I am purchasing an other truck, I am looking at a 2006 Volvo 780. Both trucks have apprx 450,000 miles with an 10 speed Fuller auto shift trans. Which truck will get better mileage?
Which one will have better repair history? Any help on this matter would be much appreciated.

 

I have spoken with owners who really like their Volvo engines. I prefer engines that are not brand specific. The only way to find out about the repair or maintenance history is to ask for the records. If they are not available from the seller you can take the serial number from the engine and get the manufacturer to run the numbers for you. They can tell you about any repairs that were made at an authorized dealer.

Fuel mileage is mostly dependent on the driver, but if you want to check to see the mileage from each you can have them hook them up to a computer and they can show the average fuel mileage on a particular truck, whether it has ever run hot, how fast it has run, etc.,

 

I should be more specific: if someone has experience with the 2 different motors and they're experience with maintenance of the 2 motors, not the specific history of the truck I'm looking at. That question would also mean fuel mileage comparing the 2 different motors, not the specific trucks I'm looking at.

 

Apparently you didn’t speak to the Volvo owner I saw in the Kingman, AZ Speedco a couple of weeks ago. He had been sitting there for eight hours because the Speedco had lost a tiny little part off the fuel filter pick-up tube. According to the Speedco guy I talked to, the tube has a screw-on tip that holds a tiny ceramic pill-shaped piece into the end of the tube, Occasionally that tip will come off when the fuel filter is removed and either fall on the floor / ground or fall into the filter. Without that little part, the truck will not do much more than chug along at an idle. Speedco had shut down all but one lube bay and had every available employee searching for that little part for the better part of the day to no avail. What’s even better, is that they were claiming you can’t just replace that little lost part… you have to replace the whole filter assembly ($500 according to the Speedco tech)! For this reason alone, I’d be afraid to buy a Volvo engine. One tiny mistake while changing a fuel filter and you are in deep doo doo, apparently.

 

And I am sure that the only place to find that assembly is a Volvo dealer. Every truck manufacturer has some parts that are proprietary, but not something such as this that could so easily be lost or messed up. I would expect Speedco to replace it at their expense, since they are the ones who lost the part. That still leaves the driver sitting until they can find the part. I don't recall a dealer anywhere near Kingman, so they will need to find a dealer who has the part. It could take a day or longer to get a part.

 

According to the manager I was making small talk with, if they couldn’t find the part by closing time (which was less than an hour away at that point), they were planning on having the truck towed to the Flagstaff Volvo repair shop. They were also (obviously) going to have the driver put up in a motel until the repairs were completed which would be Monday at the earliest. I was curious how they planned to repair the o/o’s damaged reputation with the customer and if they were planning on putting a dollar figure on that loss of esteem.

I do as much of my own work as practical, but I more often than not use Speedco when I require service on the road simply because they are usually pretty quick at what they do. They often (as do other shops I’ve used) forget to lube a few points such as the spring hangers. The Kenley, NC shop once rotated tires on my truck and in the process mounted a Centramatic incorrectly. The Aurora, OR shop forgot to put my oil dipstick back in after a service. They overnighted the thing to the Indy Speedco for me and the shop there hooked me up with some free oil. The Kenley location basically told me to “F” off. This is the same location that once gave me oil sample numbers that were “0s” nearly across the board and then refused to believe me when I told them that brand new oil would show higher readings in many of the areas on their graph. I both called and left voicemail and emailed Speedco corporate about that Kenley incident and never heard a word back from anyone. I have always gotten great service at the Effingham, IL and Indy locations, so their problems aren’t corporate wide. My rule of thumb is to ALWAYS watch any of these lube shops (that includes Petros and TAs, too) to make as sure as possible that they aren’t screwing anything up.

 

Do they have same tire size and axle ratios?

 

They are identical in every way, drive ratio, tire size, year, mileage, etc.

 

My uncle has a VED12. It is the biggest P-O-S ever built. It spent more time in the shop than on the road.

Things wrong. Injectors - Dealer only and non in stock.
Turbo - same
Losing power - reflashed ECM. (2) it fixed it. :hellno:
tons of other dealer only parts that had to be ordered.
Thats the problem. if they had them in stock, he would be rolling. Not sure if its indicative of ALL dealers, but YMMV.

 

I currently drive an 07 Volvo 780 with the 06 Volvo D12 (with a 13 speed). The last company truck I had was a T-600 with the Cummins ISX.

I've not had any problem with injectors, turbo or ECM / loss of power with the D12 (240k miles so far). EGR valves needed replacing recently, under warranty, and two rocker arm roller things were peeling chrome so they replaced those and the crankshaft, also under warranty.

I like both engines, for different reasons. The Cummins had more pickup and took hills easier, but the Volvo seems to get better fuel economy. My own personal opinion is if there was to be an auto shift in the picture I would go with the Volvo i-shift for the D12 -- for one thing, it can automatically take the engine out of gear on slight downgrades and re-engage immediately when the grade changes or you touch the pedal. This can save a couple % of fuel economy. Also, the i-shift is a nice fold-away controller on the side of the driver's seat unlike the enormous Meritor box I've seen on the same model truck (looks like a shoe box, and same approximate size).

Good luck,

Jim