February 1, 2006 Vol. 2, No. 3

A lot of news came out of the World of Concrete show in Las Vegas a week or so ago, like the revival of the International ‘Paystar’ name and our first look at the
2007 ISL vocational engine from Cummins. Not just for the mixer crowd, this diesel – and its bright-red particulate filter – will find its way into many other
vocational situations as well, of course. Rated up to 365 horses and 1250 lb ft of
torque, it’s a diminutive 8.9-liter motor sporting a common-rail fuel system that
produces higher injection pressures and thus lower emissions. It uses the same
EGR system as before, and the same Holset variable-geometry turbocharger that we’ve come to know and love. That turbo, interestingly, will also be found on Detroit Diesel and Volvo engines in 2007.

The only really new bit on an ’07 Cummins engine is the particulate filter, and the
question has been, how much servicing will it need? Not too much is the answer – in vocational applications, every 6000 hours you’ll have to service it to remove the
ash it’s collected. And every third oil change you’ll also have to replace the
coalescing filter that’s part of the new crankcase ventilation management system
mandated by the EPA.

One other bit of Cummins news: its big-bore ISX engine will continue to be
available in Volvo VN and VT trucks for the foreseeable future, according to a
recent announcement by the two companies. It’s the only non-Volvo engine you can spec.

Speaking of the Swedish company and its engines, nowadays manufactured in
what used to be the Mack plant in Hagerstown, Maryland, I hope you Volvo owners have seen the recall notice that was issued on January 26. Here’s how the first three paragraphs of that notice read:

“Volvo Trucks North America has informed the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration that the company will initiate a voluntary safety recall on
approximately 42,000 Volvo VN and VHD model trucks manufactured from November 2002 to January 2006 and equipped with the Volvo D12D engine.

“Volvo has found there is the potential for exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooler
inlet pipes, or the pipes that connect the EGR valve to the cooler, to crack or
break. If these pipes fail and are not repaired, the air cleaner and inner fender may be subject to hot exhaust gases, which could potentially lead to a fire.

“Volvo has reports of a number of trucks suffering heat damage to the inner fender or air cleaner as a result of these failures. There have also been two confirmed instances of a fire caused by this condition.”

Back to vocational news, you’ll see details here on the Bendix electronic stability system being available on a mixer – the Mack Granite — for the very first time.

The bulldog people are calling it the Mack Road Stability Advantage, but it’s the same anti-rollover system that Mack and others have been offering on highway
trucks for the last year or so.

When I first experienced this amazing technology on a German test track several years ago, a Meritor WABCO system in that case, I came back and wrote that sooner rather than later we’d see it as mandatory equipment on North American trucks. Well, not yet, but when it becomes optional on a mixer chassis,
you know it’s widely accepted. Frankly, I wouldn’t buy a truck without it, especially if I were pulling loads with a high center of gravity (beef on pork hooks springs to mind).

One last note about a neat gizmo – the Koo-Way socket out of One Eye Industries
in Calgary – that I recently came across and wrote a little about below. An easy
and safe way to deal with auto slack maintenance and adjustment is how it’s
promoted, which sounds interesting to me and probably will to you. I can’t endorse it in any way, not having dug deeply or talked to users, but it seems to be worth a look.

Next time I meet you here will be after the first couple of days of the annual
meeting of the Technology and Mainternance Council in Tampa, so get set for an
onslaught of hardware news. One thing I know for sure is that I’ll have serious info
about the rest of the Cummins lineup for 2007.

This newsletter is published every two weeks. It’s a heads-up notice about
what you can see at www.todaystrucking.com where you’ll find in-detail coverage of nearly everything that’s new. Plus interesting products that may not have had the ‘air play’ they deserved within the last few months. There’s more here than we could possibly fit into the magazine. Subscribe today!

If you have comments of whatever sort, please contact me at rlockwood@newcom.ca.

Rolf Lockwood, Editorial Director