Scania Unveils G38 Gearbox

Scania's G38 gearbox, introduce at Elmia, supports 770 hp V8 engines with 3,800 Nm of torque, offering 14 forward gears and improved efficiency.

Sweden, Germany- Scania AB., unveiled the G38 gearbox at the Elmia fair in Sweden. This latest addition to their G-series gearboxes for Scania Opticruise is designed to pair seamlessly with their powerful 770 hp V8 engine. The advanced gearbox can handle up to 3,800 Nm of torque without increasing weight or size. It enhances fuel efficiency through reduced friction and supports faster rear axle gearings, all while maintaining excellent startability. The G38 represents the pinnacle of the G-series, following the G33 introduced in 2019, and is crafted to maximize the performance of Scania’s top-of-the-line engine.

Mr. Mats Henriksson, Development Engineer at Scania R&D, said, “It is basically about metallurgy, choosing more extreme steel qualities and applying technologies such as cog polishing and shot peening for increasing the hardening and the durability of certain vital components. We have also added extra oil channels for the most crucial parts, but that is all – the basic design of the G-series is very sturdy in itself”.    

The G-series gearboxes are typically 60-70 kg lighter than the gearboxes they are replacing, mainly due to the all-aluminium housings and smaller overall dimen-sions. Another key achievement is lowered noise, a prerequisite for meeting future regulations. The gearshifts on these automated manual gearboxes are made by pneumatic actuators. By using shaft brakes, Scania’s engineers have been able to reduce the number of synchronisations, space that is used for wider cogs instead.

Mr. Bo Eriksson, Product Manager, Scania Trucks, said, “The G-series and its features was something of a revolution at the time of the intro-duction, and it still is if you ask me. It offers all the customers values you can ask for while at the same time being flexible and fit for a broad palette of applications and operations of the kind where a lot of horsepower and torque are involved. Heavy-haulage tractors for in-stance will definitely benefit from the G38. It is the ultimate addition when it comes to well-balanced performance steps in the Scania modular system”.

The G-series gearboxes can also be ordered as HD versions (Heavy Duty) and the G38 is no exception. As a G38CH, it will come with a wider planetary gear wheel for adding even more robustness. It increases the ability to handle high torque on the prop shaft also under the most demanding road conditions (typically where there are no “roads”).

The G38 gearbox is shorter than the most common Scania gearbox for the same type of operation at present, GRSO926. A certain difference between them is that the G38 has only one built-in torque limitation: as little as 100 Nm of engine power is cut off at a certain gear & rpm point, something that the driver will hardly notice. The G38 offers 14 forward gears, including a super crawler and a direct gear, and the opportunity to specify up to 8 gears for going in reverse.