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Lapland's northern location, together with the Gulf Stream, give it

23rd December 1993
Page 68
Page 68, 23rd December 1993 — Lapland's northern location, together with the Gulf Stream, give it
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a unique climate. In the summer, temperatures are in the high twenties and for six months the sun never sets. At two o'clock in the morning, it's as bright as a late summer afternoon in Britain.

But in winter the sun never rises; temperatures are typically between -20 and -30°C. If you think that's cold, consider this. Scania's most northerly dealership—Scania Nord A/S in Lakselv, Norway—is 400km inside the Arctic Circle and just 130km short of the North Cape, literally the "roof of Europe". Break down up there and you'll need more than an anorak.

Test driving and deep snow don't go well together so Scania wisely opted for the midnight sun, rather than the midday moon.

In summer the landscape around the Arctic Circle is green and fertile, if a little heavy on the fir trees but as we headed north there were plenty of reminders of how bad the weather can get.

At the side of the road, tall bamboo sticks show where the verge is when it's covered with snow. The sticks have their uses in the summer. There's so much surface water trapped in the summer topsoil that verges are no place to try and park a 60-tonne drawbar. "When we stop to change drivers, stop on the road," warned our hosts, "otherwise you'll get a sinking feeling."

Pass a stick with a black bin liner tied to it and it means a Laplander is grazing his reindeer nearby. While they may look cute, Santa's not-so-little helpers are bad news on the roads. They've little fear of humans and like to lick the salt on the tarmac. Hit one in a 60-tonne drawbar and you'll win. Hit one in a car and they tend to come through the windscreen at head height, antlers and all. Clobber one in the dark on a lonely country road and you could be trapped for hours before anyone found you.

At the opposite end of the scale there are the mosquitoes — thousands of the little stinkers. Quite why they think a place like Sweden should be a good place to live is beyond us. Unfortunately it's not beyond them and everyone in our party was presented with a garish plastic bottle containing double strength insect repellant. If mosquitoes were put off by liberal applications of the stuff we didn't notice. In fact one whiff and they attacked in formation like the Red Arrows.

Swedish country roads may be short of variety but compared with clogged British motorways, they're heaven. If you see a car heading towards you within 10 minutes of the last one, it's the rush hour.

And only the Swedes, so it seems, keep their distance when driving. "Try and keep a gap of at least half a kilometre between each truck," Scania's demonstration chief advised. "If only to make sure you've got enough room to stop with 60 tonnes."

Well the road to ruin was always paved intentions. Within 30 minutes, all five vehicles were trundling happily along in a cosy convoy, albeit at the painstaking LGV limit of 70Icm/h.

So how does a 24m, 500hp, 60-tonne drawbar drive? In a word — comfortably. We've always suspected that 500hp at 38 tonnes is too much. But at 60 tonnes, it's just right. The ride from our R143ML500 prime mover was good, but with an air-sprung double drive bogie, air ride front axle and air-suspended Topline cab, it ought to be.

On the rolling, switchback two-lane roads, the 3+4 outfit handled well. Considering the roads are subject to such extremes of temperature, they are well-maintained, give or take the odd big blister where ice and water has got beneath the blacktop.

What they haven't got is space. On some stretches, there's barely enough room to get two trucks past without creating some welcome replacement mirror business for the local dealer.

When you spot another 24m timber drawbar approaching at high speed it's best to ease right over and thank God that it's driven by a local. The resulting "Whuumpf.."shocicwave of air as it passes is enough to make anyone stay alert.

The uneven nature of the roads also means that a long 12m plus drawbar trailer can take on a life of its own—although its not something you easily notice until you're following one.

While the 60-tonne R143 outfit tracked well enough, the slightly lighter (only 51 tonnes) turbo-compound R113.400's trailer tended to wander about spectacularly whenever the prime mover made the slightest change of course. According to Scania's demonstration chief the problem was either the trailer's air suspension, or it was too long for the 4.6m wheelbase 6x2 prime mover.

The other lesson to be learnt with a 60tonne drawbar is that when you're pulling away at a junction, resist the temptation to change gear half way through the turn. With so much deadweight behind, no matter how you change up, the break in torque kills momentum stone dead and you're left sitting in the middle of nowhere looking rather sheepish. The technique is get it in a straight line, then shift.

Our outward leg took us past the falls of Storforsen; the largest rapids in the Nordic countries where the Pite river drops 80m over a length of 51cm. Our rest break was at Joklunoldc—it means bend in the river—in the middle of some spectacular mountains reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands.

Then it was on to Gallivare and Dundret, an 823m high peak served by a steep winding road which proved an excellent venue to try out Scania's new integral retarder (CM 18-24 March) on an R143-500 artic at 40 tonnes and the K113 coach. The hydrodynamic retarder allowed a brisk, yet safe descent on the 20% (1 in 5) road without need of the service brakes. ADR operators now have a choice in endurance brakes beyond the previous Telma,Voith and Jake.

After a night trying to sleep with sun streaming through the windows, Day Two saw us heading back to Lulea and home, stopping only for the obligatory family portrait of "trucks with Arctic Circle sign."

Although the main roads are only twolane, you can keep up a good average speed. It's so good that Norwegian drivers hauling fish from ports as high up as Tromso tend to cross over the mountains into Sweden and travel down the easier E4 eastern seaboard route before recrossing the border to get to Oslo.

The Norwegian driver who passed us heading south with frozen fish on the El0 certainly wasn't hanging about. His drawbar reefer trailer had a nice wobble to it too. At least ours wasn't the only one with wanderlust.

0 by Brian Weatherley

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Locations: Lakselv, Oslo

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