Does anybody here drive a Iveco Stralis? In particular the Single driver long distance cab, and with a 13 liter 480 motor. Any info please!
Mal.
Look ok, drive ok, go ok, but it’s still a Ford and will be so rotten in 12 months time that it will only be fit for scrap.
Brgds
Speedy
From time to time. We have a few on the rental fleet I deliver vehicle for.
I like them, but then we don’t have to live with them everyday & other than the odd trailer delivery/collection we normally only drive them solo.
actually, they are not a ford.
paul
I hate them!! We hired a few in but none of the drivers liked them so we get Daf’s now. I drove three different ones, none had more than 10k on them, and they all had different faults. Some silly faults, like the night cruise lights kept blowing, but two of them kept losing gears and needed recovery.
For some reason, the indicators on most of our trailers wouldn’t work with them (advice from hire company was “leave ignition on half hour before firing up…give the computer time to settle!!”)
Apparently, you have to tilt the cab to put oil in.
The cab is nice and roomy, but everything is VERY plasticky and rattly.
If you’re unfortunate to be a passenger in one (as I was once), you feel like you’re sitting way back in a child seat, although I guess it is designed for one. I spoke to a fitter at the hire company and he said they are an absolute nightmare and doesn’t see them lasting more than a couple of years.
Nah, I’ll stick to the Actros…and look forward to the new ones we’re getting next month 
I drove on a test route, and loved it…first Iveco I’ve ever liked.On the face of it, it is definetly a drivers motor. Don’t know how it will holdup in the long run…after it has put a couple of hundred thousand miles on it.
Nightowl. I have to agree with the passenger seat thing, we regually travel passenger & no one likes to do so. I have never come acros the trailer problem & from a rental point of view the oil only needing topping up at service is a good point, the way most rental trucks are treated its one less thing for the leasee to ignore.
Did you find the dip stick ?. As Iveco trusts thier electronics its hidden behind the front off side, its a hell of a job to reach with out tilting the cab.
I’ll ask at work but I don’t think we have had any real problems , other than driver induced ones.
Cheers for all the input lads, Im looking forward to trying the demo, Im a bit concerned about reversing a full auto! But, Im looking forward to be able to stand up to get dressed!
Mal.
No not a full auto, push the button on the right side of the stick head & a small display on the dash changes between auto & semi.
Talking to the other guys I work with about this thread, general comments about the Stralis are all very good, a few niggles but everyone seems to really like them.
We have got a couple of the full-size cab Stralis’s on hire(long term test?). They do have one obvious problem. The computer controls everything, including trailer lights. It doesn’t like multiple tail lights or indicators. If your trailer has a full set of continental style (3, round) tail lights, the computer flags up with indicator problem, and they only give a half flash, not a several second flash when you are indicating. If your trailer should have a dodgy earth on the side/tail lights, it will refuse to light them at all. They switch on for a second, then switch off. The lights will probably work no probs with another wagon type.
Other than that they seem pretty good to drive, n live in. You really need to use the top bunk as the main one, as its designed that way. A few silly little niggles, but what wagon is perfect.
True Simon, no wagon is perfect! I’ll pass that on about the lights, it will be pulling the same trailer all the time, a brand new one also, but to what make it is I dont know, it might have them lights, or UK type ones, if he goes for the Stralis I’ll tell him to spec the good old rubbolites! Yeah, I seen from the brochure the top bunk is the way to go, so that inward facing seat and table ect can be left set up. 
The motor Id really want if I could choose, is apparently out of the price range, the MAN XXL.
Mal.
Interesting to hear I’m the only one that can’t stand them! 
Trying to be a bit more positive, I guess I couldn’t fault the engine and once I got used to driving without a clutch pedal I quite liked the auto or the semi box, although it was really difficult to couple up nice and smooth. I found the best plan was to press your head hard against the head rest and wait for the bang!
Good luck with the truck Mal. Lets hope you don’t find the same problems I did! 
I found the best plan was to press your head hard against the head rest and wait for the bang!
Thats the type of thing im concerend about Nightowl!
Mal.
The Stralis gear box is a kitten compered to the old Iveco semi, Nightowl. Doing anything which required a bit of care was a nightmare, it was a case of all or nothing, the Stralis box is very very good by comparison.
Putting a trailer I was delivering onto a very tight, blind side bay a few weeks ago with a Cursor. I did all my reversing in foward gear & just let it roll on the brakes. Not much fun at all.
I took a 430 Sralis out on a night-shift, last night. While its all still fresh in my mind I’ll scribble down everything I can think of about it.
I’ve already mentioned the prob’s I’ve had with lights. Another is that the mirror heater switches off after half an hour. My mirrors kept on steaming up every time they did that last night. Also the heater switch is in a module on the drivers door, its a little bowler hat shaped push on/off type which seems to jam when you operate it. A big yellow warning comes up on the computer screen saying something like “Drivers Door Module Warning 03”, you have too fiddle with the switch and then press the “OK” button on the steering wheel.
Lights are very good, in comparison with the Scanny 4 series or the FH Volvo I’ve been driving recently.
If you are on the ball, you can improve journey time and fuel milage by useing the gear box manually whilst in auto on the cruise control. eg, Approaching a steepish hill which will need 1 down-change, just before you start to climb change-down, the gearbox won’t change-up until the hill starts to level out. It seems to be v e r y s l o w when changing down ON the hill and you lose an awful lot of speed, 1 early down-change beats two slow down-changes when the rev’s drop to the appropriate range (IMHO) for speed n fuel milage.
Recently driver trainers have been encouraging us not to rev a downchange on a manual box. The Stralis revs for a downchange!!!
As the top bunk is the main bunk there is a small panel on the back wall which can be used to control everything. Doorlocks, interior lights, radio, nightheater, sunroof etc. Only thing it won’t do is switch the kettle on so its boiling when you get out of the bunk, which is VERY firm.
You need too be very tender with the go pedal when reversing under a trailer, or maneuvering in a tight space. Its quite difficult too set the throttle pedal so you get slow maneuvering speed. You tend to get nothing or (with a fraction more)accelerate uncomfortably quickly, it can be done though.
Thanks for all that additional info Simon! I was parked next to a bloke on the services the other night and he was sound and let me have a good luck round and told me a lot of stuff too. He loved it and I was impressed by the space in the cab. It was the same model as I might be getting, the active space, and it looked a great place to spend a week! Specially when I climbed back into my own FH12! Having said that, and as much as I liked it, i’d still like a MAN XXL with the comfort shift!
Mal.
The reason it’s revving when it drops a gear:
Like all automated boxes, it double declutches automatically.
I test drove a Stralis for Truck Magazine, (See the special Truck of the Year insert a few months ago).
And I liked it to drive… the cab still felt a little cramped but 100% better than either the Eurotech or EuroStar 
Howver a 20 minute test drive is not the same as using it every day
Simon:
If you are on the ball, you can improve journey time and fuel milage by useing the gear box manually whilst in auto on the cruise control. eg, Approaching a steepish hill which will need 1 down-change, just before you start to climb change-down, the gearbox won’t change-up until the hill starts to level out. It seems to be v e r y s l o w when changing down ON the hill and you lose an awful lot of speed, 1 early down-change beats two slow down-changes when the rev’s drop to the appropriate range (IMHO) for speed n fuel milage…
Good point. Auto boxes obviously can’t see the hill coming so they don’t make the gearchanges until the electronic CAN-bus system senses it’s time for a change. The auto-shift box will still beat most drivers on a 10 hours day, but like you said if you’re on the ball you can still improve things in certain situations.
Recently driver trainers have been encouraging us not to rev a downchange on a manual box. The Stralis revs for a downchange!!!
Driver trainers tell us not to rev for a downchange on a synchromesh box because there’s no need for it, and over the course of a week it uses fuel. The ZF AS-tronic box (in the Stralis, DAF, Renault and MAN) doesn’t have synchros, so like any constant mesh box there has to be a blip of throttle before the down shift. (Like me I bet you’ve found that works on the trusty BMW Boxer too, Simon?)
Craig
I was going to put a sarcy comment to Allicat, but then thought, she may have explained better, what I meant, for our less experienced members.
I didn’t know that the auto boxes didn’t have syncro’s. (something new I learned today ).
I learned to drive on a constant-mesh box so I had to double clutch every change. Since then, although I’ve tried, I can’t seem to get out of the habit. I have also found that the gears slip in a lot easier, if I double clutch them, especially the down-changes, in comparison to when I manage to remember not to double clutch changes. It feels like,matching engine to gearbox revs makes for a smoother change whatever I am driving, bike (esp’ BMW ), car or truck 