On The Road
The Cursor 13 might have plenty of cubes but it’s no ‘Latin Lugger’ in the tradition of the old EuroStar 18-litre. Rather, like the rest of the Cursor engine family, it likes to be worked hard and delivers its best performance spinning between 1,400-1,600rpm so unless you’re near the top of the hill there’s little point in letting it pull down to 1,000rpm, even though it will do it.
Our first impression of EuroTronic 2 was that it wasn’t quite as intuitive as Volvo’s impressive I-Shift auto. But the more we left the two-pedal ZF box alone the more we liked it. Although it does tend to rev the engine hard in the lower part of the box when pulling away from the rest its invariably because it wants to block shift in big steps. You could probably keep it in the green band longer by shifting manually but the chances are you’d wind up making more changes doing so and wind up using more fuel. What was noticeable was the number of times we reached to make a change only for the box to beat us to it. So our ‘minds’ were pretty much alike.
The basic learning period for EuroTronic 2 is easily less than 15 minutes (including the first 10 on the road) and apart from the odd moment when it hunted between 15 and 16 on single carriageway roads after hitting a slight hill it was always on the ball. And, like Volvo’s I-Shift, the speed with which it changes is equally impressive as is the smoothness of each shift. Moreover, if you ever loose your way in semi-auto all you have to do is press the function button and let EuroTronic take over again. In full auto on roundabouts and junctions it lets you look for the gap and go for it – without worrying about changing gear.
After spending three days with I-Shift and EuroTronic, there’s hardly a cigarette paper between them in terms of driveability. They are both point-and-go systems and EuroTronic offers good control when reversing too. The only time it threw a wobbly was when we were approaching the tough Castleside climb outside Consett. For some reason, it suddenly decided it didn’t want to give us a gear and flashed up a fault code in the dash display leaving us to slowly grind to a halt facing up a 1:7. Yet within seconds Iveco’s engineer had reset the system and we pulled away with the minimum of drama, fully freighted, with ASR taking care of any wheelspin.
Given the choice of restarting on a nasty hill with a manual or EuroTronic it’s no contest – we’d take EuroTronic any day. The glitch has so far baffled Iveco and as it has not reappeared since we can only conclude it was a fleeting ghost in the machine, as at all other times it behaved perfectly.
The old grumbles about the EuroStar cab sway have been fully addressed with Stralis. It’s one of the better handling 6x2s we’ve tested, not least when it comes to cab roll – even when you push it hard into a corner. What was also noticeable was the absence of any second steer axle ‘tramp’ when you run over a pothole or manhole cover, which is more than can be said for some of its 6x2 rivals. Though the Stralis’s steering is light, it has got good feedback and holds a decent line.
One area that Iveco could work on is the cab nod under heavy braking. Stiffening up the cab front suspension should do it without spoiling the overall ride. However, we’ve got no complaints with the Stralis’s EBS brakes, which produced reassuringly short stopping distances under test at MIRA.
The integrated retarder within the EuroTronic box is activated either off a steering column stalk or via the foot brake which also brings in the Iveco Turbo Brake. Between the two you can rein in a fully freighted 44-tonner downhill quite happily, keeping the service brakes fresh and ready to bite. Our only gripe is when you’re using cruise control the retarder and ITB are both activated automatically if you creep above your set speed. We’ve no problem with that – indeed it’s nice to have a downhill speed limiter – but there are times when we wanted to let the Stralis roll up to the 60mph motorway limit and not be held back by the retarder working to the 85km/h limiter setting.
In those instances, we had to knock off the cruise control then reset it by pulling the steering column stalk back towards the driver. If you need to tilt the cab then it’s a simple push-button electric job although the button is on the off-side – not the best place on a busy motorway.
Cab Comfort
While ever truck has plastic in its dashboard, the truck is to use it well and in the past Iveco artics have been criticised for being far too “plasticky”. It appears to have taken the hint, for the overall build quality of the Stralis interior is noticeably better than before. In fact its dash and cab trim has the same kind of feel you’d normally find on an MAN – now, there’s a compliment. If you thump the top of the dash with the heel of your hand, it’s solid. The same goes for the lockers in the headlining which have thick lids and decent hinges.
Overall, the battleship grey interior (broken by the blue seat trim) looks very well put together – but, oh Iveco! If this is the best Stralis money can buy, then where are the mock walnut, brushed aluminium or carbon fibre dash-inlays and countless gee-gaws and gimcracks like leather seats and pop-up drink holders that quite rightly separate a ‘Fat Cat’ flagship from a fleet faithful?
Don’t get us wrong, we’re not encouraging tacky adornment in tractors for the sake of it but this is, after all, Iveco’s top-of-the-range model – only it just doesn’t feel like one inside. For good or bad, it’s a bit austere and if Iveco wants to woo discerning owner-drivers it will have to pamper them a lot more.
That said, we do like the finger-tip buttons on the steering wheel that are used to scroll through the central driver information display in the clearly marked out dash, or simply to adjust the volume or change stations on the radio so your eyes never leave the road. The driver information display itself is so simple to use, you’re actually tempted to do so.
The Stralis’s sharply-angled dash puts everything within reach and the excellent coolbox/fridge is tucked in by the driver’s side. Another neat touch is the set of switches built in to the driver’s door armrest. The high-back driver’s seat was nicely supportive and the large vertical sections on the edge of the seat hold you in like a sports car. However, sit too far back and the large steering wheel boss does tend to obscure the fuel and temperature gauges. It’s easy to move around inside the Stralis cab, thanks to the flattish floor, high roof and the rotating EuroTronic gear console that turns back through 180o so you don’t have to thread your legs past it when you leave the driving seat.
And so to the Active Space interior. Does it work as a concept? We like the way you can lift up the centre section of the bottom bunk and turn it into a neat table with the bunk ends becoming rests. However, will drivers actually use it – or do they simply want to crash out on a bottom bunk after nine hours driving, and thus leave it permanently down? It only takes a minute to change but for some that would be too long. To be fair, we raised the same question on Volvo Globetrotter’s ‘Office’ pack. By offering the bed cum table you do lose some under—bunk storage space and we’re not convinced by the decision to only provide access to the twin bottom side lockers from outside. But overall, storage space is not a problem.
