I pull up at a set of traffic lights on a Melbourne suburban street and the truck beside me toots. Looking across, the driver indicates for me to wind my window down.
“Hey, mate. Never seen one of those before. Any good? What’ll it carry?”
The dude was asking other questions I couldn’t answer so at the next lights we exchange lanes and he continues the conversation with my passenger from Scania.
The truck in question was the brand new Scania P Super 11 litre and, in this iteration, I was driving an agitator. Five sets of lights later he’s telling us that he wants seven of them!
As I had extolled the brilliance of the truck to the bloke, I asked my Scania host if I was in line to pick up a bit of commission if the sale eventuated.
Scania’s new P Super 11 Series is just that: Super! Following on from the company’s Super 13 range, the new 11-litre will replace the current 9-litre engines, offering three power levels.
The 350hp comes with 1800Nm, the 390hp offers 2000Nm and the 430hp puts out a whopping 2200Nm, all those maximum torque figures being available from just 950rpm which is quite frankly astonishing for an 11-litre engine.
As if that isn’t enough, these new motors offer up to 7 per cent fuel savings over the smaller 9-litre which will certainly consign that long serving engine (17 years) to the history books.
Like the 9 litre, the new P Super 11s are a five cylinder (which emit a very distinctive and satisfying throb) but that’s where the similarity ends. The 11 has a double overhead cam with 20 valves.
And variable valve timing. Whilst this technology has been around in cars and bikes for many years, it is the first time it appears on a truck engine. Amongst its many benefits, the system also acts with the engine brakes, using cam phases to retard timing and helping to slow the truck down.
Another first is ‘turbo dosing’ whereby AdBlue is injected into the turbocharger itself, reducing emissions. Together the engineering sets this motor up to meet Euro 7 and beyond.
This investment in new diesel engine technology is testimony to the fact that Scania sees the diesel motor being around for some considerable time to come.
As well, all engines can run on HVO (hydro-treated vegetable oil) and the 350 and 430hp versions can also run on biodiesel, as these fuel variants become more common.
The P Super 11 Series is a divergent move for Scania who have mostly been known as a long haul/highway brand.
Ben Nye, Scania’s Sales Director – Truck readily admits that the company needs to evolve beyond that sphere “and go into unchartered territory”, meaning new applications. To that end I have been invited to not only play with the aforementioned agitator, but also other road-ready variants of the P Super 11 Series.
Sticking with the 8×4 Agi for the moment, this version runs the 350hp (390 and 450 are options) donk.
Like all P Super 11 models the doors open a full 90 degrees for easy entry and egress. The interior is typical Scania – exuding quality wherever you look and whatever you touch.
Vision is excellent and abetted by cameras when reversing. The truck feels stable as I take it through tight roundabouts and narrow estate streets with some 12 tons of stone rotating behind me.
The turning circle is impressively small – a boon for the many tight spaces where a truck such as this will spend its days.
Aiding propulsion is Scania’s G25CM1 Opticruise gearbox with 14 forward gears (12 gears plus one super-crawler and one overdrive). But it also gives up to eight reverse gears for the agi driver in a hurry.
This, like the engine is lighter than previous iterations, saving overall tare weight so you can pour in more concrete.
You know that the agi is rotating behind you, both in feel and noise, but both are admirably suppressed and cabin conversation is easy at normal levels. Like all Scania’s, safety is at the forefront with every acronym known to man, plus the one thing no-one else offers in a truck, being side curtain airbags.
With agi’s well known for laying on their side – 39 per cent of injuries within the concrete or agitator application come down to rollover – should you manage to defeat all of Scania’s life-saving tech you are going to land on a large protective air bag.
And you are going to have to try damn hard! This truck has the highest roll stiffness of any manufacturer at this point in time with over 830 kilo newtons of roll resistance at the front axle.
The truck uses 9.5mm rail which is powder coated so the operator could use hydrochloric acid in their wash all day long without detriment to the truck. All the wiring is sealed, eliminating the corrosion and other problems this market segment faces.
The company ticked every box possible to make this – I’m going out on a limb here – the best agitator available on the market today.
A bunch of us drove this truck (26 tonne gross) around all day without giving a damn about fuel consumption and the truck returned 2.61km/l which is mighty good!
If we’d actually paid any attention to the driver’s aid on the dash which awards stars and percentage for good driving habits (an excellent idea), I’m sure we could have improved that figure considerably.
Next up is a 6×4 Hooklift (18 tonne gross) in which we collectively averaged 3.67km/l, still with the 350hp engine.
This truck does all that the agitator does, albeit a little quietly given no rotating drum behind me. For 350 horses the truck gets up and boogies in no small part due to the excellent power/torque/gearbox ratios.
The air suspension front and rear, as with all these trucks, soaks up the road, giving as close to a magic carpet ride as anything on the market which equates to not being totally knackered at the end of a long, hard day.
There follows more of the same in a 430hp 6×2 prime mover (36 tonne gross. Fuel Av: 2.77km/l) with a single trailer and a 350hp 8×2 P Super 14 Pallet Curtainsider (23 tonne gross. Fuel Av: 3.2km/l).
Scania pioneered the 8×2 set up and are determined not to let it go because it fixes so many problems in distribution.
It means you don’t have to be careful about how you unload. Diminishing loads are not a problem for it because of two axles both front and rear. The difference is that of the two axles at the back, only one is being driven.
That and the 6×2 system have load-transfer incorporated which always keeps 60 per cent on the drive to minimise or eliminate wheel spin.
There is also a button that you can press, so if you were in a situation such as a large drain or steep driveway, you can remove the air from the tag and transfer it into the drive to push it down.
“The biggest benefit is fuel savings,” said Ben Nye. “Not running a power divider, not running a second tail shaft, not running a second differential. It makes so much sense. Europe does it, here we don’t and I’m determined to make this work.
“I’d be very interested in your feedback when driving that truck on a route that you would see that truck do day to day, then you tell me if you can see it or feel it being a 6×2.”
Dear Ben. I couldn’t. Regards, Graham.
It’s all about what these trucks are designed to do which is primarily urban/intrastate work and using the weight savings for cargo rather than an extra diff and associated hardware.
The bottom line is that all these trucks are just beautiful to drive. They all go about their business quietly, efficiently and offer superb comfort. Go try and I reckon you’ll buy.
Should that be the case it’s well worth talking to Wayne Thomason and his team who run Scania Finance Australia and NZ. These guys do it differently to your local unfriendly bank. (Disclaimer: Do your own research.)
With cash flow and cost of living pressures high on everyone’s agenda at the moment, Scania has taken the unusual step of offering three months of interest-only payments up front until customers get their cash flow going.
They have also researched the trucking and bus industry and looked at the quiet periods of the year. Why would a transport company want to make payments during that quiet time? So, Scania Finance now has holiday payments structured into the contract to help the customers meet their needs.
“The other piece around being a captive financier compared to the rest of the market, is that we have customers that go through cycles,” said Wayne.
“We have one mantra and that is we are here for the good times and the bad. Our job is to keep customers moving.
So, we will stand by our customers and give them hardship support when they need it and get them through to the end.”
Now just one question remains.
If that agi driver turns up and buys seven of your trucks, Scania, where do I collect my commission?