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V FLI 2 1 18 280
Page 38
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Our 18-tonne Volvo was provided by our site host, Smiths of Bletchington, and although only a year old with its traditional green and red paint job looking like new, it had already covered 70,000km. It had been well worked but obviously cared for, so we must apologise to its regular driver for getting it rather muddy inside and out.
The FL is Volvo's latest lightweight, which has benefited from the Volvo/Renault grouping's fast-track development process. Put bluntly, that makes it a Renault Midlum with added Volvo identity. In fairness, its roots are well disguised. the Renault influence being most obvious on the controls.
A wide door opening leads into a twoseater day cab in which space is limited but adequate for a daily driving shift, There's plenty of minor oddment space, but the worst aspect is the rather confined driving position, especially concerning the width available for the driver's legs. The gearshift and parking brake live on a handy semi-dash-mounted panel, but there's no real possibility of crosscab access.
Plain cloth seats and a carpeted engine cover offer a hint of luxury while wipe-down floor coverings offer practicality. The rear wall and headlining, though, looked like they were trimmed with a giant pale blue dishcloth. Controls and instrumentation are basic but adequate. and include driver-friendly cruise control, a radio/CD player and an rear vision system from Brigade.
Dry, the Volvo chassis cab is 20kg lighter than the MAN, but this saving is wiped out by 20 litres of AdBlue. However, fully fuelled and with two sturdy crew aboard, the Rouse aluminium body still managed to clear 10 tonnes of net payload.
It was fitted with a PM Onboard weighing unit but we lacked the instruction needed to rely on it, so we continued with the more traditional scales.
The Volvo initially felt very firm but not too uncomfortable on the haul road, but a particularly vicious speed hump soon jolted us out of our complacency. It remained quite harsh out on the road the seat did a good job of removing the worst shocks. The dynamics were otherwise good with fine steering and good handling.
With a generous 280 rating, the FLH certainly never felt lacking in outright power and handled the test route with ease. It was happy to move off in the second of its six ZF ratios in most situations, which provided an easy change with the shift biased to the third/fourth plane. The timed test hill, the only significant climb on the route, needed just one downshift. Strangely, there seemed to be more downhill sections, allowing the reasonably effective exhaust brake, with blending button, to show its stuff.
The dashboard includes a neatly integrated set of PTO controls, but on the test truck they were redundant having been replaced by the bodybuilder's own kit between the seats. Apart from having to leave the cab to release the tail-board, unsheeting and tipping was a painless exercise from the driving seat. CB