Hydraulic front wheel drives take on ultimate challenge23 November 2010

Volvo Trucks is testing hydraulic front-wheel truck drives in the forestry industry, where gross weights of 74 tonnes, and steep, slippery forest tracks make haulage difficult.

"We can already see major improvements in driveability," says Lena Larsson, Volvo's manager for the 'One More Pile' project.

She concedes that hydraulic drives are nothing new, but explains that the issue is the extreme nature of this level of haulage – and the expectation that the drive will transform grip and tight manoeuvre problems.

The trial combination – an FH16-660 with link and trailer – hauls a 74 tonne gross weight and is being used to test the feasibility of feeding timber to a tractor with link and trailer, and hauling wood long distance.

"This test gives us scope for seeing how best to optimise hydraulic front-wheel drive for different driving conditions," explains Larsson.

"The extra-high gross combination weight is providing us with a huge amount of information and experience on how best to exploit hydraulic drives."

For the trial, Volvo has fitted hydraulic motors to each of the front wheels, integrated in the wheel hubs and driven by a hydraulic pump coupled to the engine's power take-off. The result: the front wheels can be driven independent of the gearbox.

"We've only just started the test, but have already noted considerable potential," insists Larsson. "We will continue our analysis throughout the duration of the project until 2012."

Author
Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Volvo Group UK Ltd

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