With the introduction of a 500hp engine in a small P Series truck, Scania has come up with the same thing in a smaller package for those looking for useful power in an urban prime mover capable of hauling a fully loaded B-double.
There’s a wide range of niches and subsets in the trucking industry which suit a particular kind of truck and it’s the job of the truck manufacturers to make sure they offer a wide enough variety of models to be able to fit into as many of their customers’ pigeon holes as possible.
Scania has three cab sizes, the R, G and P. The R Series is designed for the heaviest loads on the longest runs, G Series fitting into the intrastate and tipper markets and the P Series ideal around the city, in crowded environments where the ground level visibility of the lower smaller cab is key to a safe journey.
Up until now the P Series has been denied the higher horsepower end of the Scania 13 litre engine’s rating. The cooling package capable of handling the heat output from a top power 13 would not fit under the low cab engine tunnel.
However, with the advent of the Super engines from Scania in the past couple of years, it was found that the more fuel-efficient engine didn’t produce the same level of heat rejection as its predecessors and the cooling package under the P cab could handle the job. Hence the Scania P 500, which was tested on the roads in and around Melbourne on a grey day with the rain slowly clearing.
On the test, we managed to get some time in both B-double and single trailer combinations on the sorts of roads these trucks would be expected to handle on a daily basis.
Anyone who has driven a large B-double or even a heavy semi-trailer in tight situations in this environment will tell you that sitting with the cabin lower to the ground and better all-round visibility at that lower level is always going to be the safer option. Heading into a crowded yard in a tall highway prime mover can quite often be quite problematic in tight situations.
Walking up to the truck and climbing two small steps up into the cabin, it is clear this is an easy truck to get in and out of — useful on a series of urban runs.
Sitting in the driver’s seat and looking around it is also clear the visibility is good enough for the driver to be able to see any people walking around close to the truck and any objects which may get in the way during tight manoeuvring.
Out on the highway, trying to get a B-double fully loaded to over 50 tons up to highway speed is relatively simple. The 500 hp kicks in and will satisfactorily get the whole rig up to cruising speed.
If you climbed four steps up into a roomy cabin and pulled out onto the highway, you would expect to get the kind of acceleration you need to get going, but it comes as a bit of a surprise when pulling the B-double up a slope out of a facility to find out you can do it with the 500 P.
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