January 31, 2007 Vol. 3, No. 3

Boy, oh boy, here it is the tail end of January already and the new product introductions have started in earnest. At the World of Concrete show in Las Vegas we saw new models from Kenworth and Sterling, both detailed below, and we even had things worth talking about here out of the Detroit and Washington auto shows. Next week it’s the annual meeting of the TMC – the Technology and Maintenance Council – in sunny (I hope) Tampa, and six weeks later the trucking world boots race horses out of the Louisville
limelight at the Mid-America Trucking Show. And then a month after that it’s our own Expocam Show in Montreal.

This newsletter is never hard to write, but the next couple of months are going to be so jam-packed with new products that my problem will be what to do with all the material.

For now, to my mind the most interesting recent news doesn’t have too much to do with heavy trucks at all, but it’s pretty significant in a slightly indirect way. I’m talking about the introduction of a Cummins diesel engine in Dodge Ram heavy pickup trucks. The thing is, it meets 2010 Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards now — three years early! – using some technology that we already know and some that we might well see in big trucks in the near future.

Cummins president and CEO Joe Loughrey announced this news prior to the Washington Auto Show last week in conjunction with DaimlerChrysler chairman Dieter Zetsche – ‘Dr. Z.’
to many television viewers — and Bill Wehrum of the EPA.

The Cummins 6.7-liter Turbo Diesel engine, used exclusively in Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 heavy-duty pickup trucks, is in full production now at one of the company’s two plants in Columbus, Ind., and you’ll see it on dealer lots in April. Cummins has been the sole supplier of diesels for the Dodge Ram since 1988, and over 1.5 million diesel pickups have been shipped since then.

The new engine can legitimately lay claim to being the cleanest truck diesel engine available in North America. Remember, the 2010 EPA standards for nitrous oxides and particulate matter represent a whopping 90%-plus reduction in each case compared to 2004 limits. Meeting that target early is no small feat.

And how does it get there? It employs advanced in-cylinder technologies, a Bosch flexible high-pressure common-rail fuel system, “next generation” cooled exhaust-gas
recirculation, and a variable-geometry turbocharger, plus the latest exhaust aftertreatment technology. The latter includes a close-coupled diesel oxidation catalyst, a NOx adsorber catalyst, and a combined diesel oxidation/particulate filter. The engine also incorporates
the proprietary closed crankcase ventilation system mandated by EPA, and of course it requires ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel.

In a telephone press conference with Cummins officials, I asked if this combination of technologies would in fact be the pattern used in their medium- and heavy-duty diesels in 2010. Not necessarily, I was told. In other words, they won’t rule out selective catalytic reduction. Not yet.

Not incidentally, and this feature of the little diesel would be welcome in big ones, the ’07 pickup engine is said to be 50% quieter than its predecessor. The combination of reduced combustion noise, a low-noise VGT, optimized fuel timing/delivery, reduced-noise accessory drive pulleys, and side shields on the engine block all contribute to this huge noise reduction.