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DAF Trucks Press Release / October 5, 2018 The DAF XF has been named as ‘Truck of the Year’ at Northern Ireland’s premier transport industry event – the Export & Freight Transport & Logistics Awards 2018. It is the fourth time the DAF XF has received a top accolade in markets across Europe, since DAF Trucks’ premium duty truck range – alongside the versatile CF series – was voted ‘International Truck of the Year 2018’ by a jury of 23 international journalists. Subsequently the DAF XF for long and heavy haulage also received national Truck of the Year awards in Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Northern Ireland’s top honor was awarded to the XF after being assessed by a jury panel made up of operators and industry experts from Northern Ireland’s transport industry. They named DAF’s flagship “a clear winner with top marks for performance and reliability, driver safety and comfort, fuel efficiency and aftersales support from the dealership network. The DAF XF comes with a raft of innovative features as standard, adding to class leading transport efficiency.” .

Industry consolidation.

Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) / October 4, 2018 Cummins and Isuzu Motors have signed a letter of intent to jointly evaluate opportunities to develop new powertrains globally. The deal is in the early stages and the two companies offered few concrete details, but it is seen as a way to grow both companies in global markets. Each company has committed to assigning a team to explore potential opportunities in product technology development, service, and other areas of collaboration with the potential for a longer-term partnership on diesel and natural gas powertrains, as well as on electric powertrains. With more stringent emissions regulations around the world, power sources are becoming more diverse. As a result, Cummins and Isuzu believe that more significant investment will be required to deliver next generation diesel and natural gas powertrain solutions as well as alternative powertrains, connectivity and other innovations. Collaboration and strategic partnerships are seen as essential in order to share the needed increased investment cost to be competitive in these markets. “Isuzu is a leading global company with a reputation for excellence in trucks, powertrains and customer service,” said Tom Linebarger, chairman and CEO of Cummins. “Our companies share a commitment to technology leadership, quality and dependability for our customers, and global reach. Cummins is honored to be working with Isuzu and to explore how to leverage our respective strengths to create new opportunities for both companies.”

Meanwhile, Ford-Otosan, Sollers-Ford and JMC (Ford minority owned) keep cranking out Transits.

Ford to idle Transit van output for 2 weeks Michael Martinez, Automotive News / October 4, 2018 Ford Motor Co. will suspend output of the [full-size] Transit van at a Kansas City assembly plant for two weeks this month because of a slump in commercial orders for the top-selling large van. Roughly 2,000 workers on two shifts at the factory will be temporarily laid off. In a note to employees Wednesday, the plant's labor relations office said workers will be laid off for two weeks starting Oct. 22. Workers on temporary layoff receive roughly 80 percent of their take-home pay. "We are matching production with demand, as we always do," Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker said in a statement. U.S. sales of the Transit rose 14 percent to 106,463 through the first nine months of the year, outpacing the overall large van segment, but deliveries fell 15 percent in September. A majority of Transit sales are to commercial fleets, and order timing varies throughout the year, Felker said. Workers who also build the F-150 pickup at Ford's Kansas City Assembly Plant are unaffected by the plans to suspend Transit output. The plant's F-150 production lines were idled earlier this year after a fire at a Michigan supplier halted output. .

We all knew this was coming.

Reuters / October 3, 2018 WASHINGTON — AM General has put itself up for sale and has hired investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd to seek potential bidders in a deal that could value the builder of Humvee military vehicles at more than $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said this week. Potential bidders include competitors in the military ground vehicle market, such as General Dynamics, Oshkosh Corp and BAE Systems, according to two people familiar with the matter. Automakers like Fiat Chrysler and General Motors may also be potential buyers. GM licensed Hummer from AM General in 1998 to build civilian SUVs. None of the companies would comment or reply to a request for comment. The South Bend, Indiana-based AM General is currently owned by private equity firms. A possible sale of AM General follows a rash of deals over the past 18 months among defense contractors. But relatively fewer makers of defense equipment have gone on the auction block. Last year, United Technologies acquired Rockwell Collins for $30 billion, and in March, TransDigm Group continued its acquisition spree with a $525 million deal for Extant Components Group. AM General could fetch about 10 times its annual earnings of $160 million, one of the people said. The company's favorable tax treatment because of its current status as an limited liability corporation, would allow a buyer to reduce the company's taxable earnings for 15 years. That coupled with recent contract awards could push the ultimate value of the company to over $2 billion in a sale. The sale, should it happen, comes as the U.S. Army is gearing up for a broad effort to modernize its forces, including seeking prototypes of its Next-Generation Combat Vehicle in fiscal year 2022. Last month, AM General was awarded an Army contract for as many as 2,800 new M997A3 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) ambulances. The contract could be worth as much as $800 million if all options were exercised, AM General said at the time. Last year, the Pentagon awarded AM General a $550 million contract to deliver HMMWVs for use as protected weapons carriers, cargo transporters and ambulances to Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Jordan, Slovenia, Bahrain, Columbia, Bosnia and Kenya as a part of a larger Foreign Military Sales agreement. The sale of AM General offers an opportunity to purchase a prime contractor that delivers a finished product to the Pentagon, and not just an add-on system or service.

Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA) Press Release / October 2, 2018 Making Volvo Active Driver Assist standard not only makes our roads safer for professional drivers, but for everyone else who shares the road with us. .

Cummins Westport ISX12N Engine Tested for Performance Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) / October 3, 2018 An independent, third-party study on the Cummins Westport ISX12N 400 hp natural gas engine recently demonstrated that the engine meets and exceeds California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) optional Low NOx standard of 0.02 g/bhp-hr. The study was carried out by The University of California, Riverside College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology, with funding provided by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the California Energy Commission, and Southern California Gas Co. It confirms that natural gas engine technology provides one of the cleanest available options for on-highway transportation, according to Cummins. Engine testing was performed on a chassis dynamometer, with test cycles representative of operation in California’s South Coast Air Basin. Results showed that the ISX12N 400 hp engine met and exceeded the target NOx emissions throughout a range of duty cycles. When the engine operates on renewable natural gas, there are significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to providing air quality and greenhouse gas benefits, the ISX12N can also take advantage of low natural gas prices and available incentive funds. In production since February 2018, the ISX12N was the first Class 8 truck engine for larger heavy-duty vehicles to certify to CARB’s optional Low NOx standard. Currently, more than 1,000 ISX12N engines have been produced for North American customers. The ISX12N is produced at the Cummins Jamestown, N.Y., engine plant, and is available from a wide variety of vehicle manufacturers. It’s designed for regional haul, refuse, and vocational trucks, as well as motorcoach and commuter buses. Cummins Westport natural gas engines can operate on compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, or renewable natural gas.

Honda to invest $2.75 billion in GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit Michael Wayland, Automotive News / October 3, 2018 DETROIT -- Honda Motor Co. will invest $2.75 billion in General Motors' autonomous vehicle operations, including plans to develop and deploy a purpose-built self-driving vehicle. The Japanese automaker will receive a 5.7 percent stake in GM Cruise LLC for the investment, which includes an immediate $750 million and another $2 billion for development and deployment of self-driving vehicles over the next 12 years, GM and Honda executives said Wednesday. Click here for the press release. Honda, according to GM CEO Mary Barra, will provide Cruise with additional engineering, design and technology expertise and assist in the company’s “global reach and the ability to deploy at-scale.” “It will really expand Cruise’s leadership in the development and deployment of autonomous technology,” Barra told reporters Wednesday at the company’s technical center in suburban Detroit. The investment values Cruise at $14.6 billion -- $3.1 billion more than when SoftBank Vision Fund, a prominent technology investment firm, announced plans to invest $2.25 billion in the operations in May. That deal gave SoftBank a 19.6 percent stake in GM Cruise, which includes Cruise and Strobe Inc., a lidar company GM acquired in October 2017. The announced partnership sent GM shares up 2.1 percent to $33.99 as of 10:27 a.m. The investment from Honda comes roughly nine months after GM announced plans to launch public ride-hailing services with self-driving vehicles that don't have manual controls such as steering wheels and pedals, starting in 2019. GM President Dan Ammann said next year “remains the objective,” however he stressed that safety will be the determining factor on when the vehicles launch. New AV Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt, in a post on Medium, said the company has already started “quietly prototyping a ground-breaking new vehicle over the past two years that is fully released from the constraints of having a driver behind the wheel.” “Building a new vehicle that has an incredible user experience, optimal operational parameters, and efficient use of space is the ultimate engineering challenge,” he wrote. “We’re going to do this right, and by joining forces with Honda we’ve found the perfect partner to help make it happen.” Ammann, who oversees Cruise, on Wednesday said the vehicle will be the first purpose-built vehicle at-scale that’s “free from the constraints of having to think about vehicle design and having a driver at the wheel, and all the traditional approaches to that.” “This takes us into the true future of mobility,” he said, later declining to provide a timeline for production or deployment of such a vehicle. Cruise’s current self-driving fleet is based on the Chevrolet Bolt EV. The newest iteration of the car took out the manual controls such as pedals and steering wheels, however still has the traditional interior of the car. Vogt, in the post, questioned why shouldn’t the “car of the future” include “giant TV screens, a minibar and lay-flat seats? Maybe it should,” he wrote. A teaser photo of the front end of the vehicle released Wednesday shows a rectangular, pod-like vehicle with large vertical illuminated headlights. Ammann, on a call with investors Wednesday, said the plan is for GM, not Honda, to manufacturer the vehicle. GM was expected to begin testing its autonomous vehicles this year in New York. However, Barra on Wednesday said the company is focusing its current efforts in San Francisco. “We’ve really refocused the efforts to make sure that we are as efficient as possible to be able to deploy safely,” said Barra, adding the company continues “early work” in the Big Apple. A company spokesman confirmed Cruise has completed mapping streets in the city. ‘Running start’ Ammann described the Honda partnership as having “a running start,” as the automakers have previously teamed up on the development of other advanced technologies. He called the relationship between the two companies “longstanding and deeply trustful.” Honda’s investment in GM’s Cruise comes four months after the two companies announced plans to develop a new generation of batteries aimed at cutting costs and accelerating the companies’ rollout of electric vehicles. The companies also previously formed an advanced-technology alliance announced last year between GM and Honda, which have been working on advanced hydrogen fuel cells for deployment in 2020. Honda Executive Vice President and Representative Director COO Seiji Kuraishi, via teleconference Wednesday, said Honda hopes the collaboration “will further strengthen” the company’s efforts and partnerships with GM. When asked about reported conversations between Honda and Google’s self-driving affiliate, Waymo, Kuraishi declined to directly comment on those talks. “As we’ve announced today, we decided to announce an exclusive collaboration with GM and Cruise,” he said through a translator. While the tie-up is exclusive on Honda’s end, GM is not ruling out adding other partners to Cruise. “In terms of other partnerships and opportunities, we will evaluate things as they come along but we have an incredibly well-resourced plan and a huge pool of talent behind this effort now that’s going to enable us to go as quickly as we possibly can,” said Ammann, adding the company has been “extremely selective” in taking on partners.

Ford's 2019 Transit Connect Wagon gets 29 mpg on highway Michael Martinez, Automotive News / October 3, 2018 Ford Motor Co.'s freshened Transit Connect Wagon gets best-in-class highway and combined EPA fuel economy ratings, but the automaker said it is aiming even higher for its new, yet-to-be-rated diesel offering. The passenger wagon, on sale now, comes standard with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine mated to an eight-speed transmission. The long wheelbase, front-wheel-drive model gets an EPA-estimated fuel economy ratings of 24 mpg city, 29 mpg highway and 26 mpg combined. That is an improvement over the previous generation's 19 mpg city, 27 mpg highway and 22 mpg combined. The 2019 Transit Connect beats the Nissan NV200 Cargo Van's 24 mpg city, 26 mpg highway and 25 mpg combined rating, and also leads the 2018 Ram ProMaster City's ratings of 21 mpg city, 28 mpg highway and 24 mpg combined. But Ford is expecting to crack the 30 mpg barrier with its upcoming 1.5-liter EcoBlue diesel engine. Ford says it expects "at least" 30 mpg when the engine earns its EPA rating sometime early next year. Ford unveiled freshened passenger wagon and cargo van versions of its Transit Connect small van earlier this year. The cargo wagon has not yet been rated. Officials say the wagon accounts for about 15 percent of Transit Connect volume, but Ford hopes to grow that to 20 to 25 percent. It will offer a class-leading towing capacity of 2,000 pounds when equipped with an available trailer tow package, Ford says. The vehicle also comes with a host of new driver-assistance features. The refresh is meant to further grow Ford's dominant share of the commercial vehicle segment. Last year, Ford sold 34,473 Transit Connects in the U.S., down 20 percent but nearly double the sales of the second-place NV200. Ford owned about a 45 percent share of the compact van segment in 2017 and hopes to grow that number by targeting active baby boomers who might not be able to afford a traditional minivan or large crossover. The Transit Connect's U.S. sales fell 9.3 percent to 23,218 units through September of this year, Ford's monthly sales report said on Tuesday. .

The big event was in 1998, when Dana purchased Eaton's heavy axle and brake unit. http://dana.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=26450&item=69130 As part of the transaction, Dana and Eaton entered into a marketing agreement whereby Eaton will market a complete heavy-duty Class 8 Eaton-Spicer drivetrain consisting of Spicer steer and drive axles; Spicer brakes, Spicer driveshafts, Eaton Spicer clutches, and Eaton Fuller transmissions.

Come to your senses, turn the fuel back down to stock, and use the appropriate Mack spec Spicer clutch. Don't place yourself and Dale Francis above the Mack engineers who created the E9.

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Meritor Press Release / October 1, 2018 .

Dana impresses !

BPW Bergische Achsen Press Release / September 14, 2018 Loading and unloading often involves manoeuvring in tight spaces – in particular for vehicles such as tankers that collect milk from farms or trucks that deliver drinks to supermarkets. This takes a great deal of time and frequently results in damage to the vehicle. Until now, mechanical self-steering axles could only be of assistance when the vehicle was travelling forwards. The innovative auxiliary steering system from the BPW Group now also provides steering functionality – and therefore trailer manoeuvrability – during reverse manoeuvres. The vehicle can therefore be manoeuvred quicker and automatically in reverse. .

That's an earlier version with the one-piece grille (versus the later 3-piece). Nice truck.

If you want to enjoy that Mack V8 for many more years, then turn it back down to stock spec. That's adequate power. Otherwise you're going to be needing parts that are either NLA or cost a fortune.