Article

Now, owners of any brand of vehicle lift can add Spotline to the bay, thanks to a new retrofit kit that makes the laser spotting guide compatible with most in-ground and surface lifts

Tags: In The Shop

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

Your customers are going to be seeing a lot more of that ubiquitous yellow engine-shaped icon on their dashboard with the latest model trucks.

Tags: In The Shop, EPA, Diagnostics

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

SAN ANTONIO -- Almost 100 truck technicians from across the Rush Truck Centers dealer chain are gathered in San Antonio, Texas, this week to test their skill levels against their peers

Tags: In The Shop, Dealers, Rush

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor, and Tom Berg, Senior Editor

You don't have to go far to find a fleet having trouble with engines, spelling opportunities for aftermarket parts and service. In its 2012 U.S. Heavy-Duty Truck Engine and Transmission Study, J.D. Power and Associates found 46% of owners of one-model-year-old engines experienced some type of engine-related problem, up from 42% in 2011

Tags: In The Shop, Engines

As medium-duty truck engine technology advances, more complicated repairs lead to more unscheduled downtime, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 U.S. Medium-Duty Truck Engine and Transmission Study

Tags: In The Shop

By Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief

If you have customers who think a filter's a filter, you've got an opportunity to educate them about why today's high-tech engines need a correspondingly sophisticated filtration system. For instance, take the plunger out of a fuel injector from one of today's diesel engines and hold it in your hand. The warmth of your hand will make the metal expand so you can't get the plunger back inside the barrel

Tags: In The Shop

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

A few three-martini lunches and a hunting trip won't hurt your chances of keeping a good customer, but it will take more than a few perks to keep today's fleets coming back

Tags: In The Shop

By Rolf Lockwood, Contributing Editor and Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief

Starting this summer, the nearly 200 technicians who work for Inland Truck Parts at its locations in 10 states across the central U.S. will be heading to the Kansas City area to train in a new, dedicated training facility, complete with classroom space for nearly 100 students

Tags: In The Shop

By Jim Park, Contributing Editor

With 514,000 carriers running 9 million trucks and buses to contend with, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has had to develop a more effective way of tracking safety violations. It's called CSA, short for "Compliance, Safety, Accountability.

Tags: In The Shop

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Emerging from truck factories in the U.S. since Aug. 1 are road tractors that can stop in substantially shorter distances than those built earlier. It's due to a change in government stopping distance requirement

Tags: In The Shop

Heavy Duty Aftermarket Journal's Top 5 products were selected by the editors from new product announcements published in HDAJ during 2010

Tags: In The Shop

By Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief

In a standing-room only session at Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week in Las Vegas in January, a panel discussion duked it out between the views of the dealer and the independent aftermarket distributor

Tags: In The Shop

By Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief

In February, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued final approval of HFO-1234yf as a refrigerant for air conditioners in new cars and light trucks

Tags: In The Shop

By Jim Park

Wheel-ends function as a system: the spindle, hub, and rim (or wheel), as well as the bearings and the fasteners, all work in concert to keep the wheels in plac

Tags: In The Shop

By Jim Park, Contributing Editor

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Nowhere better does that expression resonate than with heavy truck electrical systems

Tags: In The Shop

By Jim Park, Contributing Editor

No-idle climate-control systems are here to stay after years of sluggish growth and slow market acceptance

Tags: In The Shop

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

Every truck manufactured with a 2007 and later diesel engine is equipped with a diesel particulate filter. Many bus fleets started using them in 2005. There are something like 2 million DPFs, as they're called, in North America already

Tags: In The Shop

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

There have been an unprecedented number of changes and new technologies over the last few years as engine manufacturers struggled to meet the mandates of the Environmental Protection Agency's emission regulation

Tags: In The Shop

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

If the heavy-duty independent repair community is going to hold its own against original equipment franchised dealers, it is going to need two thing

Tags: In The Shop