Volvo has unveiled new VNX Series trucks designed for heaviest of heavy-haul duties. With their big engines, rugged transmissions and beefy frames, the new VNX Series are made to haul things like construction machines, quarried granite, B- and C-trains hauling logs and gravel, and heavy tankers.
Hammer down the accelerator pedal on one of these spec’d-to-the-max VNX trucks and you can tap into 605 horsepower and 2,050 lb.-ft. of torque to pull 225,000 pounds. If these trucks can’t haul it, your next choice is a locomotive.
“There are no typical applications in the heavy-haul market,” says Chris Stadler, product marketing manager. Accordingly, Volvo designed three cab configurations that can take you across town or across a continent. The cabs include:
- The VNX 300, a simple daycab for local heavy haul.
- The VNX 400, a sleeper with a flat roof and 42 inches of space behind the seats for occasional overnights or when you run out of drive time on your hours of service.
- The VNX 470, designed for customers pulling heavy-haul, cross country duty and has all storage, amenities and comfort 70-inch sleeper including refrigeration, microwave and TV.
With the new Electronic Logging Device mandate, hours of service regulations can force a long-haul driver with construction materials or machinery to stop in mid-job for up to eight hours, says Stadler. In these situations, it’s important to give drivers a safe and comfortable space to sleep or rest. Additionally, there are some heavy haul loads that for security purposes have to remain under supervision by the driver. If you have a load with these security requirements going across country, you need a sleeper cab, like the VNX 470, that can accommodate a driver for up to a week, he says.
