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VIEW FROM THE SHARP END
Page 9
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Space invader
LGV driver L Radley takes on the Volvo FH 13, finding it a pleasure to drive but a right pain to live in.
Last week my allocated Stralis broke down. In the good old days this wouldn't have been a problem-aside from the need to lug kit aboutbut these aren't the good old days and Ivecos are as rare as hen's teeth in our yard. No matter; there was a nice, shiny 57-plate FH13 Gobstopper available, so I wasn't doomed after all.
Although I'm obsessed with Italians, I'm also quite fond of Volvos. They are a true pleasure to drive-almost too easy at times. I would happily take one on full-time tomorrow. Provided, that is, someone followed behind in a Stralis and we swapped motors every night. Because that's where the FH falls down, even the XL version. The living space is out of the ark.
I'm sure if you're the sort of driver whose only interaction with his cab is to fall into his gloriously sprung bunk at night, then it's great. And if you use the bottom one, you can swing your legs out and stand up to dress just like a normal person.
But that's about all you can do, because if you take half a step forward, you bang your head on a bank of lockers. Between that and huddling over the floor to cook because there's nowhere else to do it; moving boxes every five minutes because none of the storage is big enough to put anything in and the under-bunk drawer won't take the weight of my map collection; and faffing about with that insane folding passenge seat thingy the same design with which one driver managed to slice off the end of his thumb and no one has dared touch since it is remarkably like being back in a Scania P-cab.
I tell a lie: at least that had an engine hump to rest the stove on. And it didn't come with nicotine-yellow door linings as standard.
I gather a facelift is in the offing and such Iveco-like luxuries such as a proper table and swivelling chair will be included in the new version. But there is only one way to sort out the FH: put back the 30% of cab that was lost when some idiot said a sloping front would look edgy. If I ever meet him I'll be sure to suggest that dynamiting a third of his no doubt stylish apartment would make it much more up to the minute. All the kitchen and half the bedroom would do it.
"There is only one way to so the FH: put back the 30% of that was lost when some idi a sloping front would look