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Time / June 23, 2015 The Unilever-owned brand will bring back a nostalgic look for a summer tour Good Humor’s trucks will soon be hitting the road again after a decades-long hiatus, but the iconic ice cream brand’s fleet will be announcing its presence with tweets instead of clanging bells. Nearly 40 years after sidelining its famous fleet, Good Humor is launching a “Welcome to Joyhood” sampling tour this summer that will see the classic version of the brand’s ice cream trucks making stops in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Boston. Customers looking for an ice cream fix will be able to summon the classic Good Humor trucks by tweeting @GoodHumor. And, in another modern twist, the throwback trucks will be blasting pop music and rock songs instead of ringing their iconic chime bells. The brand, which is owned by the British-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever, sold its classic fleet of white trucks in 1976 and switched its focus to grocery store sales amid rising gas prices. Independent contractors still sell Good Humor products, which include classics such as ice cream sandwiches and strawberry shortcake ice cream bars, from their own ice cream trucks. This isn’t Good Humor’s first step toward a more modern feel. Earlier this year, one of the brand’s New York distributors decided to spice up the look of its own trucks by adding a flashy paint job and playing newer music. The distributor, Dover Group, also had its drivers swap out their classic Good Humor uniforms — all white with a black bow tie and white cap — for a more current look. The attempts to pump life into the Good Humor brand come after three straight years of falling sales for the brand in grocery stores. .

The Morning Call / June 19, 2015 Mack Trucks sales slowed in May, driven by a slight decrease in deliveries across North America. Mack delivered 2,230 heavy-duty trucks worldwide in May, up only 1.2 percent from 2,203 one year earlier, according to a report released Thursday by the Sweden-based Volvo Group, Mack's parent company (http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/40548-volvo-truck-deliveries-in-may-2015/). Solid gains in South America — deliveries jumped from 53 to 144 over the last year — helped offset a 2.6 percent decline in North America, where deliveries declined from 2,051 in May 2014 to 1,998 last month. Despite the decrease in North America in May, John Walsh, Mack's vice president of marketing pointed to year-to-date deliveries, which indicate the heavy-duty truck manufacturer is still well ahead of last year's production pace. So far this year, Mack has delivered 11,125 trucks worldwide, up 1,095 — or nearly 11 percent — from the same period in 2014. In North America, 10,226 trucks have been delivered this year, a 9 percent increase over last year. "Returning customers and new customers alike are drawn to our full range of reliable, fuel-efficient models that boost productivity and profitability," Walsh said in a statement. All Mack trucks built for the North American market are assembled at the company's Lower Macungie Township plant. The facility has approximately 1,950 employees. As demand for Mack trucks has increased, the company has hired about 290 employees at the Lower Macungie plant since January 2014. And demand has increased this year across the heavy-duty truck industry in North America. For example, Volvo — Mack's parent company — expects the total North American retail market for heavy-duty trucks to increase to about 310,000 vehicles in 2015. In 2014, the market increased by 14 percent to 270,300 vehicles, according to Volvo.

That's a Mack CBL model bus chassis (right-hand drive version) with a locally-produced body. http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/35014-mack-international-global-bus-chassis-sales/?hl=cbl#entry236985

Allison automatics were a factory option on the MR, R, RB, RD6, RD8, U, DM, RWI Super-Liner and MH Ultra-Liner. Allison's MT654CR, HT740D, HT740RS, HT750DR and HT754CR could be paired with the E6-270, E6-275, E6-300 and E6-350, or Cummins NTC350/Formula 350, NTC365/Formula 365 and NTC400/Formula 400. And the Allison MT643 was available behind the Caterpillar 3208 in DM492 and MR492 chassis for municipal and government orders.

Those videos above would leave most people rolling in laughter, if not for the sad fact that this is our reality, an unqualified person leading our EPA. From EPA 98, the direction and time-frame for tightening truck emissions regulations has been controlled by the EPA, an out-of-control government titan with unqualified leadership, and a smoke-and-mirrors argument. If it was a private company, the incompetent leadership would have run it into the ground years ago. Most Americans, by nature and training, assume that the president and EPA, i.e. our government, will within acceptable boundaries make reasonable choices in policy, ie. in the best interest of America. However, the reality is an unqualified but all-powerful Washington has made horrendously bad policy choices which have put the U.S. truck industry through a period of chaos over the last 15 years. Euro-6 didn't take effect until 2014, when reliable technology was ready. But the EPA, always rushing, enacted the US near equivalent four year earlier. EPA2004 and EPA2007 cost U.S. truck industry billions, as the EPA in effect forced them to conduct business with truck emissions technology that wasn't far from a science project. The EPA also was completely out of line by financing Massive EGR technology development (EGR levels from 35 to 50%) for Navistar. The EPA is totally unqualified to become a designer of commercial truck emissions control systems. It isn't within the EPA's mandate to do so.

While McCarthy was assistant EPA administrator from 2009 to 2013, her top deputy John Beale stole $886,186 between 2000 and 2013. Despite that, she was promoted to EPA head. Beale is the EPA bureaucrat who got caught receiving $886,186 in pay without working, because he claimed he also was employed by the CIA. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee reported that Beale “retired” when questions arose about his spotty attendance and expense records. Only he didn’t file his retirement paperwork and continued to draw an active-duty salary for some time after. His boss at the time in the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation (OAR), now-EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, knew this for about 7 months and did nothing to stop it. On March 29, 2012, an OAR official raised concerns about Beale’s retirement when he informed McCarthy that Beale was still on payroll. Despite being aware of the fact that one of her subordinates was collecting a paycheck without working, the situation continued for 7 more months before McCarthy ever contacted Beale. In December 2012, McCarthy met with Beale for the first time in nearly 15 months, and he informed her that he was no longer planning on retiring. Two more months passed before concerns with Beale were officially reported to the inspector general. On April 30, 2013, McCarthy had cause to fire Beale, but instead elected to allow him to voluntarily retire with full benefits. According to the Senate report, Beale’s career at the EPA was marked by relentless dishonesty on matters large and small and a cadre of supervisors who, like McCarthy apparently in the matter of his retirement pay, enabled his self-dealing behaviors. He claimed an injury so he could ride first-class on flights for government business, which in one case drove the ticket price from $1,000 to $14,000. He forged expense forms, claimed to be away on CIA business for 2½ years worth of work days and flew to Los Angeles and stayed in posh hotels on the EPA’s tab for family visits that had nothing to do with agency work. Few even attempted to question Beale’s frequent absences, enormous expense reports, exorbitant salary—he retired as the agency’s highest-paid employee—and lack of accountability. He was personally popular, well-connected and believed to be among the agency’s most effective employees. But Beale’s greatest deception has nothing to do with first-class flights and fancy hotels. Beale, who is serving a 32-month sentence in the federal prison in Cumberland, Md., for pleading guilty to felony theft of government property, spent most of his career devising regulations under the Clean Air Act that are justified by science few have seen and no one has peer-reviewed, according to the Senate report. “We should all question how John Beale became a senior official at the EPA and played a major role in long-lasting policy decisions while pulling off a scam I thought only Hollywood could make up,” said Senator David Vitter, R-La. “But this egregious case helped us successfully reveal how EPA has wasted taxpayer resources and mismanagement in a manner that is far too common.” Beale’s penchant for bilking the EPA out of money eroded the trust Americans place in their government and EPA employees place in their superiors and coworkers. But it was the role he played beginning in the mid-1990s in creating and implementing regulations pursuant to Clean Air Act that continues to reverberate and linger at the expense of the American people. Staffers with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee set out last year to probe the relationship between “sue-and-settle” arrangements and evidence they had uncovered that pointed to the manipulation of scientific data. What they discovered, as detailed in their report, titled “EPA’s Playbook Unveiled: A Story of Fraud, Deceit and Secret Science,” was how agency officials concealed and misled about the science that underpinned its most significant initiatives and silenced and marginalized their own internal watchdog offices, which enabled the agency to greatly overstate the benefits and underestimate the costs of its Clean Air Act rulemaking. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is required to create National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter and ozone. The American Lung Association sought to jumpstart this process with a so-called “sue-and-settle” suit filed in 1995. The idea behind “sue-and-settle” is for friendly plaintiffs to sue a government agency, work out agreeable terms—perhaps even beforehand—and emerge with a court order to implement rules or regulations that could not have been achieved through the democratic or even regulatory process. The American Lung Association suit resulted in a consent decree that called for the EPA to propose final standards for particulate matter by Nov. 29, 1996, and issue the standards by July 19, 1997. The decree set no deadline for ozone standards because they had been reviewed in 1993 and were not up for another review until 1998. But Beale and boss Robert Brenner made what documents called a “policy call” and seized on the urgency to produce new particulate matter standards to rush through a new ozone standard as well. This put the agency in the position of advancing two regulatory standards simultaneously, which it had never done. And it put the agency and those charged with reviewing such regulations, including the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, under impossible deadline pressure. The EPA admitted in court papers filed pursuant to the American Lung Association lawsuit that any period shorter than Dec. 1, 1998, for promulgation of the particulate matter standard “would require the EPA to reach conclusions on scientific and policy issues with enormous consequences for society before it has had an adequate opportunity to collect and evaluate pertinent scientific data” and that further time was needed to reach a “sound and scientifically supportable decision.” But Beale had no time for that. He needed an ally to move things along and found one in Carol Browner, the Al Gore acolyte and former staffer who served as EPA administrator through both terms of the Clinton administration. Beale formed a close relationship with her and met with her multiple times per week to discuss his progress on this. The urgency, as well as his influence with the boss and an unwillingness of others at EPA to block him, gave Beale “the mechanism he needed to ignore opposition to the standards.” Beale’s efforts to include ozone in the new regulations proved expensive for Americans. The EPA estimated the cost at $2.5 billion, but its estimate was based on receiving the full benefits of cutting ozone but achieving only a partial attainment of the standards, which the law did not permit. The Council of Economic Advisers also measured the cost and found it to be $60 billion—24 times the EPA estimate. Indeed, as was the case with him getting away with not showing up for work and submitting exorbitant expense reports, succeeding in this regulatory sleight of hand only emboldened Beale to go further. That first round of standards, which regulated coarse particulate matter, such as pollen and dust, became known as PM10. But Beale wanted more. In 1997, with the backing of his superiors, he sought to engage the agency in regulating fine particulate matter—particles a fourth the size of those regulated under PM10 and too small to be visible to the human eye. But to enact these regulations, EPA first had to produce scientific research that established these smaller particles posed a threat to humans. To accomplish this, Beale pulled data from two controversial studies—the Harvard Six Cities Study and an American Cancer Society study known as ACSII. The data was not trusted. The air advisory committee pointed out it had not been peer-reviewed, and others indicated Beale was exaggerating the findings for his desired result. Further undermining those studies’ credibility is that even now, 20 years later, EPA still refuses to release the data, despite McCarthy’s promise to do so during her confirmation hearings. Though Beal is out of the picture and in prison, his rulemaking techniques he employed to advance the 1997 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone and particulate matter remain firmly entrenched. “This effort codified EPA’s now customary practice of using fine particulates (PM2.5) to inflate the benefits of nearly all regulations issued under the Clean Air Act,” the Senate report concludes. “Yet the science supporting nearly all of EPA’s alleged benefits remain hidden and unverified.”

EPA Chief Gina McCarthy Can't Answer Climate Questions Investor’s Business Daily / March 5, 2015 Climate Change: Gina McCarthy, head of the EPA, can’t answer basic questions about global temperatures, climate models or numbers of hurricanes. She didn’t know being a global warming zealot requires knowledge of math. If the science of climate change was “settled,” you’d think one of the generals in the war on global warming would have memorized the numbers that point to our planetary doom from a menace the administration says is a greater threat than terrorism. But McCarthy was asked some pretty simple questions Wednesday at a Senate hearing Wednesday on her request for $8.6 billion to help fight the claimed imminent doom of climate change, and her performance didn’t help her case. One of the questions involved droughts and the claim that their frequency has increased due to warming that is said to be caused by mankind’s increased production of greenhouse gas, such as carbon dioxide, the basis for all life on Earth but judged by the EPA to be a pollutant. “Let me ask you this,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., inquired of McCarthy. “There was an article from Mr. (Bjorn) Lomborg … from the Copenhagen Institute. He says, along with Dr. (Roger) Pielke from Colorado, that we’ve had fewer droughts in recent years. Do you dispute that?” The seemingly clueless McCarthy pathetically responded that she didn’t “know in what context he’s making statements like that.” Context? Truth has its own context, and the inconvenient truth that McCarthy wasn’t aware of, or didn’t want to face, is that Pielke and Lomborg are right. Pielke, a professor at the University of Colorado, told the Senate environment and public works subcommittee in July 2013 that droughts have “for the most part become shorter, less frequent and cover a smaller portion of the U.S. over the last century.” Globally, he said, “there has been little change in drought over the last 60 years.” Sessions also asked McCarthy if we’ve had more or fewer hurricanes in the last decade. It was another question she said she couldn’t answer because “it’s a very complicated issue.” Well, no, not unless basic math is a complicated issue. Sessions noted that we have in fact gone nearly a decade without a Category 3 storm or higher making landfall in the U.S. The last hurricane to hit America as a Category 3 or higher was Wilma, which struck Florida on Oct. 24, 2005. Superstorm Sandy had wind speeds barely reaching Category 1 status when it slammed into New Jersey in 2012 and wreaked havoc. Sessions inquired of the global temperatures that have virtually flatlined for two decades: “Would you acknowledge that over the last 18 years, that the increase in temperatures has been very little, matter of fact 90% below most of the environmental models that showed how fast temperature would increase?” McCarthy replied that she didn’t know “what the models actually are predicting that you are referring to.” Sessions called her ignorance and inability to outline the danger we supposedly face from climate change, as well as her failure to justify the EPA’s funding request, a “stunning development.” So do we. The science is indeed settled, but not the way climate zealots think. McCarthy’s lack of knowledge and facts on her side only underscores the fact we have wasted billions on fighting a nonexistent threat and shackled our economy with lower growth and higher job loss. .

Chosen by Obama to replace Lisa Jackson in 2013 as head of the EPA, Gina McCarthy has no working understanding whatsoever of heavy truck design and the trucking industry. Lisa Jackson (2009-2013), a chemical engineer, was another unqualified Obama appointee. For the record, McCarthy graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Anthropology in 1976. In 1981, she received a joint Master of Science in Environmental Health Engineering and Planning and Policy from Tufts University. This unqualified EPA head, like the last one, is charting the future of emissions-related heavy truck design efficiency in the United States. This is shocking........this is scary. Our EPA today, has zero credibility. U.S. government policy on truck fuel efficiency needs a total reboot, backtracking to verifiable facts, and subsequently working out from there. McCarthy has inappropriately been put in the pilot’s seat, and a realistically voiceless American populace can do nothing more than read about it in the media. Volvo and Daimler are against the McCarthy plan, and rightly so, as overemphasizing engines in the regulations could result in added costs, weight and vehicle complexity. The proposed engine standards aren’t aligned with real-world operations. And truth be told, if the EPA was prudent and competent, it would abandon the go-it-alone U.S. emissions regulations, and adopt the Euro emissions standards used by the rest of the world. Welcoming the U.S. to the party, I'm sure countries around the world would be willing to rename it the "Global Emissions Standards". EPA Head McCarthy Unable to Defend President's Warming Claims While Imposing Job-Crushing Climate Regulations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKZj-PR2Egg Obama EPA Chief McCarthy Can’t Say Whether Climate Models Were False Or Not https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24DP1uG-MEM .

Automotive News / June 22, 2015 Ed Peper, GM's vice president of fleet and commercial sales, said dealers who do significant fleet business have been asking for years for GM to return to the medium-duty market. "We've heard from Chevy dealers saying, 'What are you going to do on medium-duty product?' There are a lot of adjacent sales associated with it," Peper said in an interview. GM shut down its medium-duty truck line in 2009 while in bankruptcy after failing to find a buyer for the operation. Chevy will sell regular-cab and crew-cab versions of the new trucks, which will offer a GM-sourced 6.0-liter, V-8 gasoline engine or Isuzu's 3.0-liter and 5.2-liter turbodiesel engines, depending on the model. The line will be based on Isuzu's N Series trucks. While Ford Motor Co. sells other styles of medium-duty trucks, Peper said no domestic competitor sells low-cab forward trucks, which position the driver as far forward as possible, in front of the engine. They're used in everything from construction and garbage collection to food delivery. Peper said the U.S. market for low-cab forward trucks is about 30,000 units annually. Isuzu and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. also sell them.

Answered - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/40601-can-anyone-explain-difference-between-tc15-and-tc25-transfer-cases/

Iveco Press Release / June 19, 2015 Iveco 40 years of excellence, 150 years of experience ​The brand is celebrating its 40th anniversary – a success story that tells of great international acclaims and vehicles that have come to symbolise commercial transport around the world. The website www.iveco40.com offers people the chance to celebrate Iveco’s 40th birthday by sharing stories in pictures or videos. The new pay-off: Iveco. Your Partner for Sustainable Transport Iveco is blowing out 40 candles: this is an important milestone for a major brand that has shaped the history of global commercial transport. It represents not only 40 years of success, but also 150 years of working alongside customers, of superb performance, of vehicles that have become fixture on roads all over the world and that convey a message of technology and sustainable transport today. Iveco is a brand of CNH Industrial, a global leader in the capital goods sector. Through CNH Industrial, Iveco products are manufactured at production facilities in Europe, China, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and Africa, with business activities in over 160 countries. To celebrate this birthday, Iveco has created a special logo in honour of the occasion, which represents a stylised vehicle with the slogan “40 years of Iveco, 150 years of experience”. The logo will appear on all of the brand’s written communications until the end of 2015. Indeed a great deal of the celebrations will be promoted on a dedicated website www.iveco40.com, published in 14 different languages. It sees the launch of a competition encouraging Iveco enthusiasts to celebrate Iveco’s 40th birthday by sharing their stories in pictures or videos for all to enjoy. Each week, the best photo will be added to a virtual book dedicated to the special anniversary. This special anniversary has also been commemorated with a video - available to watch online at https://youtu.be/XwSoJzxHoVs – that recounts the key events in Iveco’s history decade by decade from 1975 until the present day. These range from vehicle launches and technological innovations to major sponsorship deals, which have become an inseparable part of the history of commercial vehicles, not only in Europe, but globally. Iveco: a new pay-off, a new approach focussing on Technology, Total Cost of Ownership, Sustainability and Business Partnership Iveco is a brand that has shown itself able to take a bold approach to change over the years. It is now writing a new chapter in its history, persistently pursuing its vocation as a major player on the international and multicultural stage, continuing to focus on its core values: Technology, Total Cost of Ownership, Sustainability and Business Partnership. Thanks to a continuous attention to innovation and new technologies, Iveco became a European leader in the field of alternative traction, anticipating solutions that will contribute to further reduce the environmental impact in the transport sector and becoming the ideal partner for sustainable transport, as the new Iveco’s payoff declares: Iveco, Your Partner for Sustainable Transport. From 1975 to the present: a story of success The company launched its challenge to the market in 1975, when it was created from the union of the then top five European firms with more than 150 years’ experience in designing and making industrial vehicles: Magirus-Deutz, Fiat, Lancia, Unic and OM. A global vision with international roots, formed through the fusion of five pre-existing companies, each of which made its own important contribution to the history of the commercial vehicle sector in Europe starting from the late 19th century: Fiat Industrial Vehicles from Turin, Italy; OM from Brescia, Italy; Lancia Special Vehicles from Bolzano, Italy; Unic from Puteaux, France and Magirus-Deutz from Ulm, Germany. Through acquisitions, alliances and international joint ventures over the years, Iveco has joined the highest ranks of the world’s major players in road transportation, becoming a group with considerable specialist expertise able to bring out the best in technological innovation and establish itself as a manufacturer and commercial provider in the most important industrialised markets and emerging markets alike. In 1986, as part of that heritage, Iveco Ford Truck Ltd, was born as a joint venture (and effectively a merger) with Ford of Europe’s truck division. In 1990, Iveco acquired the Spanish industrial vehicle builder Pegaso. Over the course of its history, Iveco has earned international recognition and numerous accolades, including three “International Truck of the Year” awards - for the Eurocargo in 1992, the EuroTech in 1993 and the Stralis in 2013. .

The former Mack Trucks and MAN share a common connection, in the sense that both the International Motor Company (the forerunner of Mack Trucks) and German truckmaker MAN produced Swiss Sauer brand trucks under license. MAN began producing Saurer trucks under license from 1915. The International Motor Company, the holding company that included the Mack Brothers Motor Car Company and Saurer Motor Company*, began producing Saurer trucks under license from 1911 at a plant in Plainfield, New Jersey which went on to become Mack Truck’s legendary Plainfield drivetrain production location. *The New York-based Saurer Motor Company had been created in March, 1911 to build Swiss Saurer trucks under license, 7 months before becoming a part of the International Motor Company in October.

MAN Press Release / June 21, 2015 The history of MAN trucks and buses began exactly 100 years ago today: it was on 21 June 1915 that the "Lastwagenwerke M.A.N.-Saurer", the M.A.N. Saurer truck factory, was entered in the commercial register of the city of Nuremberg – a reason to celebrate for the Munich-based company. Further reading - http://www.corporate.man.eu/en/press-and-media/presscenter/Happy-Birthday_-MAN-Truck-and-Bus_-211840.html .

Press Release / June 22, 2015 Maritime Transport has ordered 120 new 460 horsepower Daf XF105 FTGs with Super Space Cabs, which will take the manufacturers presence in the haulier's fleet to around 20% of its 1,000 vehicles. The new trucks, 70 of which are fitted with predictive cruise control, will be in operation at Maritimes Felixstowe HQ by the end of September. To date, 70 have been delivered. Fleet engineer Stuart Wardlaw said: "Selecting the right vehicle and specification plays an important part of the driver experience at Maritime. "The new Daf is an exceptionally good design and the Super Space Cabs provide excellent comfort, and our drivers simply love them," says Wardlaw. .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvnjhoLkOdM

Fleet Equipment / June 2015 Integration is not a new idea in the trucking industry, but the amount of efficiency OEs are pulling out of engine, transmission and axle combinations are reaching staggering new heights. One of the biggest talking points in today’s performance-packed powerplant arena is “downspeeding.” There are different levels of downspeeding and the experts at Detroit, which offers its integrated Detroit powertrain, featuring the Detroit DD15 engine, Detroit DT12 transmission and Detroit axles, stressed the importance of downspeeding education, stating that many engine OEMs are using downspeeding to achieve fuel economy, but there is more to meets the eye in terms of downspeeding. Fleets need to understand what they are purchasing. Downspeeding the engine impacts all the other components on the powertrain. “Downspeeding is basically programming the engine to run at lower cruise RPMs than the industry has traditionally run,” said Jim Bingaman, Peterbilt application engineering manager. “If the engine is running slower, it should typically use less fuel and thus be more efficient. Regarding available ratios, they vary with the rear axle manufacturer but can be between 2.26 and 2.93, depending on the rest of the powertrain spec to get into the downsped ranges.” “[Downspeeding] allows a vehicle to cruise down the highway with the engine turning in a range of 1,150 to 1,200 RPM. This is roughly 150 to 200 RPM slower than previous drivetrain systems and typically results in at least a 3% improvement in fuel economy,” said Aaron Peterson, Navistar chief performance engineer, on-highway tractor. “Engine hardware has been selected and calibrated to run efficiently at these lower speeds. By turning slower there is a reduction in engine friction as well as a reduction in the power being consumed by the parasitic systems mounted to the engine. Reducing friction and parasitic loads reduces the fuel needed to move down the road. The second contributor to improving fuel economy is better management of power/torque. Delivering only what is required to perform the job. Excess power/torque means greater fuel consumption.” A bit of background: Prior to 2010, engine manufacturers designed engines to run at their peak efficiency between 1,400 and 1,500 RPM. Since then, engine manufacturers have turned to reduce engine speeds as a means to counteract the fuel economy impact of emissions technologies. “Recommended engine speeds for linehaul trucks have been steadily reduced by pairing updated torque curves that make peak torque at 1,000 RPM with new automated transmission shift strategies and faster gear ratios,” explained Kevin Baney, Kenworth chief engineer. “Demonstrated gains of up to several percent from downspeeding have resulted in increased interest in faster gear ratios from fleets. Given that interest, Kenworth has developed a range of ratios with our axle suppliers that now go down to 2.26 to enable even the most aggressive direct drive transmission customer to spec a downsped driveline.” Based on Kenworth’s testing, the general rule of thumb is that every 100 RPM reduction at typical operating speed yields: • Up to 1.5% fuel economy improvement between 1,300 and 1,500 RPM; and • Up to 0.75% fuel economy improvement between 1,150 and 1,300 RPM. Three main factors impact the RPM at cruise: transmission ratio, axle ratio and tire size. The ratios determine what RPM an engine will run for at given road speed. The engine must be able to produce adequate torque at those RPM and the vehicle must be able to manage any additional vibration from running a lower RPM. “Ratios and RPM work in concert rather than one driving the other. An engine could not run at 1,150 RPM and reach cruise speed without the corresponding axle ratio, transmission ratio and tire size to match,” said Ryan Trzybinski, Eaton product strategy manager, Linehaul. “One concept that often gets confused is direct drive versus overdrive. The Eaton direct drive powertrain with even as low as a 2.26 axle will not be as heavily downsped as the Eaton ‘small step’ since the transmission ratio in top gear is 1.0 for direct versus 0.80 for the overdrive small step. The 0.8 overdrive ratio represents a 26% step that enables further downspeeding.” Trzybinski went on to detail the main factors fleet managers should take into consideration when spec’ing specific downsped engine ratios: Gross combined vehicle weight (GCVW); terrain (grade percentages); and road speed should all be given a close look. Downspeeding is most effective for vehicles 80,000 lbs. GCVW and below since it can run with a very fast axle and still have adequate startability and gradeability. As the weight of the vehicle increases, a slower or higher numerical axle is often required and thus cruise RPM increases. As road speed increases, for a given gear, RPM also increases. For example, the Fuller Advantage Small Step used in SmartAdvantage and with the MX and N13 engines is optimized to run at 65 MPH with a 2.64 axle. Grade also deserves special attention as the engine-transmission-vehicle combination can actually sense load and when the tractor is ascending or descending a grade, said Stu Russoli, Mack Trucks highway and powertrain products marketing manager. This allows for more efficient operation at lower engine speeds, while maintaining higher average road speeds.

Owner/Driver / June 18, 2015 A driver died when the brakes on his truck failed. The company’s owner has now been convicted of manslaughter. The owner of a South Australian trucking company who put his driver behind the wheel of a truck with dodgy brakes has been held responsible for his death. The South Australian Supreme Court convicted Peter Francis Colbert, who runs Colbert Transport, of manslaughter in relation to the death of Robert Brimson in March 2014, News Limited reports. Brimson was travelling on Main South Road at Happy Valley when the truck’s brakes failed, causing him to crash into a pole. The court heard that Colbert received repeated warnings to fix the brakes on the 1994 model Mitsubishi tautliner Brimson was instructed to drive, but did not act. As News Limited reports, the case represents the first time an owner of a company has been held liable for the death of an employee because of workplace negligence. It says the court was told Brimson tried to use his brakes 11 times before the accident. The ABC reports Colbert was also convicted for endangering the life of another employee, who drove the same truck two days before Brimson’s fatal accident and also experienced brake failure. According to News Limited, Colbert denied claims he received multiple warnings to fix the truck’s brakes and that he relied on his mechanic to maintain them. Colbert pleaded not guilty to the charges of manslaughter and endangering life. Brimson had only been working for Colbert Transport for 10 days before the accident occurred, the ABC says. "That vehicle had a history of brake failures which were brought to the attention of the accused on a number of occasions and, despite that, the accused deliberately failed to deal with those reported failures," prosecutor Tim Preston says. "He still directed the deceased to get into the cabin of that truck. "In my submission, that truck was a death trap." Preston says Colbert did not take any steps to repair the truck. The bookkeeper for Colbert Transport, Eryn Williams, gave evidence the faulty truck caught fire one month before Brimson’s accident while Colbert was behind the wheel, the ABC reports. Williams says Colbert told her he did not have money to fix the brakes and he used a ball bearing in the brake line to stop fluid from leaking. Colbert Transport drivers reported hearing air hissing from the vehicle and another had to use gears to slow the truck down because the brakes were poor. Colbert denied conversations about faulty brakes took place, the ABC reports. "There was never a significant drop in air pressure during the time I was driving the truck," Colbert told the court. "There was no need for me to look at the brakes because there was no report of any slight issue." Sentencing submissions are due to be heard in August.

Australasian Transport News (ATN) / June 22, 2015 The Western Australian transport industry is moving further from the national regulator, with adoption of a new forestry sector Code of Practice, formally signed on June 18. The code was developed between the Western Australia Road Transport Association (WARTA) and the Forest Industries Federation WA (FIFWA), with specialist risk and compliance consultancy Latus also on board. Latus managing director Mike Wood says the new code provides a practical guide for highlighting effective work practices within the state’s compliance and enforcement (C&E) act. This differs from the Chain of Responsibility laws in other states, by pertaining to smaller vehicles as well as trucks. Any vehicle involved with transporting goods for business is covered, including utes and vans. In forestry, it means that a four-wheel drive vehicle called in to service an in-forest machine is considered part of the legislation. "This was an extremely important day in the short history of Western Australian C&E as this highlights the adoption of the new act and how all parties will be aligned with Main Roads WA standards," Wood says. He says Latus is also working on further codes of practice with WARTA, to be delivered for the WA general freight, agri-business, agri-bulk, and overmass and oversize transport sectors in the coming months. Having managed both large and small transport businesses over a long career, he says the scalability of the codes will be one of their key strengths. "It is really about how it can apply to everyone from the small operators right through to the big operators," he says. "Each code is scalable so that everyone is able to sign up and be responsible." WARTA CEO Ian King says the industry is happy to be involved. "WARTA and Latus have been working with other key sectors of the WA road transport sector highlighting the WA C&E requirements and supporting the drive by Main Roads WA to ensure all parties are aware of and understand their legal responsibilities," he says. .

Tim Giles - Diesel News Australia / June 18, 2015 We don’t know what Travis is like, and neither are we sure about Travis’s effectiveness. What are we talking about? Why, the Federal and Victorian Government’s scheme to develop a $4.4 million project called the Truck Rest Area Vacancy Information System (TRAVIS), of course. Forgive me for being cynical, but is this really a practical and effective suggestion? Yes, it would be great if a truck driver heading along one of our major freight highways late at night could know, precisely, whether there is room to park their B-double in a parking bay in the area where they expect to pull up for the night. The system is supposed to help drivers plan their rest stops. We have all been in the situation, with limited time left on the log book, of pulling into a parking bay, only to find it full. The trouble then starts, working out how far to the next possible stopping area and how much time is left on the clock. Not only is this situation bad for the driver, who tries to keep within the regulations, it is also stressful, worrying whether there will be any room to slot the truck into or not. Don’t worry, the TRAVIS will take good care of you and there will be no worries. The project will install detectors on an experimental set of six parking bays around the Wodonga/Benalla area. The information collected will be displayed on electronic signs on the highway, presumably over quite a distance leading up to the area. In all of the material published about the scheme so far, the emphasis has been on advancing the safety agenda and the annual economic cost of road crashes ($27 billion per annum). The Victorian Roads Minister, Luke Donellan, talks about listening to road safety and freight groups and the importance of managing fatigue on the highway at night. Looking at this idea from a purely practical perspective, and not from where the idea is to make it look like government is doing something, there are a number of questions raised. Will this system make a genuine improvement in the ability of truck drivers to park up and rest at night on the Hume, or anywhere else for that matter? The most obvious issue is the probability the signs will just tell us something we already know. The parking bay is full of caravans and camper vans, who have filled up all of the spaces dedicated to the trucks, which are vital to the country’s economy. TRAVIS may work to a certain extent on the major routes like the Hume of the Pacific. The more remote highways, where parking bays are few and far between and rarely signposted, are unlikely to be reached by TRAVIS. All of a sudden the governments are concerned about truck driver fatigue? If they have genuinely been so concerned about the welfare of the drivers who keep the populace’s supermarket shelves brim full, 24/7, then why didn’t they put plenty of parking bays on the highway in the first place? Yet again, we are in danger of throwing a load of money at something which will be, largely, ineffective, but will have the effect of making the governments look like something is being done. This is instead of spending the funds on doing something which would make the situation better for every truckie concerned, just building a load more parking bays on our highways and putting some signs up.

Australasian Transport News (ATN) / June 22, 2015 Parts of remote north South Australia remain impassable to vehicles after heavy rains at the weekend. Arrabury Road, Cordillo Downs Road (Arrabury turn off to Queensland border and Innamincka to Arrabury turn off) and the Birdsville Inside Track remain closed to all traffic . Birdsville Track (border to Mungeranie Mungeranie to Marree), Mt Barry to Arkaringa and to San Marino, Balcanoona to Blinman Mt Hopeless toBalcanoona (via Moolawatana) and the Iron Knob to Hiltaba road are open to four-wheel drive vehicles only. "Travellers and residents in the far north of SA are reminded to keep a close eye on outback road conditions, with closures and restrictions in place due to a large amount of rain," South Australia Police say. Police released images of a road train that was bogged in Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands to illustrate the point. .

Today's Trucking / June 22, 2015 Industry reaction to the proposal announced Friday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to improve fuel efficiency and cut carbon pollution for medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks has been swift and more positive than negative in tone. The plan for the 2021-2027 models years, which also calls for trailers to be subject to fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for the first time, drew support from the American Trucking Associations, but the fleet group said it remains concerned the rule may result in the use of certain technologies on vehicles before they can be fully tested. “Fuel is an enormous expense for our industry, and carbon emissions carry an enormous cost for our planet,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “That’s why our industry supported the Obama Administration’s historic first round of greenhouse gas and fuel efficiency standards for medium and large trucks and why we support the aims of this second round of standards.” Since the first round of efficiency standards were announced in 2011, ATA szid has been working to evaluate their impact on the trucking industry and has been in constant contact with the EPA and NHTSA to make sure the second round of standards can be effectively implemented by the industry. “ATA has adopted a set of 15 ‘guiding principles’ for Phase II,” said ATA Vice President and Energy and Environmental Counsel Glen Kedzie, “and based on conversations with regulators and a preliminary review this proposal appears to meet 14 of those. “We believe this rule could result in the deployment of certain technologies that do not fully recognize the diversity of our industry and could prove to be unreliable. This unreliability could slow not only adoption of these technologies, but the environmental benefits they aim to create,” Kedzie said. “To prevent this, truck and engine manufacturers will need adequate time to develop solutions to meet these new standards.” The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) and American Truck Dealers (ATD) expressed a similar concern about the use of untested technologies, as well as increased truck costs. "By the administration's own estimate, an average of just under US$12,000 to the cost of a new truck through mandates based on potentially untested technologies is a great risk to a still-fragile economy,” the groups said. “Recent history has shown that mandates with underestimated compliance costs result in substantially higher prices for commercial vehicles, and force fleet owners and operators to seek out less-expensive and less fuel-efficient alternatives in the marketplace. According to NADA and ATD, the costs could even drive small fleets and owner-operators out of business, costing jobs and only further impeding economic growth. “While supportive of affordable fuel-economy improvements, ATD is closely reviewing the proposal and the many potential impacts it will have on truck dealerships and their customers." As for driver reaction, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association said it is reviewing the more than 1,000 page plan. “OOIDA still needs to examine the proposal to see if the input from small-business truckers was truly taken to heart. However, based on reviews of initial summaries, we do have concerns that the rule will push truckers to purchase technology that is not fully tested and may lead to costs such as maintenance and downtime that will eclipse the potential savings estimated in the proposal,” said OOIDA Director of Government Affairs Ryan Bowley. Meantime, the Canadian Trucking Alliance said it wants to ensure that equipment imported into Canada is ready and proven to operate in specific Canadian marketplaces, such as withstanding the country’s extreme weather conditions and operating conditions. It said staff has been travelling across the country to gather feedback from fleets on their opinions and concerns regarding Phase 2 and how they think governments should treat the Canadian version of the regulations.

Car & Driver / June 22, 2015 Everyone knows that certain cars are just better with no options. The first-generation Plymouth Road Runner was one of those cars. Back in the late ’60s, Chrysler designed the Road Runner to be cheap, simple, and most of all fast. The roughly $3000 base model was propelled by a 383-cubic-inch V-8 that made 335 (gross) horsepower and 425 lb-ft of torque hooked up to a four-speed manual or a three-speed automatic transmission. Moreover, for a little extra, buyers could opt for 426 or 440 cubic inches of grunt, which made the car’s 3400-pound curb weight a moot point. Out of the box, a correctly optioned Road Runner could run a mid-13-second quarter-mile, which in 1969 made it a seriously fast machine. The 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner Intro Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsgw17eneoA#t=43

Please review this information. You'll notice the ratios are different. .

This promotional film from GMC highlights the design and engineering of its latest cab-over-engine (COE) heavy duty models (for 1960). Both steel and aluminum tilt cab models are featured in the film.

Automotive News / June 22, 2015 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Ram (aka. Dodge) division is firing the opening salvo in the 2016 model pickup wars by boosting the torque rating of its high-output, 6.7-liter diesel engine to 900 pounds-feet -- highest in the industry. The increased power comes standard on all versions of the heavy-duty Ram equipped with an optional beefed up Aisin six-speed automatic transmission. The high-output Ram 3500 also has an industry best maximum towing rating of 31,210 pounds, an increase of 1,210 pounds from a similarly equipped 2015 Ram 3500 with an Aisin six-speed transmission, FCA said today. Heavy-duty Ram trucks with FCA’s regular six-speed automatic transmissions remain unchanged at 800 pounds-feet of torque. Ford’s recently revamped PowerStroke diesel V-8, which is optional in its Super Duty pickups, is rated at 860 pounds-feet of torque, while General Motors’ Duramax V-8 diesel engine in its heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups carries a torque rating of 765 pounds-feet. GM and Ford are not expected to make major changes to their pickup diesel engines for 2016. Nissan plans to introduce an optional 5.0-liter Cummins diesel V-8 this fall in its redesigned Titan pickup. That engine develops 555 pounds-feet of torque, Nissan says. Ford, GM and Nissan offer their diesel engines with only one power rating. Torque -- not horsepower -- is the more important measure for heavy-duty trucks because it is directly related to the vehicle’s towing and hauling capability.