test drives

By Tom Berg, Senior Equipment Editor

Almost since pickup trucks began outselling automobiles in the 1980s, the domestic Big Three auto makers - who still dominate light-truck sales with their full-size models - have been leapfrogging over each other with redesigned and refined products

Tags: Test Drive

By Tom Berg, Senior Equipment Editor

T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire investor and big-time oilman, is hawking his "Pickens Plan" in TV commercials, personal appearances and a web site (www.pickensplan.com)

Tags: Test Drive

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

A much-anticipated first drive of International's new LoneStar confirms it's more than just a pretty face

Tags: Test Drive

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

Big changes to Peterbilt's aero 386 make it more wind-cheating and enhance overall fuel economy

Tags: Test Drive

By Tom Berg, Senior Equipment Editor

Until recently, hybrid-drive commercial trucks have been, almost by definition, straight trucks. These are often the ones used in urban stop-and-go operations, where hybrids offer the greatest fuel savings achieve

Tags: Test Drive

By Tom Berg, Senior Equipment Editor

Severe Duty version of Freightliner's FLD proves a joy to drive, but get one while you can, because production stops in late 2009.

Tags: Test Drive

By Tom Berg, Senior Equipment Editor

Kenworth T170's just right if 19,500 pounds is enough

Tags: Kenworth, Trucks, Test Drive

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

Kenworth's Clean Power System is designed to provide managed comfort when the driver needs it.

Tags: Green, Kenworth, Electric APU, Driver Comfort, Test Drive

By Tom Berg, Senior Equipment Editor

Dodge's heaviest commercial truck combines a beefy chassis with a cab from the 1500 series pickup.

Tags: Pickup Trucks, Dodge Ram, Medium-Duty Trucks, Test Drive

By Tom Berg

The nomenclature suggests a circle, and this truck will turn them with alacrity. Also Ford redesigns its ever-popular F-150 for 2009.

Tags: Ford F-150, Sterling, Ford, Test Drive

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

The star of this show was the MaxxForce 13-liter, 1,700 pounds-foot engine destined for a high mileage fleet.

Tags: Test Drive, International TranStar

By Tom Berg

If you can't pass the higher costs on in surcharges, it's time to reduce fuel usage. And hybrid-drive trucks are capable of some serious savings.

Tags: Green, Kenworth, Gasoline-Electric Hybrids, Test Drive

By Tom Berg

Ford's F-150, America's perennial best-selling vehicle and part of a truck line that has claimed sales leadership for 31 years, may well keep that distinction, thanks to an extensive redesign for the 2009 model year.

Tags: Ford F-150, Test Drive

By Tom Berg

There's a funny story about the Sterling 360's name. In a short bull session following a press conference last year, a couple of Sterling executives related that they considered calling the truck "AC 360," as in a circular 360 degrees, because the truck is "better all around," which became its marketing slogan.

Tags: Test Drive

By Sean Lyden

The test truck was the International TranStar in the new nomenclature - 8600 in the past. But the other new badges, high on the side of the hood, told the story: MaxxForce. This tractor was one of the International validation units for the new big-bore engines, destined for a high-mileage fleet to get fast results before the engine becomes commercially available around mid-year.

Tags: MaxxForce, Test Drive, International TranStar

By Jim Park

We're witnessing a huge change in the way trucks and engines come together. We saw it first with Volvo's D-platform engines (shared with Mack and Renault). We'll soon see International take a similar approach, sharing an engine platform between International trucks in North America and MAN chassis in Europe.

Tags: Mitsubishi Fuso, Diesel Engines, Detroit Diesel, Freightliner, Daimler, Test Drive

By Tom Berg

The point of Volvo Trucks' latest model, the VHD 430, is its sleeper compartment. While previous VHDs have daycabs and work as dumpers, concrete mixer chassis and equipment haulers, the 42-inch-cab addition, with its 36-inch-wide by 79-inch-long bunk, provides a comfortable place for a driver to rest and to legally overnight no matter where he and his rig are.

Tags: Volvo, Test Drive, sleepers

By Sean Lyden

The C15 was very responsive, showed great throttle modulation and made gearshifting a joy. And at the event, the 387 it powered also gave pause. I hadn't driven one in several years and the new dash appealed enormously.

Tags: Peterbilt, Test Drive

By Tom Berg

The Pinnacle Axle Forward lacks a really long hood, but this madeover CH has traditional looks and terrific driveability, thanks partly to a new, bigger engine.

Tags: Test Drive

By Tom Berg

Ignore the "viper green" paint and the "hybrid" labels, and this Model 386 looks like a lot of road tractors out there.

Tags: Test Drive

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

New truck gets larger, more spacious cab with increased side-to-side and front-to-back room.

Tags: Test Drive, Isuzu N-Series

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

This heavy truck is a complex and integrated vehicle that has so many more features the deeper you delve into it.

Tags: Volvo, Test Drive

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

The Pinnacle is Mack's latest- generation premium tractor for over-the-road fleets and owner-operators

Tags: Mack, Pinnacle, Test Drive

By Tom Berg

This extended daycab continues an aerodynamic revolution started by KW a quarter-century ago.

Tags: Kenworth, Extended Day Cab, Test Drive

By Jim Park

Freightliner's Cascadia meets customer demands and gives a little more in the bargain.

Tags: Freightliner, customer satisfaction, Freightliner Cascadia, Test Drive

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

It's a driver's truck for its quietness and handling. And it's an owner's truck for its low maintenance and repairability.

Tags: ProStar, Test Drive

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

Kenworth W900L wears the Western look with the new Pendleton interior option

Tags: Test Drive

By Tom Berg, Senior Equipment Editor

Ice storm disrupts Ford's SuperDuty event, but the redesigned '08 pickups came out looking good.

Tags: Ford, Ford F-Series Super Duty, Test Drive

By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

Kenworth W900L wears the Western look with the new Pendleton interior option

Tags: Kenworth, Test Drive

By Tom Berg, Senior Equipment Editor

Diesel-electric trucks for the Air Force save big on fuel, and they're also easy to drive.

Tags: Volvo, Gasoline-Electric Hybrids, Test Drive

By HDT staff

New models can only add more heat to an already competitive market segment.

Tags: Dodge, Dodge Ram, Medium-Duty Trucks, Heavy-Duty Trucks, Test Drive

By Tom Berg, Senior Equipment Editor

The redesigned models went into production in time to meet tighter federal diesel exhaust emissions limits last month.

Tags: Ford, Ford F-Series Super Duty, redesign, Test Drive

By Jim Park

Sterling builds a fine expediter- add a great big bunk and you've got quite the truck under you.

Tags: Sterling, Sterling Trucks, sleepers, Expedite, Test Drive