Dennis Eagle is one of Volvo Penta’s key engine customers — but as a manufacturer of on-road trucks, it’s an unusual one. The company is bringing its Euro 6 emissions legislation-compliant trucks to the market this month — with help from its friends at Volvo Penta.
For an off-road engine supplier, Volvo Penta has a pretty unique relationship with Dennis Eagle. While Volvo Penta’s main focus is on off-road engine sales, it also has a positive attitude toward on-road business opportunities on a case-by-case business — including companies like Dennis Eagle.
The largest producer of refuse trucks in Europe, UK-based Dennis Eagle has partnered with Volvo Penta since 2007 to install Volvo Powertrain engines in its equipment. Throughout this partnership, Volvo Penta has supplied more than 4,200 7-liter diesel engines to the company. Now with the coming of the new Euro 6 emissions legislation, Volvo Penta has begun providing the company with 8-liter engines equipped with 280 and 320 hp. The first Volvo Euro 6-equipped Dennis Eagle trucks are being delivered to customers in the UK at the end of February.
This unusual partnership between Volvo Penta, Volvo Powertrain and Dennis Eagle illustrates an important point — one that applies to all Volvo Penta partners, even the more traditional ones.
“When you work with Volvo Penta, you’re not just getting an engine,” says Application and Sales Engineer Helena Johansson, who is part of the Volvo Penta team working with Dennis Eagle. “Volvo Penta has the backing of the entire Volvo Group behind it. Our customers benefit from the Volvo Group’s R&D muscle and the proven technology that comes from the Group Trucks Technology (GTT) engineering division.”
Compliance complexity
Dennis Eagle’s products are unique to the industry due to their low entry — ideal for drivers who make frequent stops. Volvo Penta has been instrumental in helping Dennis Eagle develop these trucks so that they conform to the requirements of the new Euro 6 legislation. The company has been running the new Euro 6 engine in its prototype trucks for two years, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, particularly regarding engine power and low noise levels.
The complexity of Euro 6 — which came into effect January 2014 — has required a complete redesign of the vehicles’ electrical architecture and cab layout. Volvo Penta has been responsible for providing more than 100 Volvo and Renault parts and components — including electrical control units, instrument clusters, steering columns, throttle pedals and radios — to go along with the engine; that’s 10 times the number of parts that were required with the Euro 5. Volvo is also helping outfit a new, higher quality Dennis Eagle cab, supplying everything from steering columns to dashboards to steering wheels.
“In addition to providing these parts, we're supplying a lot of drawings and technical information to go with them," Helena says. "As the engine technology has grown in complexity, logistics have also become more complicated. But with our Volvo Group partnership, Volvo Penta is more than equal to the task.”
