Volvo Trucks has added two new ‘crawler’ gears to its I-Shift transmission for severe-duty applications, allowing its FH and FH16 trucks to tow vastly increased gross combination weights.
Robert Celec, product manager for the FH and FH16, highlights: “For heavy hauler applications, we used to be limited to 200t, but now, with the crawler gears, we can go all the way up to 325t.
“This should be really useful in the Middle East, especially in soft ground, where you don’t want to add on all of the torque just to get moving.
The crawler gears are essentially ultra-low gears that raise the gear ratio to a time-slowing 32:1 — double that of the lowest manual gear.
This allows the vehicles to tow massive loads at very slow speeds, and even allows trucks laden with 325t to climb inclines of 5% (most European roads) and perform hill starts on up to 3% gradient incline.
Celec adds: “It is easy to think that Volvo only has one model to offer when it comes to construction, and that’s the FMX, but this is not true; we have a wide range of trucks, from the medium-duty FL and FE up to the severe-duty FH and FH16 for the regional distribution of heavy construction goods.”
In April, Volvo’s latest choreographed stunt actually involved an FH16-750 with I-Shift and crawler gears pulling an absurd combined weight of 750 tonnes across 20, double-stacked container trailers.
The crawler gears are just one from a range of features that Volvo Trucks has introduced in 2016, including five features particularly suitable for off-road applications.
For PMV Middle East’s in-depth look into the crawler gears and the other new features for the FMX, FH and FH16 ranges, click here.
