Eaton's UltraShift Highway Value (HV) transmission is now being offered by Daimler Trucks North America on the company's 2009 lineup of Freightliner M2-106 and Sterling Acterra medium-duty trucks.

The vehicles are available with Cummins engines and GVW ratings up to 33,000 pounds.

"Daimler Trucks North America, which manufactures Freightliner, Sterling and Western Star trucks, has selected the UltraShift HV so that they could offer their customers the fuel saving features of an automated transmission," said Dontia M. Warren, NAFTA medium duty market development & strategy manager for Eaton's Truck business.

Tests conducted by an independent firm in accordance with SAE J1526 Joint TMC/SAE Fuel Consumption In-Service Test Procedure, Type III, measured the UltraShift HV transmission against a conventional automatic transmission and determined that the UltraShift HV transmission delivered fuel economy savings from six percent to 19 percent, depending on the duty cycle.

The UltraShift HV transmission is a fully automated transmission system for Class 6 and 7 vehicles with diesel engines in the 195 to 260 horsepower range. The HV is capable of handling torque capacities up to 660 pounds per foot and loads up to 33,000 pounds gross vehicle weight. The UltraShift HV transmission is ideally suited for pickup/delivery, service/utility and recovery applications.

Additional features and benefits of the UltraShift HV transmission include:
• No scheduled maintenance: no filters to change feature provides lower maintenance and reduced downtime costs.
• Hill assist: automatically minimizes rollback on up to 10 percent grades while the operator makes the transition from the brake pedal to the accelerator, which benefits the driver in both uphill and downhill stop/start situations.
• Modular design: provides more rapid service and reduced service costs.
• Commonality: electronics modules and shift controls used on other Fuller manual and automated transmissions allow service providers to reduce service parts inventories and speed training and certification of technicians

More info: www.roadranger.com