Equipment

By Jim Park

You get 30% less tread on some fuel-efficient tires, they cost 15% less up front and they run fewer miles to take-off, but does the money saved on fuel because of the lower rolling resistance make up for the shorter overall life? Many fleets are struggling with that question today. The answer is often anything but clear.

Tags: Goodyear, Michelin, Continental Tires, Bridgestone, Tires, GITI

By Jim Beach

You probably have a pretty good idea what a telematics system is, even if you don't know it by that name. You may know it as a fleet management system or GPS fleet management system or GPS vehicle tracking system.

Tags: Telematics, GPS, Technology

By Tom Berg

It takes special people to be flatbedders. Tarping, however, is usually not on their list of favorite activities. A single tarpaulin can weigh 65 to 100 pounds or more. It must be half thrown and half dragged over the load, spread evenly with corners properly folded and tucked in, and the whole piece of slippery fabric secured with straps and bungies.

Tags: Trailers, Tarping, Side kits, Rolling tarps, Curtain-sider

By Sven-Erik Lindstrand

The day after its introduction in Dusseldorf, in northern Germany, we reporters had a chance to drive Mercedes-Benz’s new Sprinter van for a few hours on various surfaces, from a test track to a dirt road and on a nearby Autobahn.

Tags: Cargo Vans, Sprinter, Mercedes-Benz

By Jim Park

Everything you need to know about switching from dual wheels to wide-base singles you can learn at a playground. Picture a teeter-totter with a big kid on one end and a little kid on the other. The big kid is on the ground, while the little guy's legs are dangling in the air. The load is unevenly distributed. If you moved the fulcrum closer to the big kid, the beam would eventually balance.

Tags: Tires, Wide-base tires, Tires and Wheels, Offset axles

By Tom Berg

It's still an oddball spec in road tractors, but some believe the 6x2 — a single drive axle with two powered wheels among six total wheel positions — will someday become more common as truck operators look for ways to save fuel and cut tare weight.

Tags: 6x2, Meritor, SmarTandem, Dana Spicer, EconoTrek, Bendix eTrac, Meritor Wabco

By Truckinginfo Staff

Greening a fleet can be a daunting prospect, but as fuel prices continue to rise, the opportunity to save money has increased. Significant and easily accessible funding is now available in California through the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP)

Tags: California, Alternative Fuels & Hybrids, EVs, HEVs

By Jim Park

Ten years ago, you could buy a decent steer tire for $300. Not anymore. But, then again, you're not buying the same tire anymore either. Long-term pricing trends show that the cost of raw materials used in tire manufacturing has gone up over the past decade, along with the shelf prices for tires, but consumers haven't seen the price swings for tires that manufacturers have seen for materials over the same period of time.

Tags: Goodyear, Continental Tires, Yokohama Tire Corp., Stemco, Guayule, Automatic tire inflation systems

By Tom Berg

Drayage operators will soon obtain more container chassis from trucker-owned pools than from ship lines and railroads, which signals part of a transition under way in the intermodal industry. A recently formed North American Chassis Pool Cooperative has won government approval and has begun purchasing chassis.

Tags: Intermodal, NACPC, Chassis

By Jim Park

Red engines have been fixtures under Navistar hoods since the late ‘90s. Except for the recent hiatus, you have to go back some 75 years to the days when Cummins and International trucks weren't almost synonymous in North America.

Tags: Cummins, Navistar, Test Drive

By Tom Berg

Glider kits — new trucks and tractors that get rebuilt or remanufactured powertrain components — make up a small percentage of total new-truck purchases, partly because most truck operators know little about them.

Tags: WheelTime Network, Glider Kits, Fitzgerald Gliders

By Tom Berg

Every day, thousands of used trucks change hands. Last year, 190,000 were sold, and though this year's tally might be lower, it's still a healthy business that sometimes mirrors new-truck sales. That this market is intrinsically tied to new trucks becomes more apparent at times like now, when supplies of late-model power units are growing scarce.

Tags: Schneider, Used Trucks, Arrow Truck Sales, NTP

By Jim Park

Although we're in no danger of running short of our primary source of natural rubber, prices have risen dramatically over the past 10 years, contributing to rising prices for tires. Several tire makers are researching other sources of rubber.

Tags: Tires, Rubber, Guayule

By Tom Berg & Kate Harlow

When the economy took a dive in 2008 and the construction industry's work dried up, so did much of the market for dump trailers. As construction begins coming back, there's a growing demand for new dumps. Demand also is being driven by other emerging trends in the market.

Tags: East, Mac Trailer, Clement, Dumps, NTDA, Beall, Trailers, Vocational

By Jim Park

The 6x2 concept isn't new, but it's not popular on our side of the Atlantic Ocean. Meritor aims to change that with its new SmarTandem single-drive-axle tandem configuration. Equipment Editor Jim Park reports on his driving impressions.

Tags: Meritor, 6x2, SmarTandem, Test Drive, Winter

By Tom Berg

There was a time when fleet managers and owner-operators specified many components on their new trucks and tractors, but that's been seriously curtailed by vertical integration — the practice of manufacturers controlling the design and spec'ing process using parts they build themselves or get from a few suppliers.

Tags: Air filter, Maintenance

By Deborah Lockridge

What type of engine systems and parts will you be dealing with in the future? From electric-drive turbos to waste heat regeneration, Derek Kaufman, president of C3 Network, examined powertrain trends during Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week earlier this year.

Tags: DPF, Aftermarket, HDAW, Engines

By HDT Staff

Which are the best of the best new products and equipment from last year's introductions? We've gone through an extensive process to determine HDT's 2013 Top 20 Products.

By Evan Lockridge

The economic recession had profound effects on trucking, but one of the most surprising is a greater need for tires on trucks that need to be used in more than one application. That's the opposite of another trend, which is more single-application-specific tires.

Tags: Goodyear, Michelin, Retread tires, Continental Tires, Bridgestone, Tires

By Deborah Lockridge

When it come to trends in axles and suspensions, it's all about efficiency. Fleets are constantly looking for ways to become more operationally efficient, whether it's fuel economy, increased payload, lower maintenance costs, longer equipment life, or driver productivity.

Tags: Firestone, Reyco Granning, Meritor, Suspensions, Hendrickson, Axles, Dana Spicer

By Jim Park

How do you compare a luxurious Ford F-650 with an Isuzu Reach cargo van? Two completely different trucks with different purposes in life. Such was the challenge of five trucking media judges at the 2012 American Truck Dealers Association's Commercial Truck of the Year competition.

Tags: ATD, Dealers, Commercial Truck of the Year, Medium-duty trucks, Class 8

By Kate Harlow

When you are getting ready to put a dry van trailer out to pasture and begin the process of searching for its replacement, there are many things to consider: maintenance costs, fuel-economy regulations, payload and the weight of the trailer, to name a few. One way to navigate through the maze of options is to follow some tips a few trailer manufacturers shared with us.

Tags: Trailers, Payload, Dry Vans, Capacity, MPG, fuel economy

By Tom Berg

The sloped hood on International's WorkStar 7600 was first shown off at the World of Concrete show in 2010, but with vocational-truck business seriously down during the recession, it only went into production last fall.

Tags: International, Workstar, Test Drive, Navistar, Vocational

By Jim Park

If stretching your tire budget means buying cheaper tires, you may be cheating yourself. You'll get more tires for less money — and that looks good up front — but does that theory hold up after six months or a year?

Tags: Retread tires, Tires

By Greg Smith, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Talbert Manufacturing

Long before a single load is booked or any wheels turn, someone - usually a fleet manager - needs to determine exactly what is going to separate the road and the load

Tags: Trailers, Talbert, Lowbed, Heavy Haul

By Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief

LAS VEGAS -- Meritor launched two new product series, Meritor AllFit and Meritor Green, with new all-makes shock absorbers the first in the Meritor AllFit line

Tags: Meritor, Aftermarket, reman, all makes

By Tom Berg

CORRECTED -- Volvo Trucks executives knew full well what a group of its customers would say about experiences with modern engines, but invited them to speak to press reporters anyway. Then the Volvo people explained what they're doing to alleviate service problems that customers have also experienced

Tags: Engine Smarts, Volvo, Dealers, Engines, Diagnostics

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

Mike Yap is a plumbing and heating contractor near Buffalo, N.Y. He operates two GMC 3500-series cargo vans and two utility trailers. He buys tires from a local auto supply jobber. He's a price shopper

Tags: Tire Report, light trucks, Tires

By Tom Berg

"Uncertainty" is the word people at most truck builders used to describe this year's business mood. Sales started strong, then slacked off in the summer as many buyers seemed to be waiting to see what would happen in the general economy and the presidential election

Tags: Class 8

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Carbon dioxide, condemned for being a greenhouse gas and the target of diesel emissions regulations about to go into effect, is actually good when used as a refrigerant

Tags: Trailers, CO2, Thermo King, Reefers, Carrier Transicold

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

The arrival of Detroit's DT12 automated manual transmission wasn't unexpected. Daimler AG, the parent company of Daimler Trucks North America and Detroit Inc., has been using such transmissions in Europe for many years in the Mercedes Actros line and earlier products

Tags: Test Drive, Detroit, Daimler

When it comes to commercial tire sales, 2012 could not have been any more contrasting from 2011, says Rick Phillips, Yokohama Tire's director of commercial sales. Phillips, a 35-year tire industry veteran, discusses what the challenges were within the commercial tire industry in 2012 and how they will affect truck owners in 2013

Tags: Tire Report, Economy, Tires

By Engine Smarts column Tom Berg, Senior Editor

In all the years I've been doing update articles for HDT, particularly on Class 1, 2 and 3 cargo vans, I've repeatedly asked execs at the truck builders about trends in engines

Tags: Engine Smarts, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Sprinter

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

We now have conclusive proof that automated tire inflation systems and tire pressure monitoring systems offer quantifiable payback

Tags: Tire Report, Tires

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Truck bodies these days are more than just a box, and we've highlighted several recent developments in this article

Tags: Trailers

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

The urge to compare is great, but I will resist. Both Peterbilt's Model 579 and Kenworth's T68O were introduced with much fanfare at the Mid-America Trucking Show earlier this year

Tags: Test Drive, Peterbilt

By Engine Smarts column Tom Berg, Senior Editor

The idea of Cummins parts in a Caterpillar machine seems odd, but the shrinking world of industry consolidation will result in the use of Cummins-sourced selective catalytic reduction equipment on the Navistar-supplied diesels in Cat vocational trucks

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

The Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah is among the places in the U.S. where natural gas is being recovered in the ongoing energy boom. As in other areas, great quantities of specially treated water are being used to liberate the ga

Tags: Trailers, water truck, Fracking

By Engine Smarts Column Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Several years ago, Paul Wion, corporate fleet supervisor at Lewis Tree Service in upstate New York, got up during a Shop Talk session at a TMC meeting to describe a fix for diesel particulate filters that were plugging up in the field

Tags: Engine Smarts

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: Light & Medium

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Cruising down the Interstate, you glance at the tachometer and gasp as you see the needle hovering at under 1,200 rpm. Yet the engine isn't vibrating or straining, and the rig continues to move steadily forward

Tags: Test Drive, Mack, diesel

By Engine Smarts Commentary Tom Berg, Senior Editor

HANOVER, Germany -- "We're ready for Euro 6," declared Tom Linebarger, the pleasant, polite and straight-talking CEO of Cummins Inc., in leading off his press conference during the IAA show in Hanover last week

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Engine Smarts

Just how clean is the latest clean diesel technology? Put it this way: A study by the University of California-Riverside found commercially cooked hamburgers emit more particulate matter than diesel trucks meeting EPA 2007 and EPA 2010 emissions standards. The UC-Riverside study was funded by the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

If the Kenworth K270 had been introduced in time to be judged for the medium-duty Commercial Truck of the Year award, it might have given the Model 210 from KW's sister company, Peterbilt, a run for the title

Tags: Test Drive

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Anyone who's seen van trailers with sides bulging outward or dented from inside knows that at least some of that is caused by shifting cargo

Tags: Trailers