A Volvo VN 630, powered by a D12 engine, recently retired with celebrity status among the drivers and mechanics of AAA Cooper Transportation (ACT). The truck logged 1.5 million miles in seven years without an engine overhaul.
“Volvo engines are designed for long-running performance and AAA Cooper always takes great care of their vehicles,” said Greg Holderfield, director of product reliability for Volvo Trucks North America and ACT’s first account representative. “We design all our engine components with the goal of longer life – even so, it’s impressive that this particular truck has logged 1.5 million miles without any significant work on the engine.”
The vehicle was placed into service in May 2003 by the Dothan, Alabama-based company. Logging as many as 250,000 miles a year, ACT sleepers are usually traded out around 1.25 million miles.
“By the time most trucks reach their trade cycle, they’ve had at least one engine overhaul, but this one hadn’t,” said Will Davis, fleet maintenance advisor for ACT. “The only thing we replaced was the #2 injector in 2009.”
Mack Dove, the owner of the business, took notice of the truck’s record and wanted to see how far the engine would go before it quit. ACT kept the truck in service and the long-running truck soon became a point of pride for the drivers.
The truck’s engine had never even been opened up and was still going strong when it reached 1.5 million miles in September.
“The truck still runs and looks great,” said Holderfield.
With the truck now out of service, ACT has given it back to Volvo to review the engine’s longevity and continue to improve the correlation between engineering tests and real-world performance. At company headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina, Volvo engineers will be taking the truck apart to examine and analyze every line, hose, fitting and wiring connection.
“Our engineers are eager to see what the engine looks like on the inside and use that information to improve our product line moving forward,” Holderfield said. “Quality is at the heart of everything we do at Volvo Trucks. Our design, manufacturing and testing processes are extremely rigorous. We have other examples of high-mileage trucks, and view all of them as opportunities for continuous improvement.”
This Volvo VN 630 was retired from service by AAA Cooper Transportation (ACT) after logging 1.5 million miles in seven years without an engine overhaul.
Reid Dove, president of AAA Cooper Transportation (left), delivers the
VN 630 title and key to Greg Holderfield, director of product reliability for Volvo Trucks, so Volvo engineers can analyze its performance.
Volvo Trucks North America’s operations and products are guided by the company’s three core values: Safety, Quality and Environmental Care. The Volvo VN and VHD trucks are assembled in the United States at the New River Valley Plant in Dublin, Virginia, while Volvo engines for North America are assembled in Hagerstown, Maryland. Both plants are certified to ISO14001 environmental and ISO9001 quality standards.
Volvo Trucks North America is part of the Volvo Group, one of the world's leading manufacturers of trucks, buses and construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications, aerospace components and services, and one of the world's leading producers of heavy-diesel engines (9-16 liter). The Group also provides complete solutions for financing and service. The Volvo Group, which employs about 96,000 people, has production facilities in 19 countries and sells their products in more than 180 markets. Volvo Group sales for 2009 amounted to approximately $29 billion. The Volvo Group is a publicly-held company headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Shares are listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange and are traded OTC in the U.S.
November 22, 2010
For further information, please contact John Mies, Volvo Trucks North America, phone 336-393-4300, email john.mies@volvo.com
www.volvotrucks.us.com