Volvo Trucks North America is recalling five 2025 and 2026 Volvo VNL tractors because structural bolts in the cab may be loose or missing. NHTSA received the report on Oct. 15, 2026. According to the agency’s record, a cab in that condition may not protect an occupant in a crash, which raises the risk of injury.
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The population is tiny by recall standards, so every owner of one of the five tractors can realistically be found and checked by a dealer. On the same day Volvo filed a second recall, covering replacement cabs sold as spare parts, and both filings describe the same bolts.
What NHTSA recall 26V677 covers
NHTSA’s campaign record for recall 26V677 files the defect under the structure component and states it in one sentence: certain truck cabs may have loose or missing structural bolts. The dataset lists the models as Volvo VNL for model years 2025 and 2026, with five vehicles potentially affected. Each of the two model-year entries carries that same figure of five, which matches the way NHTSA repeats a campaign total across its per-year rows, so five is the number of tractors and not ten.
The consequence statement is the one that matters for drivers. A cab with loose or missing structural bolts may not protect an occupant well in a crash, and the record names injury as the risk. The word “may” is doing real work there: NHTSA’s entry says the bolts may be loose or missing in these vehicles, not that each of the five has been found to be short of fasteners, and it describes no crash tied to the fault.
The remedy is a free dealer visit. Dealers will inspect for missing bolts and install or tighten them as needed. Volvo’s recall number for the campaign is RVXX2612, and owners can reach Volvo customer service at 800-528-6586. The affected vehicle identification numbers became searchable on NHTSA.gov on Oct. 22, 2026, and owner letters are expected on Dec. 14, 2026. That leaves roughly eight weeks between the filing and the first letters, and a week between the filing and the day owners could look up their VIN on NHTSA’s own site.
The companion recall on eight replacement cabs
The second filing, equipment recall 26E072, was also received on Oct. 15 and carries Volvo recall number RVXX2613. It covers eight replacement sleeper cabs, not whole trucks: model VNL660 under part number 78785681 and model VNL860 under part number 78785689. NHTSA classifies it as equipment, because a replacement cab is a part sold separately from the vehicle it eventually goes on.
The defect description matches the truck recall almost word for word. The sleeper cabs may have loose or missing structural bolts, an affected cab may not properly protect an occupant in a crash, and dealers will inspect for missing bolts and install or tighten them at no cost. Owner letters are expected on Dec. 14, 2026, the same date as the truck campaign, and the contact is the same Volvo customer service line.
One quirk shows how little the record says about these cabs. The equipment entry lists the model year as 9999, which looks like a placeholder, so NHTSA’s data cannot say when the eight cabs were made or which trucks they have been fitted to. For that reason the part numbers, 78785681 and 78785689, are the only reliable way to tell whether a given replacement cab belongs to the eight.
Volvo’s other VNL recalls and the free-repair rule
A bolt problem on a current VNL is not the first time NHTSA has recorded a Volvo VNL defect in recent years. The agency’s recall listing for the 2025 VNL shows campaign 24V121, reported in February 2024, in which a steering gear sector shaft was improperly heat-treated and its gear teeth could crack or fracture, with loss of steering control as the consequence. That campaign covered 45 vehicles and applied to 2024 and 2025 VNL and VNR trucks, and Volvo mailed owner letters on March 5, 2024. Dealers were to inspect serial numbers and replace steering gears as necessary, and Volvo’s recall number for it was RVXX2401.
The comparison is useful for scale rather than cause. Both are small recalls on very new tractors, and in each one the remedy is performed by a dealer. Both rest on the same legal footing, too. Under federal law at 49 U.S.C. 30120, once a manufacturer must notify owners of a defect, it has to remedy the defect without charge when the vehicle is presented for repair, which is why each Volvo notice promises dealer work at no cost.
Owners and fleet operators do not have to wait for a letter to act on the cab recall. The VIN search on NHTSA’s recall lookup has been live since Oct. 22, 2026, and the record gives Dec. 14 as the date letters are expected. For a five-tractor campaign, the open question is whether the owners of those five vehicles are found before the letters go out, since the records name no incident and no date by which the inspections must be finished.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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