Volvo Demonstrates Adaptive Loading System
Liquid bulk transporters, such as Idaho Milk Transport, here, are an important target market for adaptive loading. IMT is one of the carriers testing Volvo's new system. Photo by Jonathan S. Reiskin for Transport TopicsHEYBURN, Idaho — Volvo Trucks rolled out a drivetrain system that management hopes will give the company a larger presence among liquid and bulk haulers, regional distribution carriers and trucking companies that often deal with diminishing loads or empty backhauls.
The adaptive loading system, built around an electronically controlled suspension, switches automatically between 6x2 and 4x2 power configurations with the use of a forward tractor tandem axle that can be lifted off the ground.
Company managers told reporters and editors here on Aug. 20 that when a trailer is mostly full, the lift axle places the wheels on the ground so they can bear weight and roll freely like trailer wheels. In contrast, when a trailer is mostly or completely empty and the tractor axle is not needed, up it goes and the 18-wheeler becomes a more efficient (albeit less lyrical) 14-wheeler.
“Volvo has long been known as a highway tractor manufacturer in the longhaul segment,” said Wade Long, Volvo director of product marketing. “But this will help us on regional growth. It’s a second opportunity for growth.”
The lift axle is made by Link Manufacturing Ltd. of Sioux Center, Iowa, and the drive axle is from Meritor Inc.
Volvo announced the system at the Mid-America Trucking Show in March, having started limited production in 2014. Full production starts in January, though, so the company is starting a major offensive to garner attention.
During briefings in Salt Lake City and here, and ride-and-drive demonstrations on the highways in between, Volvo managers said the new system is not the same as a traditional 6x2 configuration where both axles are always on the ground — a drive axle and a tag axle.
(In the more commonplace 6x4 configuration, both tractor tandem axles receive power from the engine.)
Traditional 6x2s have often been criticized for their lack of traction, but Volvo has addressed the problem with “dynamic weight transfer,” said Chris Stadler, product marketing manager for regional haul.
Jonathan S. Reiskin/Transport TopicsBeyond just axle up or down, Stadler says Volvo software takes input from sensors and balances weight on the tandem tractor axles as needed. For a fully loaded trailer the weight is balanced evenly between the two.
For a lighter load the drive axle takes most but not all of the weight. Eventually when the load is light enough the axle lifts. Extra weight can also be shifted to the drive axle when there is a need for more traction.
The company brought in customers, fleet executives, who said the axle-up configuration improves safety because the tractor’s wheel becomes longer and weight is split between the drive and steer axles, leading to better steering and handling.
“Everything has been positive with this,” said Joel Morrow, vice president and part owner of his family’s Ploger Transportation, a small truckload carrier in Bellevue, Ohio.
“We’ve improved fuel efficiency, and they have better handling. The trucks have helped with our driver recruitment and retention. We have drivers asking to get into trucks with lift axles,” Morrow said.
Clay Handy, president of Handy Truck Line in Paul, Idaho, said he had already been thinking about converting to regular 6x2 tractors, so when Volvo contacted him about participating in a prototype test, “We jumped on it immediately.”
Handy said he might switch over 100% of his 120 trucks to adaptive loading.
J.W. Ray said he enjoys driving an adaptive loading truck for Idaho Milk Transport of Burley, Idaho. September marks his 40th anniversary as a driver, and during that time he has racked up 6 million miles.
“This is the most expensive toy I’ve ever gotten to play with,” the smiling Ray said.
