Volvo drives into the future
Frame is made of aluminum
With each passing day I find it more and more difficult to accept the non-stop design changes in the trucking industry. Granted, the tree huggers are winning, but our rigs are quickly becoming unrecognizable.
Whenever I sit in a cab of a new truck, I instantly think of actor Will Smith in that movie, I, Robot. He was confused and perplexed with robots taking over his world, his profession, and his life. I’m starting to think that movie was a window into our future.
Of all the big truck manufacturers, I have to hand it to Volvo for being the most ‘out of the box.’ The Swedish company has been very busy thinking of new and innovative ways to increase efficiency of our machines; so much so that it is a constant re-education for us older baby boomer drivers.
I remember being laughed at back in the mid-Eighties when I purchased a 1988 Volvo Conventional. It was a one-piece cab and sleeper, and friends laughed at me and told me I had thrown good money after bad. I loved that unit. Kept it for 15 years, and put more klicks on it than I care to remember.
And I had the last laugh. Within 24 months that then-futuristic, onepiece Volvo truck was the design of choice of all the big players. Volvo, with their forward-thinking design, went from being a bit player in the heavy truck industry, to one of the trendsetters. They have not looked back since that initial forward-thinking move. Now, they’ve done it again, 2017 style. This so-called ‘super truck’ is the result of some five years of trial and error design research. I don’t know what else they can come up with because this design has Will Smith written all over it.
The first thing that hits home with me is the fuel mileage projection. I used to be so pleased if I could coax out 10 L/100km of diesel fuel. Volvo is now claiming double that figure. They’ve done it, according to their statistics, by tweaking the design, claiming to have chopped off 1,450 kilos of weight from a 2009 model design. This works out to a savings of 40 per cent less drag, or air resistance. That figure goes one step further to estimate cargo or freight efficiency by 88 per cent. Money in the driver’s pocket.
What the designers with the sharp pencils did was to make a few changes in the engine, with the turbo, also the fuel rail injection systems, but most of the changes are visible. More and different flares. Trying to make the design ‘slippery.’ Glide through the air with the least amount of resistance. No air vortex.
When I was a little kid, I would always notice a rig’s stacks and mirrors. No more. Cameras have replaced the mirrors. Gonna be a lot more bugs living a longer life now. Drivers won’t have to scrape off bug splatter on the mirrors.
The stacks? Also gone. There is also a waste heat recovery system mounted above the tranny and in front of the battery box. Simply put, that means half the energy in the fuel makes it to a dyno. There’s a solar panel incorporated into the cab roofline that helps power the A/C.
The rig’s frame is made of aluminum, not steel, translating to a weight saving of almost 410 kilograms. The air conditioner is mounted at the rear of the cab, so a smaller grill is needed, so less drag again.
Volvo designers say they are just getting started. They are already planning changes for Super Truck II. I just wonder if Will Smith will be asked to drive one of these super trucks in a future movie, I, Trucker.
I could fill a newspaper with stories about road life on the road, but why not share yours? Send them to driving editor Andrew McCredie at amccredie@postmedia.com.