Volvo vs Mercedes Benz buses

[Yogesh Sarkar]

To a degree it could also be due to the quality of diesel available.

[cbz xtreme]

I too have traveled on these Volvo buses on the Chennai - Trivandrum route.

Those that are meant for inter-city have the gear lever(1-2-3-4-5-6-R), while those that ply inside the city has a button push kinda gear system.

If you compare a Volvo with a ordinary AirBus (Air suspension), the Volvo misses out in the Ground clearance aspect. When coming from Trivandrum, the route after Thirunelveli(TN) had a lot of 4 lanning work going on. Invariable at every diversion, the some part of the underside of the bus would hit the last bit of tar on the road, the side body will be having a lots of broken steel on the side(because of the above reason). They are ment for plying on Express ways on not on roads where they are just beginning to tar.

Poor maintanance of the buses are there also. On my last trip from Trivandrum the back wheel set came out of its original position. The problem that the driver told was, the BALANCING ROD used in the rear suspension had given off . Thankfully the driver noticed the problem and we where going at a speed of 20kmph, else am sure it would have been a fateful day for me.

[linkon353]

ok. Lets touch the first part of ground clearance. You are right about that the volvos are made for running on nicely build express highways..not on dumpy roads. Now to say that we should know..it's india. We don't have enough of these express way everywhwer. Does that means volvos can't ply on humpy roads because of less ground clerance????does these swedish volvo makers don't know how to design a bus to suit our road conditions? Answer is they do...in volvo to negotiate with the bumpy roads there are three levels of ground clearance which can be adjusted just by the press of a button.parking level-having a ground clearance of 220 mm. Running level-which is suggested to run the bus a t igh speeds on like express ways at 300 mm. The third one is for the bumpy roads that is raised floor level=450 mm.at this level i don't think any humps or bumps in india cantouch the bus.and also you may be thinking that at this height what about the stability of the bus. So it has speed limit of 20 kmph only at this level. So next time you better tell your drivers to use these options. This is only not available in the old mark1 models launched in between 2000 to 2003.
Hope the drivers must be knowing theses

[linkon353]

Now coming to the point of gear system in city buses and coaches of volvo. Coach is having 7 gears (6 forward+1 reverse). While the buses which ply inside the city are having a automatic transmission with no gears. So it has got only 3 switches on dash board for forward, neutral and reverse. Loooks quite astonishing to see this beast running without any gears..hmmm???

[bunnypunia]

caught a volvo doing 117km/h

YouTube - Volvo B7R bus speed india shivneri

YouTube - Volvo B7R bus speed india shivneri

[pulsurge]

Also I've noticed that the size of the headlight has been shrinking. If am not wrong- I saw something like the projectors on the new B9R. Any idea on the wattage of the lights on the new Volvo's?

[bunnypunia]

they look like projectors, but arent..no idea abt the wattage though

[linkon353]

hi guys..really nice point to discuss. Now you must have seen the old volvos with the regular truct type square headlamps. we all must agree that the latest model-facelift(with a modified face and rear with fantastic tail lamps) that has been launched last year from volvos new body building plant looks much beautiful than the earlier version. Now in order to only enhance the aesthetics of the face volvo has moved from regular type headlamps to the new model that is called BEZEL LAMPS.Now there is no change in wattage as wattage of the headlamp is a statuotary govt requirement from ARAI.

[pulsurge]

Thanks again Linkon for the info. This word bezel is something new. Googled around for this term, but couldnt find anything much except some sale postings. Could you share some info on this? The new Volvos surely look more chik- but the front portion nowadays come black painted, giving an impression of a front engined bus- which somehow doesnt look good. It always looked good with a clean shave

BTW how come are you so well informed about Volvos? At first I thought you work for Volvo India :P

[linkon353]

hi pulse.. The bezel is just the mounting method of head lamp. See in regular regular busses there is some brackets mounted to chasis and head lamp is mounted to those brakets. In volvo there is a FRP (fibre reinforced plastic) front structure which is pasted / glued to the chasis and the head lamp bkts are inbuild in those frp. So head lamps are mounted on those which reduces the vibration of the lamps.

And regarding ur guess abt how i know this much, u r nerly there but there is one more reason to tthat, i travel everyday in volvo for 120 km per day