the windshield and front axle (A) Between the front axle and middle axle (B) Between the articulation joint and rear axle (X) Between the rear axle and rear bulkhead (Y) Powertrain Articulated buses can be of "pusher" or "puller" configuration. Very few companies specialise in manufacturing the articulated section for the buses. One that does is ATG Autotechnik GmbH in Siek near Hamburg. Puller In most puller articulated buses, the engine is mounted under the floor between the front and middle axles, and only the middle axle is powered. Some consider this an outdated design, as it prohibits floor levels lower than approximately , and can produce passenger discomfort due to high noise and vibration levels. On the other hand, they can be used in very narrow or severely potholed streets. This type of bus also performs better in snowy or icy conditions, as the thrust from the driving wheels does not cause the vehicle to jackknife. Newer models such as the Van Hool AG300 feature low floors while maintaining the puller design by placing the engine block off-center opposite to the second door. Also, the unpowered rear axle is much simpler and carries no engine weight, facilitating the installation of counter-steering mechanisms to further decrease the turning radius. A typical puller model is the Hungarian-made Ikarus 280, the articulated version of the Ikarus 260, of which 60,993 buses were manufactured between 1973 and 2002, mostly for Soviet bloc customers. (This type accounted for two-thirds of the articulated buses built in the 1970s.) Puller-type articulated buses are built in less numbers, but are still available in Scandinavia and South America. Examples being the Volvo B9S and Volvo B12M. Pusher The pusher bus needs a damping system in the joint to reduce the risk of jack-knifing and fishtailing. This was developed by the FFG Fahrzeugwerkstätten Falkenried in Germany. The production cost of the pusher bus was lower than that of a puller bus. The puller bus was a completely different construction compared to a solo bus which was often fabricated by external body construction firms due to the lower production numbers compared to solo buses. The pusher concept enabled the bus manufacturer to simply join a forward and a rear part of a solo bus and build the articulated bus completely in-house. This reduced the production cost. In pusher buses, only the rear axle is powered by a rear-mounted internal combustion