Bigger and better is the short description for Volvo’s new VT 880 and its D16 engine. Combining style and power into one impressive package, Volvo has the most powerful EPA-certified truck engine in the North American market. And one of the most innovative owner-operator trucks to come along in a while.

The people at Volvo Trucks North America recently arranged an interesting test drive to show off their new hardware. Hills were the main item on the agenda, and Volvo’s test course had lots of them. Not that it mattered — the D16 made short work of them all.

We ran three trucks (two 625-hp versions and a 550) out of Volvo headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., north on U.S. Highway 52 toward Mount Airy, and then up I-77’s Fancy Gap hill. From there, we strolled along I-81 to Bristol, Tenn., and then headed south on U.S. Highway 19/23 into Asheville, N.C. The return trip was a leisurely ride back to Greensboro, eastbound on I-40, notorious not for its large grades but for the endless rolling hills that demand lots of shifting from lesser engines.

Torque is the key to this engine’s hill-flattening power. In the Scandinavian countries where the D16 was born, trucks haul up to 132,000 lb on eight axles, and road speed is limited to 90 km/h by law. Drivers can’t improve transit times by going faster, so the alternative is to make time on the hills where a slow pull might otherwise cost them. Here in North America, speed has been king for years, so we’re not used to thinking of engine output in terms of torque. But when you see and feel what gobs of torque can do for you, you’ll be hooked.

It’s About Torque

Imagine pulling Fancy Gap — loaded to 79,000 lb — at 50 mph? That’s what I did with a six-and-a-quarter D16. Fancy Gap, located on the Virginia/N.C. border on I-77, is a six-mile climb of over 1500 ft — with a grade of 4.5 percent. Starting from a dead stop in the rest area at the bottom of the hill, I got into seventh gear and ran at 1100 rpm all the way to the top — right at peak torque, where the engine is at its most fuel efficient. I was able to upshift from seventh low to seventh high on the flattish section about mid-way up. I was gaining ground there, too, but had to drop back to seventh low when we got to another steep section.

‘Lugging’ the engine for so long during the climb might be a bit unnerving to some, but that’s what it’s designed to do. There was a very real sense that as it drifted lower and lower in the rpm range, the power came on stronger and stronger.

On other occasions during the trip, when beginning a short climb on a rolling hill, almost instinctively I’d reach for the splitter as the revs began to drop. But I checked myself, deciding instead to let the D16 pull, like it was designed to. Sure enough, from a cruise speed of 1450 or so, the revs dropped to around 1200 or 1100 and the thing just hunkered down and pulled over the top. Drivability is superb with this engine, if you can leave the old habits at the door when you climb behind the wheel. Leave the shifter alone and let the engine work to its potential. All you have to do is manage road speed according to where the engine works most economically.

At a road speed of 110 km/h, I never made a single downshift on the eastbound leg of the trip from Asheville to Greensboro. I got right down to the peak torque several times — around 1000-1100 rpm — and on a few occasions would have had to shift had the hill been a little taller.

On the other side of the D16’s power scale, its 625 hp was more or less lost on me. I don’t drive fast, and so I’m not inclined to push the engine up into the high side of the power band. It strolled along quite comfortably at 110 km/h, but it went up to 140 km/h with ease. Speeds like that demand a high rate of fuel input, which precipitates a high rate of cash output — just not my style.

Using that kind of power for an 80,000-lb load seems excessive, but I could make a pretty solid case for the D16 here in Canada, with our tridems, quads, and super-Bs. That’s a lot of weight to drag around. Having the power to do it can only be seen as a plus. The principle advantage to an engine like this lies in having the power to pull the weight against a prairie headwind or the rolling terrain in New Brunswick, not necessarily making all that weight go faster.

At the end of the trip, we fueled the trucks to get an economy reading, and the two six-and-a-quarters managed a reasonable (U.S.) 5.33 mpg. We didn’t get a reading on the truck with the 550-hp engine because it started the trip about three-quarters full of fuel, throwing off the readings.

Brawn and Brains
As you might imagine, 2250 lb ft of torque spun through a 14.4:1 ratio in low gear can get the driveline people sweating. Not so with Volvo’s Intelligent Torque, or I-Torque, torque-management system. Torque is at its most benign in the upper gears. But in the lower side of the gearbox, excessive torque can do driveline damage. So I-torque electronically limits torque output in the lower gears (low to third) to 1850 lb ft; 2050 lb ft in the middle gears (third-high to fifth-low); and opens up to full output in the remaining gears. Output varies with the engine rating, but the principle is the same: output is limited in lower gears to protect the driveline. This makes a lighter driveline possible, saving the customer weight and money.

Out on the Boulevard
Before we left headquarters, I noticed that the shorter of the three trucks, the one with the 550 under the hood, had the fifth wheel set to center between the drive axles. I questioned whether we’d scale it legally. The scale ticket showed 11,800 lb on the steer axle and 33,400 on the drives. Legal …and smooth. The VT 880’s front-axle position is nearly a foot ahead of the VN 780’s, the cab is set back eight inches from its traditional position. This makes for better balance, a lighter front-end, and optimal fifth-wheel positioning.

The thing handles like a cat with glue on its feet, really. I can say that at several points along the way, weaving through a turn or coming off a ramp and powering up to highway speed, the combination of sure-footedness, solid power, and the smooth-shifting Eaton 18-speed gave the VT 880 the feel of a much smaller and nimbler sports car.

From the street, the hood looks large. From behind the wheel, it’s surprisingly unobtrusive. Visibility suffers just a little on the right front corner down by the wheel, but it’s nothing a fender-mounted convex mirror wouldn’t cure.

There’s a lot more small stuff engineered into the VT 880 and the D16 engine than we have space to cover here. Suffice to say that Volvo delivers on its traditional commitment to comfort and safety, while taking a bold step forward in owner-operator styling without sacrificing operating efficiency. A lot has gone into the design to make life a little more comfortable and a little less like work. The payoff comes in using all that power to improve the quality of life on the road while getting the job done more efficiently.