The Swedes are practical people—given their vast and often snow-covered roads, they need to be. And, for many decades, this has led to the country giving birth to multiple six-wheeler conversions that cater to one’s extended transportation needs while having a more or less intended head-turning effect. However, in the case of this Volvo XC60 six-wheeler, we suspect the crowd magnet aura plays a bigger part than the added practicality.
Based on the first iteration of the XC60, this pickup truck doesn’t simply gain an extra axle with a bed/platform on top and calls it a day. Instead, the vehicle features an eye-pleasing integration of its added volume, with the design of the C-pillars attempting to bring the machine as close to an OEM design as possible.
The Volvo was caught on camera during a recent car event held in Sweden, the Stockholm Cruising 2022 (lens tip to GTBoard). It shared the streets of the country’s capital city with a host of new and old performance machines from across the world.
However, since Sweden has a massive American car audience, anybody mistaking this for a U.S. car meet will be forgiven—just notice the classic muscle cars, lowriders, and even a custom Chevy van that’s in tune with the resurgence these machines are experiencing on American soil—this Pink Panther-theme Dodge van is an example as good as any.
The sporty R-Design package present on this pre-facelift XC60 is complemented by custom items such as the rear window louvers and the metallic bed cover. However, the SUV-gone-truck also has a slightly more rugged side involving a chrome bull bar up front and a light bar on the roof.
Sweden has decades of experience with such builds
Except for the wheels (yes, we too feel they’re polarizing) and the said bull bar, it seems this six-wheeler conversion or a similar car has been on the web since the previous decade. As such, it would appear we’re dealing with a conversion done by Dalbo Fordonsteknik AB, a company based in Hogsater, Sweden. For the record, the specialist’s contraptions usually don’t feature a driven third axle, so this is most likely a 6×4 rather than a 6×6.
And the specialist is not alone in the business. As mentioned in the intro, Swedish drivers have been enjoying such aftermarket transformations and even brewing their own six-wheelers for decades. However, these machines generally flew drove under the radar for most enthusiasts in other parts of the world.
And before the more recent SUV craze, most of these contraptions were based on sedans, which gained a third axle and a platform, serving as transporters—this Rolls-Royce dually truck from the U.S. has its own formula for using six wheels.
To facilitate the registration of these machines, regardless of their form, the country even created the SFRO (Sveriges fordonsbyggares riksorganisation) back in 1982. This is a national body that homologates non-factory vehicles for road use, while also covering imported vehicles like some of the Americana goodies we mentioned above.
