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.

Articles•by Jim Park•December 11, 2012

Rush Truck Centers Technicians Test Skills in Rodeo

SAN ANTONIO -- Almost 100 truck technicians from across the Rush Truck Centers dealer chain are gathered in San Antonio, Texas, this week to test their skill levels against their peers

Articles•by Jim Park•November 30, 2012

Federal field testing proves ROI on automatic tire inflation systems

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

Articles•by Jim Park•November 28, 2012

Test Drive: Peterbilt Model 579

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

Articles•by Jim Park•November 2, 2012

Are your batteries up to the challenge?

Uptime and utilization are everything, so you don't want a truck sitting on the shop floor during basic battery maintenance. Most fleets pull the batteries at the first sign of trouble and replace them with fresh batteries to get the truck moving again, planning to deal with the bad batteries later. But what killed the batteries in the first place

Articles•by Jim Park•November 2, 2012

Keep Tires Running Straight and True

In tire and wheel mounting, the line between right and wrong is a thin one. A few thousandths of an inch on either side of correct can throw tires and wheels into a mean wobble or cause them to bounce up and down like pistons

Articles•by Jim Park•September 20, 2012

Drivers and Brakes

In 2003 and again in 2004, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance conducted continent-wide surveys of drivers' brake system knowledge. The results were shocking

Articles•by Jim Park•September 17, 2012

You Can't Ignore Your Brakes

There's nothing like a smack up side the head with a two-by-four to get your attention. That's what the Federal Motor Carrier Administration is doing to maintenance with its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program

Articles•by Jim Park•September 17, 2012

Don't Ignore Your Brakes

There's nothing like a smack up side the head with a two-by-four to get your attention. That's what the Federal Motor Carrier Administration is doing to fleet maintenance with its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program

Articles•by Jim Park•September 17, 2012

Driver Training: You Get What You Pay For

There's no B-Team in trucking. Nor do parallel roadways exist where inexperienced rookies can safely hone their skills before stepping onto the big road with the pros

Articles•by Jim Park•September 17, 2012

Test Drive: The Cummins Westport ISX12 G

When I first throttled up the new Cummins Westport ISX12 G, I wanted to make a comparison between this natural-gas-fueled engine and its diesel-fired counterpart. But they are different engines, with very different approaches to getting fuel into the cylinders

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