New Volvo VNL Released

195k unfortunately isn’t too bad. We’ll spec’d new 680’s are in the 205 range. It’s completely ridiculous but is what it is.

All of that plastic sitting 3 inches off the ground is going to be a problem though.

 

On big fleet trucks it won't be sitting there long. It will be littering the parking lots and rest areas of America.

 

I've been looking around and couldn't see anywhere if you could order one with an X15 or not. With how small they made that engine compartment; you probably wouldn't be able to get a 605 in it. Same thing happened with the Peterbilt 579 when they did the MLU, couldn't order it with a big cummins due to cooling issues.

 

No Cummins engine available now, only standard D13 and D13TC.

I just finished up last week with a company that ran Kenworth T680s with Cummins X15 and this week I've started with a company that gave me a 2021 Volvo 860 with the standard D13, I don't know why anyone would want to drive anything other than a Volvo at this point. Everything about the truck is better in my opinion with particular emphasis on the ride and driving Dynamics. The engine has more than enough performance IMO. I was pulling just under 80k gross yesterday over some big hills on I65 in Kentucky and this mighty Volvo didn't skip a beat. Even people on the CB were commenting, they couldn't believe that this is what real power looks like!

 

One of my concerns is with how the truck will do off pavement. Was looking into speccing a VNL 840 for pneumatic work.

 

To be fair as well, most companies don't know how to spec a truck, could care less about driver comfort and are gonna get what they determine to be the "cost effective" option. If you know what you're doing, regardless of truck manufacturer, you can build a powerhouse of a truck that will outpull most of what's on the road. Some guy over here says the peterbilts ride better and the guy over there says the volvo's ride better, it comes down to how the chassis is built and the seats that get slapped in the truck. I actually had a kenworth day cab that rode like crap compared to a peterbilt day cab I drove and when I checked the vin, I found out why. It was because the company was being cheap when they specced it or bought it not giving a ####. Now all that said, Volvo has definitely stepped their game up from the videos I've seen.

 

I went Volvo to T680 to Next Gen. I’m looking at leaving where I’m at and toward companies who run Volvos. I’m struggling to gross $1K/wk, working 7 days one week and 5 the next, driving a POS ‘23 KW. Very little incentive to stay, at this point.

 

Over the past two years I went from driving newer freightliners and internationals with Roehl to KW T880 (great truck!) and Volvo VHD in the North Dakota oil patch, to driving two junk T680s OTR with the company promising to get me a new International LT. I was just done with driving anything OTR other than Volvo. Thankfully I began working this week with a company that has beautifully spec'd VNL 860s that after 2 days I'm thoroughly impressed with. I am going to get some more details from the owner because whatever he did building these out I can tell you that they're the best semi I can imagine driving at this time. I've got a 2021 model with 560k miles and it's a rocketship to 75mph, even near 80k gross, that drives like new.