Cabovers

i believe that this is caused by bad driver in normal cases 1mil mile could be life of gearbox with careful driver even here..... especially if driving all day in last gear

 

Main difference is that your trucks have to be light because of your weight limits are so low, ours in comparison are very heavy, a point an american Scania owner made when Scania was sold there, he said "they're built like brick outhouses, too well built in fact" it was affecting his profitability as he couldn't carry enough payload. That's one reason our spec trucks ain't sold there, another could be ours are very expensive by comparison.

It's wrong to think modern syncros are weaker than eaton- fuller, Scania don't even give u the option of a fuller anymore cos they are not strong enough to cope with the high torque engines here now, some early syncros were troublesome but it's not the case anymore, development over time has sorted them out very well.

 

Point well made! Volvo NA offered the Sweden Volvo built drive train till '98 or '99' and the tran had some problems exactly because poor maintenance procedures and incorrect shifting procedures by driver. In maintenance the mechanics didn't grease the release bearing and input shaft for years at the time because the grease fitting was difficult to get at and not very visible. That caused to lock the assembly and the result was literally dropping off the tranny on the road by sheering off the clutch housing. Also they never referred to the user manual in order to use the proper oils and oil change intervals causing some more failures. The drivers never referred to the proper gear shifting instructions by aether floating gears or double clutching, often causing many synchro failures.
In retrospect, improper exploitation of those transmissions created a bad rap for them in America.

All in all, the problem is the Man and not the Steele!

I personally know a Polish guy that has a White-Volvo that he purchased new in the 80's (the very first production that offered raised roof with fridge and sink inside the sleeper) with the Euro Volvo drive train. This guy still drives that truck today leased to a company from Shanahon IL pooling a dropdeck trailer. Outside the truck looks like a pile of garbage but, from a mechanical point of view, I would take that truck to the moon loaded to the max. The truck has well over 4 million close to 5 m miles, on it's second engine rebuild (first because an injector failure that dropped part of it in and destroyed #6 piston and of course the cillinder liner, and the second time as a preventable action after more than 1.5 m miles after the first rebuild)' and no one ever seen the inside of the transmission or the reare ends since it was built by Volvo in Sweden. The secret is the man that's behind the wheel and the man that's performing maintenance.
So, this crap that the Euro trucks won't sustain exploitation in America it's a bunch of gobaldygoock. We have relatively good pavement and an interstate freeway system that's the envy of the world at a max 6% grades which allowed the truck to operate 90% of time at cruising speeds in top gear. That guy was running allot of Alaska trips with me in the past and his truck saw allot more bad roads and extremes than most of the US trucks in service at any time.

Also Scania sold trucks in the mid 80's in US and some are sill in service today. I have met one guy few years ago in the New Englad region and asked him if he would sell the truck to me. The response was: "I'll never sell!". He had that truck since new in 85, a 145M.
Scanis quit selling their trucks here for two reasons. One being the unreasonable modifications required by stupid DOT rules(head lamps...etc) and a low serviceability due to rare dealer and authorized shop locations. There's a guy in NJ that restores every Scania truck that he can find on this continent. Very happy with the product.

The problem is that allot of people here wont see the forest because the trees are in the way!

 

Yes Sir! The Scania was a "to good and to well built of a truck" for American markets. In the heavy and specialized haul it don't really madder if the truck is a little heavier than a regular truck. Even the trucks built here for that application are allot heavier than a regular freight hauler dry van and reefer trailer jockeys. Most of those guys are nothing more than steering wheel holders that care only for allot of chrome and lots of chicken lights and having a 10' hood in front of them (taking half hour to back in a parking spot in the truckstop cause the sit is down on the floor, the already small windows are half way covered with chrome pieces, the gear shifter is modified and just about 2" from the roof of the cab, the narrow cab and crappy mirrors force them to open the dor and lean over outside on the steps with only one foot and one one hand in the cab when backing up. YEA, A REAL TREAT,). Oh, I forgot the 8" straight pipes that wakes up the entire neighborhood at 2AM in the morning while idling at 800-1000 RPM regardless if the weather it's just perfect for a good night sleep. The "real American trucker" idels the truck for no reason and the reefer guys also find two flatbeds to park in between just because if they have to listen to that rumble, why not make everybody miserable too!

The weight issue is a nonsense today since everyone is payd on % of flat rate or a per mile rate regardless of the weight of the load. Back in the day when you got payd according on how many boxes you loaded in thar reefer or how meny extra thousands of lbs of steel wou could haul are long gone. The reality today is that the lighter loads pay allot brtter then the heavy lumber or whatever load. Back then, everybody was hauling overweight going around the scales no madder of how light weight was the truck, for more $$$$.
Aloso if you haul a one piece that's indivisible and it puts you over 80000lbs GVW, you get overweight permits anyway, so I really fail to see the problem that some are trying to show.

Too many seat warmers are talking allot of stuf they don't know a thing about!

 

I've read a few interviews with guys that owned Scania there, they were happy with them except they were heavy and there wasn't many options on them in the states aswell as hard to get work done on them, but all said they were very tough and really liked them, drove very nice , I think terma trucking buys up alot of them , they even have a few v8's which weren't on offer there! All said they were impressed with the quality except one guy from new York who went through 4 gearboxes cos he couldn't get it into his head not to double clutch!

I was surprised to read guys over there are having problems with Volvo engines, they must be different to our engines, I owned some volvos here, I can say hand on heart I put nothing into them only servicing and light bulbs, that's it! Honestly! They are a good truck here, no question.

 

i was trying once to build imaginary scania to suit US needs from european components

so it was T cab longline with 80inch sleeper , v8 engine , retarder, 6x4,side skirts , full air suspension , alloy rims, 295/80r22.5tires, 225ah batteries , fixed 5th wheel 300gallons of fuel and truck was 10500kg or 23150lbs today it would be 100kg lighter or 22930lbs with driver and tools

this is way too much for us .....and this is lightest specs truck

 

as for double clutch it is not problem if you do it properly , i believe that it is better to do double clutch than single to help synchronizers with engine

but double clutch must be slower than you do it if you perform it on about 2seconds gearbox will last forever

 

Listen! You could get an engine with a faulty component regardless of where that engine is manufactured. That's nota huge problem. The problem is when you get a lemon and you have to fight with the OEM to honor the warranty, fact that's evident here in America.
As for the Volvo engines offered here in the VN trucks, are very different then the ones in the FH. The EGR, SCR and DPF systems for the US engines are engineered and manufactured here, and that seems to be a problem. The ECM calibrations, timing and other parameters are particular to the American units only and very different then the one they use in the FH in the EU and other parts of the world. Things are so different with the Volvo engines here that they don't even sound the same like the same engine in the EU.

The other major thing is that the shops here resent working on any technology that comes from somewhere else. One major complaint from mechanics here in the fact that they hate the metric system and "beatch" about having to purchase metric tools. A synchro trany requires fine tuning and adjustments and they're not used to that. They just like this old stuf that don't matter of how you throw stuff together, it just works........for a while, anyway.

The sentiment of resentment for anything new or fine is catastrophically high over here, and that's the major obsticle for any advancement in certain technologies, at least when it comes to trucks.

 

Another example of the American ingenuity and business practice is with the very new Detroit Diesel engine that's also offered in the new MB Actros in the EU.
Recently I met a few drivers that purchased new Wesrern Star and Freightliners trucks and they were very troubled with having the fuel filters plugging up with metal shavings. The OEM changed some components and in it didn't fix the problem after which the blame game started: "it,s the fuel tank that the problem"! The fuel tank manufacturer denied that. ......etc. here when you have problems with the new truck you don't only have to deal with the OEM, but with every company that manufactured the components in that truck. If you have a Eaton-Fuller trany and you need warranty work done with it than you have to argue with the Eaton rep. It goes tha same for Spicer or Meritor axles and drive shaft components, and any other stuf on the truck that's not proprietary.

I'm pretty sure that MB won't treat their customers that purchase the Actros with the DD like we're treated here.

That's why I'd prefer to drive a EU COE even with the small sleeper rather then to deal with this abominable situation with the American truck builders. Unfortunately enough, it is impossible to even privately import a EU truck and use it here because of the legislation which is intended only to protect the truck builders here from real competition.

 

I'd like to get a definitive answer regarding Volvo engines if they are the same or not, I'm not questioning you but I'd like to see the specs. Def something going on, like I said those engines are very good this side of the pond! Yup had serious problems myself getting DAF/paccar to honour their warranty after they engines failed , 1st one 230,000kms and the second 540,000kms and they wouldn't stand over them, and yes of course you're right any manufacturer can have a lemon or a Monday morning engine, it's bound to happen, they are made by humans!

Great answer by the way, nicely put and informative, appreciate it!