[PTA SC] Volvo VT880

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Volvo VT880 Aims Directly At O-O's
Finally, a 'large car' from those smooth Swedes? Absolutely! And it's available with really big power.
Tom Berg
Equipment Editor

For years Volvo Trucks refused to field a "large car" - that uniquely North American-style tractor with squarish lines, a big nose and exposed tanks and boxes. Volvo executives, particularly those from Sweden, said their smooth, comfortable VN tractor better served the customer because its aerodynamics delivered good fuel economy.
Now comes the new VT880, a large car in every way. It's got a bold nose, a choice of Big Power engines, big sleeper, forward-set steer axle, dual chromed exhaust stacks and polished tanks and battery box right out in the open.

Its styling, however, is uniquely Volvo - smooth and stout - copying nothing from other truck makes, executives said during its introduction last month. It'll never be mistaken for a Petercar or K-whopper, and that's the way the Volvo folks want it.
Dealers got the first look at the VT880, then the trade press, and this month the trucking public will see it at the Louisville trucking show. The VT may or may not steal that show, but this big truck is a big deal for Volvo, which wants to increase its share of sales to owner-operators. They'll have to be well-healed businessmen to afford a "premium" VT, which executives said would list out at $130,000 to $140,000, depending on equipment.
Orders for the VT880 can be placed now for delivery this summer. Assembly at the Dublin, Va., plant begins in April and ramps up to full production toward the end of the year.
For now, it only comes with a long-and-tall sleeper, which explains its 880 suffix - a step up from the VN780, whose 77-inch-long, raised-roof sleeper design is used on the VT, though with unique interiors. Other sleepers and perhaps a daycab version might be developed, executives said. A daycab's bumper-to-back-of-cab dimension would be 123 inches. The VT880 will please customers who already appreciate the fine-driving and nice-to-live-in VN, but want more power and more aggressive looks.

Long And Tall
Obvious from the photos and even more so in real life is the long-and-tall hood. The cab is set back eight inches on a VN chassis to make room for the hood. Its wide nose and square egg-crate grille cover a 1,700-square-inch radiator that is needed to handle the heat thrown off by high horsepower, from Volvo's own D16 diesel and Cummins' 15-liter ISX.
In fact, the VT880 pretty much revolves around the new-to-North America 16-liter Volvo engine. It will be assembled at the Volvo Powertrain plant in Hagerstown, Md., using block and cylinder-head castings from Sweden.The 994-cubic-inch inline six was introduced in 2003 as the European-spec D16C - an all-new engine platform.
With an exhaust-gas recirculation system to make it emissions-legal in the U.S. and Canada, it becomes the D16D. What's important to a driver is that it makes from 500 to 625 horsepower and 1,850 to 2,250 lbs.-ft. of torque - the latter with 200 lbs.-ft. more than Caterpillar's C15-625.
Other features of the D16D include an overhead camshaft operating four valves per cylinder, high-pressure fuel injection, a sliding-nozzle turbo, and rear-mounted geartrain. Angels dance on the details, like spring-loaded bolts on the cylinder head and oil pan to absorb the shock of a catastrophic failure, heaven forbid.
When mounted in an eerily quiet, European FH16 high-cab-forward, a D16C can barely be heard. The D16D in the VT conventional is not so quiet, but it's still pretty peaceful - 68 dbA on RoadStar Editor Steve Sturgess' decibel meter while the engine worked hard during a brief test run (most American trucks these days register into the 70s).
Only Eaton's beefy 18-speed Fuller Roadranger - either as a manual or an AutoShift - is strong enough for the D16D. It should be OK because the engine doesn't always produce its highest torque, even with the footfeed mashed. Electronic controls sense the load demand and release torque sequentially, in 200-lbs.-ft. increments, toward the strongest output. I never felt any switchover (if that's the word) from lower to higher torque, but in any case the system gives the gears, shafts and bearings a breather most of the time they're spinning.

'Only' A 550
The handful of gear jammers among the press corps attending the VT's unveiling were struck by the truck's handsome looks and satisfied with executives' explanations of why it is what it is, and isn't. But most of all we wanted to try out the 625-horse version of the D16, and were disappointed that the single unit available for our drives was "only" the 550-hp version. It resided in a bright-red tractor that we drove up and down Interstate 17 north of Phoenix.
Most guys, including Sturgess, were slated for 30-minute stints. His lasted longer because a tire on the loaded rental trailer blew, forcing him to limp it to a meet-up point at 35 mph with the four-ways a-flashin'. But before the tire went pow! he observed while climbing one long grade that the D16-550 "pulls like a train" ("like a locomotive, actually," is what I said by way of correction).
Those of us along for the ride were impressed by the quietness of the cab (conversations in a normal tone of voice were possible) and accommodations in the big sleeper (as in the VN770) included a dinette that converts to a lower bunk, an upper bunk that left ample headroom for those seated around the table, and lots of cabinets and cubbies for storage.
Our hosts dropped the crippled van and coupled the VT onto a tri-axle lowboy I had previously requested. Appropriately burdened with a 43,000-pound Volvo wheel loader, it was a more serious-looking trailer than the van, even if it weighed only a ton more than the 78,000 GCW for the tractor and loaded van trailer.
As Sturgess and other colleagues were shuttled back to our hotel, I set out again in the rig. Kevin Thomas, whose crew moves Volvo show trucks around the country (and solves thousands of big and little logistical problems associated with that), was my guide as we headed back north on I-17.
You might think that big hood would be hard to see over. But it's sloped downward so the view of the road ahead is almost as good as the VN's. The hood's sheer bulk does hide smaller cars and cycles that might be directly along the right side, but an auxiliary spot mirror might cure that. And the big side mirrors have both flat and convex glass to give a good picture of what's next to the trailer. I never felt blinded by the hood, even in freeway and street traffic. I could also sense where the corners were as I maneuvered.
You might also think that the VT's forward-set steer axle would make turning more difficult than the VN's setback axle, but it doesn't. The difference in settings is less than a foot, leaving enough swing room for wheels to cut tightly, so the VT goes through corners surprisingly well. Steering feel is typically Volvo - a tad mushy with the TRW Ross power system (the more precise Sheppard power steering is optional) and a generally soft-riding front end.

Tackling The Hills

I-17 climbs about 5,900 feet from Phoenix to Flagstaff and there are some serious grades along the way. Thomas, my guide, remarked that the D16-550 was a lot stronger than Volvo's former top engine, the D12-460. As he was saying that, hermandeperman is een kasthomo I was tackling the first grade by just letting the engine lug in 8th-overdrive (18th ratio), and was underwhelmed by the D16-550's performance. Yes, torque was taking us up the hill, but at less than thrilling speed. On the long 6-percenter I settled down to about 35 mph and 1,600 rpm in 6th-direct.
Why wasn't I tearing up the hill? Because I waited too long before downshifting. "To get performance, you've got to use horsepower" which develops at higher rpms, one old driving pro told me while we were testing a Cat 3406E-550 some years ago. It, too, had bogged down on a steep grade because geen foto's posten he fwnk I hadn't downshifted soon enough.
This Volvo D16 behaved exactly the same way; it needed to spool up to 1,700 or more before hitting the hills. Later I did just that and sure enough, road speed stayed higher.
Speaking of spooling, the turbocharger's boost gauge went as high as 40 psi under full load. When it began falling off, I downshifted, but like I said, you need to anticipate the grades to keep up road speed.
By the way, the transmission at first shifted well (Sturgess, who float-shift's all the time, thought it shifted very well), then as we went on it seemed to stick in gear, slightly delaying each of my gear changes.
Two other editors also reported problems with the tranny, and I chalked it up to the fact that this tractor was a pre-production unit that might've needed some adjustments. No matter - I'm old and lazy enough to want an AutoShift in this or any other tractor with any engine.
Another thing - the D16D will appear only in the VT series. It's too big to fit into the VN (which can be had with lower-rated ISXs) or the vocational VHD (which comes only with the D12).
Oh yes - just what BaraCuda stelt zich aan does the "T" in VT mean? It's tough-looking, but no. Executives say they picked "T" because it rhymes with "V" and sounds good. It means nothing, except it's further into the alphabet than the "N" in the previously developed VN. The "N" had no particular meaning, either. Really.
What will mean something is how owner-operators and some fleets receive this VT880, and that'll probably be "E" for enthusiastically.







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quote:

Op dinsdag 14 maart 2006 21:36 schreef vlad het volgende:

[..]

ben nog bezig.
wel blij dat ik niet meer de laatste ben in het wannabe rijtje

ah, je hebt 1 van de 4 onregelmatigheden ontdekt. Dat is de president DIrecteur van Volvo trucks USA.

En nee, deze ridjt niet in Europa.

de 660 wel. zie maar