Scania v8 730hp

In South Africa we got American and European truck in our fleet.Pros and cons for both.American are cheaper and simpler.European are more expensive to repair but break less.You can get a new American truck off the lot straight away.European trucks cost more and they are on back order most of the time.This says something does it not.The size advantage of the sleepers in the American trucks are not evident here because they are mainly cab overs with shorter type sleepers.This is because of our length laws.If the weights are under 123450lbs the Americans trucks do just fine and are very cost effective.They also have good resale value because parts are cheap and anyone can work on them.The European trucks are better at higher weights or on bad roads.With the American trucks they do shake to pieces but you simply tighten them up or bolt the piece back on.On the European trucks they don't suffer as badly but when they go wrong better bond the house and tow to a specialist shop.American trucks do much better then European trucks in fleets if there is a poor maintenance program.This is easy to understand.American trucks are engineered to accept various engines , transmissions and a host of other parts from vendors who offer these to others as well.This makes the parts "cheap" as there are many suppliers of these parts.The down side is that not everything is purpose fit with tight tolerances as there is a need to leave options open to fit other types of motors etc.On European trucks there is single minded approach where there are very few options and thus everything is made with a single specialist purpose.This results in only one source for parts = expensive parts.The upside is that no compromise is made and everything fits perfectly.Very rarely does anything come loose or malfunction. There is no denying that the living space in a typical American truck is far superior.The American motor drive line is also great.They are easier and cheaper to repair.The European trucks are with out a doubt better built otherwise. I will state with out any reservation that a Scania run hard heavy and fast in hot and cold climate would earn the respect of any American.It will hold its own with the best there is and then some.It will just cost about 35% more then an American truck to start with.If maintenance is neglected you can't claw it back like you can on most American trucks.You can't economicaly rebuild a poor condition Scania like you can an American truck. Having said that there are many 2 million mile Scanias doing the fast long halls.Many say they have the lowest cost per mile if maintained properly.

 

I think king q sums it up real nice. You probably know what you are talking about, since you run European and American trucks side by side over there.

 

Luis , wow that is something.One problem its sleeper is even smaller that a Scania!

 

Let me just give you an interesting statistic, Scania are the only manufacturer in the world to have 50% of all the trucks they ever built still running, I personally have my first 1984 scania 142 with 4.2 million miles on the clock in my garage, I'll never sell it cos it's my first, it's never been overhauled or gotten any major parts or work done, in fact all it got was a couple of alternators , starters, leaf springs and after that just service parts.in the lasts 16 years never once have I towed a scania home (except one that was crashed and I've had 32 of them) these days I have a single r580, it does almost 9 mpg at 44 tonnes (that's 8 tonnes more than you are allowed to carry) it's never been in the garage except for services and a damaged tail light, scania make a unique and quality product, you guys over there you know nothing about them, chances are you've never even seen one, the fact we have short cabs is not the fault of the manufacturer (which did offer a long cab to match yours called the exe aka: Longline ) So please is you are going to review the quality or how good a truck is please learn a bit about it and stop being childish and tell us the real qualities of your rigs so we can learn from each other, that's the point of this forum

 

It was the 142 that really won me over to Scania.
I have owned many different makes.
American Oshkosh and Mack the first class 8 truck I ever owned.
European Mercedes,Man, Volvo and DAF currently.
Japanese Fuso , Hino and UD (Nissan) currently.
I have never owned a Scania but have operated them with subcontractors since the 80's.
I can remember when we were running at over 120 000lbs with 285hp Mack and 290hp cat engines those 420hp 142h Scania's would fly past us.
I then got to ride in one and it rode so much better.
Fuel consumption was also way better then the Cat powered Oshkosh.
Mack and Scania did a lot of engine development together in the 70's that is one of the reasons that Mack and Scania were way ahead in the early 80's with fuel consumption.
What really impressed me was that the a Scania 142h that subcontracted to us did a dedicated run of 930 miles per day 24 days per month.
They were usually loaded about 100000lbs and would run at about 68mph.
It did this for 5 years with out a major break down.
They then did an in-frame and ran for another 3 years before replacing it with another newer Scania.
The owner only had 2 trucks and did all his own maintenance.
He was a former Scania chief mechanic.

 

http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/2011/07/-well-heres-a-rather.html#more

 

What I have noticed over time reading posts from outside of US is that your opinions on american trucks are based on some cheap makes. Apparently best trucks - Petrbilts and Kenworths are almost never exported, because these are easily TWICE as much expensive than some ruined Freightliner Century or crappy International with million miles under dozens of big fleet drivers (people without basic driving skills)

You need to understand, that we have trucks built for O/O and trucks built for fleets. It's quite different than with European trucks where there is one size fits all logic. Don't tell me about those "special edition" series with extra paint ans leather seats, its just marketing trick. All Petes and most KWs were designed from very start to be owner operators trucks - its what they wanted and how they wanted it to be. But like I have said - you don't seem to have them/know about them over there much. And thing is if you want to compare legandary Scanias (I love them) - you gotta compare them with Paccars, not Oshkosh