Always standing out, a tractor and semi-trailer in one and the same company livery, thus forming a harmonious couple. Certainly in the superbly, two-tone outfit of the Patrick van den Hoeven hauling company. And without exception, all their ultimate driving machines are V8-powered Scanias.
‘I’m allowed to do anything’. That’s what it says on Beefy’s sun visor, anyway.
The 2018, 650 DIN-hp tractor was imported into the Netherlands in the summer of 2025, after which it got the typical Van den Hoeven makeover. The Scania has a 6×2/4 drivetrain, so with a steering pusher axle.
Bulk-Head is a brand new Feldbinder pneumatic tank trailer for transporting dry bulk materials. The German manufacturing company was founded in 1975 by Otto Feldbinder.
The tank has a capacity of 40 m³ (1,413 ft³), the Feldbinder’s registered payload capacity is 37,560 kg (82,806 lbs). The rig’s job is hauling cement. Dry, not sweet. Huh-huh.
Always enjoyable to see a trucking company that fits out and maintains their fleet so immaculately and professionally, especially when featured is a Scania with a Big Dog V8 with original roots in the US of A. I do wish that Scania still had its association with SAAB as it once did, however.
The ‘original roots’ engine was a 14.2 liter V8 with 350 hp, introduced in 1969. The current one (also rumbling in the article’s tractor) is a 16.4 liter V8, available up to 770 hp.
Note that massive four-stroke V8 and V10 diesels (way beyond 14.2 liter displacement, by the way) were quite common in the European trucking scene in the seventies and eighties. Magirus-Deutz even offered a V12, albeit air-cooled.
But these days, Scania is the last V8-turbodiesel-man standing in the western world of on-road transport. Thus, their USP. However, Volvo now offers a 780 hp, 17.3 liter inline-six. Power- and displacement-wise, Volvo’s USP. For the time being, anyway.
At least it was Scania helping Saab to get the turbo hooked to their B-engine (itself a derivative of the Triumph Slant-4), resulting in the first turbocharged car which could be driven by ordinary people instead of racing and rally drivers.
If IKEA built Mack engines…
IVECO did introduce a 17.2 litre V8 to replace the one they inherited from UNIC.
This was before turbocharging became the default choice resulting in ‘downsizing’ – there was a bit of divided loyalties over those things.
The Japanese also offered huge V12s. They were usually indirect-injected because they were too polite to make an unpleasant noise.
We get a few V8 Scania forestry wagons going past and the sound is unmistakable.
Bit of a sucker for a Scania. Had a Scania-Vabis brochure off a neighbour when I was young and became infected.
In the late eighties and into the nineties, ‘upsizing’ was the solution to go beyond 450 and later on 500 hp. Think DAF 95.500 (14 liter Cummins), MAN F90/F2000 (Mercedes/MAN V10 engine), and Volvo F16. Not to mention the Renault AE Magnum with a Mack V8…
Is the passenger a Viking? A small one !
….
Once again, love to read your information. Thanks so much.