Volvo reviews or opinions

super singles will shave about 400lbs

 

someone said that once before, but i did the math and it wasn't really worth it.. i can't remember if the weight wasn't enough to justify running them or if it was a combination of the weight not being enough and loosing the reliability of a second tire to cary that side of the axle instead of having the rim dig into the pavement.

 

Yep - for the companies out there with the support and capital to replace wheels when a tire blows - it probably works out really well. For those of us who are out there on our own - we wouldn't save 400 pounds, because we'd be carrying a spare wheel and tire, along with a jack and an impact to get us off the shoulder!

Losing a tire is bad enough with duals - I can't imagine how exciting it would be to lose a super single! A few months back I saw an entire single tire minus the bead area of both sidewalls, leaning up against the median wall. Yikes!

 

Well I'm no tech or truck enthusiast but I've driven a Columbia, Volvo and a Pro Star and my fav hands down is the Volvo. Both the Volvo and the Pro Star had Cummins and the jakes worked much better on the Cummins than on the Detroit (Columbia). The Volvo has a lot more storage than the Pro Star but the Columbia wins hands down for storage.

I'd drive a Volvo any day over anything else I've driven (the Pete's are sexy but the fuel mileage (CAT) and storage leave alot to be desired).

 

There is no doubt that the Jake brakes on a EGR Cummins motor are so strong that it takes no skill whatsoever to go down a grade anymore. That is one of the few things I like about my Cummins powered Volvo. If you really want to appreciate what you have there, try stepping back to any pre-EGR/pre-Acert motor. Just think, we thought we had it made going downhill in those trucks just having a Jake brake.

 

You ain't kiddin'! My first truck was the Columbia (Detroit) with a very moody jake. I got broken in on Parley's Canyon in SLC with 45k of beans in the trailer. Now granted, that grade is nothing compared to cabbage and many others, but the detroit might as well have had no jake whatsoever!

I went down that mofo in 5th (9 speed) lookin' like a ##### all the way down that long SOB. But I learned to respect gravity. I went down the very same grade (and cabbage too) with that cummins and it was like night and day!

 

For all Volvo lovers: I've lost low air pressure warning buzzer on my 07 780. No problem, eazy fix ,right? Well .. to fix it I need new instrument cluster at $ 900, program to calculate my new instrument cluster at $ 150 and about 3 hrs in the shop.

 

I have had a couple of strange occurrences lately in my 610. The windshield wiper will come on occasionally (even though I have not turned it on) and the passenger side power window decided to roll itself down. I actually had to fight with the window control button on my side to roll it back up! Every time I would release my button the window would go back down. I got my wife to sit in the passenger seat and hold the button on that side in the up position for miles while I drove. A few pot holes later and the window stayed up.

These were a first for me in any type truck so I do not know if it is Volvo specific or not.

 

Oh man, does that story sound familiar. The first week I had my Volvo I was driving it over to the alignment shop. I had no more turned off the street I live on and "POOOF" out went the lights. Everything electrical on the truck just shut off. The auto trans was still in gear so I was hitting the neutral button about 600 times a second while rolling to a stop hoping some how the #### thing wouldn't get stuck in gear, which it didnt!

So I start scurrying around pulling the fuse cover lid on the dash trying to figure out what the heck happened. In the mean time I see a local DOT cop cruise by about 5mph giving me the once over. He doesn't stop, but I know what he wants, and he'd be back. I had no triangles on my truck yet! I called my neighbor and had him head to the store to purchase me some real quick lol.

In the mean time I remember when I first had gone to look at the truck the truck had been sitting for a while so the batteries were dead. When the salesman hooked up their jumper cart to the batteries there was one hell of an arc flash and sparks flew everywhere. Needless to say we were done looking at that truck for the day, and he promised he'd get the situation resolved. Yeah right!

So I pop the hood, and get to tracing back the battery cable to the starter. No in-line fuse there, so I go right to the starter. Yep, sure enough loose starter cable. Soon as I wiggled it I could here the radio in the truck playing music, and every thing else electrical turned back on.

Mean time the DOT cop comes back by, and starts giving me the what for. About the same time the wrecker I had called pulls up. He's not real happy there a DOT cop there, but he big-boys-up and pulls over to hook onto me anyways. I did have to have him tow me, as no matter what I did I couldn't get that starter cable to make keep enough connection to drive the truck.

The DOT cop was fairly impressed when my buddy showed up shortly after with the triangles. I think he thought I had lied about it lol. So he left me alone after a short lecture about what he could have done to me...

Got the truck over to the Volvo dealer. Two of my four batteries were dead. The battery cable was ate up pretty bad, and we went ahead and replaced the entire starter just to be safe. Arrow eventually paid for every thing including the $100 tow. It was not easy to get them to pay for it, but they did. So I give them credit as end justifies the means.

 

Can you imagine every time you blow a tire there will always be the potential of having to replace the wheel too? No thanks, I will stay clear of the super singles for now, I am unimpressed.

And yeah, screw the extra weight lol. I got a jack, impact and spare in my truck. I cant afford to call a service/tow truck every time something goes bad. I gotta get it fixed, and fixed now.