Given the choice on a long term rental which would you go for. (both the same price)
Where I currently work we have a couple of kerax 8 wheelers and I must admit they are better than I thought they would be and the premium does seem popular. Don’t really know anything about stralis or any newish ivecos other than the usual its crap drivers talk. So would like some honest operator and driver feedback
my regular steed is a premium and i have to say i love it , nice drive and comfortable for me although i could imagine if you are a big fella you’d want more room .
i had a stralis for a couple of days a few weeks ago and it was better than i thought it was going to be , plenty room and not a bad drive , the one downside to the stralis is that god awful gearbox far to slow to change gear but other than that it was fine . id still have my premium over it though anytime .
cant help with prices as its nowt to do with me thats my bosses problem .
Renault premium.
No brainer. Renault Premium. It’s a Volvo with the headlights turned sideways and a Renault logo on the front. The Stralis is a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE truck. Takes a light year to change gear, takes quarter of a turn of the steering wheel in any direction before the road wheels actually think about doing anything, they’re also TERRIBLE on tramlined motorways - once you’re in them you ain’t coming out ever 
and they’re just so ■■■■■■■ horrible to drive, really ‘rubbery’ with no feel whatsoever. Just get the Renault. Trust me you’ll thank those of us that are telling you once you’ve driven one.
Oh and with the Stralis forget trying to connect up to any trailer without slamming into the pin at 40mph and everything flying off the dashboard into your lap. The accelerator pedal doesn’t nothing for the first 2 seconds after pressing it and it doesn’t have a ‘steady’ mode. You are either travelling at 15mph or you are stationary : there is nothing in between.
Rob K:
Oh and with the Stralis forget trying to connect up to any trailer without slamming into the pin at 40mph and everything flying off the dashboard into your lap. The accelerator pedal doesn’t nothing for the first 2 seconds after pressing it and it doesn’t have a ‘steady’ mode. You are either travelling at 15mph or you are stationary : there is nothing in between.
Pass the popcorn 
Rob K:
The Stralis is a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE truck. Takes a light year to change gear, takes quarter of a turn of the steering wheel in any direction before the road wheels actually think about doing anything, they’re also TERRIBLE on tramlined motorways - once you’re in them you ain’t coming out everOh and with the Stralis forget trying to connect up to any trailer without slamming into the pin at 40mph and everything flying off the dashboard into your lap.
What a load of B@llox, I’ve never driven or run a Premium so can’t comment on them but, all the rubbish you’ve written about the Stralis is just that, RUBBISH. Especially the stuff about the ‘tramlines’!! I was driving one of ours on Tues & Wed this week and didn’t notice anything, your’s prob had seized king pins?
“slamming into the pin @ 40mph”!!! What the heck are you on about■■? drivers with even the smallest brain lower the air suspension till the 5th wheel height is similar to the rubbing plate and hardly a tickle of the throttle pedal is needed!!
The only point I will agree on is that the gearbox is ‘orrrible’, not too bad on the larger engined (480 & 540) models but the smaller ‘Curser10’ lump doesn’t have the torque to work with that awfull box.
Ross.
preimium definatley
i do a bit of work for bedford at birstall and they have bought a tractor to drag their stralis out of snow and mud in the trailer park… to be fair their trailer park is like the moon.
stralis is a lovely big cab but traction is diabolical.
bigr250:
Rob K:
The Stralis is a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE truck. Takes a light year to change gear, takes quarter of a turn of the steering wheel in any direction before the road wheels actually think about doing anything, they’re also TERRIBLE on tramlined motorways - once you’re in them you ain’t coming out everOh and with the Stralis forget trying to connect up to any trailer without slamming into the pin at 40mph and everything flying off the dashboard into your lap.
What a load of B@llox, I’ve never driven or run a Premium so can’t comment on them but, all the rubbish you’ve written about the Stralis is just that, RUBBISH. Especially the stuff about the ‘tramlines’!! I was driving one of ours on Tues & Wed this week and didn’t notice anything, your’s prob had seized king pins?
“slamming into the pin @ 40mph”!!! What the heck are you on about■■? drivers with even the smallest brain lower the air suspension till the 5th wheel height is similar to the rubbing plate and hardly a tickle of the throttle pedal is needed!!
The only point I will agree on is that the gearbox is ‘orrrible’, not too bad on the larger engined (480 & 540) models but the smaller ‘Curser10’ lump doesn’t have the torque to work with that awfull box.
Ross.
Seized king pins? LOL. On a 61 plate?
Levelling air with trailer is fine when picking up an empty trailer but doing what you’re doing with a loaded trailer is the quickest way to bent legs as when the pin hits the jaws it tries to shimmy the trailer sideways. A professional driver 
would raise the trailer legs off the ground before before pushing the pin home in the jaws on a heavy trailer. The fact still remains that the go pedal doesn’t do anything for the first 2 seconds after pressing it.
Re the box, glad we agree on something, but clearly you are a company man that only drivers that truck so you should really drive all the competition before calling “bollox” on my post. 
The all or nothing seems to be a quirk of the zf auto as the daf and MAN seem the same.
Rob K:
Levelling air with trailer is fine when picking up an empty trailer but doing what you’re doing with a loaded trailer is the quickest way to bent legs as when the pin hits the jaws it tries to shimmy the trailer sideways. A professional driver
If you ‘hit the pin’ in the correct position why would it move sideways?? Lower the unit & run under the rubbing plate, lift suspension till 5th wheel in contact with the plate and reverse till the jaws lock, then re-set suspension height and couple up. What part of that would bend the legs??
Rob K:
Re the box, glad we agree on something, but clearly you are a company man that only drivers that truck so you should really drive all the competition before calling “bollox” on my post.
All that’s required is a little bit of forethought, the box is totally ■■■■■■ we also have manual & opticruise Scania’s, iShift & manual Volvo’s and a load of Iveco’s. I don’t need anyone to tell me what’s a good truck & a ‘scrapper’ & I’m certainly no firms man who likes what he’s told to like Oh, & I’m not a driver!!
As I said, we’ve got 430’s a 480 & a 540 and none of them have any more trouble in ‘tram lines’ than any other truck I’ve driven, the one thing I’ve found over the years that does cause this is ‘super singles’ on the front or ‘low ride’ units with those super low profile tyres.
Ross.
Rob. You surprise me, a driver of your capability missing the pin. OK, so it didn’t ride over the top of the plate but if you are shimmying trailers sideways, you are out of line.
The only sound you should hear is an audible click as the jaws snap shut, no ramming or pushing necessary
kr79:
The all or nothing seems to be a quirk of the zf auto as the daf and MAN seem the same.
same gearbox.
bigr250:
If you ‘hit the pin’ in the correct position why would it move sideways?? Lower the unit & run under the rubbing plate, lift suspension till 5th wheel in contact with the plate and reverse till the jaws lock, then re-set suspension height and couple up. What part of that would bend the legs??
I don’t care how good you claim to be, you will not have the unit perfectly lined up to a couple of inch wide accuracy every time so that the pin doesn’t hit the jaws. Every time you get it wrong you are shimmying the trailer sideways which puts immense stress on the legs. If you had any respect for your work equipment you would raise the legs using the air suspension to take the weight off them before reversing the jaws onto the pin.
The point still remains that the Stralis is a stinking pile of ■■■■ as you cannot creep with it; you either have 30mph when reversing or nothing at all. There are no such issues when hooking up to a loaded trailer using a Volvo or Renault auto, nor a DAF auto in tortoise mode for that matter either.
kr79:
Given the choice on a long term rental which would you go for. (both the same price)
Where I currently work we have a couple of kerax 8 wheelers and I must admit they are better than I thought they would be and the premium does seem popular. Don’t really know anything about stralis or any newish ivecos other than the usual its crap drivers talk. So would like some honest operator and driver feedback
I operate a Renault Premium as well as Volvos I can confirm the transmission set up is very good for reversing.I would not knock the Renault Rob K says a Volvo with the headlights turned well not quite
but you can see Volvo poking thru !!!
I took one of my Euro 5 480 FH on the same job as the Renault a few weeks back I could not shake him off on the hills but he could not pass me.And no surprises when we got to the pumps the Renault beat the Volvo hands down !!!
My drivers is happy but he is not the biggest lad on the planet
I am well over 6 foot tall and i can manage
I am not disappointed with my French Volvo!!!
The Boys Own:
kr79:
Given the choice on a long term rental which would you go for. (both the same price)
Where I currently work we have a couple of kerax 8 wheelers and I must admit they are better than I thought they would be and the premium does seem popular. Don’t really know anything about stralis or any newish ivecos other than the usual its crap drivers talk. So would like some honest operator and driver feedbackI operate a Renault Premium as well as Volvos I can confirm the transmission set up is very good for reversing.I would not knock the Renault Rob K says a Volvo with the headlights turned well not quite
but you can see Volvo poking thru !!!
I took one of my Euro 5 480 FH on the same job as the Renault a few weeks back I could not shake him off on the hills but he could not pass me.And no surprises when we got to the pumps the Renault beat the Volvo hands down !!!
My drivers is happy but he is not the biggest lad on the planet
I am well over 6 foot tall and i can manage
I am not disappointed with my French Volvo!!!
I am 6’3 and fit comfortably in the French Volvo as well. Although there is not a massive amount of leg room in the foot wells, it didn’t cause me any discomfort on long journeys. 
What sort of money are 07/08/09 Premium 6x2 450DXI’s going for with average km’s 
£20k +
Lot of truck for the money.
Ken.
Big Truck:
What sort of money are 07/08/09 Premium 6x2 450DXI’s going for with average km’s
You’re not thinking about setting up again are you BT?
Quinny:
£20k +Lot of truck for the money.
Ken.
And they would probally be a bit less if it wasn’t for this poxy lez
I took one of our Iveco’s for it’s vosa yearly ‘stay of execution’ and picked up the test trailer without dropping the air, it does take a little care but the time between pressing the ‘go’ pedal & movement doesn’t take seconds, but there is a definate pause. All that is required is to be a little patient, and don’t go at it like a ‘bull at a gate’!!
What I did notice today was a couple of things, the drivers door does tend to leak air around the top with some pretty bad wind noise. Also, this truck was a 540 with the 16 speed AStronic box & while it’s change is no better or worse than the (more common) 12 speed it doesn’t want to ‘skip shift’ more than 2 ratio’s at a time when 3 gear ‘skips’ would make much more sense, particularly through the lower ratio’s.
Other than those small problems, this is a fantastic truck that pulls like a train, it’s quiet & not too bad on fuel. Oh, & it’s now got 12 months test. First time
Ross.