1/19/2010  Heavy Duty Dialogue Looks at Trucks in the Next Decade
By Deborah Lockridge, Editor

What does the next decade hold for the commercial vehicle industry? How will trucks and the way they are marketed change? What will be the driving factors behind those changes? Heavy Duty Dialogue '10 tried to answer that question with a day packed full of analysts and industry leaders Jan. 18 in Las Vegas.

Heavy Duty Dialogue is an annual business conference developed for executives in the global and domestic commercial vehicle supplier industry and put on by the Heavy Duty Manufacturers Association.

A global market

Globalization was a theme addressed by a number of speakers. Juergen Reers, partner at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, said we should expect to see an increasing number of partnerships between truck and component manufacturers in the developed world and those in emerging markets. Of key interest are what is known as the BRIC markets - Brazil, Russia, India and China - where healthy long-term growth in commercial vehicles is expected.

Reers predicted that as the industry becomes more globalized, we will see an increased focus on total cost of ownership, rather than focusing exclusively on the initial purchase price.....

1/8/2010  Pick It Up and Run With It: Intermodal 'Trailer' Comes to U.S.
By Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

Lars Frantzich refers to his container carriers as "machines," not trailers. This gives a hint of the capability and versatility of the Hammar Lift self-loading container-hauling trailer, new to the U.S. market.

Frantzich heads up the fledgling North American operation of the 35-year-old Swedish company. He's been in place here since 2006 starting up a manufacturing operation and getting the word out of the benefits of the side-loading, self-loading trailer that is used extensively in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia and many island nations where imports come in containers yet there are few destinations with loading docks. Containers have to be lowered to the ground to be unloaded.

The reception he's getting from American operators proves he has an education task ahead of him. Few in this country see the benefits of an admittedly expensive trailer that can lift a loaded container on to - and off - its back in about three and a half minutes.

However, the first adopters of these Hammar Lift trailers have realized some specific benefits in niche operations.....

1/7/2010  Mismatched Duals
By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

Running two tires of different circumference, diameter, or tread depth in a dual assembly is a sure-fire way to kill two tires for the price of one. Small differences in any the above or a pressure differential of only 10-15 psi across two tires in a dual assembly can wreck a tire - or both tires - in just a matter of weeks. In a worst-case scenario, mismatched duals across a tandem drive axle could also wreck the differentials.

All that because of a quarter-inch difference between two tires.

Mismatching of dual tires is believed to be a significant problem in trucking, though its prevalence is difficult to determine. Most owner-operators and fleets realize that improper tire management leads to excessive cost, and wastes valuable resources, notes Curtis Decker, senior engineer, product development for Continental Tire North America.

"When it does happen, it's typically a stopgap measure when no other option is available, or it happens in circumstances where tire longevity is at risk for reasons beyond the dual mismatch," he says.....

1/6/2010  Why the U.S. Military Went to LEDs
By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Humans have been cursing the darkness and the real and imagined horrors it hides since before recorded time. For soldiers, the enemy is a real horror. Motorized patrols today are painfully susceptible to explosive ambushes, and being able to spot such dangers can help as much as the new armored trucks. So military and civilian experts teamed up to develop improved headlamps that are replacing fixtures that have been standard for more than a generation. Soldiers and fleet managers especially love the light-emitting diode headlamp.

The LED emits a powerful white beam that duplicates daylight and is highly effective, according to the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Command (TACOM), which pushed for and funded its development by private industry, primarily Truck-Lite. The Army has so far equipped about 50,000 tactical trucks and armored vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan with LED headlamps, and soldiers have sent letters of thanks for the LEDs to Truck-Lite.....

12/21/2009  Class 6-7 Update: Changing Faces
By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

Some manufacturers have enough existing trucks to last well into the new year, so are delaying the start of their 2011 model years, while others will begin them as soon as January. Manufacturers are now installing EPA-'07-spec diesels in 2010-model trucks, and when they begin installing EPA-2010 diesels, those trucks will be called 2011 models. When they switch to the new, ultra-clean-burning diesels will determine the model-year switch. Not all have announced when their new model years will begin, or have disclosed their upcharges for the new, more expensive engines.

Builders are free to start a model year as much as 364 days ahead of the calendar year for which it's named, according to federal law. Thus the 2011 model year can start as soon as Jan. 2, 2010, and it will for a few builders. Others will begin later that month, or in February, March or beyond. One company that usually starts a model year in January will delay it until autumn because its new models with the 2010 diesels won't be ready until then.

Buyers don't complain about pull-ahead model years because it makes their motor vehicles seem newer than they are, and they're worth thousands of dollars more at trade-in time.....

12/21/2009  Piggyback Pointers: Spec'ing For Intermodal
By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

For much of the history of trailer-on-flatcar operations, semitrailers had to be beefed up to take the beating of rail service. Railcars got slammed together during switching moves en route, and slack action of coupler draft gear among cars delivered more shock as trains started, stopped and changed speeds. Trailer kingpins, upper coupler assemblies, frames and bodies had to be extra heavy duty to survive, and this added weight that cut into payload capacity.

But that changed as railroads began running dedicated trains from one intermodal yard to another, which eliminated switching, and started using long articulated cars that reduced the number of coupling points and slack action.

Also, railroads are keeping their promises to take good care of trailers, say some long-haul trucking companies who are major users of rail service. Circus-style drive-on, drive-off ramps were done away with in the 1980s. Trailers now are loaded and unloaded by huge intermodal cranes that are fast but capable of doing serious damage. However, operators of those machines have evidently been instructed to handle trailers gingerly so damage to vehicles and their cargoes is minimal.....