Hydraulic front-wheel drives take on ultimate challenge at Volvo

摘要

Volvo Trucks is testing hydraulic front-wheel truck drives in the forestry industry, where gross weights of 74 tonnes and steep, slippery forest tracks make haulage difficult. "We can already see majorrnimprovements in driveability," asserts Lena Larsson, Volvo's manager for the 'One More Pile' project.rnShe concedes that hydraulic drives are nothing new, but explains that the issue is the extreme nature of this level of haulage - and the expectation that the drive will transform grip and tight manoeuvre problems.rnThe trial combination - an FH16-660 with link and trailer - hauls a 74 tonne gross weight and is being used to test the feasibility of feeding timber to a tractor with link and trailer, and hauling wood long distance.