Between 1997 and 2004 STIA built a total of 435 articulated buses on Ikarus 283.20 chassis. 50 of those had DAF GS200-engines (funded by the government of the Netherlands), the remainder had RABA D10-engines. After the first batches the roof was raised some 8 centimeters which can clearly be seen as these buses have a broad strip between the window-top and the roofline and the roof slopes up over the first meter. Both the DAF and RABA-engined vehicles exist with low and high roofs. The last few dozen vehicles had the exhaust pipe moved to the roof which meant a change to the window-layout on the left-hand side of the vehicle. The picture above-left shows a bus with a low roof, the picture above one with a high roof and the picture to the left shows a bus with the exhaust pipe on the roof and a changed window layout in the front part.
The DAF-engined buses had one front door and two doors in the trailer-part, the RABA-engined vehicles had the second door between the first and second axle and only one door in the trailer. The different layout of the DAF engine in the standard Ikarus chassis made it impossible to have a door between the axles in the front part of the vehicle. Finally, the last baches of vehicles had two rear windows instead of one. This change appears to have happened at the same time the exhaust pipe was moved to the roof.
The interior of a vehicle with a low roof (SORETRAK, left) and a high roof (TRANSTU, right). Note the extra ca 8 cm between the top of the opening in the articulation and the roof in the vehicle in the picture on the right.
Builders plates of TRANSTU 7003, a DAF-engined vehicle of 2002 with VIN TSB283V3N25TN0064 and of SRT Bizerte 15-341808, a RABA-engined vehicle of 2004 with VIN TSB283V4N35TN0054.
