FLEET WISE
Page 44
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AND LOW DOWN
Bigger is not always more beautiful in the practical world of fleet trunking and distribution as the sensibly specced and popular Volvo FM 0-320 38-tonner proves on test.
• Those advertising and marketing men have a lot to answer for. They have been the prime movers behind the current obsession with more power, particularly at 38 tonnes: with a few, and we mean few, notable exceptions, the average hire-andreward haulier simply doesn't need a massive 298kW (400hp)-plus engine beneath a towering full-height cab.
Most operators retain a firm grip on reality so, despite the blandishments ol the manufacturers, the biggest selling 38tonne tractive units are in the 224-261kW (300-350hp) class.
Volvo's FL10 — one of the best-selling 38-tonners on the British market — sits smack in the middle of that class with its 229kW (313hp), 9.6-litre engine tucked away within the attractively-styled, lowheight FL cab.
The mighty F16 may get the most admiring glances at a truck show, but it is the FL10 which is the company's bestselling tractor, though for operators who insist that big is beautiful, Volvo offers a compromise, as the driveline used in the FL10-320 can also be specified with the taller, longer-serving F10 cab.
Mind you, it's hard to see why anyone would prefer the F10 to its FL10 stablemate.
Apart from having a roomier cab, the F10 is not only higher (by 290nun) but heavier (by 385kg) and more expensive (by £2,750). What price image?
• FUEL CONSUMPTION
Anyone taking a cursory glance at the FL10's fuel figures is unlikely to be impressed by its 40.53 litres/100km (6.97mpg). It would be easy to conclude that the FLIO's charge-cooled TD102F engine isn't particularly economic — but you'd be wrong. The FL10-320's uninspiring fuel consumption is the direct result of the one variable in our road test programme over which we have no control; namely the weather.
During the course of its test, the compact FLIO had to battle its way through appalling weather around our 1,200Iun Scottish test route with torrential rain and gale force winds gusting up to 80km/h on both the second and third days. These inevitably hammered both fuel economy and average speeds.
The severity of the weather really came into play when descending long gradients on the M1 on our way back to the MIRA proving grounds near Nuneaton. Under normal conditions, a fully-freighted 38-tonner coasts down them without any prompting from the accelerator. This time our FL10 had to be powered downhill on full throttle against energy-sapping headwinds simply to make progress, never mind keeping up to the 97km/h maximum speed limit. With this against it the FLIO was never going to break any records.
While more favourable conditions would have improved on the FL10-320's figures, it is impossible to say by how much, so there, for the moment, we must leave it, except to say that on the first day, running north up the M6 to Gretna, winds were less noticeable and we covered the 347km (including the tough drag up Shap) at an impressive average 35.6 litres/ 100km (7.94mpg).
What's more, despite the awful weather our FL10-320 still managed to beat the old FL10's consumption of 41.36 litres/ 100km (6.83mpg) (CM 21 June 1986).
• PERFORMANCE
When the F16 was launched in October last year Volvo also took the opportunity to introduce new engines for the FL/F10. For the FL10 it meant goodbye to the original TD10IF engine and the adoption of the reworked TD102F, which provides 6% more power and a similar increase in torque to 1,290Nm (9501bft), at a lower 1,200rpm (to EEC80/1269).
Although the latest TD102F engine features \ a number of improvements, including better cooling and cold-start performance, the most significant changes can be found hidden inside the cylinders. The FL10's 9.6-litre engine has two-piece "articulated" pistons comprising steel crowns with separate aluminium alloy skirts. The two sections are connected only by the gudgeon pin, which passes through the skirt as normal and then through a housing formed in a central strut which