F7

Perhaps despite the fact that the Volvo truck has for a long time been considered 'The Drivers´ Truck', the main feature of Volvo trucks has always been that of efficiency. This feature has not been more evident in any segment than in heavy-duty trucks with 'medium-size' engine capacity of between 6 and 7.5 litres.

A proud heritage to defend
The 'Viking' and the 'F86' are two of the most famous trucks ever, regardless of make. For this reason, the F7 had a proud heritage to defend and improve when it was introduced late in 1978. Many people certainly had doubts, since there were numerous truck owners and drivers who considered the F86 to be unbeatable. But the F7 succeeded in defending the Volvo leadership in the 'light heavy-duty' class.

Deciding on a larger cab
The F7 had in fact been developed in parallel with the F10/F12, and there had been thoughts of using a slightly narrower F10/F12 cab for the new truck. In the end, however, it was found that the larger cab frame was a bit too sophisticated and slightly too heavy for the new F7 truck, and it was instead decided to develop a wider version of the smaller F6 cab (partly within the framework of the 'Club of Four').

As a result, the F7 cab became fairly simple (with rubber mountings to the chassis instead of spiral suspension) and slightly wider than the F4/F6 cab (but still within the maximum width limit of 230 cm, which applied at this time in countries like Switzerland and Holland). The F7 shared the day cab with the slightly lighter F6S, but featured also a light sleeper cab, and crew cabs with seating for four to six persons were even offered.

A bestseller in Europe
The F7 was a Global truck in the true meaning of the word. It soon became a bestseller in nearly every part of Europe, and was also a bestseller in distant markets like Australia and the United States, even if the preference for bonneted N trucks prevented excessive sales of the F7 in developing countries.

The main feature of the F7 was its total adaptability to nearly every possible transport task. The basic use of the F7 in many countries was as a strong distribution truck. Thanks to the turbocharged engine with Intercooler (which was a novelty on the F7 truck, but which would soon be offered on several more trucks within the Volvo product programme) and the efficient 8 or 16-speed gearboxes long-distance transport was also a popular area of use, where the F7 with its low chassis weight had an extremely high payload capacity.

The Truck of the year
The F7 was awarded the 'Truck of the Year' trophy from a distinguished jury of European truck journalist in 1979 (Volvo would get four more 'Truck of the Year' trophies in 1984, 1986, 1994 and 2000).