Volvo NH580 Buying Used

A few years back, up in the Northern Territory, Bernie Brock, manager of Territory Transport Sales (TTS), was the man to see for a Volvo – whether it be trucks, loaders, graders, and other heavy construction gear.

Along with owner Denis Buntine, there wasn’t much this pair didn’t know about transport in the Top End, including the perils that can be encountered and, importantly, how to specify trucks and equipment that’ll survive the punishment.

Their persistence with the management team at Volvo Trucks played a pivotal role in bringing a higher horsepower, more suitable heavy-duty model to the Australia road train market, with the Volvo NH580 beginning trials here in 2002.

But Territorians are a loyal bunch who like to stick to what they know, especially when it comes to truck brands. So Volvo wisely softened the blow to make the transition a little easier, particularly for Territorian truckers, by dropping in a big red Cummins under the hood.

When Volvo trucks were first introduced to Australia over five decades ago, they quickly gained a reputation for integrity and robustness. Still, not so long back, you almost needed a D11 dozer to force a Territorian into one. More often than not, operators made derogatory remarks about them, and Bernie Brock had heard them all.

“Times are changing though,” said Bernie with smile, as he lent on the bullbar of the NH580.

“Now, once you get a bloke into one of these Volvo trucks, you’ll need a D11 to get him back out again! Yeah, we had to be pretty thick-skinned to survive up here in the early days.”

Just then, a typical Territorian trucker – clad in stubby shorts, faded blue singlet, and thongs – wandered over to check out the NH580.

“Why doesn’t Volvo give them a name, like Mack does?” the trucker said gruffly, pointing to the big 580 badge.

“What sort of a name is ‘580’?”

Bernie chuckled. “If that’s the only thing he can find to whinge about, we must be doing something right,” he said.

“Anyway, tomorrow we’re off to a mine site near Jabiru, roughly 230 kilometres east of Darwin. I’ve organised the appropriate permits, and we’ll be taking four trailers that’ll put us up around the 160-tonne mark.”

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Fully loaded

Shortly before six the following morning, the 580 Cummins bit hard as Stojan Ostojic released the clutch in the Volvo NH580 Volvo, which was coupled to four fully loaded side tippers.

At 21 years of age, Stojan Ostojic is the youngest of three brothers working in the family business, Ostojic Transport Pty Ltd. Like everything else in the Territory, at around 194cm, or 6ft 4in in the old measure, Stojan Ostojic stands out in a crowd. Yet this tall, clean-shaven bloke isn't just big in the vertical sense. His hands are like dinner plates, his feet like planks, and there's a rangy, lean rawness about him that would outrank fencing wire for toughness.

Looking around Ostojic Transport's depot, it quickly becomes evident that here you're in Bulldog country. Stojan's father, Tom, has been buying Mack trucks for over 30 years, and he reckons the 320 R-Model was probably the best model Mack ever made. And he ought to know: he still has the first one he bought, along with several others. Times are changing, however, and with them, the preferred breed.

The air suspensions on the trailers creaked as slowly but surely the 82 tyres rolled into motion. The 16-litre Cummins growled, Stojan shifted up a cog, and the big red powerhouse responded eagerly.

Despite his size and regardless of the impression his appearance may give, this young Territorian nurtures the vehicle under his command and gently persuades it through the rough and rugged going.

Heavy duty

Stojan was pulling out of the family's Darwin depot on his regular run to the mine site with a load of sulphur and an all-up gross mass of 157.5 tonnes.

“When the NH580 first turned up, I was in two minds about it,” Stojan admitted.

“But when I sat in it, I thought, ‘yes, this is okay’, and I was very keen to try it out.

“Everyone in the yard has paid out on me for driving it over the last four days, but it doesn’t worry me,” he continued.

“It’s so easy to drive and it’s extremely comfortable. I doubt there is anything you could compare it to other than to say it’s just like driving my car down the road. There’s none of the kicking I used to get from my old truck.”

Stojan had nothing but praise for the NH580’s on-road manners.

“There’s none of the tram tracking you get with some of our other trucks,” he said.

“The steering is very positive and it doesn’t run off track when you’re running on the shoulders of narrow roads. This NH580 is very good even on the dirt.”

Fit for purpose

The road train spec’d NH580 was based on Volvo’s existing NH platform. However, the new NH580 model did address some niggling quirks and several cooling issues associated with high-horsepower Volvos working in hot, dusty road train applications.

Most noticeable is that the cabin is raised an additional 150mm above the chassis for improved airflow and dispersion to enhance cooling.

“If you can cool it, it will live,” Bernie explained.

“I really don’t think there is much wrong with any of the specs and the design of the Volvo truck, but because of the persistence of both ourselves and Max Winkless in Western Australia concerning cooling, they [Volvo] agreed to lift the cab six inches.

“Lifting the cab creates many advantages and solves many problems,” Bernie continued.

“Up here heat causes all the problems; when you have a lot of heat, not only do your engine and gearbox wear out more quickly, but the wiring and electronics decay faster too. The air conditioner works harder, the driver is hotter. All those problems are now gone.

Glen Lewis, Volvo Trucks Product Strategy General Manager at the time, said the cost of shipping the cabs played a big role.

“It’s more likely that we’ll see the VN610 cabin used on production models rather than the VN660 we’ve used on this vehicle,” he said.

“The final decision will ultimately be driven more by what customers are willing to pay given the additional cost of shipping the larger cabins.”

Glen’s crystal ball prediction was correct: very few customers opted for large US VN660 cabin. Consequently, it is rare to see a used large-cab NH come up for sale and if they do, they’re snapped up quickly.

The bonnet has also received substantial reinforcement to address several cracking issues that plagued some earlier NH’s working in rough conditions. In addition, the rear bonnet locating pins are substantially more robust and are now attached to the chassis in preference to the cabin firewall. Finally, dual air inlets directly feed a far larger air cleaner housed under the hood.

A stylish and purpose-built bullbar, designed by Barry Stoodley Pty Ltd, which includes removable insect screens, was also down on the factory-fitted options list.

“We had a bit to do with the bullbar,” Bernie revealed.

“Volvo wanted to design the bullbar to suit the front of the truck, which is slightly different from what we were used to here. I suggested Stoodley’s because they are known in the industry for making the most substantial mounting bar.

The removable insect screen is well thought out and fits snugly into a track on the rear of the bullbar’s centre uprights. It is easily removed by lifting it upwards. Again, the fit is snug, so it doesn’t rattle. Ten points for this one.

“The removable screen was one thing that we brought up with Volvo in the early stages of this truck,” Bernie explained.

“Insects are a big problem up here, and we needed an easy way of cleaning the screen off and keeping bugs out of the radiator.”

While Volvo was confident it now could cool engines to 600 horsepower and beyond with this new road train NH, driveline limitations did restrict outputs to the current 580hp setting at the time.

The big question is, how far is Volvo willing to push the current envelope?

Another feature new to the Volvo heavy-duty line-up is the option of an independent park brake switch, which road train operators will welcome heartily. It follows the traditional US-style.

This feature will be of obvious benefit. Even with large-volume compressors, it takes an eternity to build up enough air capacity to release all the park brakes without it, especially on configurations with air suspensions.

Another plus is that the heavy-duty road train wiring is all done in-house at the factory.

The front suspension gets beefed up with a three-leaf parabolic system. The rear air suspension has also been given a workover, with larger-diameter delivery lines to improve response time.

“We increased the airflow in the rear air suspension not because it was inefficient, but mainly because it was fairly slow to equalise,” Bernie explained.

“You’d go over a drain on an angle and the truck would hang up for a little while before it equalised. We believe that they primarily installed the smaller 10mm lines to suit the smooth Swedish road network. Out here, of course, with the undulating roads, to get better traction and more even traction across all the four wheels, we decided we had to increase our airflow between the bags.

“So first off, we increased the airflow from bag to bag, from the front axle to the back axle, by increasing the line size to 16mm, which certainly gave us good equalisation. But then we took it a step further and increased the line size across the truck from side to side and added quicker levelling valves. It has made a huge difference.”

By the time the burning Territory sun had reached its zenith, Stojan had long since delivered his load. Pulling into a quarry to load material back to Darwin, the dwindling shade provided little solace from the oppressive heat.

Sheltering beside the largest tree in the quarry, Bernie commended Volvo on its initiative in building the road train prime mover. In terms of performance, the NH580 is one helluva dust raiser.

The return load of quarry materials put the gross weight at 161.5 tonnes – bang on the limit for this configuration and the permit tolerance. The Cummins engine computer printout clearly showed that Volvo has the driveline spec right for this model, as top gear cruising totaled over 70 per cent of the trip. That's precisely what Stojan found, as it required significantly fewer gear changes.

Fuel consumption was what we expected, at around one litre per kilometre. Considering the load, that’s a pretty good effort by anyone’s standards.

At the time of writing, Volvo fervently denied that the decision to offer the 16-litre Cummins engine was purely to conduct cooling trials and validation for its new and revised 16-litre engine when it became available. Sadly, for Volvo, its earlier 16-litre failed dismally here in Australia. The earlier Volvo 16-litre engines worked well in low-revving, torquey applications, but in the road train arena – where constant high ambient temperatures, high gross train weights and constant high-speed running are commonplace – they didn’t last long.

However, as we predicted, Volvo did eventually fit its own 16-litre engine in the NH models as soon as it was released. Not surprisingly, it dropped straight in and sailed through cooling trials thanks in no small part to the efforts of those earlier Cummins-powered Volvo road trains.

Today Volvo’s healthy slice of the road train market stems back to the success delivered by the perseverance of Bernie Brock and Glen Lewis with the NH580 design.

Specifications: Volvo NH580 Road Train

Engine: 580hp Cummins Signature
Cabin: VN660 (L4H4)
GCM rating: 160,000kg (factory approved application only)Gearbox: VT2514OD (14-speed)
Rear axle: CTN72 (hub reduction)
Rear suspension: Air suspension rated, 21 tonnes
Front suspension: Parabolic leaf rated, 8.2 tonnes
Rear axle ration: 4.55:1
Wheelbase: 4900mm
Fuel capacity: 2000 litres
Wheels: Polished alloy
Front 11.75in rims
Drive 8.25in rims
Extras: Outback aluminium bullbar, Icepack 2000 air-conditioning unit, central locking, electric windows, aero kit, radio/CD player/television, large lockable toolbox, Dynafleet Transport Manager