Jim Park

Former HDT Equipment Editor

Jim Park served as Heavy Duty Trucking's equipment editor from 2006-2024. Specializing in technical and equipment content, Park is an award-winning journalist who has been covering the trucking industry since 1998.

Before joining HDT, Park was a truck driver and owner-operator for 20 years and served as an editor for HighwayStar magazine, which ceased production in 2011. He maintained his commercial driver’s license to bring a real-world perspective to Test Drives, as well as to features, videos and podcasts about equipment spec’ing and trends, emissions regulations and developments, maintenance and drivers.

He is the recipient of 16 Jesse H. Neal honors (both finalist and Neal awards), including “Best Range of Work by a Single Author” in 2020.

News•by Jim Park•November 4, 2016

Continental Breaks Ground for New Mississippi Truck-Tire Plant

Output from the Clinton, Miss.plant will eventually supplement existing truck tire production from Continental's Mt. Vernon, Ill. facility, which is now at capacity of 3.2 million tires per year. Construction will formally begin in 2018, with the first tires coming off the line in late 2019.

Articles•by Jim Park•October 24, 2016

Maximizing Truck Tire Tread Life

Excessive friction or uneven contact between the pavement and the tire will cause tread to wear away faster than you should. It’s important that you do all you can to keep your tires running straight and true.

News•by Jim Park•October 19, 2016

Is a Video Safety Strategy in Your Future?

Fleets are becoming very curious about on board video recording devices. There are dozens of very good reason to get get serious about acquiring such systems, but there's a downside to the systems as well. Mike Nalepka, CEO of VideoProtects.com, shared his thoughts on truck cams at Bobit Business Media's Fleet technology Conference in Schaumburg, Ill.

Photo Galleries•by Jim Park•October 13, 2016

Navistar's SuperTruck

Navistar's SuperTruck is the fourth and final truck to come from round 1 of the Department of Energy's SuperTruck funding initiative. Equipment Editor Jim Park caught up with the truck and chief engineer Dean Oppermann at the annual conference of the SAE Commercial Vehicles conference in Rosemont, Illinois.

Articles•by Jim Park•September 29, 2016

Quick Spin: Cummins Brings X12 to North America

A little while back, Equipment Editor Jim Park tested out Cummins' latest diesel engine, the X12. Are smaller displacements the engine trend of the future? Cummins seems to think so and is hedging its bets on the question.

Articles•by Jim Park•September 26, 2016

Wide-Single Tires Need a Little More Care

Wide-base single tires have saved truck fleets millions of gallons of fuel over the 20-plus years they have been in service and facilitated the transport of thousands of additional tons of payload. Good maintenance improves the value proposition with wide-base singles.

Articles•by Jim Park•September 26, 2016

Ploger Transportation Pushes 10 Mpg With a Far-From-Typical Powertrain Spec

Ploger is a diverse carrier hauling mostly high-cube multi-drop loads to customer retail locations in urban areas predominantly east of the Mississippi.

Photo Galleries•by Jim Park•September 14, 2016

Volvo SuperTruck in Photos

Volvo Trucks North America revealed its contribution to the Department of Energy's SuperTruck project on Sept. 13, 2016. VTNA President Göran Nyberg presented the truck to DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz near DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C., Equipment Editor Jim Park was there.

Articles•by Jim Park•September 6, 2016

Next-Generation Cascadia: Driver Comfort & Safety Too

The new Cascadia is loaded with improvements ranging from the layout of the gauges and switches in the driver compartment to features inside the sleeper area, including a new Driver’s Loft configuration.

Articles•by Jim Park•September 5, 2016

Powertrain, Aero Enhancements Push Cascadia Fuel Economy

DTNA boss Martin Daum calls the fuel-efficiency gains with the new Cascadia mind-boggling. He said the design target was 5% over the current Cascadia Evolution model, but the design team's efforts produced a truck that bests the Evolution by a full 8%. Daum said new Cascadia in full AeroX trim is 19% more fuel efficient than the current base-model Cascadia.

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