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Up to 64 metric tons (141,096 pounds) for standard vehicles. http://www.metsateho.fi/wp-content/uploads/L1.3.-Svenson.pdf

Baltimore takes down Confederate statues in middle of night The Guardian and Associated Press / August 16, 2017 Confederate-era monuments have been taken down in the middle of the night in Baltimore. The memorials in the city include the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Mount Royal Avenue, the Confederate Women’s Monument on West University Parkway, the Roger B Taney Monument on Mount Vernon Place, and the Robert E Lee and Thomas J “Stonewall” Jackson Monument in the Wyman Park Dell. The Baltimore mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, announced the creation of a special commission to review all of Baltimore’s Confederate statues and historical assets in June 2015. Maryland, a slave-owning state [152+ years ago], remained in the union during the civil war, which was fought from 1861-65. But Rawlings-Blake’s commission noted that though 65,000 Marylanders fought for the north, 22,000 fought for the Confederacy. Other cities and states accelerated their plans to remove Confederate monuments following the violence in Virginia. Only two statues were taken down immediately, in Gainesville, Florida, where the Daughters of the Confederacy removed a statue of a Confederate soldier known as “Ole Joe”, and in Durham, North Carolina, where protesters used a rope to pull down a Confederate monument dedicated in 1924. Meanwhile in Birmingham, Alabama, the city used a wooden structure to cover up a Confederate monument in a downtown park on Tuesday night. Legislators passed a law earlier this year prohibiting the removal of structures including rebel memorials. So Birmingham mayor William Bell ordered the city’s 52-foot-tall Confederate obelisk covered with wooden panels. Leaders of a New York Episcopal diocese said they would remove two plaques honouring Lee from a church property in Brooklyn. Donald Trump defended Confederate statues in his wide-ranging remarks at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday evening. “This week it’s Robert E Lee. I notice that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down,” Trump said. “I wonder, is it George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” Asked specifically whether Charlottesville’s Lee statue should come down, he said: “I would say that’s up to a local town, community or the federal government, depending on where it is located.” .

Many an MB tractor with a duplex and Thermodyne was lifted (massively) for the installation of huge flotation tires so as to become crop sprayers. They were far cheaper than the new custom equipment.

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Scania Group Press Release / August 16, 2017 DP World’s Flagship, Jebel Ali Port in Dubai is one of the largest container port worldwide. It has handled over 14 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) in 2016. DP World’s core business is all about handling containers, and the company has more than 36,500 employees worldwide. DP World uses RTG – rubber tyred gantry – powered by engines from Scania. An RTG is a mobile crane that moves containers to trucks or to storage pending further transport once they have been unloaded from the large cargo vessels. It can be compared to playing Tetris – the right container in the right place in order to facilitate the logistics flow and optimise further transport. The cranes are most often powered by diesel generators – gensets – which are needed for these operations. “The RTG goes from lifting extremely heavy loads to no load at all and back to the heavy lifting every minute, making reliable gensets a must,” says José Manuel, Crane Supervisor at DP World. With the new Scania powered gensets, the company can just keep going without worries. So far, they have operated 5,000 hours over eight months. That means they are running 24/7 with only short stops for service. “With Scania, we use one hundred percent of the RTGs power.” Since DP World itself works with flexible solutions and ensures that its cranes can adapt to the varying flow of loading and unloading as well as adapting to the movement of small tractors, the company foresees continued cooperation with Scania. “We have tailor-made this solution for DP World,” says Charan Joseph D’souza, Al Shirawi Enterprises, which for nearly 40 years has been the distributor for Scania trucks, buses and engines in Dubai. RTGs powered by Scania engines have performed faultlessly, which is positive as repairs are both time-consuming and costly. “Uptime is not an issue when we are using Scania engines,” says José Manuel. Cranes operated by non-Scania engines will now also receive Scania engines. .

Scania Group Press Release / August 15, 2017 Hiab’s HiVision crane brings technology normally reserved for video games to the timber industry. It’s an early morning start at the Lecab dealership in Karlstad, Värmland, where driver Mattias Johansson is just getting his day going. At first glance, Johansson’s R 730 looks like any other Scania timber truck – a V8 logo on the front, a crane in the back, bunks to secure the load – but closer inspection reveals that the truck is loaded with new technology. Departing from the dealership and heading east, Johansson, who works for Kjell & Aste Larsson transport in Molkom, turns from a main road close to the town of Skattkärr and heads south down a dirt road, the truck kicking up dust as it passes forest, farms and train tracks. While the routine seems so far quite normal, as soon as we arrive at the first loading point, it’s clear that Johansson’s truck isn’t like the rest. While most drivers would climb out to an external crane cab on the back of the truck, he instead slides over to his joystick-equipped passenger seat and slips on a virtual reality headset. In gaming the headset might take him to another world, but in Johansson’s case, it transports him to what amounts to a virtual crane cab, courtesy of a camera system mounted on the crane. The system gives him a panoramic view of the crane and its surroundings, and from a higher vantage point than a traditional crane cab would provide its operator. Viewed from the outside, the crane seems to be operating almost by magic as it loads the wood stacked by the side of the road onto the truck. Thirty minutes later, Johansson removes his headset and the job is finished. As the crane folds back up, he picks up a remote control, and the timber bunks, Com 90 from ExTe, secure themselves and the load. He’s done all of this without leaving the air-conditioned truck cab. In a business with tight margins, the use of such digital technology seems like it could be excessive, but Johansson insists that the crane and timber bunks save time, money, and weight compared to more traditional alternatives. “This crane is 25,000 to 30,000 Swedish kroner cheaper than a regular one because the crane cabin costs about that,” he explains. And the weight? “With this system we save 400 kilos, which means we can load 400 kilos more on our vehicle.” Alongside weight and cost savings, Johansson says the ExTe timber bunks save him time when loading and unloading, as he can secure the load with the press of a button. Johansson says it didn’t take him too long to learn operate the truck. “It took 5–6 weeks before I felt I got the hang of it,” he explains. Though he admits with a chuckle, “I’m learning new things every day.” .

We used to have a lot of weddings at Mack and involving new Mack trucks. The older Bulldog magazines often mentioned them. Note the license-built Mack C-50 city bus in the museum. That was the birth of decades of cooperation between Mack and Scania.

Scania Group Press Release / August 11, 2017 Robert and Ann-Kristin from Norway are passionate about each other – and passionate about Scania; so much so that they decided to get married at Scania Visitor Centre in Södertälje, Sweden. Some might say Rome or Paris is the most romantic place for a wedding. But neither of those cities was ever an option for Robert Steen and Ann-Kristin Tveterhagen when it came to planning their wedding venue. It was Scania that brought them together, so getting married in the museum at Scania’s visitor centre, located at Scania’s headquarters in Södertälje, was the logical choice. ”It was fantastic,” Robert said afterwards. “It was a combination of the things that matter the most to Ann-Kristin and me: the two of us, and Scania.” “Getting married at Scania started as a crazy idea,” he continued. “I asked Ann-Kristin if we should ask if we could get married at Scania. So we contacted Scania’s headquarters in Norway, who, in turn, contacted Scania in Sweden.” Robert more or less grew up with Scania, you could almost say in a Scania. In 1972 his father bought a Scania 110 truck and started a small transport company hauling timber in the region of Trøndelag in middle of Norway. “Instead of attending daycare like most other children, I spent my childhood days in the passenger seat next to my father,” he says. A special wedding cake Down the years, Robert’s interest in trucks, and especially in Scania, has continued. After his engineering studies he spent 14 years in the vehicle bodybuilding business. But he had always dreamed of a job at Scania, and fulfilled his goal in 2012. Today he is service manager within Scania Norway, heading the operations at Scania’s workshop in Trondheim. At a Christmas party in Scania’s Norwegian headquarters in 2014 another dream of his came true, when he met a life companion as passionate about Scania as he is: Ann-Kristin, who at that time was working as a temp at Scania in Oslo. And as it happened, she also had the same background, with a father who drove Scania. A slight problem for their relationship was that Ann-Kristin lived with her two children in Oslo, 500 kilometres from Trondheim, where Robert lives. “But we found ways to meet more and more regularly. As often as possible when we had a delivery to a customer in Trondheim, I went down to Oslo during the weekend to pick up the truck and drive it up to Trondheim myself,” he says smiling. Fast forward to Saturday 15 July 2017, when they finally said “I do” to each other. The staff at Scania’s visitors centre in Södertälje had spared no effort to make it a memorable day for the couple. Thanks to them, Robert and Ann-Kristin were able to make a grand entrance to the museum in a shining green 1927 vintage Scania Vabis Noblesse postal service bus. After the couple exchanged marriage vows in front of their guests, the festivities began, with dinner among the classic models in the Scania museum, which had been especially adorned for the occasion. “They had even prepared a special wedding cake for us, with miniatures of the first and the latest Scania model,” says a delighted Robert. “It’s just amazing what Scania did for us. We had a truly fantastic day, Ann-Kristin and I.” .

Heavy Duty Trucking / August 14, 2017 The Eaton Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies joint venture has added a new downsped overdrive model to its range of Eaton and Cummins SmartAdvantage Powertrains. The powertrain’s 1,550/1,850 lb.-ft. torque rating is compatible with rear axle ratings down to 2:47:1, enabling engine cruise speeds as low as 1,075 RPMs – lower than some direct drive transmissions. The model is designed to optimize performance and fuel economy in linehaul applications. Available through North American original equipment manufacturers in October 2017, the FAOM-18910S-EC3 offers more options for gradeability, improved downspeeding, and the potential for higher resale value, according to the company. “This new SmartAdvantage model is capable of the lowest cruise RPMs in the trucking industry for best in class downspeeding,” said Alex Stucky, product strategy manager, heavy-duty linehaul transmissions, Eaton Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies. “It’s our most downsped SmartAdvantage Powertrain, and it has been validated in field tests across a wide range of duty cycles. When paired with the 1,850 lb.-ft. rating, fleets can maximize fuel economy without sacrificing performance.” The SmartAdvantage Powertrain combines the X15 engine and Fuller Advantage Series automated 10-speed transmissions. It offers customers the choice of small-step overdrive or direct-drive gearing and improved fuel economy. Fleets running 2010 model year trucks can expect to see 20% better fuel economy with the current X15 SmartAdvantage Powertrain versus the 2010 ISX15 powertrain, according to the Eaton Cummins joint venture. .

Faulty spotlight fuse prompts recall of nearly 6,000 Kenworth, Peterbilt trucks Matt Cole, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / August 15, 2017 Nearly 6,000 Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks equipped with optional spotlights are being recalled due to a potential circuitry problem that could cause a fire, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration documents. Paccar is recalling approximately 5,731 trucks because the optional spotlight circuit on the affected trucks “may not be adequately protected in the event of a short,” increasing the risk of fire at the fuse block. Affected trucks include: 2013-2017 Kenworth T680 and T880 models manufactured between Jan. 25, 2012, and Nov. 10, 2016 2013-2016 Peterbilt 567 and 79 models manufactured between July 13, 2012, and Dec. 14, 2016 Paccar says the cause of the problem is currently unknown, and multiple fires have occurred that appear to have originated in the spotlight circuit. NHTSA says Paccar will notify owners beginning Aug. 31, and will change the polyfuse switch in the spotlight circuit to a standard fuse, free of charge, to fix the problem. Affected truck owners can contact Paccar customer service with Paccar recall numbers 17KWC and 717-B. NHTSA’s recall number is 17V-471.

Extremely well said. It seems that all the groups today want to achieve their agenda's objectives in full, which of course is impossible. There can only be compromise, a middle ground of sorts. (As Mick Jagger said, "You can't always get what you want".) And so many people feel entitled. Our generation never felt that way, rather, we were only entitled to the fruits of an honest day's hard work.

No, I have not.

The headlamp panels all had 6MF prefix numbers on the back. Yours might be 6MF532M. For a standard MH with bright finish grille trim (not plain finish for UPS), the 6 sections are: 6MF530M - upper right 6MF531M - upper left 6MF532M - lower right 6MF533M - lower left 6MF534m - center upper 6MF535M - center lower The Mack part numbering system, simply the world's best.

C’mon guys, lighten up a bit. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You all pecked my curiosity so I took a look. According to the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs: (https://www.va.gov/oaa/pocketcard/m-vietnam.asp) During the Vietnam War........August 4, 1964 - January 27, 1973 Total who served in all Armed Forces: 8,744,000 Deployed to Southeast Asia: 3,403,000 Served in Vietnam: 2,700,000 --------------------------------- Other sources say: (https://www.uswings.com/about-us-wings/vietnam-war-facts/) 9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam......August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975. 2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam (Excludes CIA). --------------------------------- I agree, the attempted genocide against the American Indian by England, France, Spain and finally the United States was/is a disgrace.

When you called Watt's Mack and asked for a 31QS542P1 left-hand door, what did they say? I recall York Corrugating was still producing them thru the 1990s.

Oliver Stone on Charlottesville: "Deep State" Is "Bigger Problem" Than Trump Hollywood Reporter / August 15, 2017 The director spoke about the U.S. political system during a master class at the Sarajevo Film Festival. Oliver Stone has said in response to the Charlottesville riots that the problem is not President Donald Trump, but "the system" in America. "You are all trying to get to Trump every day, but there is a bigger problem," Stone said when asked what he thought of President Trump's initial failure to call out white supremacists in his response to the Charlottesville events. "There is a system [in America], and that system existed before Trump," Stone said. "Putin said this is the fourth [U.S.] president where nothing has changed. There is a deep state, a military industrial security state. ... It is the system that has to be challenged. [Trump] is part of that system." Stone reiterated: "It is the system that has to be challenged. That takes work and is never as exciting as talking about some lunatic president." Visibly more comfortable taking questions on Snowden, a dramatization of the story of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, than talking about current events, Stone added that the situation in the U.S. today was scarily close to the kind of world George Orwell wrote about in his futuristic novel 1984. "1984 is here. We are there. The only thing they have not yet done is to erase history … there are still people who remember things," he said. "One week it is terrorism [that dominates the headlines], the next week Putin and the next Korea." It was, Stone said, "just like Hate Week in 1984, where the name of the country and the face of the leader changes halfway through a rally. They are doing it now and getting away with it." .

I aim to please.

Billy, Westport developed a natural gas technology called HPDI (high pressure direct injection) with which power loss is virtually eliminated.

Based on my university history studies, the civil war wasn't just about slavery. The southern aristocracy felt that Washington had grown distant. A "disconnect" had formed between the aristocracy of the north and south (recall it was the aristocracy of 1776 that formed the country). Firmly believing their views were no longer being weighed, the southern states seceded. Now let's bear in mind, from 1776 to 1861, we're only talking 85 years since the country was formed. Anyway, as Paul would say, it was another time and place, with different attitudes. I myself take issue with people today who apply year 2017 standards to events that occurred in distant history, and make attempts to cleanse history (ie. vandals destroying a statue of Robert E. Lee). One can't help but wonder if the vandals now plan to destroy every statue of slave owners Patrick Henry ("Give me liberty or give me death"), Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and Andrew Jackson? And then, they need to get all those history books rewritten in the public schools. * Had Virginia not split apart, it would easily be the largest state on the east coast.

Is the U.S. in a state of anarchy? How are so many people now above the rule of law? Why are the Durham police not present arresting these blatant vandals ??? I try to respect all views, but people have no right to destroy public statues. There was a war, and from it we have statues of respected individuals from both sides. It's history........get over it. .

Fiat Chrysler has Chinese suitors Larry Vellequette, Automotive News Europe / August 14, 2017 DETROIT — For more than two years, FCA has been FSBO -- that's For Sale By Owner — with no serious offers. Not anymore. Representatives of a well-known Chinese automaker made at least one offer this month to buy Fiat Chrysler Automobiles at a small premium over its market value, Automotive News Europe sister publication Automotive News has learned. The offer was rejected for not being enough, a source said. Meanwhile, other sources independently identified executives from other large Chinese automakers conducting their own due diligence on a potential purchase of FCA, including meeting last week with representatives of U.S. retail groups about a potential acquisition. A source said FCA executives have traveled to China to meet with Great Wall Motor. And Chinese delegations were seen last week at FCA's headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Chinese companies are under government pressure to expand outside China by acquiring foreign companies. FCA may be a perfect target, given that CEO Sergio Marchionne has focused on streamlining the automaker's operations to make it enticing to a buyer, making bold moves such as exiting small cars and sedans and revamping the company's manufacturing footprint. It's unclear which Chinese automaker or automakers are pursuing FCA. Different sources have pointed to involvement by different ones -- Dongfeng Motor, Great Wall, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group or FCA's current joint venture partner in China, Guangzhou Automobile Group. But it is also unclear which company or companies are likely to follow through or succeed. FCA isn't talking, nor are any of the four Chinese automakers. But if a sale proceeds, the quintessentially American Jeep brand -- once owned by the Germans and most recently by the Italians/Dutch -- may soon be owned by the Chinese. According to one source, any sale likely would involve FCA's highly profitable Jeep and Ram brands, as well as Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat, but would exclude Maserati and Alfa Romeo. Those two brands would be spun off, as was Ferrari, to maximize returns for Exor, the holding company controlled by the Agnelli family, which owns a controlling interest in FCA, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Why, after two years on the block, is FCA apparently drawing interest from at least one potential Chinese buyer now? The answer: FCA's global network and product -- specifically Jeep and Ram -- fit the requirements the Chinese government has set for attractive acquisitions. Quality gap Chinese automakers have openly dreamed of cracking lucrative North America for a decade, spending millions to display their vehicles at high-profile U.S. auto shows. Early efforts showed that Chinese automakers had a long way to go before they were ready to compete here. But in more recent years -- through knowledge and expertise gained via joint ventures with the world's largest and most successful automakers -- Chinese companies have closed the quality gap. And the automakers feel like they finally have closed that gap enough to start selling their products in the U.S., said Michael Dunne, president of Dunne Automotive, a Hong Kong investment advisory company and an expert on the Chinese auto industry. They also are under pressure from the government to expand beyond China, Dunne said. A government directive dubbed China Outbound pushes Chinese businesses to acquire international assets from their industries and operate them "to make their mark," much as Zhejiang Geely has done since acquiring Volvo in 2010. Bloomberg reported last week that Chinese companies plan to spend $1.5 trillion acquiring overseas companies over the next decade -- a 70 percent increase from current levels. "Right now, Chinese automakers enjoy the full support of the leadership in Beijing to go and make it happen," Dunne said. "That's something brand new, and it's really picked up since 2015." Along with Volvo, Dunne pointed to Italian tire maker Pirelli and German robotics giant Kuka as Chinese acquisitions supported by the China Outbound policy. Interest has been growing for some time. In May 2016, FCA hosted a high-level delegation from China at its North American headquarters, which included Hu Chunhua, a member of the Communist Party's Politburo and secretary of the party's Guangdong Provincial Committee. Also in attendance were Cui Tiankai, China's ambassador to the U.S., and Zhang Fangyou, chairman of Guangzhou Automobile Group. "The interest is real, no question," Dunne said. "The complications are on the political side: What would this mean for a Chinese company to acquire an American automaker, no matter where its corporate headquarters is based?" Turnkey operation For a Chinese automaker that dreams of making a splash in North America, Europe and Latin America, FCA presents as close to a turnkey operation as exists. Globally, FCA has 162 manufacturing operations -- assembly, component, stamping and machining plants -- and another 87 r&d centers. In North America, FCA has a network of about 2,600 U.S. dealerships, as well as extensive distribution networks in Canada and Mexico. And unlike other, larger publicly owned automakers with similar global footprints, Marchionne and his bosses at Exor have made one thing clear: Write a big enough check, and the keys to FCA are yours. When it became apparent in late 2015 that FCA's attempts to merge with General Motors had been rejected and any effort to tie up with Volkswagen was shut down because of that automaker's then-blooming diesel emissions scandal, Marchionne began focusing attention inward, looking at why his company had not been more attractive to potential partners. In early 2016, he began implementing radical changes to make FCA more appealing, especially to an Asian automaker, but also to Volkswagen. First, FCA shocked the industry by ending production of its compact and midsize sedans in the U.S., the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200. The cars had been among the first fruits of bankrupt Chrysler's 2009 marriage to Fiat S.p.A., but both had disappointing sales. At the same time, Marchionne expanded development for his two cash cows, Jeep and Ram. He retooled plants from unibody construction back to body-on-frame to expand production of the Ram 1500 and Jeep Wrangler, and he announced that, after years of consumer clamoring, Jeep would again build a pickup and would soon build big luxury Jeeps to compete with Land Rover. Product development plans laid out in 2014 -- to vastly expand the Chrysler lineup, for example -- were scrapped. FCA's North American product line would go where the money was: pickups, SUVs and the minivan. Stretch goals The transformation, which will be largely complete by 2018, will mean FCA showrooms will resemble those of a decade ago when gasoline prices spiked: full of SUVs, crossovers, minivans and pickups and devoid of anything smaller or more fuel-efficient. The transformation has helped FCA's quarterly financials, and Marchionne says the automaker is on track to achieve in 2018 what had been widely considered pie-in-the-sky goals laid out in 2014. FCA has also looked hard at shedding holdings not directly related to automaking as a way to free trapped value for shareholders. That could include separation from parts maker Magneti Marelli, casting specialist Teksid and automation provider Comau. On a conference call with analysts last month, Marchionne laid out the strategy. "In order to be fair to our shareholders, we need to make sure that we deliver as much value out of this venture as we can," he said. The prospect of selling FCA to a Chinese automaker has been on Marchionne's mind for awhile. In August 2015, months after he began his quest to merge or partner with another global automaker with his "Confessions of a Capital Junkie" presentation, and while he was launching his soon-to-be-rebuffed bid to merge with GM, the FCA CEO told Automotive News that he had closely studied potential tie-ups with numerous Asian automakers. His conclusion: None of the Asian automakers was looking for partners. He was asked: Anyone in Asia? "I don't think Asia is partner-able," he said. "No, you can be acquired by the Asians. I think China will buy you."

Bloomberg / August 15, 2017 The idea was nothing short of revolutionary: Convert the nation's millions of trucks, buses and other commercial vehicles to run on natural gas instead of gasoline and diesel. Back in 2008, the proposal by energy magnate T. Boone Pickens had some appeal. U.S. oil production was plunging, and the world's biggest fuel-consuming country was becoming ever more dependent on foreign crude. Oil jumped to a record near $150 a barrel, while natural gasoline was comparatively cheap. Pickens co-founded Clean Energy Fuels Corp. to profit from the switch. The maker of natural gas filling stations was once valued at about $1.8 billion. But there was a different kind of revolution. New drilling techniques led to a boom in oil supplies from the U.S., and electric cars gained traction. Tesla Inc., which had yet to deliver its first electric car a decade ago, now has 455,000 reservations for its Model 3 -- almost 20 times the number of natural-gas vehicles on U.S. roads as of 2015. Shares of Clean Energy Fuels are down 90 percent from a 2012 peak, and the company concedes that natural gas may only be a niche market as a transportation fuel. "I'm not sure America is set up" for widespread use of passenger natural gas vehicles given all the infrastructure needed to get supplies to customers, Andrew Littlefair, Clean Energy Fuels' chief executive officer, said by phone. "There are a lot of reasons it would make sense to look at that again, but I don't know that I'm ready to say that's going to happen." Pickens, who made his first fortune as an oil wildcatter five decades ago, had high hopes for natural gas because he believed crude supplies were peaking. In op-eds, media interviews and meetings with politicians including then-President Barack Obama, Pickens said the nation's heavy-duty trucks and fleet vehicles should run on natural gas. The U.S. could reduce its reliance on oil imports and use more wind and solar power, he said. Pickens, 89, wasn't able to comment, according to Jay Rosser, a spokesman for BP Capital, the energy hedge fund Pickens founded. Shale boom By 2011, U.S. oil output began to surge with the shale boom. Three years later, prices for crude, diesel and gasoline were tumbling. While natural gas has become a staple for domestic power plants, supplanting coal, the prospect for cheaper alternatives made it less attractive as a vehicle fuel. In April, the most recent month for data from the Department of Energy, liquefied natural gas sold for $2.52 per diesel-gallon-equivalent, compared with $2.55 for diesel. That's hardly a bargain, considering Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James Financial Inc., estimates that trucks that run on LNG cost about $30,000 to $50,000 more than a comparable diesel rig. Even though natural gas has remained cheap -- trading at $2.97 per million British thermal units in New York on Tuesday -- using it to fuel vehicles is "not something that has taken off," said Salim Morsy, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in New York. "Gasoline and diesel are undoubtedly the cheapest in total cost of ownership, but as technology improves and batteries get cheaper," the number of electric cars will at least double. The number of plug-in autos in the U.S. almost tripled between 2008 and 2015, government data show. Tesla, the company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has introduced three models since 2012, and other manufacturers are jumping into the market. Volvo has said all its new cars from 2019 will be hybrid or all-electric, and BMW AG is developing a self-driving electric to replace the 7 series as the company's flagship in 2021. Natural gas vehicles have seen their share of the auto market shrink. Chesapeake Energy Corp., one of biggest U.S. gas producers, eliminated the team working on natural-gas vehicles in 2013. Honda Motor Co. discontinued a natural-gas-fueled model of its popular Civic sedan in 2015. Last year, with oil locked in a prolonged price slump, Pickens sold about 4 million shares of Newport Beach, Calif.-based Clean Energy Fuels, which operates more than 500 natural gas filling stations across the country. While the company has declined in value, Tesla traded at a record high in June. Still, Littlefair sees opportunities for growth, especially in the fleets of vehicles owned by municipal governments trying to reduce tail-pipe emissions and operating costs. Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which uses 537 buses and 123 shuttles that run on natural gas, this month extended its operation and maintenance contract with Clean Energy Fuels. California cities including Los Angeles and Fresno also have contracts with the company. Clean Energy Fuels is also seeking a way to expand its reach by using natural gas extracted from landfills and farms to supply filling stations. Few stations While companies including AT&T Inc. and Ryder System Inc. use natural gas in trucks that make short trips and return to the same depot each day, limited infrastructure has prevented wider use. There are 1,828 natural-gas filling stations in the U.S., compared with almost seventy times as many conventional gas stations and around 38 times as many non-residential plug-in stations and charging outlets for electric vehicles, government and industry data show. It can cost $1.8 million to build a filling station that supplies compressed natural gas, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Electric vehicles, in contrast, can be plugged into a home outlet. "The infrastructure would be costly" for widespread use of natural gas vehicles, said Lee Klaskow, a senior analyst for transportation and logistics at Bloomberg Intelligence. "You would have to have some huge cost savings."

Profit-rich trucks may catch break in Trump auto review Bloomberg / August 15, 2017 WASHINGTON -- A move under consideration by the Trump administration could ease tough fuel-efficiency standards set to take effect in 2021 on pickups, SUVs and other light trucks, the bulwark of U.S. auto industry sales and profits. For the 2021 model year, light trucks must average roughly 33 mpg to comply with the current standards, a gain of more than 6 percent from the 2020 model year according to estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That's triple the pace of any annual gain for trucks starting in the 2017 model year, the first year of the current standards, which were finalized in 2012. President Donald Trump hasn't proposed any changes to the standards yet. But in recent weeks, both NHTSA and the EPA signaled a new willingness to alter the rules earlier than originally planned. The EPA formally asked for public comment on whether its 2021 standards are appropriate and NHTSA said it may review the year in an upcoming rulemaking. "The domestic Big Three are the big winners, and Fiat Chrysler is arguably the most advantaged" if Trump freezes the standards, said Gopal Duleep, president of H-D Systems, a Washington, D.C.-based research company. General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) derive more than three-quarters of their U.S. sales from light trucks. Even Toyota Motor Corp., which has car and truck sales more closely balanced, would catch a break. For the 2016 model year, Toyota forecasts that its light truck fleet may fall nearly 9 percent below the government's fuel economy target, according to figures released by NHTSA. Any short-term regulatory relief could handcuff automakers if it allows them to fall behind in a global race to cut emissions with electric motors that either supplement or replace gasoline engines, said Duleep. But in the short run, automakers are likely to welcome any easing of the regulations, he said. Automakers have been preparing for the rules since they were announced in 2011, and analysts say they're unlikely to make significant changes even if Trump moved to weaken the rules. Instead, carmakers would see a huge increase in efficiency credits they could use to help them meet stiffer targets in later years, said Dave Cooke, senior vehicles analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group. "If their plans are in place and they receive additional credits, it just makes the later years' standards that much easier to meet," Cooke said. Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne may be bringing out new Ram pickup and Jeep models, but he's not ignoring electrification. He told investors in July that after 2022, half of his Maserati models will be battery powered. According to the agreement the Obama administration reached with automakers and announced in 2011, much of the efficiency increase -- particularly for trucks -- was to come after 2020 to give automakers time to comply. The delay was seen as a crucial factor in the decision by most automakers to endorse the plan. Ford's F-series pickups alone account for the majority of the company's North American profits. NHTSA also has said it will study freezing the standards after 2020 model year as a baseline scenario in an environmental review of pending fuel economy requirements for 2022-25. The deliberations come as part of a mid-term review included in the Obama administration's plan to boost fuel economy to a fleet average of more than 50 mpg by 2025. A freeze or cut after 2020 would make good on Trump's pledge to the CEOs of Detroit's automakers to slash environmental regulations that he made during his first days in office. It would come as GM is cutting shifts at its car assembly plants to avoid excessive inventories, Ford is reviving dormant truck nameplates such as the Bronco and the Ranger and as FCA has already killed its slow-selling Chrysler 200 sedan. But for now, automakers say they're simply welcoming Trump's reopening of the review after Obama sought to end parts of it during his last days in office, and are not backing a specific set of revisions. "Global automakers has only asked that the mid-term review be conducted in a transparent and deliberate process, based on the facts," said Lauren Boland, communications manager for the trade group, which includes Toyota and Honda Motor Co. The trade group has not asked to put the already-final 2021 rules under review. Nor has the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents GM, Ford, FCA and others, according to spokeswoman Gloria Bergquist. "Let the facts come in and let the evidence dictate a decision next spring that optimizes our nation's environmental and economic objectives, consistent with affordability," she said in an email. The EPA plans to determine whether the tailpipe standards for 2021 need to change by next April. That ruling could carry another risk for automakers: driving a wedge between California and Washington regulators, who've been coordinating their rules since 2011 to allow the companies to sell the same vehicles in all 50 states. California has already said it has no plans to change its 2025 emissions targets, which are followed by several other states that combined account for around 30 percent of U.S. auto sales. "It was very difficult to get a national standard in the first place," said Stephanie Brinley, senior automotive analyst at IHS Markit. "It's best for the country to have a common standard."

The market hates uncertainty, and now the uncertainty revolving around this issue has been removed. It's over and done with, so the market is back to buying NAV stock for the reasons justifying it's current value. Just a blip in the big picture.

Call Watts Mack with the 1QHA number off your line sheet or front axle. They might still have or can order them. The return spring is probably a 58AX55.