Equipment

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 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, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter

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 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

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 Engine Smarts Commentary Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Who'd-a-thunk that mile-per-gallon numbers would be important to macho owners of pickup trucks? You can thank spiking prices of gasoline, even before Hurricane Isaac finishes making a wake in Louisiana

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Engine Smarts column Tom Berg, Senior Editor

"Why buy new when you can reuse something that still has value?" That's the mantra at Detroit Reman, which has been remanufacturing engines and engine parts since 1966. And after touring its western plant at Tooele, Utah, one comes away wonderin

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Engine Smarts column Truckinginfo Staff

One of the key factors limiting the use of compressed natural gas in trucks has been the question of range. A commercial vehicle body and trailer manufacturer based in Germany may have a solution -- putting extra CNG tanks on the trailer

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Engine Smarts Tom Berg, Senior Editor

A band wagon powered by natural gas seems to have begun rolling, but most of those aboard talk about brand-new heavy trucks with special gas-burning engines. Why not convert existing trucks and engines to use cheap and clean-burning gas

Tags: Engine Smarts

By EngineSmarts column Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Prices paid at the pump for natural gas by truck operators won't rise much even if gas's basic price doubles, said an executive with Clean Energy, a company now setting up retail NG filling stations and selling the fuel

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Engine Smarts Rolf Lockwood, Contributing Editor

Volvo just told the world about its LNG engine coming in 2014 at a recent press gathering in Miami Beach and discussed the future of DME fuel - that's dimethyl ether - in North America

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Engine Smarts Rolf Lockwood, Contributing Editor

As we head into summer vacation season, it's worth noting that hybrids are being used in a somewhat unexpected place - California's Yosemite National Park

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Engine Smarts Tom Berg, Senior Editor

A chrome-plated exhaust stack emits a muted whoosh as this truck's turbine engine spins at tens of thousands of RPMs, drawing the curious among attendees at this ride-and-drive event in downtown Long Beach, Calif.

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Rolf Lockwood, Contributing Editor

Bet you didn't celebrate National Biodiesel Day, did you? March 18 if you were wondering

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Engine Smarts column Rolf Lockwood, Contributing Editor

Three weeks after the Mid-America Trucking Show, while I munch on very small, very rich chocolate eggs that were left on my desk by some generous rabbit, I find myself at the keyboard pondering a few things I learned and heard in Louisville. And one in particular

Tags: Engine Smarts

By "Engine Smarts" Oliver B. Patton, Washington Editor

From a seminar on sustainable transportation at the Sweden House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, a glimpse over the horizon, such as a camless engine and turning waste into fuel

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Detroit's Big Three light-truck builders are embracing compressed natural gas, if not as the dominant fuel of the future then as a major alternative to gasoline and diesel

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Engine Smarts column Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Some clean diesels of the 2000s have been disruptively unreliable and most are discouragingly expensive, but performance has improved as manufacturers try hard to fix them, said fleet executives at last week's annual meeting of the Technology & Maintenance Council

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Engine Smarts commentary Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Does it make sense for a truck builder to limit customers' engine choices to just one line of products? It does if the engines are its own, because it makes more money. That is among the assertions made by Navistar International Corp.'s top executives to stock market researchers during the company's annual Analysts Day Feb. 1 at its shining and sprawling new headquarters in Lisle, Ill., west of Chicago.

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Engine Smarts Tom Berg, Senior Editor

The other day, a remodeling contractor was working at the next-door neighbors' house and I eyeballed the two trucks that he sent his workers and supplies in

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Hybrid drive systems usually have to be part of a new car or truck, and usually they're expensive. But XL Hybrids of Boston is coming up with one that can be installed on new or existing vehicles at a moderate cost

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

2010-model diesels are running well and turning in better fuel economy than their EPA-'07-spec predecessors, according to reports we've heard at industry meetings and in conversations with fleet managers

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

How does the fuel-fed regeneration of diesel particulate filters affect overall fuel economy?

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Commentary Rolf Lockwood, Editor at Large

Volvo Trucks in Sweden is about to be the first to market a methane-powered truck for long-haul operations in Europe

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Commentary Rolf Lockwood, Editor at Large

Amidst endless chatter about electric power and even fuel cells, the good old internal combustion engine clearly isn't going away any time soon

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Noting that fuel economy will be key to competitiveness among engine makers in the next decade, Cummins says real-world data has confirmed that its EPA-2010 spec ISX15 engine delivers 6 percent fuel economy improvement over its 2009 product. Some customers could see even better results thanks to "significant calibration improvements

Tags: Engine Smarts

By Commentary Rolf Lockwood, Editor at Large

You'll be hearing a lot about the 'OPOC' engine in the next little while, and maybe for a long time to come.

Tags: Engine Smarts