About a week ago, we put out a video going
over commercial trucks, semi trucks, tractors, whatever you want to call them, why they all use
inline six engines and why previously, you know, some older ones, they had used V8s and some other
configurations, but why all pretty much all modern trucks used inline six engines. And most of that
revolves around torque, ease of maintenance, and lack of size limitations. But that got me
thinking, there's no size limitations because trucks here in the US can be huge, because our
roads are very wide. But what about other places, like Europe, for example where the roads are
much smaller and there are size limitations? You couldn't just stick a massive Peterbilt on some
Italian road and hope for the best. On top of that, that last video that I had just mentioned,
got a ton of comments mentioning Scania, who is a company that I personally had not heard
of because they're not really here in the US, they have no presence here. But overseas
they are massive. So, with that in mind, let's take a deep dive into Scania trucks
and why they use a V8 configuration as opposed to pretty much every other
commercial truck maker who uses an inline six. Before we look at why Scania uses the V8, why
they developed it, and why they still use it, we should briefly take a look at the differences
between American commercial trucks and European or basically anywhere else commercial trucks, because
there's a big difference between those two. If you look at US trucks, they're almost all conventional
style, meaning the engine is in front of the cab. Ultimately, that means that the trucks here in
the US are pretty big and like, for example, sleeper cab trucks, which not only have the
engine in front of the cab but also have a massive sleeper as part of the cab, which makes
the total wheelbase massive. The massive size of these trucks isn't an issue in the US, like I
mentioned before, because our roads are very wide, so maneuverability isn't necessarily at a
premium over things like comfort, cab space, ease of maintenance, and most importantly
fuel economy, because many of these trucks are traveling hundreds of miles per day, unless you're
talking about something like a day cab truck, although those can see some pretty serious mileage
too. On the other hand, in places like Europe, where the roads are generally much smaller,
even outside the city roads over there are pretty small as compared to roads here. On
top of that, intracity roads are even smaller and so maneuverability is at a premium over
absolutely everything else, which is why trucks in Europe are pretty much all cab over or
cab forward, however you want to call it. Now a cab over or cab forward truck, is a truck where
instead of having the engine in front of the cab, the cab is essentially on top of the engine.
Now this helps save space, because the truck can be much shorter. The point is that the trucks
in Europe are much shorter, because they need extra maneuverability, especially in city.
With that out of the way, let's take a look at where the Scania V8 came from and to do that
we need to rewind the clock to the late 1960s, which is when they introduced the 350
horsepower 14 liter V8 turbo diesel engine, known as the DS14. Up until that point, Scania
had done things such as building cars, bicycles, industrial engines, buses, fire trucks, and a lot
more. Really, up until their V8 engine release, you could argue that they didn't have a brand
image or something to remember them for. Sure, they were interesting and they were a cool little
swedish company, but there was nothing really special about them. I think it's also worth noting
that they technically had a V8 engine prior to 1969 through a partnership with Mack, but that's
relatively unimportant to this story, so we're not going to get into it. Now, there are a few reasons
for releasing a V8 engine, as opposed to what they already had. A big one is packaging, which we
went over in the last video with the inline six engines. But, to briefly recap, a cab over truck
doesn't have as much engine compartment space as a conventional truck and V engines are more
space efficient than in-line engines, which means switching to a V8 engine helps save cab space,
which is at a premium in cab over trucks because you're basically sitting on top of the engine. An
interesting thing to note about that original 14 liter engine, is that it blew the doors off
of everything else in Europe at that time, producing 350 horsepower, when most other options
only produce 250 to 260 horsepower. With more power, you can haul heavier loads at higher
speeds, meaning you can get more work done and get paid more. Not only that, it was determined
that a more powerful truck that could cruise at higher speeds actually improved highway safety,
as overtaking it when you were in a normal car was easier, because the speed differential between the
truck and the car wasn't so exaggerated. In 1976 the DS14 was upgraded to 375 horsepower and then
the power continued to be upgraded throughout the years. Now, if we were to take a massive jump
forwards to today, Scania is still using the V8 engine configuration, although now they are
past the DS14 engine platform and the power levels are pretty insane with their current top
of the line engine that they released in 2020, producing 770 horsepower and 2200 feet of
torque. But, the question is, why did they stick with a V8 this whole time? Well, there are
a few reasons, but a big one is simply heritage. It's ultimately something that helped give their
brand a unique identity. Packaging is another one, as though there are significantly more size
constraints in a cab over truck, especially one that needs to be super maneuverable and to scoot
around tight European roads. That being said, the V8 configuration that Scania uses isn't nearly
as balanced as an inline six, it has to share bearing space on the crank, and it doesn't have
quite as much stroke as an inline-six engine. That being said, the DC16, which is the 770 horsepower
engine that I was talking about a moment ago, that engine has a bore of a 130 millimeters by
154 millimeters, so they are still able to get a fairly long stroke out of this engine, although
it's not as extreme as something like a Cummins X15. Really though, for Scania, it almost all
comes down to heritage. The V8 diesel is what helped grow their brand to new heights and it's
what their customers expected them to continue with. They've had plenty of chances to switch to
an inline-six engine, but they've stuck with their roots and as such, they've built quite a following
in Europe, as well as other parts of the world. You could argue that they are the most popular
truck brand in Europe, but the point is they stuck with their V8 configuration and even though
an inline six might have more pros on paper, the cons of the V8 configuration can be and have
been covered with good engineering from Scania. Their current engine platform, which is the DC16,
is about as advanced as any engine out there in terms of the commercial truck world. It uses
dual overhead cams, four valves per cylinder, and a fully gear driven system, and really a lot
of the parts are parts that you could find on an inline six engine, which meant that the DC16 was
a lot more modular than previous engine platforms, which simply makes it better in pretty much every
single way. Now, if you're like me and you're wondering why isn't Scania here in the US, um,
they actually were here in the US at one point, but they simply really can't compete with
other truck manufacturers, especially the fact that Scania pretty much completely moved
over to a cab over design and here in the US, cab over trucks are pretty much non-existent. We
had them here at one point, but with safety and aerodynamics in mind, a conventional truck is a
lot more popular. And on top of that, the way that the US has set up the roads and the requirements
for it, actually punishes shorter wheelbase trucks. So something like a cab over actually has
a less favorable length to weight ratio. If you guys enjoyed this video, be sure to give it a big
thumbs up. If you think there's anything I left out or if you're somebody out there who drives a
Scania truck or you're just a big fan of Scania, drop a comment down below let me know all about
your experiences with them and their engines. Be sure to check out some of the other videos on
the channel and I'll see you guys in the next one.
