[SAE40 in veins]

One serious doubt remains. If a manufacturer has to test market a lower capacity engine, they should rather try with a lower GVW class, build the confidence and then gradually go up. In this case, ALL has straight away gone ahead with the 31 ton class while they could have started off with the 25 Ton class and maybe with a lower rating of say 160 HP instead of a full blown 205 HP. ALL may have done all their testing and may be supremely confident of the engine, but still it may not be foolish to adopt a safe strategy.

Also i feel that this engine is better suited for a coach application more than a truck as lower cc will obviously give good FE. Coupled to this, no overloading and high horse power will be just the right recipe for a very profitable inter city application for an AC coach with engine driven AC.

[julupani]

Originally Posted by SAE40 in veins

One serious doubt remains. If a manufacturer has to test market a lower capacity engine, they should rather try with a lower GVW class, build the confidence and then gradually go up. In this case, ALL has straight away gone ahead with the 31 ton class while they could have started off with the 25 Ton class and maybe with a lower rating of say 160 HP instead of a full blown 205 HP. ALL may have done all their testing and may be supremely confident of the engine, but still it may not be foolish to adopt a safe strategy.

Also i feel that this engine is better suited for a coach application more than a truck as lower cc will obviously give good FE. Coupled to this, no overloading and high horse power will be just the right recipe for a very profitable inter city application for an AC coach with engine driven AC.

Though your logic is correct, I think Leyland may have been constrained by the fact that any lower rating would probably not meet BSIII norms. The engine could probably generate a lower rating at BSIV norms using SCR/EGR, but that would result in a cost increase. In fact, at 5.3/5.4L the engine seems big enough to give about 240-250hp/950Nm torque at max rating meeting Euro5 norms. So its definitely not a "full blown" 205hp.

As for coach application, I am not sure how good a 4-cylinder engine's NVH levels will be to be used in buses.

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by silversteed

....
With TM doing a soft launch of their Paradiso coach, is there something coming out from AL also?....

No idea about the coach, but AL started to offer 12M CRS chassis with Leymatic. All CRS buses of VRL will soon be with Leymatic. Primary advantage being improved fuel performance over and above the driver comfort.

[Autokrat]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Sure there is but how does 160Bhp work on something that is over 10 tons? Volvo buses/trucks in India were developing over 200bhp 10 years ago.
Shocked to read this. It is no wonder that our express ways still have one truck struggling to over take another even after having a stone placed on the throttle.

The average customer in the market still does not see value for higher speeds as however fast the vehicle is capable of going, his turn around time in a trip is still decided by a lot of other factors. Viz, the time he needs to spend at check posts, in between stoppage by cops, traffic etc. Higher speeds definitely impacts fuel economy which is the operators highest expense.

Consider also the fact that Bharat Benz with their Daimler lineage of engines did not bring the 280 hp first ( which is a rating available on the OM906 engine that they have lunached in India) instead chose a lower 230hp.

[silversteed]

Finally, AL updated its website with the 3120 Sankagiri Express' specs. As expected, it's a 4-cylinder 5.3L CRS engine. 205hp and 780NM torque - a decent power and torque rating for a 31 Tonner. The FE details would be interesting to see.