kscarbel2

Jay's good people.

I remember Cooper was struggling financially and India's Apollo tire was going to buy them, but things got muddy. I didn't follow the outcome. Then Cooper sourced more production from China. https://www.daytondailynews.com/business/apollo-files-counterclaim-against-cooper-tire/bp4GACz3IfSvHaM2AIScYJ/ https://www.rubbernews.com/article/20180926/news/180929962/sailun-to-become-cooper-tire-joint-venture-partner

Wanli makes a good tire as well. (This English global website only shows a small portion of their product line). http://www.wanli-global.com/yww/brand/wanlitire/allsteel/index.shtml

Look at the Coopers and see if they say "Made in China". Their light vehicle tires are. Back in the day, I felt there was no better combination than Bridgestone R290 steer tires and Goodyear G367 drive tires. Today, Goodyear's pricing is ridiculous. Most people have had a great experience with Double Coin.

Unreal. Welcome to the new America.

Speaking of the main brands, your opinion is quite the opposite of my experience.

Scania Group Press Release / January 31, 2019 Dutch heavy haulage company Te Kloeze-Bruyl has recently taken delivery of one of the first new generation five-axle Scania V8 S 730 tractors following an earlier delivery of a three-axle Scania V8 S 520 tractor. Te Kloeze-Bruyl was persuaded to switch to Scania by its experience with their Scania engine-equipped Hyundai excavators. “Scania has proven its quality over the years,” says Project Manager Evert Jan van den Berg, Te Kloeze-Bruyl. “The engines are not only very reliable but also highly economical. And that’s highly important for us.” “We not only monitor the consumption of our trucks and construction machines, but even that of our passenger cars.” Adapted for heavy haulage The Scania S 730 is configured as a 10×4*6, which signifies two steered front axles, two driven axles and one steered tag axle. Adapted for heavy haulage, the tractor has a rack behind the cab with fuel tanks, AdBlue tank and trailer hydraulic system. These adaptations are factory-assembled. The vehicle can thereby load 180 tonnes at a 6-percent slope and 140 tonnes at a 12-percent slope. “That’s important in our work,” explains Van den Berg. “Some our own machinery exceeds 100 tonnes. The power is especially useful in Germany, which we often travel through. Because of extensive road works, we are often forced to take alternative routes. But it’s also nice to have that power at our disposal on motorways and thereby avoid slow crawling.” Premium driver seat The cab is no less impressive. Because these transports are usually scheduled for nights, drivers are away from home during long periods. Te Koeze-Bruyl therefore ticked nearly every option box. Drivers can enjoy leather upholstery, a premium driver seat and rotatable passenger seat, an infotainment system with navigation on a 7-inch screen, refrigerator, coffee maker, microwave and TV. To enhance safety, the company has equipped the truck with a side-view camera system with a quadruple split screen so that the driver at a glance can see four positions around the vehicle. .

Triangle TR686

Triangle TR676

Double Happiness DR909

Double Coin RLB450

Here are a few that I like, though not all are exported.

Heavy trucks, what in the United States is called "Class 8". Does not include medium or light trucks (light trucks being Isuzu NPR-like in size). Note: FYI - Global market light trucks are often called medium in the US.

Xinhua / February 2, 2019 China's heavy truck manufacturers reported strong sales last month, pointing to continued vitality in the broader economy. Some 96,000 heavy trucks were sold in January in China, up 16 percent from a month ago, according to cvworld.cn, an auto industry information service provider. The sales performance remained high, notching the second-best January in recent years, moderating slightly from the same period a year ago.

Jack Walsworth & Larry Vellequette, Automotive News / February 3, 2019 Chicago will come out of its arctic freeze this week to find a redesigned Subaru Legacy, two freshened pickups and a handful of special editions taking auto show center stage. One of the country's largest auto shows in terms of visitors, the Chicago event this year boasts four indoor test tracks and — polar vortex or not — six outdoor test drive areas at the mammoth McCormick Place. Here's a look at the vehicles expected to be featured. Ford Ford Motor Co. plans to unveil a freshened Super Duty pickup, capitalizing on the Chicago show's truck-oriented reputation. The pickup, expected to arrive this year as a 2020 model, likely will feature cosmetic updates to the grille and interior as well as new engines and transmission. General Motors Chevrolet and GMC plan to bring heavy-duty pickups to Chicago, the first time either will have been displayed at an auto show. Chevrolet released photos of the Silverado HD in early December and is expected to unveil the truck early this week in Flint, Mich. GMC held a private unveiling of the Sierra HD lineup late last month in San Diego. The pickups have design cues and performance attributes that separate them from their smaller siblings. General Motors noted that the only exterior piece that the Silverado HD shares with the standard Silverado is the roof. Lexus Lexus will feature a Flare Yellow special-edition LC 500 coupe, with plans to produce just 100 units. The 2019 LC 500 Inspiration Series will start at $107,235, including shipping. It rides on 21-inch wheels, has a carbon fiber roof and gets yellow door inserts and matching trim stitching. The coupe is the third limited-run Inspiration Series vehicle Lexus has produced. Lexus also is expected to roll out a special version of its NX crossover, the NX F Sport Black Line Special Edition. Mazda Mazda will show a 30th-anniversary special edition of its MX-5 Miata. In a blurry teaser image released by the company, the car appears to be a red Miata RF variant (RF for "retractable fastback"). The first-generation two-seater debuted at the 1989 Chicago Auto Show. Nissan Nissan plans to bring a slightly tweaked 2020 Rogue Sport to Chicago, as well as a special-edition Pathfinder three-row crossover. Ram After redesigns of the Ram 1500 last year and the Heavy Duty 2500 and 3500 last month, Ram is turning its attention to the 3500 chassis cab. The pickup is typically sent to upfitters who use the chassis for commercial vehicles. Subaru Chicago will mark the global debut of the redesigned Legacy midsize sedan, the latest nameplate to join the Subaru Global Platform. Spy photos last summer indicated that the 2020 Legacy would retain styling similar to the current version, with some areas updated to match the rest of the lineup. The 2020 is likely to be slightly larger than the outgoing Legacy, if other Subaru nameplates from the platform are any indication, with a bump in power. Last week, Subaru released a teaser image of the sedan's interior indicating a significantly updated infotainment and console area. Toyota Toyota will lean toward body-on-frame products in Chicago. Last week, the automaker teased the front end of its 2020 Tacoma. The freshened pickup will have a new exterior look and interior updates that will augment the 2016 model redesign. Toyota also will present a 60th-anniversary edition of the 2020 Land Cruiser. Unlike the standard three-row Land Cruiser, the Heritage Edition will be offered only as a two-row model available in black or white. The limited batch of 1,200 vehicles will get bronze wheels with "Toyota" on the center cap, bronze contrast stitching throughout the interior, vintage-style exterior badges, darkened headlight housings and darkened chrome design touches on the exterior. The edition drops the SUV's running boards and lower body side moldings to create a more rugged look. Volkswagen Volkswagen will show a GLI variant of the redesigned Jetta. The sporty GLI likely will add some performance chops and styling cues to the compact sedan, which was redesigned onto the automaker's MQB platform for the 2019 model year.

This is big Bob. It says something about how Ford does business......ethics. They call inventors greedy and then steal their technology. And Ford isn't a Chinese company.....hmm.

Ford F-150s use tech stolen from MIT professors Christopher Yasiejko, Bloomberg / February 3, 2019 WILMINGTON, Delaware -- The most-popular vehicle in the U.S. -- the F-series truck -- is among the many Ford Motor Co. products using stolen technologies to run its newest fuel-efficient engines, according to three Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors who say they invented the enhancements. With Ford selling two trucks every minute and generating about $42 billion in revenue last year from the F-series alone, the MIT inventors are demanding an unspecified share of the proceeds. In a lawsuit filed Jan. 30, they say their patented dual port- and direct-injection technology were added to the company’s EcoBoost engines in recent years without permission. The dispute marks a split in the long collaboration between MIT and Ford, which created a joint energy-research program in 2007 to focus on powertrain, fuel and energy technologies. A separate MIT Energy Initiative paired Ford personnel with university researchers. Chairman Bill Ford, great-grandson of the automaker’s founder Henry Ford, received a masters degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1984. But by 2015, Ford suggested the professors were “greedy inventors” and refused offers to negotiate exclusive rights to license the patents, the lawsuit alleges. Ford sells “a lot of vehicles, most with EcoBoost,” said Kevin Tynan, senior automotive analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence in Princeton, N.J., who estimates the company has sold about 8 million light trucks alone since 2015. It’s too soon to know how costly any royalties would be for the company, he said. “At $1 per vehicle, no big deal. At $1,000, $8 billion hurts a little.” EcoBoost engines have been a key part of Ford’s strategy to develop cars and trucks with better fuel efficiency and power with fewer emissions, and they’ve been installed in millions of new vehicles over much of the past decade. 'Revolutionary throughout the industry' MIT professors Leslie Bromberg, Daniel R. Cohn and John B. Heywood, who have been working for decades on improvements to internal-combustion engines, say they invented dual-injection technologies that allow for better fuel-and-air mixing and combustion stability than direct injection, with less engine knock. “Revolutionary throughout the industry,” is how MIT describes the technologies, which have been cited by more than 115 other patents, including dozens by Ford, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Wilmington, Del. The professors transferred ownership of their creations to MIT, one of the premier U.S. research universities, which then granted exclusive patent-licensing rights to a small company the three men founded, Ethanol Boosting Systems LLC. EBS offered to license patents on the enhancements to Ford in 2014, but the company declined. Since then, the technologies have become integrated into new EcoBoost engines Ford is promoting in recent models, including F-150 trucks, Lincoln Navigator SUVs and Ford Mustang sports cars, according to the plaintiffs. Licensing questions Heywood, who was director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at MIT and wrote the 1988 textbook “Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals,” emailed two Ford executives in October 2014 to discuss licensing the dual-injection technology, according to the complaint. Heywood cited MIT’s history with Ford and wrote that EBS “would like to give Ford the first opportunity” to license a portfolio of five patents, one of which is named in the lawsuit. After a volley of emails, Bill Coughlin, then Ford’s chief intellectual-property officer, agreed to meet at MIT in April 2015. According to the complaint, Coughlin proposed that “in exchange for EBS agreeing not to assert the patents against Ford,” the auto giant “would work with EBS to market other MIT/EBS technology.” At one point in the conversation, Coughlin asked the three professors “whether they were ‘greedy inventors,’” the complaint says. EBS invited Ford to analyze the patents and identify any that weren’t applicable to its products, but that never happened, the plaintiffs allege. After more rounds of emails and phone calls, including with Greg Brown, then the counsel for global engine intellectual property at Ford Global Technologies LLC, the carmaker told EBS in November 2015 that it wasn’t interested in licensing the patents. Asked whether Ford might be interested in the technology for future vehicles, Brown, according to the complaint, “indicated that Ford had no plans that he knew of to use that technology in its vehicles.” 'Imminent plans' But Ford “did have imminent plans” to use the technology, and “already was incorporating that technology into its engines and fuel-management systems,” MIT and EBS said in the lawsuit. The complaint cites a June 2017 press release in which Ford said it was using dual port- and direct-injection technology in its 3.5-liter EcoBoost engines and other engines that are available in the F-150, Expedition and other models. The majority of Ford trucks, and 60 percent of F-150s, have EcoBoost engines, Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s executive vice president of product development and purchasing, said Jan. 15 at the Wolfe Research Global Auto Industry Conference. “We sold 1 million F-series last year,” Thai-Tang said. “Our PR team did the math. We sell one every 29 seconds.” The F-series in 2018 “outsold the nearest competitor by the widest margin ever,” CEO Jim Hackett said Jan. 23 in an earnings call.

No slave wages in China.....not for many, many years. In year 2019, the cost of labor is high. That's why most off-shored manufacturing has shifted out of China to elsewhere (India, Thailand, Vietnam, ect.). There is massive manufacturing in China, but most is for domestic consumption. Thanks to protectionist policies, if multi-nationals want to profit in China, they essentially have to produce there and thus share some of the spoils with the people and country from whom they are profiting. I call that "fair", and we should practice that in the states.

First, they have absolutely no proof that those tires were sold below cost. Second, they love to make money as much as the next person. They don't sell below cost. Triangle, Double Coin and many other Chinese brands are first-rate tires. With tractor-trailers there legally carrying 46 to 49 metric tons (101,413lb to 108,027lb), they need to be (Many actually run up to 120,000lb). Those tires are on vacation in the states.

Ford Trucks International / Sharing The Load Whether you’re a one-unit fire department in a small town or the transportation department for a large state, you demand maximum value for your money. That’s where Ford Trucks can help. Ford has a broad line-up of trucks engineered to handle all municipal and state government job applications, from fire and rescue to snow removal and road repair. Why buy Ford? At Ford Trucks, we are committed to providing you with the latest technology in the truck industry, trucks that are “optimized” by our engineers to meet your specific requirements. That’s why we say, “Ford Trucks are built Ford tough”. .

Stagnant F-35 Reliability Means Fewer Available Jets: Pentagon Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg / January 30, 2019 US Marine F-35Bs, which cost $122 million each, can only fly for a quarter of their expected life because of major structural issues Durability testing data indicates service-life of initial F-35B short-takeoff-vertical landing jets bought by Marine Corps “is well under” expected service life of 8,000 fleet hours; “may be as low as 2,100″ hours Pentagon test office says in 2018 annual report obtained by Bloomberg that’s scheduled for release this week. That means some jets expected to start hitting service life limit in 2026. Furthermore, there’s no “improving trend in” aircraft availability to fly training or combat missions as it’s remained “flat” over the past 3 years. Details come a day after Defense Sec. Pat Shanahan told reporters the F-35 “has a lot of opportunity for more performance.” Interim reliability and field maintenance metrics to meeting planned 80% goal not being met, test office director Robert Behler says in new assessment as improvements “are still not translating into improved availability” Current fleet performance “well below” that benchmark Cybersecurity testing of aircraft in 2018 showed some previous vulnerabilities “still have not been remedied,” assessment says Amount of time needed to repair aircraft and return to flying status “has changed little” in last yr; remains “higher than” rate needed to indicate progress as aircraft fleet numbers and flying hours increase, assessment says Computerized maintenance tool known as “ALIS” doesn’t “yet perform as intended,” as some data and functions deficiencies “have a significant effect on aircraft availability” and launching flights Maintenance personnel, pilots “must deal w pervasive problems w data integrity, completeness on a daily basis,” tester says Testing through September of Air Force model gun intended for air-to-ground attack indicates accuracy “unacceptable,” DoD tester says

I dislike blatant protectionism for the sake of existing tire companies who see a way to rub out new competition thru legal process. The wealthy involved with the tire industry are annoyed with competition taking money out of their pocket, and sent their Washington lobbyists on a mission. I despise lobbyists in general. Whether the tires are from China or Mars, they make a good product and have a competitive price. When the existing "tire club" promotes those two virtues, we're supposed to be impressed. But when a new guy in town offers the same two virtues and steals market share from the existing monopoly, they get accused of foul play. It's a crock. What is “price underselling"??? They offered a better price. So what? If the Chinese are guilty, then Amazon and Wal-Mart surely must be "guilty" of price underselling as well. The ITC was looking at data from 2013-2015, and during that time the U.S. market grew by 21.3%. But the domestic tire makers’ share of the market dropped by 7.7%, from 53.3% to 45.6%. Oh well, they had a better price. But remember other Asian tire makers (e.g. Hankook) had a hand in reducing the domestic tire maker's market share as well......but they don't get flagged.....it's all political. Tires are one of an operator's biggest expenses. We don't need government propping up high tire prices to keep the rich.....rich. The talk of a free market is just a tale.

Roger Gilroy, Transport Topics / February 1, 2019 Volvo Group reported fourth-quarter revenue rose as net income fell, while higher worldwide truck orders and deliveries increased both revenue and net income for the full year. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Volvo — which reports in Swedish krona — had net income that was the approximate equivalent of $250 million, or 14 cents per diluted share, compared with $526.8 million, or 25 cents, a year earlier. Revenue in the quarter increased to $11.6 billion compared with $10.1 billion a year earlier. Despite some continued capacity constraints, Volvo delivered 62,352 trucks during the quarter, or 4% more than the 59,814 units it delivered in the same period a year ago, according to the Gothenburg, Sweden-based company. At the same time, quarterly net truck orders fell to 59,535 from 69,597 a year earlier. North American orders in the quarter decreased by 24% to 14,014 vehicles, while deliveries increased by 35% to 14,072 vehicles. “Order intake in North America has moderated, which was expected as the order book is close to full for 2019,” Volvo CEO Martin Lundstedt said in a statement. During the quarter, Volvo Trucks signed an agreement with Brønnøy Kalk AS in Norway to provide its first commercial autonomous transport solution for a limestone mining site, the truck maker noted in the earnings report. Volvo Trucks also announced that it plans to introduce all-electric Volvo VNR demonstrators in California in 2019, operating in distribution, regional-haul and drayage operations. Sales of the Volvo VNR Electric in North America are slated to begin in 2020. Volvo Financial Services continued to grow its credit portfolio and increase profitability, with record new business volume for the quarter due to increased deliveries of trucks and construction equipment and a stable penetration rate, Volvo said. For the full year, Volvo’s net income was $2.8 billion, or $1.35, compared with $2.2 billion, or $1.11. Revenue jumped 17% to $43.2 billion compared with $36.7 billion a year earlier. Global truck orders in 2018 climbed to 257,504 compared with 232,439 a year earlier. North American orders rose 54% to 79,364 compared with 59,613 a year earlier. Truck deliveries rose to 226,490 from 202,402 in the 2017 period. North American deliveries jumped to 53,877 compared with 37,941 a year earlier. “In 2018 we continued our drive to develop next-generation transport solutions. We moved our positions forward in electrification, automation and connectivity. For instance, both Volvo Trucks and Renault Trucks will begin selling electric trucks in Europe this year and Mack Trucks will have an electric refuse truck in operation in New York City,” Lundstedt said. “We expect demand for trucks to be on historically good levels also in 2019. Growth in the North American economy, with high transport volumes and good freight rates, is expected to support the truck market also in 2019,” he said. Volvo’s North American forecast for 2019 remains unchanged at 310,000 heavy-duty trucks. Volvo’s trucks, construction equipment, Volvo Penta and financial services all recorded their highest adjusted operating income ever in 2018. As previously reported, Volvo Group has detected that an emissions control component used in certain markets and models may degrade more quickly than expected, affecting the vehicle’s emission performance negatively. The company has made a provision in the fourth quarter of $770 million relating to the estimated costs to address the issue. Negative cash flow effects will start in 2019 and gradually ramp up in the coming years. Volvo Group will continuously assess the size of the provision as the matter develops, it said.