The condition in the timber industry is very demanding for the truck as well as the truck drivers as most of the trucks has to carry 7.4 tonnes of immense weight through steep and slippery forest tracks.
Volvo knows this well and is testing hydraulic front wheel drive on one of its trucks in the timber hauler project (One More Pile). Lena Larsson the Volvo manager says the results are already satisfactory for the One More Pie project. One More Mile projects includes three Volvo trucks under tests. One among the three trucks is equipped with hydraulic front wheel drive that comes into action when the truck drives on steep sloops, slippery road, tight turning space and poor grip. The Volvo FH16-660 is loaded with the front hydraulic drive and with a link and a trailer that hauls 7.4 tonne of weight. The Volvo FH takes the weight to sawmill and to other industrial users.
The truck is rigorously tested on all aspect that also includes driver interview.
The test enables the company to get information on how the hydraulic front drive is working with heavy load in slippery condition, typical timber industry condition which includes heavy weight hauling on less gripy condition.
Also the extra weight will let the company engineers to know how far they can exploit the front drive hydraulic.
Volvo is not the first company to employ hydraulics in their drive, but Volvo will be the first one to employ the hydraulic technology in the timber hauling application.
The truck is equipped with two hydraulic motors on each front wheel that is incorporated to wheel hubs that is driven by the hydraulic pump that is mated to engine power take off.
With this type of technology the gear maintains drove to the front wheel even when the gear changes or when gear is put to neutral.
The result is a truck going places where others could dream of. The Volvo FH with extra pounds in the test makes it way through slippery and muddy ways without a single halt.
Volvo has just started the test and the company is seeing positive results by employing the technology. The company will continue to evaluate the hydraulic front drive truck until 2012, before they can put the technology into production.
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