ZF vs Voith

[Tan_CJ]

Since early 2000s, Singapore buses mainly uses gearboxes from ZF and Voith. Both can be distinguished by anyone, by the sound the bus changes gear. ZF gearboxes will lock the torque while in the 1st or 2nd gear, while Voith gearboxes will lock the torque while the gear changes from 1st gear to 2nd gear. ZF's approach results in the "musical" sounds of buses, and this is the reason why some people became bus enthusiasts. The music is indeed music to their ears. For Voith, their gearboxes have a "whistling" sound when the bus accelerates/decelerates, and this can be distinguished from the turbocharger "whistle".

The trend for new buses after 2010s is that, the initial batches were equipped with ZF, while later batches equipped were with Voith. One possible reason might be due to the ease of maintenance, as well as the relatively cheaper cost of Voith gearboxes. Buses with this trend include the MAN A22, and Volvo B9TL. The Volvo B9TL, however, have their latest batches using ZF for gearboxes after equipping the middle batches with Voith gearboxes. Even the prototype Volvo B8L uses ZF.

On a side note, SBS Transit also switched 7 Volvo B10TL gearboxes from Voith to the ZF4HP590 gearbox. 1 of the 7 was switched back to Voith, so only a remaining of 6 is now on the streets.

So the ultimate question comes - which gearbox grand do you prefer? I personally prefer ZF