I drove Bruce Wilson's 2025 Scania and it was not what I expected!

I was at the Vintage Trucks of Florida Winter National truck show and I was speaking with Bruce Wilson about his Scania. He said that I should take it for a drive and review it, but before that he shares his personal backstory and how he got involved with YouTube, then we dig into all of the facts about the Scania and more while taking it for a drive.

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00:00 - Intro
01:03 - Bruce's history & how he started his YouTube channel
10:59 - Info about the truck
16:32 - The mechanical stuff
20:34 - The rear end
23:07 - The Interior
33:37 - Start Up
36:12 - Its missing a hood
39:11 - Initial driving impression
40:09 - Impressive turning radius
43:48 - Acceleration in Sport Mode
46:03 - Thoughts from other drivers on the highway
47:04 - Can we Straight Pipe it?
50:35 - A/C and Heat
51:38 - Driving across country
53:32 - The Peterbilt 589 reveal
56:53 - Can you Heavy Haul with it?
58:32 - Engine Retarding
01:00:00 - Closing Thoughts
01:02:35 - How many Chicken Lights can we put on it?

©Copyright Big Rig Videos, LLC. / Produced By: Christopher E. Fiffie

[BigRigVideos]

00:00 - Intro
01:03 - Bruce's history & how he started his YouTube channel
10:59 - Info about the truck
16:32 - The mechanical stuff
20:34 - The rear end
23:07 - The Interior
33:37 - Start Up
36:12 - Its missing a hood
39:11 - Initial driving impression
40:09 - Impressive turning radius
43:48 - Acceleration in Sport Mode
46:03 - Thoughts from other drivers on the highway
47:04 - Can we Straight Pipe it?
50:35 - A/C and Heat
51:38 - Driving across country
53:32 - The Peterbilt 589 reveal
56:53 - Can you Heavy Haul with it?
58:32 - Engine Retarding
01:00:00 - Closing Thoughts
01:02:35 - How many Chicken Lights can we put on it?

[PipHunter-kcip]

There are a few things Americans must consider when it comes to driving Trucks in the US compared to Europe. To clarify, I drove in Europe with Volvo and Scania for over 10 years before I came to Canada and drove a Pete across North America, so I know both sides.
The more you understand this, the more it makes sense.. Driving in Europe is like you drive in Seattle, LA or NY at all times, the amount of traffic is insane, cities are so close together, as soon as you leave one, you enter the next, specifically talking about Germany's "Ruhrpott", Cologne, Dortmund up in that area is nuts..., that's why driver comfort is important to manufacturers. The more traffic you have, the more you have to pay attention, the quicker you get tired.
Compare that to a drive from LA to Vegas to Huston TX... you leave LA, you're in the desert, yeah, you have some traffic but nothing like in Europe. You enter a busy section in and around Vegas and as soon you past that, you're out in the open again with hardly any traffic until you come closer to a bigger city again.

But if you look at the trip from Portugal to Denmark, Sweden Latvia or even further east.. you're in for a loooong haul, don't forget the traffic.. but you look at a trip from Lisbon, Portugal to Kiev Ukraine, that's a 4100 km or 2550 miles haul! Now consider the max driving hours, that's a minimum 5 day drive. This just to show you that Europe isn't just "short haul"....


The other thing is the law. Europe has max driving hour of 9 hour per day. This must be split in 2 sections of max 4:30h with an 1h break. Speed limiter at 90km/h leaves you with a maximum driving distance of 810 km or around 500 miles per day at best (No one as an average speed of 90km/h) while in the USA you're allowed 10 hour drive with basically just road speed limit.. so 10 hours times 70 miles/hour... so you're already at 700 miles per day, while Europe law allows only 500 miles a day..

European trucks are 30 years ahead with the technology and you said it very well in the video, when US driver can drop their pride, when they see how comfy and relaxed driving actually could be, they would all switch..

[Zirion]

When he talked about how it takes 2-3 days to drive across the us and that it isnt like that in Europe, hes wrong. Ppl here in Norway for example drive for 5-6 days round trip from south to north. Most eastern European drivers drive 3-4 days from Lithuania to Spain for example and they live 3 months at a time in theire Truck

[stelp]

Australian truckie here, driven everything from Kenworth's with a bonnet to the big Aerodynes, International, Mack, and all sorts of Freightliners, Japanese UD (Nissan) trucks with EATON 18 speed, Euro Volvos, Ivecos, Scanias and now a 2023 Mercedes cabover. Done from multidrop local "round-town-clown" work, to interstate work, and now settled down doing almost exclusively oversized work for the last 9 years. Out of all the trucks I've driven, for comfort, ease of driving, fuel economy, hands down the Euro trucks cannot be beaten. All the US branded stuff was loud, hard, shit seats, rattled like hell, and things just broke even after just 200, 000km, the Mercedes I drove previous to my current truck had a little under 1M km on the clock, and it was as quiet, and comfy as it was when I first got in it, and without a single part in the cab broken.
Talk to Aussie truck drivers to get a good idea of a world where both US and Euro trucks roll all day, every day pulling 60+ tonnes for days at a time. If we can do it here, you guys can easily do it there.

[Nonlybadhabits]

I blame industry bureaucrats and lobbyists for Euro Trucks not being allowed in the US. It's ridiculous to say the reasons are reliability and safety. The real reason is they're protecting US truck manufacturers from the competition they could bring.

Free market economy? Nah. Not by miles.

[tomass.bartikk]

The amount of misconceptions American truckers have about trucking in Europe triggers me. 6 hours is Bratislava to Humenne and that's in ONE TINY country in Eastern Europe. Oslo to Bari is 35 hours. Tallinn to Madrid is 45 hours. No breaks included and these are nowhere near the longest routes. Our landscapes and roads are much more diverse and demanding. Ferries, windy roads, mountain passes, extreme weather and infrastructural differences and I could go on. And that's all over the Europe, not 2 or 3 countries. One month on our roads and I guarantee you'll change your point of view forever. I love American trucking but you guys love to trash talk with zero knowledge. Our trucks are built different for a reason.

[timokuusela]

Anyone else noticed how smart that trucker is? He is to the point, well spoken in every way, sounds like a high school teacher.
An excellent choice to be a test driver for the video.

[corneliusdobeneck]

Big shout out to Scania for picking up Bruce and let him do this. That's a lot of trust actually. And big salute to Bruce for doing all the work. This is probably the most unique advertisement/business relationship I heared of. :)

[NikesZ]

If Bruce wants to impress the US drivers, put a trailer on it and weigh it up to 60-70 metric tone. That will impress almost everyone. Pulls like a sweetheart ;)

[erikjalefors]

Drove a Scania in the Army back in the day with Leopard 2 tanks on it, about 106 tons all in all, in the snow in northern Sweden, so they can most certainly haul heavy loads on poor road conditions! Awesome trucks

[PropBoyGinge]

These trucks are designed to be lived in for weeks at a time. We don't just do "3 - 5 hours" and stop.

We haul freight from Eastern Europe to Western Europe, and North to South, and vice versa

[EspenX]

52:00 These trucks don't just go from one country to another in Europe, it can cross the continent, like brining fish/seafood from the Arctic to Italy or Spain.

[daveparker]

I worked at Scania for 3 years and was involved the design of the cab mounted steps. On the S version the big boss wanted a much longer top step to make it unique and allow shoe storage. We also added another seal to close off the area to keep the area dry! Not sure if that ended up on the first release. My colleague came up with to me one day and said ‘I have just been called a fatty’. He was asked to escape through the roof hatch to test the access for larger people 😂

[Rogermarcussen]

Hi Bruce, the guy who drove your car said that in Europe they drove maybe 3-5 hours... Transporting fish from the top of Norway, to, among other places, Rimini in Italy, is done with a refrigerated truck, and takes 45 hours (4, 002 km) And with the same driver, who has to pay attention to driving and resting times. And a little info, Germany doesn't drive on the left 🙂

[ESPirits]

Part of Scania being so ahead was during the recession in the late 90s early 00s the CEO Leif Östling said that instead of firing all staff, we keep everyone inside the factories & try to make a better truck, it was expensive for Scania but after the recession & people started buying again Scania had because of this a better truck than everyone else & arguably even now, i remember back then everyone wanted a Scania.

[andreakarlsson]

This is what Bruce should be doing more of, having people drive it, cus that experience is undeniable.

[Halibrand]

It makes me proud everytime i see a Volvo or Scania truck internationally. Kinda crazy that we as a small nation of only 10 mil habitants produce these trucks that drives around all over the world.

[erwinzeeland]

You are a very observant journalist and it shows that you have a lot of experience. You ask the right questions. My compliments.

[ivorton]

I would happily give up my Pete 389 for the Scania!!

[kebotrans]

I own a US trucking company. We are all local truckload. Most Americans do not know that the European trucks have more HP because of the hill and roads. I wish we could get trucks built like this. It would be easier on our drivers to maneuver. We use daycabs like Cascadia and VNLs but this would be nice.