How many miles.
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Steve Gray finds it hard to believe that this F86 has done 1.7 million
LOOKING at the number of Volvo trucks on the roads of Britain today, it's hard to believe it's just 11 years since the first 'vehicle made its debut in this country.
It was an F86 tractive unit which entered service with Thos Hutchinson of Wark, near Newcastle upon Tyne, where it was to remain covering a staggering 1,700,000 miles plus until Volvo recently acquired it.
To see what sort of condition the vehicle is in now, I flew to Volvo's Scottish assembly plant and drove the old F86 round the same route that I had taken the F7 on a few weeks before.
So I was able to make a direct comparison between the two vehicles. The first, most obvious thing was just how far the driver's comfort and his general environment have been improved since 1967. Having said that, the Volvo was, in those days, the cat's whiskers as far as many drivers were concerned.Compared to the established British vehicles it seemed like something from another planet, with car-like driveability and a high degree of comfort.
Today, when many UK and imported makes have made great strides in this direction the Volvo is showing its age. However, in spite of this the old F86 is still a very acceptable machine. Agreed, it doesn't have a suspension seat, or carpets on the floor, but interior noise level is extremely low — even now.
All controls are well placed and easy to use. I was particularly impressed with the gear change and gearbox, which are remarkably good in spite of the vast mileage. Gear changing is simple — the eight-speed range-change was fitted to the F86 — and incredibly the synchromesh is perfect!
Admittedly, I was unable to find out what work, if any, had been carried out on Volvo No l's gearbox recently, but I believe the gearbox is original.
Amazingly, the engine too is original. OK it has had pistons and liners on more than one occasion, but the crankshaft has only been re-ground once! Today, the engine ticks over as sweet as a nut and can only be forced into emitting smoke — and then only a meagre amount — when given some stick up hill. Interior noise, as I've said, is good, and normal speech is possible even when the lorry is working hard.
In spite of its years, the F86 has stood up bodily very well too. There are no real rusty areas, just the sort of scrapes and bumps that any vehicle covering this sort of mileage must inevitably collect.
Interior trim has taken the -strain pretty well, too — even the interior lights still work — but some of the instruments are a little shaky.
The speedometer — no such things as tachographs then — shows a meagre 77,000 miles on the odometer. The speedo itself was working erratically when we started our test and then built itself up to a crescendo of inactivity by stopping altogether. The vehicle is a lithe untidy inside, and it has no suspension seal, but the interior is surprisingly quiet.
Another erratic little number was the rev counter, which couldn't make up its mind whether the engine was doing 1,000 or 2,000rpm! The heater too was somewhat diffident, occasionally puffing out luke warm air to slightly warm my rather cold feet. Otherwise, the rest of the controls seemed to be in good working order.
The reason the speedometer and rev counter were faulty, Chris Evans, Volvo's development engineer told me, was that they are so old and have done so much work it isn't possible to repair them. On the road the F86 performed very well, loaded to a gross weight of 32 tons. It mastered all the hills on the route and belied its 11 years and massive mileage.
One minor problem occurred during the test, however, and that was with the brakes. The brakes themselves are smaller than those of later F86's. Going down the long winding hill into Largs — it has gradients of 1 in 8 every so often — a degree of overheating developed.
Although the brakes didn't fade, an emergency stop in Largs itself, needed to avoid reducing the length of a Cortina car in front of me which stopped suddenly to miss a dog — caused the brakes to pull to the offside. This pulling lasted until the lunch stop, but after lunch the brakes came back to normal. Volvo engineers told me that, although virtually no work has been done on the F86 by them, the front brakes had been relined, and new drums fitted. Perhaps this contributed to the problem.
It's difficult to make a direct comparison between VOlvo No 1 and the F7. In many ways they are worlds apart. The F7 is extremely comfortable and well thought out inside. It benefits from all the progressive improvements Volvo has introduced such as steel synchro cones and revised and uprated engines. Yet beneath the surface changes the two vehicles are surprisingly the same.
Both are very much drivers' vehicles and are very simple to get used to. Although the F7 is somewhat higher than the F86 the impression of being in close contact with the road is there.
I think to sum up the best possible compliment that can be paid to Volvo No 1 is that it is clearly still capable of earning its living. And that in spite of its tremendous total mileage having worked 24 hours a day on forestry work over unmade roads hauling logs for half its life and steel plate for the other, with some general haulage thrown in.
A measure of its ability to take punishment is that the diff nose cap has been welded in for the last seven years — necessitated by a roadside failure.
To be fair, though, Jonty Hutchinson, who was chiefly involved with the truck for its working life, insisted on a strict service and maintenance schedule which meant the equivalent of a 5,000-mile service every week carried out by himself. Clearly this regime has paid off.