Volvo
IN PRINT — Gold Star: Western Star turns 50
TORONTO, ON -- Western Star Trucks is now 50 years old, an iconic brand in Canada, if a little less so in the U.S. That difference isn't surprising because the truck was born here when White Motor Company built a plant in Kelowna, B.C., and launched what was called the White Western Star. A tough truck, it was essentially hand-built, and if you wanted holes in the frame here as opposed to there, you had only to ask. Its initial target was the forestry world. A logging truck par excellence, as it remains, it also found favor in the oil patch and in mines.
The possibility — and limits — of remote diagnostics
MONTREAL, QC - Manufacturers are more closely connected to individual engines than ever before. Telematics make it possible to monitor fault codes in real time, inform vehicle owners of the problems, and even identify service locations that stock the required parts. Stephane Godbout, the president of SG Consulting, just wants more. He understands the value of data, having worked for a fleet that adopted Detroit Technician in more than 500 trucks as early as 2012. "It was a lot of data to start out with," Godbout recalled during the SCEF maintenance summit in Montreal. "We had to scale back because our people were swamped with data. They didn't know what to do with it."
Volvo’s Adaptive Gearing
Volvo Trucks has put a new spin on an old powertrain management strategy; by locking out top gear on its I-Shift overdrive transmission, drivers can pull loads efficiently in 11th gear (direct drive) and still get the performance they want. When running empty, sensors in the transmission and the suspension sense the lower weight and unlock 12th gear, which is overdrive. The truck can cruise home in at a very low engine speed at a higher road speed. This video explains how Adaptive Gearing works and features more excerpts from an interview with Gene Brice, co-owner of Idaho Milk Transport. Adaptive Gearing is ideally suited to tank fleets that run about half their miles empty, and when you hear Brice's fuel economy with this system, you'll be asking if it can work for you too. And don't forget to check out our Focus On report on Volvo's Adaptive Loading system to see what it has to offer.
Volvo’s Adaptive Gearing
Volvo Trucks has put a new spin on an old powertrain management strategy; by locking out top gear on its I-Shift overdrive transmission, drivers can pull loads efficiently in 11th gear (direct drive) and still get the performance they want. When running empty, sensors in the transmission and the suspension sense the lower weight and unlock 12th gear, which is overdrive. The truck can cruise home in at a very low engine speed at a higher road speed. This video explains how Adaptive Gearing works and features more excerpts from an interview with Gene Brice, co-owner of Idaho Milk Transport. Adaptive Gearing is ideally suited to tank fleets that run about half their miles empty, and when you hear Brice's fuel economy with this system, you'll be asking if it can work for you too. And don't forget to check out our Focus On report on Volvo's Adaptive Loading system to see what it has to offer.
Volvo displays truck platooning in California
LOS ANGELES, CA - Volvo Trucks, alongside Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH) from the University of California in Berkeley, successfully demonstrated partially automated highway truck platooning in a real world simulation last Wednesday.
