A couple of pictures from the Swedish forum ***********.net. Photos by *********** member Eldeby. This is just a field-test-machine, and might not be the final version. But the engine-hood is a fold-up type just like cat, and the TP-linkage is replaced by a cat-type. A college of mine worked on the same site as this machine for a couple of weeks ago, and he said that when stockpiling crushed rock on 3rd level of the pile, the Volvo 250G held 22km/h upwards, when a cat 972G II climbed in 7km/h. Might be ********.. I'm just saying what they said.
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GREAT FIND, very intersting!
Damn, i'm just getting my head around the F series and then they do this :beatsme Will probably be some time before we get it out here. Looks the business though!
The first 180F with the lock up converter was delivered to a customer over here, some time ago. They reported the same difference in the speed uphill, inside a tunnel in the quarry. Starts to look like a Liebherr though..The 220 is ready for replacement too.
They look pretty cool, kinda a cross between CAT and Liebherr. The lockup TC would be a nice thing to have. Don't have enough experience with Volvo loaders to judge for myself but Coalburner's issues with his big volvos scared me off them. Hopefully these ones won't have such reliability issues. CAT ought to add lockup TCs to their 924-988 loaders (but they should make it such that the transmission would still work well enough to finish a job in event of computer failure).
Awesome! Next few years will prove interesting. Everyone's stepping up their game in wheel loaders. And it's curious to note that the G-series apparently offers a Z-bar linkage -- long time no see, Volvo!
Just like with excavators every year something comes out that is bigger and better. Next year will be the "H" series. I have an excavator I bought and it was a good 13 years old but ran like a champ at the fraction of the cost of a newer one. It does look like Cat and Liebherr got together and had a baby. As far as reliability it has good reviews so take it for what its worth.