Volvo invented the articulated hauler and now they have perfected it. The 50 tonne A50 is here to crush production targets and rewrite the rulebook.
If there is one brand that owns the articulated hauler market it is Volvo. They invented the concept back in the sixties with "Gravel Charlie" and they have been leading the pack ever since. But for a long time the A40 was the big dog. It was the standard. But mines and quarries wanted more. They wanted to move more dirt with fewer trucks. They asked for a fifty tonner. Volvo listened and they delivered the A50.
- The Capacity Game
1. Moving from forty tonnes to fifty tonnes does not sound like a huge jump but let us do the math.
2. That is a twenty five percent increase in payload per trip.
3. If you run four trips an hour that is forty extra tonnes moved per hour per truck.
4. Over a ten hour shift you are moving four hundred extra tonnes.
5. Multiply that by a fleet of five trucks and you are talking about massive productivity gains.
And the crazy thing is that the fuel burn does not go up by twenty five percent. It stays remarkably low thanks to the new drive train.
- Under the Hood
The A50 is powered by a sixteen liter Volvo engine that is basically a train locomotive engine. It produces massive torque at low RPM. But the secret sauce is the transmission. Volvo builds their own transmissions and they are perfectly matched to the engine. The shifts are smooth and the logic is smart. It knows if you are going uphill or downhill and it picks the perfect gear every time.
- The Operator Office
Volvo always prioritizes the operator and the A50 is no exception. The cab is centrally mounted which gives the best feeling of the machine. The noise levels are lower than in a luxury car. The seat is air suspended and fully adjustable.
Ease of Control: The dump lever is fingertip controlled.
Visibility: The hood slopes down so you can see right in front of the wheels.
Safety: It has on board weighing so you can see exactly how much you are carrying. No more guessing. No more overloading. No more underloading.
- Off Road Capability
The magic of an articulated hauler is that it can go where rigid trucks cannot. The A50 has a rotating hitch that allows the tractor and the trailer to move independently. You can have the tractor leaning one way and the trailer leaning the other and all six wheels stay on the ground. This means you can work in mud and in rain and on steep grades where other trucks would just spin their wheels and get stuck.
For a quarry owner sticking with articulated trucks instead of moving to rigids means you do not have to maintain perfect haul roads. Rigids need highways. The A50 is happy on a dirt track. That saves money on graders and water trucks. It is a versatile beast that fits into almost any operation and boosts the bottom line immediately.