Volvo FMX

The FMX is Volvo’s construction truck, launched in its current form in February 2020 on an entirely new cab platform; Volvo’s release of 4 March 2021 says the FMX, with the FH, FH16 and FM, was then entering serial production, the Tuve plant in Gothenburg first, in March 2021. Volvo’s overview names what the truck is built around: “a driven front axle, generous ground clearance, and axles to carry heavy loads”. Volvo lists it for building and construction, mining and quarry, forest and timber, fire and rescue, and public services and utilities, and its overview describes the truck in one line: it “is made to take you where others can’t, whether there’s a road or not”.

Cabs

Six cabs are listed: day, low day, sleeper, low sleeper, Globetrotter and crew cab. Volvo says the low day cab “is needed for applications such as mining, refrigerated bodies, pumps and cranes”, and that the low sleeper’s lowered roof “provides added load space above the cab”.

Volvo’s specification page gives an interior height for each: 164 cm for the day and sleeper cabs (120 cm over the engine compartment cover), 148 cm for the low day and low sleeper cabs (104 cm over the engine compartment), 201 cm for the Globetrotter (157 cm over the engine compartment cover), and 159 cm for the crew cab, which Volvo says seats up to nine.

Two diesel families, eight power steps

Volvo’s UK specification table lists two diesel engines for the FMX, and its power/torque table gives a kilowatt and a newton-metre figure for every step of each. Volvo’s FMX specification pages for other markets list other steps and emission levels: the Australian page has no 330 hp D11 and adds a 380 hp D13, and the South African page lists Euro 3 and Euro 5 engines beside Euro 6 ones. This page follows the UK one.

The same UK page also lists gas-powered FMX data sheets. The one for the 4x2 tractor (FMX 42T LA2) gives a G13 gas engine of 12.8 litres at 420 hp as standard and at 460 and 500 hp as options. This page and its record cover the diesel engines only.

The D11 is the 10.8-litre. Four steps, 246–338 kW, 1,600–2,200 Nm.

The D13 is the 12.8-litre. Four more steps, 309–397 kW, 2,100–2,600 Nm.

Volvo’s table also gives each engine’s internal dimensions: a stroke of 152 mm and a bore of 123 mm for the D11, 158 mm and 131 mm for the D13, both at a compression ratio of 18.0:1. It also gives an “economy revs” band for each — 1,000–1,500 r/min for the D11, 900–1,400 r/min for the D13.

Both are six-cylinder, and on that page both are Euro VI — Volvo’s table writes it “Euro 6” — and Volvo footnotes both output columns “Net output according to: EC 582/2011”, the net measurement basis explained in how truck power figures are measured.

Volvo’s table also gives each engine two grades of engine braking, and the D13 is the stronger at each: an exhaust brake effect of 175 kW against the D11’s 155 kW, and an engine brake effect of 340 kW against 270 kW, all four quoted at 2,300 r/min. The data sheets give the engine brake other figures: the FMX11 sheet offers the Volvo engine brake, code EBR-VEB, with “retardation 300kW”, and the two FMX13 sheets offer only an enhanced version, EBR-VEB+, with “Max Retardation D13-375kW”; none of the three gives an engine speed. Volvo’s table asterisks the engine brake row “option” and states no fitment for the exhaust brake; on all three Great Britain data sheets cited here the exhaust brake, code EBR-EPG, and the engine brake are listed under optional equipment. How exhaust brakes, engine brakes and retarders differ is set out in retarders and engine braking.

Transmission

Volvo offers three families of gearbox on the FMX: the I-Shift automated 12-speed (AT2412, AT2612, ATO2612), the I-Shift Dual Clutch (SPO2812), and the Powertronic 6-speed torque converter (PT2106, PT2606). I-Shift is offered with crawler gears and with ultra-low crawler gears, and it is the two FMX13 Great Britain data sheets cited here, not the specification table, that give the ratios: 19:1 in the direct-top box and 17:1 in the overdrive for the crawler, 32:1 in either box for the ultra-low.

Volvo’s specification page also lists power take-off options in the same Powertrain grouping as the gearboxes: engine-mounted units — PTER-DIN, driving a hydraulic pump directly, and PTER1400 and PTER100, both with a flange connection — and clutch-dependent units — PTR-F, PTR-FL/FH, PTR-D/DM/DH, and the dual-drive PTRD-F, PTRD-D, PTRD-D1 and PTRD-D2 — at low, medium or high revs, for hydraulic-pump attachment front, rear or both. The same page says that I-Shift can be fitted with a power take-off and that Powertronic can be factory-fitted with one.

Axles, suspension and brakes

The data sheets on Volvo’s UK specification page cover ten configurations, from 4x2 to 10x6; Volvo names 4x4, 6x6, 8x6 and 10x6 as those with a driven front axle. The notation is explained in axle configurations explained.

Volvo’s rear suspension table names each type by a code — RAD, RADT, RAPD, RADD, RAPDT and RADDT, among others — across a parabolic/multi-leaf family, a conventional-leaf family and an air-suspended majority, each row giving its own axle or bogie load, a single- or hub-reduction split, and, for the multi-axle codes, the pusher or tag axle it pairs with. Loads on the table run from 12 t on the lightest solo type, RAD-G4, to 38 t on the heaviest tandem, RADD-TR3.

Volvo publishes a rear axle table: single-reduction types with an RSS or RTS code and hub-reduction types with RSH or RTH, each with a maximum axle or bogie load and its own “GCW approval”. The RSS1344C/E carries a 44 t approval; the RTH3815, listed for a 38 t maximum load, carries 150 t. The 2020 launch release gave the same figures: the heaviest addition to the chassis range was a 38-tonne bogie allowing a gross combination weight of up to 150 tonnes. Single and hub reduction are defined in axle ratios and final drive, which uses the FMX’s specification page among its examples. Volvo’s powertrain combinations table, further down the same page, pairs every rear axle it lists against every diesel engine column it has, with one exception: the RSH1365 is not marked against the D13 540 hp column.

The 150 t figure is a rear axle approval. The gearbox has its own approval, and no gearbox in Volvo’s table reaches 150: the highest figure there is 100 t, which the table gives the ATO2612 I-Shift. Volvo’s table calls these figures GCW approvals, while the Great Britain data sheet for the FMX13 6x4 tractor plates that tractor at 44,000 kg gross combination weight and gives its standard drive axle, the RTS2370A, a “design GCW” of 70 tonnes — a different figure again from the 80 t the specification page’s rear axle table approves for the same RTS2370A code — against a 100-tonne design GCW for that sheet’s three optional axles, RTH2610B, RTH2610F and RTS2310A. The weight terms themselves are covered in gross vehicle and gross combination weight.

Its maximum front axle load runs to 10 tonnes, or 20 tonnes with dual front axles — a capacity, not a plate: the FMX13 8x4 rigid data sheet plates its two front axles at 16,000 kg and carries the 20-tonne pair as an ordering option. Pusher axles are offered at up to 9 tonnes, fixed or actively steered; tag axles at up to 10 tonnes, fixed with single or dual wheels, self-steered or actively steered.

Volvo’s base brake system is EBS (Electronically-controlled Brake System), which it says is standard on all specifications and is available for disc brakes and, on a selected range of configurations, Z-cam drum brakes. An EBS Medium package can be added on top, with auto hold (holding the last applied braking pressure once the truck has stopped, until the driver presses the accelerator), brake-lining-wear analysis on disc brakes, and, with the I-Shift gearbox, automatic parking-brake release when the driver selects a gear and presses the accelerator. Further options on the same page: ESC (Electronic Stability Control), which brakes each wheel individually to counter jack-knifing, rollover and trailer swing, offered for two-, three-, four- and five-axle vehicles; a stretch brake, which pulses the trailer brakes to reduce jack-knifing risk; and a gearbox-mounted hydraulic retarder rated at a maximum 440 kW.

Dimensions and weights

Volvo offers four chassis heights — Med at approximately 900 mm, High at approximately 1000 mm, X-High at approximately 1200 mm and XX-High at approximately 1240 mm — and quotes 300 mm ground clearance for the construction rear air suspension.

Fuel tanks are aluminium or steel, in volumes from 150 to 900 litres, with a maximum fuel volume of 1,510 litres on a 4x2 tractor; trucks with double front axles carry a plastic tank between the front axles instead. AdBlue tanks run from 32 to 112 litres, plastic, with the AdBlue pump built into the tank module.

The combination weight discussed above belongs to one named vehicle, the FMX13 6x4 tractor on rear air suspension, plated in Great Britain at 26,000 kg gross vehicle and 44,000 kg gross combination. The 8x4 rigid on the same suspension is plated at 32,000 kg gross vehicle against a design figure of 37,000 kg. Each of the three data sheets cited here adds that “Legal weights can differ from country to country.”

Safety and driver-assistance systems

Volvo says Automatic Traction Control engages the driven front axle when it is needed and disengages it when the terrain permits, and it is standard on every configuration that has one. But Volvo Dynamic Steering — the active steering system that, in Volvo’s words, enables remote-controlled External Steering, and which the 2020 launch release offered as an option with Lane Keeping Assist and Stability Assist — is available for every axle configuration except those with a driven front axle.

Source notes

The combination weight above belongs to one named vehicle: the FMX13 6x4 tractor on rear air suspension, plated in Great Britain at 26,000 kg gross vehicle and 44,000 kg gross combination. The FMX13 8x4 rigid on the same suspension is plated at 32,000 kg gross vehicle against a design figure of 37,000 kg, and its two front axles at 16,000 kg plated and design alike, with the 20-tonne front pair an ordering option on that sheet. Approved combination weight follows the axle and the gearbox rather than the model name: the rear axle table runs from 44 t on the RSS1344C/E to 150 t on the 38-tonne RTH3815 — the launch release and the model overview call a 38-tonne unit a bogie, the rear-axle-ratio table lists the RTH3815 under tandem axles, and the “Axle” cell of the rear axle table says Solo — and the ATO2612 I-Shift is approved to 100 t. Volvo quotes 300 mm ground clearance for the construction rear air suspension. Engine braking in the UK specification table, both engines quoted at 2,300 r/min: exhaust brake effect 155 kW on the D11 and 175 kW on the D13, engine brake effect 270 kW and 340 kW. The GB data sheets give the engine brake other figures, with no engine speed: “retardation 300kW” for the Volvo engine brake (EBR-VEB) on the FMX11 sheet FMX 84RF 1A, and “Max Retardation D13-375kW” for the enhanced EBR-VEB+ on the FMX13 sheets FMX 64T 3A and FMX 84RF 3A. The specification table marks the engine brake row an option and states no fitment for the exhaust brake; all three GB data sheets mark the exhaust brake, code EBR-EPG, and the engine brake optional equipment. Crawler ratios come from the two FMX13 sheets, FMX 64T 3A and FMX 84RF 3A: ASO-C 19:1 direct-top and 17:1 overdrive, ASO-ULC 32:1 in either box.