Snow Go Area

How do artic and tipper versions of the Scania family handle in tricky conditions? We sent our man to Norway to put them to the test and to pick up winter driving tips

During the latest of Scania’s winter driving demonstration events in Norway, we got to sample a variety of different types of vehicle in realistic northern European conditions. Scandinavia isn’t immune from the unpredictable climate that we are experiencing, and we feared the worst when we arrived at Oslo airport to discover that it was warmer than Gatwick.

However, by the time we’d travelled 150 miles north-east to the ski resort of Trysil, there was just enough snow to make it meaningful.

Artics: R500 & S730

Probably our most significant drive was of a pair of next-generation artics, an R500 compared with the flagship S730. Both were 6x2 tag-axle tractors hauling tri-axle trailers loaded to the normal Norwegian limit of 50 tonnes. The public roads used provided a challenging mixture of fast highway with mixed dry and hard-packed ice sections and back roads of compacted snow, with significant climbs and descents.

One area where non-EU Norway differs from most European countries, even Nordic ones, is that it allows full axle lifting to give the maximum available traction to get out of trouble in conditions where failure to proceed could literally be a matter of life or death.

It did seem rather alien to be driving on the public highway with the weight display showing just over 20 tonnes on the drive axle, not to mention the 50 tonnes gross. The lift is progressive; the longer you press the top of the button, the more weight is transferred, the reverse being obtained by pressing the bottom. Without the axle lift, moving away from a standstill could be impossible, even on the level, with the R500 driven first. However this traction is at the expense of steering grip, so progress in tricky conditions is a constant balancing act between the two.