It’s been revealed that Volvo’s interesting experiment to see just how much load its new i-Shift with crawler transmission can haul has seen an FH 16 pull a GVM of 750 tonnes.
The experiment, staged at the Port of Gothenburg in its home country of Sweden saw 40 double stacked containers filled with Volvo truck parts and sitting on 20 container skel trailers and forming a 300-metre long road train was previewed recently and not the total weight has been revealed. The mission was to drive the VolvoFH16 from stand still and cover a distance of 100 metres with the load in tow.
“I-Shift with crawler gears offers starting traction that is unlike anything else on the market for series-produced trucks. The new crawler ratios make it possible to haul really heavy loads, start off in difficult terrain, and drive at speeds as low as 0.5 km/h.
Specially built trucks are normally used for exceptionally heavy loads, but here we’re using a Volvo FH16 with a driveline that has come straight from the factory,”says Peter Hardin, Product Manager FM and FMX at Volvo Trucks.
The Volvo FH16 used in the test features I-Shift with crawler gears and the strongest axles from Volvo’s regular product range. The truck is driven by Magnus Samuelsson, former holder of the “World’s Strongest Man” title.
“Few things can match the sense of challenging and winning over one’s physical limitations. I’ve faced many tough challenges over the years but this pull is my heaviest ever,”says Magnus Samuelsson.
At his side he has experienced trucking journalist Brian Weatherley.
“That Volvo Trucks has developed an automatic transmission that can haul 325 tonnes gross combination weight is impressive.But tackling more than 700 tonnes GCW* with a single regular production truck is really quite amazing.In my 30 years as a trucking journalist I’ve never seen anything like it,”saysBrian Weatherley