World-class brakes don't happen by accident. Meritor has invested millions of dollars in its air disc brake research and development program at its Cwmbran Wales manufacturing facility. Engineers gather data from 14 testing clusters to reveal areas for potential improvement. The in-lab testing is validated by field testing. The result is an air brake that deployed around the globe is dozens of different applications. Here's a glimpse of some of the testing Meritor employs.
- Photos by Equipment Editor Jim Park
In the March issue of Heavy Duty Trucking, Equipment Editor Jim Park took readers for a ride with Meritor's 6x2 SmarTandem single-drive-axle tandem configuration in Michigan's upper pennisula in February. As he puts it: What better place to traction-test the system?
CLICK HERE to read the full story about Jim Park's test drive of the system.
Inland Truck Parts is an independent parts and service operation, but it says the quality of its technicians rival that of OE dealers. Its latest commitment to that is a new 15,000-square-foot training facility in Olathe, Kan., a Kansas City suburb.
Equipment Editor Jim Park takes us on a tour of Volvo Trucks North America's New River Valley truck assembly plant in Dublin, Va. Shown are a few key steps in the assembly process, from welding the cab together to the finished product driving off the assembly line under its own power.
A sampling of some of the vehicles on display and for ride and drives, as well as other sites, during the first Southeast Regional Fleet Workshop of the High-Efficiency Truck Users Forum on May 22 in Birmingham, Ala., at Barber Motorspots Museum. (Photos: Evan Lockridge, Senior Contributing Editor)
In the May 2013 issue of Heavy Duty Trucking, Editors Tom Berg and Jim Park described their experiences taking Kenworth's T880 out for a test drive. They snapped these pictures.
PSI hosted an event recently which featured a plant tour of their facility in San Antonio, Texas.
In the April issue of Heavy Duty Trucking, Equipment Editor Jim Park related his experience taking Navistar's Prostar+ with a Cummins ISX under the hood our for a Test Drive.
Daimler Trucks shows off production of its new Detroit DT12 automated manual transmission, currently produced in Gaggenau, Germany, to members of the trucking press. Assembly is set to be transferred to Detroit's Redford, Mich., headquarters in 2015. They will at first be available exclusively in the Freightliner Cascadia model equipped with a Detroit Diesel DD15 engine. Photos by Evan Lockridge. Read more here.
An impressive 530,000 visitors from over 200 countries converged on the Messe München exhibition center in Munich, Germany, between April 15 and 21 for the giant construction equipment show, Bauma, where there were also plenty of vocational trucks on display. (Photos by Sven-Erik Linstrand, European Editor)
Under Trent Dye's leadership, Paramount Freight Systems was named the Truckload Carriers Association's "Best Fleet to Drive For" for owner-operators two years in a row.
