Logging trucks tend to project an image of being at the rough-and-tough end of the transport business. Perhaps because even the smallest item in the load is a good-sized tree trunk, capable of mincing the flesh and bones of the unwary.

 The trucks that transport them have to mix it with heavy duty loading gear that can swing parcels of tree trunks around like a handful of pick-up sticks. And they have to battle through steep country and muddy forest ‘roads’ that barely qualify for that name.

It’s an environment you associate with the big, bonneted trucks with deep bumpers and chrome smokestacks. They have looks that suggest this is the only way you are going to be tough enough to handle it. To be fair that style of truck does dominate on the forestry roads in the central North Island. Lots of owners and drivers will tell you that a simple and strong approach makes a lot of sense and having a big engine in front of you is a kind of passive safety that also appeals to many.

But deep in the forest, things are changing. Many will concede European trucks have their merits. They have been fitted with driving aids and digital technologies that drivers of modern cars have come to expect, and a level of comfort and quiet that is entirely appropriate for super smooth European motorways. It has to be acknowledged too that the ever-tightening European emission standards are demanding increasing sophistication in engine management systems, which is forcing even the makers of big and simple engines down the European route. Either way there are more European trucks heading into forests here and, as a result, more drivers are finding the comfort they are known for on trans-continental highways, also works just fine in the bush and on New Zealand’s increasingly rugged arterial roads.

A common perception of the FH Volvo is that it’s a line haul truck built to stay on the tarseal with all its European comforts and technology. But many people seem to forget Volvo comes from Sweden where the off-road terrain is similar to ours and the winters are a lot more extreme.

This month I catch up with Ra from Hautapu Haulage based just out of Taihape to test his nearly new Volvo FH750. The 750 used to be the top dog in the horsepower race, but with Scania now selling a 770hp model this truck must settle for second. Not that 750hp is anything to scoff at. 

We start our morning with Ra heading from Taupo to Mt Maunganui with 54t of logs loaded the previous evening. We meet at Truckstops, where the truck has been getting an electrical issue sorted. First impressions are the FH looks big and the high cab sticks out on a logger unit. It will be interesting to see how it rides having the driver so high up. 

Once we have unloaded at Mt Maunganui, we head via Rotorua to Murupara to get a load of poles that will be turned into fence posts. This load will be up toward 56t – a true test for the 750hp engine and the Volvo drivetrain.

I take over the driving in Taupo heading south Taihape. It’s a long way up in these European cabs but the FH has well-spaced steps and grab handles on both sides of the door for easy access.