Road Test
THE CHANCE TO TEST VOLVO’S NEWEST FLAGSHIP FH16 ON A RUN THROUGH WA’S PILBARA TO BROOME WAS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO BREAK OUT OF THE NORMAL TEST ROUTES ON THE EASTERN SEABOARD AND TO SEE HOW THE UPDATED GLOBETROTTER COPES IN THE OUTBACK.
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he road stretched on toward the horizon, flat, desolate and barren. Away in the distance, the smudge of ochre coloured low hills framed the landscape like a natural fence. It was one of those scenes that really underlines what a vast place Australia really, is and emphasised the huge distances we have to traverse to deliver goods and necessities to people across the Wide Brown Land. We were riding in Volvo’s latest FH16, the big banger 700 horsepower XXL cab prime mover. Behind us was a B-Double rig, with the whole shebang grossing just on 60 tonnes, an easy task for the big Swede. This truck in fact had, the previous day, been pulling a 100 tonne road train in some loops out of Karratha, with no
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less than the President of Volvo Australia, Martin Merrick steering the machine, in what was the Scotsman’s first time behind the wheel of a Road Train. Our mission was to drive from Karratha to Broome in what was a relay for the Australian truck trade press. Other colleagues had handled legs up from Perth to the Iron Ore capital of the Pilbara. We had the leg to Broome, and still others would pilot on from Broome to Kunanurra. It was great to be able to get out and test a truck in the real outback, and not just the usual run up and down the Pacific or Hume. However above all else it was great to be able to be properly testing a truck given all the Covid issues we have faced in the past 18 months, and little did we know, we would face even
worse just a few weeks later with more lockdowns and restrictions. Despite a crack of dawn start in Karratha, we would be held up for a short time at the yards of Heather Jones’ Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls, as Heather, always the Volvo ambassador, asked if she could give a local potential customer a spin in the new truck, before it disappeared north and then back across the continent to home base in Brissie. The hold up was a small price to pay, and after all the purpose of this whole exercise was for Volvo to get the word out and sell more trucks. As it was, we hit the road north around 7am, quickly getting into an easy canter up the bitumen, bound for Broome 850 km up the track. It may have only been about the same distance
