just bought a new volvo truck can someone tell me what it is spec'd for

sure you are speced to breakdown and to spend a ton of money on it. there is a reason why you see alot of volvo's for sale real cheap cause there junk trucks

 

Most likely the engine can be turned up to 500hp. Any higher would require hardware to be changed/upgraded.

 

This is going to sound like I'm bashing you,.. I'm not. But I have to wonder what you were thinking.

I mean let me understand this correctly, you bought a truck for flatbed work,.. but do not know what truck specs you needed, or even attempted to research the truck spec you needed before purchasing a truck?

To put that into perspective,.. thats like buying a Prius with the goal of racing it against Mustangs and Camaros on a road course.

Looking at your spec,.. HP is a little low. But you should be ok. Most flat bed guys dont buy Volvo because they are a bit on the heavy side. Typically you need a set up that can legally scale 47 - 48k. Thats how many make their money. That or specialize in a niche market.

Hurst

 

Who originally owned the truck as you noted it was bought at AUCTION and there were 50 of them , that will give you an idea of how and what type of work they were spec'd for.

 

Well said. Exactly

 

I guess we've all done that before...throw down the money BEFORE we do our homework and realize that we could have bought something far superior for either the same price or a few dollars more. And then you dont want to lose out on the money you spent, so you look into modifying. Makes you sick in the long run.

Back in 1990, my sister went car shopping. She called me about a Dodge Monaco. I called a dealer that I knew and he told me, "DONT BUY THAT CAR! Dodge has had so many problems with that car, that a year later, you wont be able to get $2000 for that car. DEPRECIATION DISASTER!"
I told my sis not to buy it and she bought it anyway (why do people ask for advice when they really dont want to hear what you have to say?). A year later, she tried to trade it in. She owed $13000, but couldnt get $2000 for it. She asked me what should she do, and I told her to keep it, drive it and pay it off. She didnt listen (you'd think I would learn, wouldnt you?) and she traded the Monaco for a Dodge Spirit. The dealer tacked on the balance of the Monaco on to the Spirit and suddenly, she owes $30k on another car that wont be forth spit in a year.

(Back to the trucking world)

The bottom feeders spec their trucks out at 450-475HP and somewheres around the 3.48-3.55 gears. O/O's usually go between 475-515 HP to avoid drag racing uphill. I'd say you would need 3.90-4.10 gears to make up for the lack of power. Yeah, you can make those truck work, but they're going to have to work hard. I guess as a regional flatlander truck, they will be tolerable, but I would sure hate to have to run 48 in one.

What were they spec'd for? Ummm, light dry van loads?