Scania P280 7-litre: Review

If the only substitute for cubic inches is cubic feet, then Scania, like most European truck manufacturers, would be accused of going the wrong way.

You see, they’re all going for smaller, more technologically advanced engines with reasonable outputs designed for city and light country work. But the big bonus with these smaller engines is good fuel consumption.

Scania has been crowing about the fuel consumption of the new 7.0-litre since we reported on its launch in December of 2019.

Now, we‘ve got our hands on one for a couple of days testing in and around Melbourne.

Our test rig was a P280 6x2 with an Austruck, 14-pallet body with dual rear doors and white curtains, a heavy-duty floor and an overall height 4.3 metres.

Suspension on this truck was taken care of with air bags front and rear with axle load display on the dashboard. The truck was loaded to around 19.5 tonnes GVM.

As with all the latest Scania trucks, the safety features were comprehensive. Along with the standard front and side curtain airbags, the Scanias get electronic stability and traction control, lane departure warning and forward-looking camera, hill hold, diff lock, LED head and taillights, LED daytime running lights and position lamps.

There are also USB slots in the dash, Bluetooth connectivity, a seven-inch touch-screen display for audio, communications and navigation and even a fridge.

A new feature that we had on test and evaluation was a Scania tablet on an adjustable jointed arm for viewing images from the truck's surround camera system. This means that at low speeds when manoeuvring, the driver can get a bird's-eye view of the area immediately around the truck.

It’s a great option and it really helps when parking.

Called the DC07, the new engine is a six-cylinder four-valve affair that has an actual capacity of 6.7 litres. It was built in conjunction with Cummins but has around a hundred new parts to ‘Scania-ise’ it, with some, such as the new flywheel housing, mainly involved in interfacing with Scania’s modular system.

It has good low-rev, high-torque characteristics and a fixed geometry turbocharger, and it uses only selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for the exhaust gas after-treatment to meet Euro 6 compliance.

“The Scania DC07 is based on a well-known and robust six-cylinder engine,” said Anna Wingren, Assistant Chief Engineer, Scania R&D at the launch of the new engine.

“We’ve added Scania’s accumulated knowledge about advanced diesel engines, including our own technology, and developed a Scania platform offering unparalleled characteristics for applications where a torque level of up to 1200Nm is required."

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What is interesting is that compared to the nine-litre, five-cylinder engine that has been popular with owners in the applications that the DC07 is aimed at, there is a weight reduction of around 360kg, which is quite significant.

The DC07 is available in three power levels – 220hp, 250hp and 280hp – with corresponding torque figures of 1000Nm, 1100Nm and 1200Nm respectively.

Our test truck had the 280hp/1200Nm version with the maximum torque being delivered between 1050 and 1600rpm and max power at 1900rpm.

The torque curve is flat so that as the max torque falls away a bit, the max power figure is achieved.

“We had an extremely good starting point, which we have now transformed into a real Scania engine in all respects,” Anna Wingren said. “It’s silent, it has Scania’s ‘low rev/high torque’ philosophy and it is fuel-efficient – in fact, we’ve even managed to exceed the targets we set for ourselves.”

Wingren explained that the major watershed in the project was when the team decided to use Scania’s own control units to obtain just the right characteristics and ensure perfect integration with the Scania Opticruise transmission and the diagnostics program SDP3.

“That choice also allowed us to delete the EGR system and choose a robust, fixed-geometry turbocharger, just like the majority of our other Scania engines,” she said.

And so to the Opticruise transmission. It’s the same transmission as used in Scania’s big prime movers, so it shouldn’t be stressed by the ‘mere’ 1200Nm produced by the DC07.

It’s a transmission that we’re familiar with and it operates without fuss or fanfare. It shifts smoothly up through the gears with skip-shifts where necessary. It offers three driving modes: Economy (which is the default), Standard and Power.

I switched through these during our test and found Eco and Standard to be fine around town with Power getting called on out of town in the more hilly country where it held onto the gears a bit longer and had a bit more of a revvy kickdown for the upgrades.

Our test truck was fitted with a 3.08 diff ratio which had us cruising at 1600rpm at 100km/h – pretty much bang-on max torque.

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Commonality of cabs and other parts is a great thing for trucking. I can get into any of the Scania range of trucks and feel right at home. Apart from a few small changes to switchgear and instruments, they’re all the same and I can literally hop in and get driving.

This P280 was no different. Apart from the electronic park brake and the 360-degree camera tablet, and I think a slight change to the cruise control buttons on the steering wheel, this cab felt like home.

Although with this model you don’t have the Scania Retarder, there is a two-stage engine brake on the right-hand stalk just like the Retarder.

The engine brake isn’t as effective as the Retarder, but it does give 88kW of retardation which pulls the truck up a bit but not entirely.

That said, the brakes are terrific. I was told by one of the Scania Australia product guys that the brakes on this truck are virtually the same as those on the bigger prime movers with a far greater rating.

Ride and handling are top shelf. Scania has got it right with the suspension, and the steering is direct and tight with no ‘slop’ or vagueness in the steering at all. The truck feels sure-footed and safe on the road.

And it’s quiet. It really has a ‘big truck’ feel. That’s partly to do with the roominess in the cab, which is no illusion. We were told that the new DC07 is shorter than the 9-litre and hence the hump between the driver and the passenger is 95mm lower than the P-Series cabs with the five-cylinder engine.

Vision is another thing I took note of when I was driving the P280. The slim A-pillars are pulled back slightly, making way for the big wrap-around windscreen which gives more peripheral vision and is great in the city.

Power is there, but it’s not extraordinary. I’m not going to guild the lily and say it’s a stump-puller. But it’s certainly adequate for the job it’s designed for – urban, suburban and light country delivery or a bit of construction and infrastructure work.

You’re not going to use this truck for big linehaul jobs or serious truck-and-dog work, but for the owner/driver who wants a comfortable and capable truck and one that will stand the test of time with all its big-truck driveline and brakes, this could be just the thing.

Oh, and the fuel economy? Scania was saying that in testing with a truck loaded similarly to what we had, they were getting “better than 3.5km/litre”. Well, during our testing we got 24.9 litres/100km or 4.02 km/litre. That’s pretty damn good for a truck at 19.5 tonnes.

Specifications:
Scania P 280 6x2 rigid curtainsider
Engine: DC07 113 Euro 6
Configuration/capacity: six-cylinder, 7-litres (6.7-litre displacement)
Power: 280hp (206kW) at 1900rpm
Torque: 1200Nm (885lb-ft) at 1050 – 1600rpm
Bore and stroke: 107mm x 124mm
Compression Ratio: 17.1:1
Fuel System: Scania XPI Extra-High Pressure Injection, 4-valves per cylinder
Emission System: Scania SCR, DPF
Gearbox: GRS895 12-speed +2 crawler gears, Opticruise fully automated gear-change
Rear axle ratio: 3.08:1
Scania Opticruise Modes: Economy, Standard & Power
Cruise Control: Standard
Brakes: ABS/EBS7 disc brakes with Advanced Emergency Braking
Exhaust brake: 88 kW at 2500 rpm, two stage, operated via wand on steering column
Axle distance: 5550mm
Bogie distance: 1350 mm
Wheels: 22.5 x 8.25 steel
Tyres: Bridgestone 295/80R 22.5 regional drive pattern
Suspension: Air suspension front and rear with axle load display on dashboard
Fuel tanks: 300-litres (r), 47-litres (AdBlue)