Euro-Asia transport

That makes sense alright....I ran a volvo F10 6x2 rigid for years with the Volvo electro/hydraulic rear lift. We used to run at 32,000~36,000kgs on three axles all the time(no weighbridges or police back then) We drew bark mulch with it and regularly ran off road. The truck was unstoppable once you raised the rear axle as it put almost 20,000kgs on the drive axle. I regularly used to walk in and out of sites where 8x4's were stuck

 

When you have 19t on the drive the front axel reads 4-5t.
5th wheel a little bit behind the drive.

You use it to get up a hill, not for regular drive, normaly I just use the wegiht adjustment just to move over a few tons to the drive, 13-14t will get you far. 19t is for when it gets heavy and going forward is more important than steering

Ofcourse I don't have some south European easy rolling front tiers that goes hard under 0 celsius, real stuff that means you can without a problem keep close to summer speed even in the corners.

Worst thing with the tag is when you are empty and the tag is lifted. It gets bumpy, but fun with so short wheelbase

 

Retarder is of course used (I know some trucks in the fleet go back with original brakes and over a million km on the clock). I take some pressure of the tag a bit if its to slippery so the TC kicks in all the time. The newest ones in the fleet witch brakes with close to 800hp (it's 800 right? ) you can't use retarder and exhaust brake at the same time if you don't ad extra pressure.
Never had a problem of lifting front axel, loosing grip has happened but as you now look that you are in a gear that you can lift of the gas a bit to gain traction and push it again without going to a standstill

As far as I know you can spec the truck with the possible to lift with full pressure.
Even in Volvos own video they talk about it
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd7upLkOWrU[/ame]

Btw, the one I'm in at the moment has stock brakes, but down on 20%, retarder is dead. And it's probably it's last trip. The shockers are also quite weared out. The clock says close to 1,3 million.

How cares if you drive empty, this trip I have nearly 900km empty (goods in a hurry before new year). This short wheel base is so ####### fun if it's a little bit icy on the road and it slips. Gets quite nice powerslides . Anyway, because of the tag you allways have good pressure on the drive even empty and that what I care about.

Drove a few trips with pusher last year and I hated the problems you get everytime it gets slippery.

 

If you look at www.middenoostenchauffeursnederland.nl you got alot of pictures from euro asia transport from the 70's till the 90's and some stories

 

You mean on gravel roads? I use the retarder all the time in the winter aswell as long as it's not just ice; ice meaning ice that it's hard to stand upright on and walk .

Yep, i was close, just 85hp from . But that 885 is quite close to max. As I said that + exhaust brake and TC kicks in all a lot.

Btw, came to think of that with 3axel truck + 2 axel trailer. See that a lot just in Norway for local distribution. And as stated before right built you get even better maneuverability. (mention Norway a lot but I'm fascinated the way they got things working around there. It's not one spot that is flat and they never use an inch extra on the roads, if there is a tree they go around it to (okay went a bit to far but feels like that sometimes), many roads, even euro when you met a truck it's mirror to mirror, often in full speed)

 

cabovers are limited with legal lenth limits so sometimes they are so sweet, but so small......