What a cheek then, Volvo only offering LHD 89s in Britain when they supplied RHD in Oz. Didn’t bother me though because at WhiteTrux the Volvos never travelled further than Canterbury from Dover and the crafty chap only stuck car tax on them. I once did a trailer swap at Kettering or somewhere like that and I had to leave my 89 at home and use a really underpowered Merc. Only once though. 
It was probably developed here, our Volvos were pretty unique, all from the 86 to the 89 were supplied with spider wheels. Hendrickson suspension was available as an option, on some models.
Volvo Australia were certainly flexible enough to react to customers’ demands.
You know you’re English if you welcome everyone from abroad legal or illegal feed pay and house them pay through the nose for it all get a state pension which you have contributed to all your life but is far lower than the minimum wage. Go to hospital but can’t get seen because the place is full of people who have never paid a penny into the system. Ring for a doctors appointment more chance of platting fog. Complain about the situation and get branded far right and may be put in prison … i could go on but a copper just walked past my house (on the road because the £200 a month council tax i pay doesn’t cover clearing paths) and may come and arrest me even though police are over stretched
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We have similar problems, alleged refugees trying to get away from their troubled countries, but bringing their hatred and prejudice with them. With the trouble in the middle east we have radical supporters from both sides. Thats simply unAustralian (the greatest insult to a real Aussie). These foreigners are diluting our culture. Pretty much all organised crime and outlaw bikie gangs are run by foreigners.
We have plenty of Muslims and Jews who are Australian and respect each others’ right to hold different views, but the noisy minorities are getting bigger and more vocal.
Enough whinging, this space should be a happy place.
Yep true , on another note the snow’s had enough of our little island and as given notice and will begin its departure tuesday.Apparently it’s far too white to fit in.There were reports that some people from far away were trying to bag the stuff in little packets. They thought all their christmas’s had come at once but we can’t say christmas anymore incase we offend.
I too thought the F89 was only built in LHD form.It must just have been in europe
The Volvo F89 was only offered in Europe as LHD due to the TD 12 litre engine with around 330 hp being canted over in the chassis which made the gearlinkage a problem so Volvo officially never tried to make a RHD version. But in Australia someone had a go at remedying this and succeeded.
Original F88’s with the TD 10 litre engine were around 250hp with the small grill and the 290hp came about with the longer wide plastic grill around 74/75 due to pressure on Volvo from UK operators. There was a beefed up unit of the F88 for some countries that needed RHD with power output about 310 hp.
The G88/89 version had the front axle about a foot further forward for greater axle spread for higher gross weights.
Including all the doctors and nurses as well, presumably. 
That was done by Volvo Australia, RHD 89s are not acknowledged by Wikipedia, but I can assure you all that they were definitely a thing.
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Yep thats true the very same doctors and nurses from all over the world that have come to work in our over crowded country and stood side by side with our home grown doctors and nurses on the picket lines and good old Starmer gave them 22% pay rise while on the other hand took the fuel allowance payments from pensioners who have contributed all their lives into this country. Then he gave train drivers a massive pay rise putting them on over £70000 a year for 4 days.Both sets are threatening strike action already. The train drivers already have on new years day.
In reality, was there a need for over 290hp on domestic work?
I thought the 290 F88 was introduced in reaction to the Marathon which was a 273 with the TL12. I heard the 240 F88 was much more reliable than the 290.The F10 was 278 i think at launch. 290 would have been at the very top end in 1973 here at 32 tons
No, unless you were running at max weight round the clock in very hilly terrain. 290 was still very respectable well into the late '80s here. The Cummins E290 in particular performed very well and was reliable. Rolls Royce 290 was much in evidence but 265 was more common and DAF had its 2800. An awful lot of Merc 250s and 260s (1626 etc) were rattling round the roads. And there were still plenty of Gardner 180s slogging up and down the country. Merc 190s (1619) were running around at 38 tonnes. The onslaught of much greater power came very fast during the '90s and we quickly forget that 290 was normal.
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Confirming my suspicions, there were far more 88s than 89s here. 290hp was most respectable in the era, for eastern seaboard single trailer work, the majority of tasks in pre-B double times.
In the mid~late 80s I had a Volvo F12F @ 385hp, many horses for the day; no limiter either. 
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Dont forget the E290 was 272bhp
While all that lingo is “dead set” familiar to me and I can adopt (and have adopted) parts of it such that I will pass muster as an aussie for most Strayans, I’m still at root an Englishman, a pommie git. I still pronounce my vowels as the Queen’s English would have it. Even 36 years here can’t erode my native tongue. And then… I love here, Australia. An hour or two ago I was hanging out the washing at about dusk and there were white-striped freetail bats wheeling around, Australian wood-ducks calling (ducks roost in trees here, yes they do) and overhead were several fruit bats (Grey-headed Flying foxes) going hither and thither. And then there’s the birdlife - yellow-rumped thornbills in the overgrown backyard darting here and there catching moths and butterflies, the odd treecreeper calling… you have to “tune in” as it were.
I’ve got years (decades) of direct experience of “tuning in” to this place, and it’s still a mad place to live.
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And hers alone. There must be more accents, even dialects in the UK than counties (92 according to Wiki). 
You’ll always be welcome here, mate. Being Australian is as much about attitude as place of birth.
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Agree the 240 F88 was more reliable as less stressed than higher boosted 290 with the turbo sat pretty high on engine so oil starvation issues etc plus remember the start up warm up procedure clouds of diesel fumes beforre the engine settled down.
Remember at the time uncertainty of gross weights increasing in line with rest of Europe plus the 6bhp/tonne ruling which put the 180 Gardner at 30.5 tonnes not 32 tonnes and at the time there was talk Germany pushing for 8 bhp/tonne so at 40 tonne you were looking at 320 bhp.
I know it never happened at the time but there was uncertainty as to which way the UK government would go.
Just remember going with my mate in his brand new F88 290 and being completely blown away by how it performed no wonder they became an iconic lorry in the UK.
Parkroal2100 Were you born in Park Royal London or do you have a liking for the coach builders (ACV) or neither. England as gone totally unrecognisable from when you were here .But like SDU says and i agree not for this thread.
What would be the usual or average bhp in 1973 for Australia. Gardner had 180/240 but 180 would be the more popular Cummins had 205/220/240 not sure what the real bhp would be Rolls Royce 220/280 AEC 220 /273 .I remember Henry Longs in Bradford opening Northside Truck Centre and becoming Mercedes agents and they were at the time running Leyland AEC mainly and had just bought two new Atkinsons 180 Gardners DB 6 speed boxes around 1971.They then changed to Mercedes 1418s in around 1972. They didn’t perform any better than the Leyland AECs but the cabs were a revelation.That would have been around the time they started running abroad. The point is they bought foreign but still the bottom power 180s. Some hauliers didn’t some did.When 38 ton came in here they bought 250 Mercs or 2033s for abroad. Those Mercs were dreadful but bullet proof
Yes, agreed - but the other bhps can be rounded round commensurately. And the NTE 290 varied in its final bhp according to installation and application. For example Ford ran them at 240 bhp and 270 bhp; and it was 275.3 in the ERF C-series.