inline pump, built at Gaggenau and rated at 150 hp at 1,800 rpm with peak torque down at 1,150. A narrower-bore version gave 120 hp. It weighed about a tonne dry. From 1935 it also powered the new L 6500, alongside the smaller 120 hp OM 79.

Both chassis were built for weight rather than speed. The Lo 8500 had three axles, Bosch air brakes on all six wheels and spur-gear hub reduction at the rear, with a five-speed gearbox and engageable overdrive bolted straight to the engine; in the L 6500 the OM 54 was elastically mounted in the frame and drove through four speeds. Stronger axles and a revised hub drive lifted payload to ten tonnes in 1936, and the model became the Lo 10000, then the L 10000 and, as a bus chassis, the O 10000. In 1938 both ranges were reworked and the OM 57 took over.