Dear DAF 3:
Gearbox:
So you all know let me explain a little of my experience, Ive driven for over 30years now, UK, Europe and a little bit in North Africa. I Started with ERFs Atkis etc and more recently Volvos DAFs and a little bit with Scanias and Renaults. No Mercs Ivecos or MANs recently. I
ve had vehicles with over a million kms on the clock on the original drive train, so guess Im not a butcher of trucks. The last truck I had was a 480 manual DAF. Good reliable truck that I enjoyed driving. I was told it had to be replaced with a new
un, an auto. Having driven some other autos I wasnt too bothered. Didn
t much like the ones Id driven but I figured I
d get to like it. Well almost a year later and I hate my current truck, mostly down to the awful gearbox fitted. Seems to me to be worse than even the earlier Eu6 DAFs.
Mode button on end of retarder lever/gear stick: not fitted with a positive “click”. Sometimes it accepts commands sometimes not. So its necessary to keep looking at the screen to find what is happening, not good. Gear lever when in manual mode will sometimes or not accept commands, so again screen watching. Eco/full power/manual modes. This has now been lifted on mine as it was impossible to live with. Truly awful as supplied. As it is now it
s auto with full power or manual now. Better now than as supplied new, but still bad.
Clutch uptake is slow when in auto or man modes.
Gear selection in auto seems random, sometimes taking off in 2nd when empty and sometimes in 5th when fully loaded (if you allow it). Can`t see any reason behind it. Gear selection when using engine brake is equally random, sometimes using max engine revs down to 8th gear, other times changing into 10th then almost freewheeling from there to a stop.
Occasionally there is a really loud “clonk” during gear change that can be felt thro the cab floor. No grinding noises, but worrying. Dealers say all is OK, guess time will tell.
Slow speed maneuvering is not very precise, especially on gradients. Too much slip when reversing up slope, and truck tends to runaway when reversing down a slope.
Gear selection in auto generally bad except on flat roads. Example; with a light load on, pulling up a slope the truck will try a block change up, fail to pick-up in the higher gear, so change down again, whilst losing momentum, and can even end up stationary. Once on a linkspan even rolling backwards! Hateful untrustworthy rubbish.
Motorway driving: because the box seems programmed to hold onto a high gear too long, it seems that when a change down is made a 2nd change will soon follow. So, combined with a slow change, drivers are tempted to make a premature change increasing fuel use. When I first got my auto I was advised to change down as soon as I even saw a hill in the distance.
The gearbox works fine on a main road but is terrible on anything else. The automation makes an easy part of the job even easier, but at the cost of making awkward parts of the job even worse.
All in all, I am not a happy DAF driver. Used to be one, but no longer.
When are you going to fit demisters that do the windscreen AND side windows at the same time■■?
Dear DAF 4: Gearbox and safety.
I have had to do some harsh breaking in my Eu6 auto DAF. Once when another vehicle came over to my side of the road. I braked hard, then as the situation cleared I released the brakes. But now the engine had stalled and I was coasting with no power steering. So I had to come to a total stop, find neutral and restart the engine. Not good on a twisting hillside road. It would initially only select limp mode, so I got onto the side of the road and had to stop the engine again, wait a while, then restart it.
It has also stalled at slow speeds: trying to exit a junction, when starting to pull away, a vehicle has sped around a corner, and Ive had to brake. Result a stall. Untrustworthy rubbish. I truly hate this vehicle. The dealer says all is up to spec etc etc. Sister trucks behave the same. Would I pass my driving test in a manual truck if I stalled it like that? Your truck doesn
t pass my test for drivability.
Dear DAF , reading the other replies on here I’m so glad my boss hates DAF’s and won’t give them any chance of darkening his fleet since he tried them out some years ago and had a bad experience
Yours sincerely , Mr A relieved driver
Evil8Beezle:
Am I the only one who’s annoyed at where they put the screen wash refiller, or am I the only one who refills it?
If you stand on the bumper wearing platform soled shoes,you can just about manage to p**s in it
Mailman:
When are you going to fit demisters that do the windscreen AND side windows at the same time■■?
This is a safety feature
If you are sticking your head out of the side window every 20 seconds,there is absolutely no chance of you falling asleep at the wheel
dear daf why does my 62 plate xf 460 have as much power as our 61 plate r400, I thought the r400 was bad but the xf 460 beat it. and another thing whos idea was it to put the catwalk ladder on the drivers side, it still catches me out.
Dear DAF…
Are you going to listen / take on board to what has been said so far, and deal with said problems…■■?
Probably NOT!
Dear DAF…
Why have you placed the work light on the back of the cab so it’s obscured by the suzie lines making it absolutely useless.
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m1cks:
Dear DAF…Why have you placed the work light on the back of the cab so it’s obscured by the suzie lines making it absolutely useless.
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Seems to a problem with most makes. The Scanias we have are the same. Bloody useless.
Who will be the first to become a new member called DAF
Punchy Dan:
Who will be the first to become a new member called DAF
Surname Duck…
…oh wait, that’s someone else! [emoji23]
I’ll get my coat [emoji20]
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Can you make the sunroof open properly, like MAN do?
Muckaway:
Can you make the sunroof open properly, like MAN do?
On our CF’s there’s yet more switches up on the top panel, one of 'em looks like it should be a sunroof opener, but to be honest i was that bemused with the mind boggling haphazard placing of switches making no order sense whatsoever all over the bloody dash that i didn’t even turn the sodding radio on.
From the first second of getting into a 65 plater the only thing that kept me slightly sane was the thought of getting back and buggering off home
What’s this “sunroof switch”, Juddian? I use the handle/release on mine.
I’m on a 66 plate XF510 superspace. It has the extra lights fitted on the top corners of the cab (don’t they call them skylights?) that come on with main beam. There is a separate switch above the windscreen to turn them off.Why does it also turn off the normal main beam headlights?
When the roof lights are switched off the only thing to happen when you operate the dipswitch is the main beam warning light works.
The auto box seems a bit better than the earlier versions,but still a piece of crap.
The engine malfunction light came on on mine last weekend.Went into reduced power mode. Turns out it was the tacho that was faulty
Agree about the heating/ventilation,door windows mist up badly and take a long time to clear.
AEBS seems to have a mind of its own with random applications and also picking up street furniture.Possibility of a visit to the scenery on a snow covered road?
Got stuck with one of these pieces of sh#t when the Scanny was off the road last week (PS… Thanks Mr Farmer with the half raised bucket )
Turned into one of the most miserable weeks ever…
Tongue to Lairg via Altnaharra: How many times that ■■■■ thing slammed the anchors on [AEBS: Absolutely Endless Braking Stops] because a tree, or some other immobile object, threatened to cross the road/jump out in front…
A journey that should take less than two hours ended up taking the better part of five. Stupid piece of sh#t.
That was day one. By day three I was more than ready to ‘fix’ the thing with an Oxy-Acetylene cutting torch.
… and, as for the gearbox… don’t ask. Juts don’t ask!!
Regarding the shoddy AEBS, the ones I’ve driven had a switch to turn it off. It does reset itself when the engine is turned off, but it is better than having 1/2 your stuff thrown through your windscreen every 5 minutes!
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I’m waiting with popcorn ready for when there’s about 50% of the lorries on the road with AEBS, you know those winter blizzards when the salt just doesn’t cut it and we’re all trundling along at 20 to 30mph on rough hard packed snow turning to black ice, trying desperately to keep the wheels rolling gently, and then every now and again one of our new supertrucks sees something invisible.
What could possibly go wrong?
I’m out
way too much to even attempt to work through…
move along now lol