kscarbel

The Mack-branded MP engines are Volvo engines, adapted by Volvo to meet North America's EPA2010 emissions. Volvo builds their D-series engines in many variations, including from Euro-3 to Euro-6, and EPA2010. But they are all Volvo engines.

Bloomberg / December 20, 2013 Navistar International Corp., the truckmaker that has Carl Icahn as one of its biggest investors, fell the most in six months after reporting a quarterly loss that was wider than analysts had estimated. The shares fell 5.8 percent to $37.16 at the close in New York, for the biggest decline since June 20. The stock has added 71 percent this year. Navistar recorded a net loss of $154 million, or $1.91 a share, for the fourth quarter ended Oct. 31, compared with a loss of $2.77 billion, or $40.13, a year earlier, when the company’s results included non-cash tax expense of $2 billion, according to a statement. Analysts had estimated a loss of $1.56, on average. Navistar, which has posted losses for each of the last five quarters, reached an agreement in July letting activist shareholders Icahn and Mark Rachesky nominate two directors to the board. In return they agreed not to wage a proxy battle against the Lisle, Illinois-based truckmaker. Today, Navistar forecast lower earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, and a decline in cash for the first quarter. The forecast “elevates concerns and limits upside until volume recovers and margins improve” David Leiker, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co., wrote in a note. That’s not likely until “late 2014 or even 2015,” said Leiker, who rates the shares hold. Navistar said it expects to end the first quarter with cash and marketable securities of as much as $1.1 billion, compared with $1.52 billion at the end of the most recent three months. Fourth-quarter revenue fell 13 percent to $2.75 billion, the company said. That compared with a $2.95 billion median estimate from analysts compiled by Bloomberg.

The Mack-branded engines are 100 percent Volvo engines, designed by Volvo in Sweden and produced at Volvo Powertrain. The MP7 is a rebadged Volvo D11, the MP8 a rebadged D13 and the MP10 a rebadged D16. For the Mack applications, the Volvo engines receive different color paint and software programming. The Mack-branded chassis is a Volvo platform as well. There is no "joint venture" (two companies in cooperation). Volvo purchased Mack in 2000 and naturally does as they see fit. This is the price America pays when we allow foreign truckmakers to buy American truckmakers. Now, the Mack-branded truck is an assembly of Volvo global components less the legacy cab and hood.

Volkswagen owns a controlling interest now in both MAN and Scania. Interestingly, both truckmakers are resisting VW's attempts to force the two truckmakers into component cooperation. As these two truckmakers are extremely different, both in company culture and design philosophy, it wouldn't work. VW fails to grasp that. Before VW got into the picture, MAN and Scania had investigated the viability of synergies when former Scania man Hakan Samuelsson ran MAN (2000-2009). But no means for significant cost savings were found and the plan was terminated.

An MH643 was a 6x4 with Detroit power. MH612/613 - Mack power MH632/633 - Cummins power (popular with Ryder) MH642/643 - Detroit Diesel power MH652/653 - Caterpillar power

Forbes / December 15, 2015 In a few years, the rubber-stripped blades that have kept rain, snow and sleet off car windshields for nearly a century may become a thing of the past. New ultrasound technology being developed by UK-based McLaren Group's chief designer Frank Stephenson is adapting technology pioneered for fighter jets as an alternative to the traditional windshield wiper. High-frequency sound waves envelop the windshield like a force field, repelling water, insects and anything else that gets in its way. The U.S. Navy has used similar electromagnetic envelopes to prevent barnacles from growing on the hull of their ships.

Wall Street Journal / December 16, 2013 Commercial-truck maker Paccar Inc. said Monday that longtime Chief Executive Mark Pigott will be replaced in April by company President Ronald Armstrong. Mr. Pigott, who has headed Paccar for 17 years, will remain as chairman of the Bellevue, Wash., company, which makes Kenworth and Peterbilt-brand trucks in North America and DAF trucks in Europe. Mr. Armstrong also was appointed to the company's board. The moves will take effect April 27. Paccar didn't disclose a reason for the management change, but said Mr. Pigott "will help guide Paccar's future strategies and direction" as executive chairman of the board. Mr. Armstrong, 58 years old, is a 20-year veteran of the company. Before joining Paccar, he was a senior manager at accounting firm Ernst & Young. Paccar is the second-largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America based on sales volume, behind Daimler AG's Freightliner brand. Mr. Pigott, 59 years old, is the great-grandson of William Pigott Sr., who founded the company more than a century ago as a manufacturer of logging and railroad equipment. A 35-year employee of the company, Mr. Pigott became head of the company 1997 when his father Charles Pigott retired. Mr. Pigott is credited in recent years for steering Paccar through dismal truck markets in North America and Europe and launching an ambitious expansion in South America. The company is widely admired on Wall Street for its history of consistent earnings in an industry with highly cyclical sales patterns.

Fleet Owner / December 11, 2013 A lawsuit filed by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) against the California Air Resources Board (CARB) last week seeks an injunction against the agencies truck and bus emission regulations because those rules interfere with interstate commerce and discriminate against out-of-state truckers. “It’s not about emission compliance of older trucks or newer trucks; it’s about violating the Commerce Clause” of the U.S. Constitution, Norita Taylor, OOIDA’s spokesperson, told Fleet Owner. “And it’s discriminatory because someone from New York may only go into California only a few times per year whereas someone based in California drives a lot more of their miles in that state,” she added. “Again it’s about the fact that the federal government is in charge of regulating commerce and states are not supposed to.” According to the Legal Information Institute (LLI) at Cornell University Law School, the “Commerce Clause” refers to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.” The group noted that the Commerce Clause has historically been viewed as both a grant of congressional authority and as a restriction on state powers to regulate. The “dormant” Commerce Clause refers to the prohibition, implied in the Commerce Clause, against states passing legislation that discriminates against or excessively burdens interstate commerce. Yet the LLI cautioned that the meaning of the word "commerce" is a source of much controversy as the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly define the word. Some argue that it refers simply to trade or exchange, while others claim that the founders intended to describe more broadly commercial and social intercourse between citizens of different states. Thus, the interpretation of "commerce" affects the appropriate dividing line between federal and state power. OOIDA’s lawsuit, filed Dec. 6 in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, seeks to permanently enjoin CARB from enforcing its truck and bus emission regulatory program, which mandates that 1996 to 2006 model year trucks weighing more than 14,000 pounds need to be either replaced or retrofitted with diesel particulate filters (DPFs). It also prohibits older trucks that have not been replaced or retrofitted from operating on public roads in California. OOIDA contends that CARB’s truck and bus rules, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2012, have caused and will continue to cause” irreparable harm” to truckers who have been shut out of the California market because of the costs of compliance, which OOIDA’s Taylor says can range between $18,000 and $20,000 to retrofit an older Class 8 truck. “It puts out-of-state truckers at a disadvantage because the cost to upgrade is disproportionate to the number of miles traveled in the state of California,” noted Jim Johnston, president and CEO of OOIDA, in a statement. He added that trucking equipment purchased by OOIDA members when such equipment met all California regulatory requirements is now obsolete for use in California because of the new restrictions imposed by CARB’s regulations. On top of that, OOIDA argued that failure to buy and retrofit trucking equipment as required by the CARB regulation will effectively exclude out-of-state truckers from the California trucking market unless they are willing to face fines and penalties for noncompliance. Efforts to overturn emission rules mandating retrofits for older equipment have seen mixed success in recent years. Trucking groups won a court battle against similar rules in New York state back in 2011, but a petition on behalf of port truckers in California before a CARB administrative panel failed that same year.

Delco 50MT Type 400. Stay with 24 volt, do not change to 12 volt. http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/33515-mh-master-kill-switch-area/

Transport Topics / December 10, 2013 Truck and engine maker Paccar Inc. on December 10 declared an extra cash dividend of 90 cents per share in addition to its regular quarterly dividend of 20 cents a share. The extra dividend, payable January 7 to stockholders as of December 20, reflects the company’s “excellent revenues, net income and cash flow,” Chairman and CEO Mark Pigott said in the announcement. Pigott also cited “good” truck production in North America and Europe, “strong” parts sales and record profit at Paccar Financial Services. Paccar’s operating companies build DAF, Kenworth and Peterbilt brand trucks.

Trailer/Body Builders / December 11, 2013 Meritor has been selected to supply its ELSA225H range of air disc brakes for Scania’s trucks and buses with production starting in 2014. “We are investing US$58 million in air disc brake capabilities at our technical center and manufacturing facility in Cwmbran, United Kingdom,” said Joe Plomin, vice president, International Operations at Meritor. “This new contract with Scania exemplifies our commitment to be the recognized leader in brake engineering, testing and manufacturing.” With Meritor’s extended family of air disc brakes, it now offers more optimized products for every vocation. More than four million ELSA air disc brakes have been manufactured with world class field reliability. The ELSA family of brakes utilizes modular construction, which means the global standard clamping and adjuster mechanisms can be matched with a series of validated bridges and carriers to suit any wheel/axle combination. “The ELSA family of braking products is the strongest, most robust and reliable that we’ve developed in more than 30 years that we’ve been manufacturing air disc brakes.” Plomin said. http://www.meritor.com/customer/europe/literature/PDF/English/product_brochures/ELSA_A4_0908_neu_s.pdf

The reason the DD13 (OM471) is performing so well in the US market is because it is the only engine that was designed from the onset for EPA2010. All the other engines, with the exception of Cummins, including the Volvo D11/D13/D16 (Mack MP7/MP8/MP10), Maxxforce 11 and 13 (MAN), Paccar MX-13 (DAF), DD15 (Benz OM472) and DD16 (Benz OM473) were designed for Euro-6 in Europe, and then adapted to the more stringent EPA2010 emissions.

Automotive News / December 10, 2013 General Motors has named product development chief Mary Barra to succeed Dan Akerson as CEO, making her the first female CEO of a global automaker. Dan Ammann, 41, executive vice president and CFO, was named president and will assume responsibility for managing the company’s regional operations around the world, GM said today. The global Chevrolet and Cadillac brand organizations and GM Financial will also report to Ammann. Akerson, 65, said he pulled ahead his succession plan by several months after his wife was diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer about two months ago. His retirement -- and several other top executive moves -- will be effective Jan. 15, GM said. "It was not my intention for my days at General Motors to end this way," he told reporters during a conference call. "But I think, when you think about life’s priorities, my family and my wife rank No. 1." Akerson said his original time table for stepping down was sometime in the second half of 2014. He said the board already had extensively vetted the internal candidates, but chose not to conduct an outside search. Mark Reuss, 50, executive vice president and president, North America, will replace Barra, 51, as executive vice president of global product development, purchasing and supply chain. The board also named director Theodore (Tim) Solso to succeed Akerson as chairman. Solso, 66, is the former chairman and CEO of Cummins, Inc., and has been a member of the GM board since June 2012. Alan Batey, 50, now head of global Chevrolet and U.S. sales, will replace Reuss as executive vice president of GM North America. Vice Chairman Steve Girsky, 51, head of corporate strategy and business development, will move to an advisory role before leaving the company in April, GM said. He will remain on the company's board of directors. GM said it will name a new CFO to replace Ammann at a later date. 'They're fine with it' Akerson said each executive who was broadly viewed as in the running for the CEO job -- Reuss, Ammann and Girsky -- has embraced the changes. "I walked every one of the executives through their new assignments and, uniformally, they said, 'Man, this is the best choice,'" he said. "They’re fine with it." Barra, who also will be joining the GM board, started her career on a factory floor as an intern more than 30 years ago. She has been in charge of product development and quality of all GM cars and trucks for 22 months, fostering collaboration and wringing costs out of the supply chain. The daughter of a Pontiac die maker takes the helm after the U.S. government sold its stake in GM, giving her full freedom to take on domestic and Japanese manufacturers whose price competition threatens profit. Akerson called Barra "eminently qualified," personable and held in high regard throughout the company. "She grew up in the company, worked on the factory floor, managed plants, and then managed the largest, most complex segment of our business, global product development," he said. While overseeing GM’s product development over the last three years, Barra "brought order and started to fundamentally transform" the process, Akerson said. Bob Lutz, who served as GM’s product chief from 2001 to 2009, told Automotive News that Barra gets credit for leading the globalization of GM’s manufacturing footprint while she was head of global manufacturing-engineering during much of that time. "She was the key implementer of the global manufacturing strategy," said Lutz, who called Barra smooth and poised. "That was a major achievement and saved a lot of money." Top women As the first female CEO of a global automaker, Barra joins Ginni Rometty at IBM Corp., Indra Nooyi at PepsiCo Inc., Marissa Mayer at Yahoo! Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Meg Whitman and Ursula Burns of Xerox Corp. as women who have risen to run major U.S. corporations. Barra began with GM in 1980 as a student at General Motors Institute (since renamed Kettering University) in Flint, Mich., and landed her first job as a plant engineer at Pontiac Motor Division, where her father worked for 39 years. There were few women and even fewer 18-year-olds. “It was a rougher environment,” she said in an interview with Bloomberg in March. “It makes you harder.” Her big break came when GM put her in a program for high-potential workers and gave her a scholarship to get an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She became an executive assistant for then-CEO Jack Smith, a perch that gave her a window into how the company worked. She recalls visiting senior leaders at GM to talk about diversity and women’s issues while she was pregnant. “I will leave with great satisfaction in what we have accomplished, great optimism over what is ahead and great pride that we are restoring General Motors as America’s standard bearer in the global auto industry,” Akerson said in a message to employees. Engineering background Barra has played a role in GM management for a generation. Her career has included time as vice president of global manufacturing engineering, head of GM’s Detroit Hamtramck Assembly plant and executive director of competitive operations engineering. Before becoming GM’s first female product chief, she was the company’s top human-resources executive. Most recently she led the company’s $15 billion vehicle-development operations, a high-profile role that’s given her sway over the look and feel of the full line of GM cars and trucks. She was promoted to that position in early 2011, less than six months after Akerson became CEO. Some of the new vehicles to come out under her include the Chevrolet Impala, the first U.S. sedan in at least 20 years chosen by Consumer Reports as as the best on the market, and the Cadillac CTS, picked as Motor Trend’s car of the year. Hidden successes Some of her other achievements aren’t easy to see. He asked her to cut costs by aligning purchasing and product development, two powerful units that had long been at odds. In one early example, GM engineers and suppliers found savings by redesigning knee air bags so that they could be used in more vehicles without having to design different dashboards for each model. “If it’s customer facing, why does it have to be?” Barra said of the conversations she’s had with engineers. “And then if it’s not, why can’t it be common for the globe? Some components and subsystems depend on the size of the vehicle, the performance you’re looking for. But if you start with questioning ‘why can’t I have one solution?’ then you get engineering thinking completely differently." 'Car gal' Akerson presaged Barra’s appointment earlier this year when he predicted that a woman will eventually run one of the three largest U.S.-based automakers. “The Detroit Three are all run by non-car guys,” Akerson said in September in Detroit. “Someday, there will be a Detroit Three that’s run by a car gal.” He declined to identify any contenders at the time, saying only that “there are an unbelievable number of talented women in automotive, certainly at General Motors.” News of the changes come a day after the U.S. government disclosed the sale of the last of its shares in GM. Bailouts from the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations gave U.S. taxpayers a stake in the automaker while helping GM avoid liquidation. The company reorganized in a 2009 bankruptcy that helped it reduce debt, trim labor costs and sharpen its focus on only the strongest brands.

The normal way to handle this is to have your Mack dealer's parts department (or Watt's Mack) submit a "changeover request" to the Mack specifications department. Your dealer will provide the specifications department with your truck's model and serial number, and then the specification's department will research and provide the list of part numbers that would have been on your truck had it been originally built with power steering (the piping, reservoir mounting, steering gear and pump mounting arrangements).

Financial Times / December 10, 2013 Restructurings need to progress. Shareholders and managements are frequently at odds about the pace of change, but if there is minimal sign that a company is moving towards defined goals, investors have every right to fret. Sweden’s Volvo, one of the world’s biggest truckmakers, has been in that stalled situation. Chief executive Olof Persson moved into the driving seat in September 2011. Yet Volvo’s shares, at SKr85 (US$13), have gained less than 10 percent since and generally underperformed peers. Profitability has been volatile: in the first nine months of 2013 operating income before restructuring charges fell 60 percent year-on-year to US$965 million (6.3 billion Krona), as margins more than halved to just over 3 percent. True, truck markets have been difficult for everyone, with Brazilian profits fading and European demand contracting. A slower mining market has also depressed sales in Volvo’s smaller construction equipment arm. Mr Persson has set goals – an extra 3 percentage points of margin (or US$1.4 billlion of operating income on sales of US$45.9 billion) by end-2015. With that in mind, some recent changes in the asset portfolio look positive. The sale of Volvo Rents, the US construction equipment rental arm, to private equity for US$1.1 billion (7.2 billion Krona) on Tuesday removes a business that offered limited operating income benefits – it lost US$7.2 million (47 million Krona) in 2013’s first nine months – yet by its nature absorbed capital. Even better, the proceeds will offset outgoings – US$857 million (5.6 billion Krona) for a stake in the yet-to-be completed joint venture with China’s Dongfeng, and US$153 million (1 billion Krona) for Terex’s off-highway truck unit – helping to keep gearing within the target range. But everything else has yet to be proved, and Volvo may not get much lift from core markets in Europe and Latin America until well into 2014. Its shares are on 16 times next year’s earnings consensus, falling to only 10 times the estimated 2015 figure. Even so, they may rev slowly.

Bloomberg / December 10, 2013 Volvo to Sell North American Equipment Rental Business Volvo agreed to sell its unprofitable North American construction-equipment rental business to Platinum Equity for US$1.1 billion (7.2 billion krona) to focus on manufacturing. The disposal of the Volvo Rents unit will result in a US$229 million (1.5 billion krona) cost this quarter and is targeted for completion in the first three months of next year, the Gothenburg, Sweden-based company said today in a statement. Chief Executive Officer Olof Persson is shifting Volvo’s focus to profitability from sales growth. The truckmaker laid out a strategy in 2011 to achieve operating margins at the top of the heavy-equipment industry, and it’s exiting businesses unrelated to making commercial vehicles and construction machinery. Volvo Rents posted a nine-month operating loss of US$7.2 million (47 million krona), the parent company said today. “The sale value looks good for a loss-making business,” said David Arnold, a London-based industry specialist at Barclays Plc’s investment-banking unit. “The cash inflow should allow the company to maintain the dividend, albeit in a low-quality fashion.” The rental unit, which has about 2,100 employees, operates 130 outlets in North America and offers equipment for construction, commercial and industrial markets. Nine-month sales amounted to US$474 million (3.1 billion krona). A decline in contract renewals at the rental business in the U.S. contributed to a 30 percent sales drop at Volvo’s construction-equipment division in the region. “We looked at different alternatives to grow Volvo Rents’ business and concluded that the best alternative is to sell the operation to another owner,” CEO Persson said in today’s statement. The unit “does not have a sufficiently strong connection with the group’s core operation to motivate continued ownership.” Net debt at Volvo’s industrial operations will be reduced by about US$1.1 billion by the sale, the Swedish company said. The manufacturer will continue to sell products to the rental business under the new owners. Customers, including companies in the oil and gas, metal-production, infrastructure, power and mining industries, aren’t expected to be affected by the transaction, Volvo said. California-based Platinum Equity also owns the Maxim Crane rental and lifting service and Nesco, a provider of electrical-utility equipment. The U.S. private-equity firm will fund the Volvo Rents purchase through a debt sale.

Australian Transport News / December 10, 2013 Cat Trucks is planning to release its much-anticipated bonneted B-double prime mover, the CT630S, in the first half of 2014. The S features short bumper-to-back-of-cab measurements of 138 inches for the sleeper, and 112 inches for the day-cab version. This puts the S model firmly within the 26m 34-pallet B-double envelope and gives Cat a viable contender in the potentially lucrative B-double and line-haul market. Under the bonnet the CT630S uses the same 15-litre Cat C15 ACERT engine as its CT630 and CT630LS stable mates. This latest incarnation of the venerable Cat engine puts out 550hp (410kW) and 1,850lb/ft (2,508Nm) of torque while still meeting ADR80/03 (Euro 5) emissions without using either exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) or selective catalytic reduction (SCR). Instead the C15 uses twin diesel particulate filters (DPF) under the chassis that use passive regeneration from engine operating temperature to clear the DPF of particulate. There are currently two CT630S engineering evaluation units on the road in this country and we managed to get access to one of these trucks, clocking up 3,500km over four days. My trip took me from Melbourne to Brisbane and back in a real world setting, with a real load in both directions. This gave me a chance to really get a handle on the new Australian platform. The S is an Australian platform – 80 percent of the design and engineering work has been carried out locally, though the model is still based on the Navistar Prostar. Engine wise, the C15 performed as expected. If you’re a Cat fan you’ll appreciate the lazy lug-down nature of the yellow engine. In today’s heavy duty truck market, this engine is as old school as it gets in terms of performance and even in terms of exhaust note. The Newell Highway is a rough choppy mess in parts, but that’s something to be expected from highways Australia wide. The S had already notched up 82,000km (50,952 miles) and surprisingly there wasn’t a rattle or squeak emanating from the plastic interior. The current extended sleeper cab is a bit cosy for full time line-haul at this stage, but does make for a good line-haul shuttle vehicle. The high roll stiffness of the Hendrickson Primaax rear suspension made for a bit of lateral kick on rough surfaces and this kept me steering out of bumps for a while. The journey wasn’t all smooth sailing though. An insect-clogged charge-air cooler saw me come to a stop south of Gilgandra. Raised exhaust temperatures had put the engine into limp mode. The transport gods then conspired to keep things interesting when in quick succession two boost clamps blew off. The Westrac Dubbo team (Caterpillar distributor) got me mobile again, however, and I was soon able to continue the trip. Once mixing it with the urban traffic, the strengths of the S model in terms of visibility and manoeuvrability really shone through. Easy is the term that springs to mind first – easy to drive, easy to operate and easy to live with. http://media2.apnonline.com.au/img/media/images/2012/04/27/IBR_27-04-2012_NEWS_01_IBR270412CATCOVER%20ETCH.jpg http://images-2.drive.com.au/2012/04/12/3213944/turck_2_729-420x0.jpg http://australia.cat.com/cda/files/2990003/7/P20454_Melbourne_C15ADR_Engine_Spec_Sheet_Rev2.pdf http://australia.cat.com/cda/files/2989921/7/P20454_Melbourne_CT13_Engine_Spec_Sheet_Rev2.pdf

And that's what it boils down to. The Mi-17 is designed to be abused and neglected, and still fly. When it does break, it's low-tech design can be fixed by amateurs with basic tools (not unlike the AK47). It was specifically designed for harsh operating environments like Afghanistan. And the best part, the hardship of providing after-sales support (and getting paid for it) in Afghanistan falls on the Russians.

Hendrickson is the best. The company's significant financial resources has made it the global leader in heavy truck suspension design. Hendrickson discretely designs and produces all the front spring assemblies for almost every US and European truckmaker, and many of the rear suspensions.

Change is not always good (e.g. foreign truckmaker Volvo owning the American icon Mack), but the change to disc brakes is good. Speaking of the short pad life of the B.F. Goodrich disc brakes of many, many years ago (1978) in North America has no relevance with today's situation. Disc brakes are now a mature technology that's been proven in Europe where trucks run at much higher GCWs than the US. Every reason that your car or light truck at least has disc brakes on the steer axle if not also on the rear is why most heavy trucks soon will as well. Vastly superior braking performanceWeight savings over drum brakes for greater payloads and profitability (while larger "enhanced" drum systems add weight)Faster brake maintenanceNumerous brake inspection and maintenance benefitsWhat's not to like? http://www.foundationbrakes.com/media/documents/airdiscbrakes/awhitepapercaseforairdiscbrakes.pdf http://www.mpgseries.com/pdfs/Air_Disc_Brakes_For_Tractors_and_Trailers.pdf

Rather then settling on a compromise spec with the ratio-limited Allison, you can have the best of both worlds in low end and high end with Eaton's vocational AMTs.

The new FMVSS 121 braking regulations that took effect for highway vehicles on August 1st of this year raised the bar for brake performance (Now the US is catching up with the European braking requirements). For example, a tractor-trailer traveling at 60 mph must come to a complete stop in 250 feet, versus the old standard of 355 feet (a 30% reduction of truck stopping distance). Disc brakes on the front, complimented by an engine brake or retarder, allow trucks to meet the new requirements.

Fire apparatus in year 2013 should be equipped with disc brakes front and rear (and independent front suspension), and all class 8 heavy trucks should have disc brakes on the steer axle.

Business Wire / December 9, 2013 Terex Corporation (TEX) today announced that it has agreed to sell its truck business to Volvo Construction Equipment for cash proceeds of approximately $160 million. The truck business manufactures and sells off-highway rigid and articulated haul trucks. Included in the transaction is the manufacturing facility in Motherwell, Scotland. The sale, which is subject to government regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, is targeted to close in the first half of 2014. “The truck business has been an important part of our company for over three decades and continues to produce world class products with dedicated and talented employees,” said Ron DeFeo, Terex Chairman and CEO. “However, trucks no longer fit within our changing portfolio of lifting and material handling businesses. I am confident that the truck business will benefit by joining a company sharing similar competencies and offering complementary products and services. We are pleased to have entered into this agreement with Volvo, which represents a strong strategic buyer for the business who values our distribution network and team members.” Mr. DeFeo continued, “The sale of the off-highway truck business reflects our strategy to manage our portfolio of businesses and focus on those businesses that provide the greatest returns for our shareholders. We recently announced the initiation of quarterly cash dividends to our shareholders and a share repurchase program and the proceeds from this sale aid our efforts to improve our financial efficiency and implement these programs.” Commenting on the rationale of the deal Volvo CE’s president, Pat Olney said: “This is a strategic acquisition that offers Volvo CE considerable scope for growth. The addition of a well-respected range of rigid haulers extends the earthmoving options for customers involved in light mining applications at a time of renewed confidence in the sector. The addition of TEL’s articulated hauler range will enhance our position in this segment, particularly in high-growth markets. We believe that the Motherwell facility and its global team members, as well as the current distribution partners, are valuable to the success of the business in the future.”

Fleet Owner / December 9, 2013 Kenworth is making Bendix front air disc brakes standard on all Class 8 tractors and trucks.According to Kenworth, the Bendix ADB22X air disc brakes have a two-pin floating caliper design that provides a more stringent overall dimension accuracy and consistent force distribution. The design also significantly reduces brake fade with no degradation of stopping power, Bendix said. “We’ve offered Bendix air disc brakes as an option on our Class 8 trucks previously. Customers appreciate their superior performance, car-like feel, ease of maintenance, and light weight design, while they also exceed the federal government’s RSD (reduced stopping distance) requirements,” said Kurt Swihart, Kenworth marketing director. “These benefits are so compelling that Kenworth decided to make air disc brakes standard on Kenworth Class 8 trucks. For additional weight savings, the air disc brakes also come standard with an aluminum hub and splined disc rotor assembly.”