Volvo Trucks North America and Mack Trucks filed three safety recalls with federal regulators inside of four days, covering 4,338 Class 8 trucks between them. Two of those campaigns describe the same defect in identical language, and the remedy both OEMs settled on is not to correct the system. It is to switch it off.
The third is the one that will consume shop time and dealer parts inventory: 3,096 Mack tractors whose intake and grille bezels can come off the front of the truck at road speed.
One defect, two badges, 1,242 trucks
NHTSA campaign 26V619 covers 392 Volvo tractors — 2025-2027 VNL (4) and 2026-2027 VNR (4) — built with a tanker application package. Campaign 26V620 covers 850 Mack Anthem AN (4) and Pioneer PR (4) tractors from the 2026 and 2027 model years with the same package. Both were filed on Sept. 28, and NHTSA files both under service brakes, electric: software/programming.
The defect summary is word-for-word the same on each: inaccurate axle load calculations may cause reduced braking performance while transporting smoothbore tanker trailers. A smoothbore barrel has no baffles, so the load surges fore and aft under braking and the instantaneous axle weight the truck computes stops matching reality. Feed a bad load number into a system that sizes trailer brake demand off that number and you get less trailer braking than the situation calls for. NHTSA's consequence line is blunt — a greater distance to stop.
The fix, as both filings specify, is a dealer software install that disables the dynamic trailer braking calculation outright. Affected trucks revert to conventional trailer brake behavior. That the same campaign landed twice under two nameplates shows how much Volvo Group chassis software is shared: one algorithm, one bad assumption about liquid cargo, two recall numbers.
3,096 Macks need front-end bezels replaced
Campaign 26V631, filed Oct. 1 and carrying Mack's number SC0501, is the volume job. It covers 2026-2027 Anthem AN (4) and 2025-2027 Pioneer PR (4) tractors, and the finding is that the intake and grille bezels may detach from the vehicle — a detached bezel becoming a road hazard for the traffic behind.
The remedy is worth reading closely: dealers will inspect, replace the intake and grille bezels, and install cable ties as necessary. Cable ties as a factory-sanctioned retention measure point at an attachment problem rather than a bad molding, which matters if you are trying to judge whether units outside the recall ranges are exposed. Those same front-end assemblies carry across more Anthem and Pioneer model years than the campaign covers.
Trade coverage put the combined figure at 4,338 trucks — small by passenger-vehicle standards, but enough in Class 8 to tie up real dealer bay capacity through the winter.
What to check before the letters arrive
Owner notification goes out Nov. 27 for the two braking campaigns and Nov. 30 for the bezels, so there is roughly seven weeks of running before most fleets are formally told. VINs for 26V619 and 26V620 are already searchable; 26V631 VINs become searchable Oct. 8.
If you haul liquids, pull the VINs on every 2025-2027 VNL and VNR and every 2026-2027 Anthem and Pioneer assigned to smoothbore work and run them now. Until the flash is done, treat stopping distance behind an unbaffled load as longer than the spec sheet implies, and brief drivers now rather than waiting on a letter.
On the bezel side, add a front-end walk to the next PM on Anthem and Pioneer units — loose or rattling intake and grille bezels are visible without pulling anything. The recall work is free, but only for those model years. Run a Pioneer or Anthem outside the listed ranges and you buy the bezel yourself — worth checking the interchange on the part number before paying counter price for an OEM-boxed piece of trim.
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