WINTER DRIVING ESSENTIALS

A supply of water, non-perishable food, a flashlight, a couple of blankets, a lighter, and a first aid kit are necessary for summer – and for winter as well, frankly.

Some items should be kept in your glove compartment (for example another tool we mentioned in a previous blog entry– the Seatbelt Cutter and Windshield Hammer tool), while others can be stored in a sealed container in your trunk.

When winter begins to loom, put a couple of spare pairs of gloves in this container, as well as spare socks and boots.

If you don’t already carry jumper cables and road flares, it would be good to get some. If you’re going to go driving into the mountains, get some tire chains – make sure they fit your tires and practice putting them on!


“Winterize” your car – take it in to your auto service folks and get an oil change for winter, and have them check belts and hoses, as well as your brakes, radiator, and lights.

Winter specific tips

• Check your windshield wiper fluid and fill it up periodically, even if it isn’t on “empty.”
• Fill your gas tank whenever it gets to the halfway mark.
• When going on trips, leave an itinerary in a prominent place in your kitchen, or with friends, listing the roads you expect to take (and don’t deviate from them!) and the dates you’ll be going and returning.

Credit: Fife Twoing Blog - Tacoma, WA

New Driver Starter Kit

Just a few items I think all new driver will need to kick start being a truck driver and to live on the road.

Road Talk by Jerry

Path to electrification not straight to linehaul: Mack

OAKLAND, CA – Mack Trucks continues to see a healthy future for diesel engines, even as alternatives like electrification begin to emerge.

“Diesel today, it’s performing extremely well. It’s cleaner than it’s ever been, it’s robust, it’s versatile,” said Roy Horton, director – product strategy, during a briefing in Oakland, California. As for talk about electric trucks? “It’s almost a little bit of an uphill battle there.”

Electrification is “on the bubble, and it’s something everyone is looking at,” he said, admitting that the recent unveiling of Elon Musk's Tesla Semi attracted attention. “It’s definitely going to be part of our future.” Just not for longhaul. Not right away.

Mack believes the earliest adopters of electrification will be operations with the chance to charge at a home base and not depend on general infrastructure for fuel. That includes refuse, local delivery, and public transportation fleets.

Next would be applications with fixed routes where infrastructure is established but longer ranges are less of a concern. That opens opportunities for local distribution, regional haulers, and select vocational segments.

Longhaulers would be the last to use the trucks, drawing on power from secured infrastructure.

For its part, Mack has already been working with electrification in its own right. It unveiled a range-extended LR refuse truck in 2016, and a diesel-electric hybrid drayage truck. With Siemens it is also experimenting with the idea of electric highways, with vehicles drawing on the power of wires strung along the routes. The company is producing electric buses, too.

Mack will focus on electrification where it’s “commercially viable”, stressed Jonathan Randall, Mack’s senior vice president – North American sales. As for new players such as Nikola Motors and Tesla? “Competition is good.”

Mack’s work with alternative power sources hardly ends there. It already has experience with biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen, natural gas, propane, and Dimethyl Ether (DME).

“We have, and continue to investigate, all of the viable alternatives,” Horton said.

“Mack is well-positioned, no matter which way the market goes.”


Source: https://www.todaystrucking.com/path-to-electrification-not-straight-to-linehaul-mack

By John G. Smith, Posted: Dec 4, 2017 10:29 AM | Last Updated: Dec 4, 2017 10:36 AM

Winter Tire Test: Some Treads Are Better Than Others

By Bruce W. Smith

Every so often I find myself checking out the tires of the vehicles around me when stopped in traffic, wondering how this or that one performs compared to the factory tires on my pickup truck. My questions become even more pointed in winter: Should I invest in a set of winter tires? Would mud tires be a good choice or all-terrain? Would it be worth the investment to buy a dedicated snow tire and run them half the year?

To find out, we went to the snow-covered hills just a few miles outside Steamboat Springs, Colo. Carved into the deep snow were three perfectly groomed snow courses with big berms and a variety of twists, turns and elevation changes. These tracks are the training grounds for the Bridgestone Winter Driving School. They also serve as the perfect location to test tires — and for us to see how popular pickup tire tread patterns compare when pitted against each other under controlled winter driving conditions.

And even though it's spring, the information we're offering here should help you decide what kind of tires you want next winter.

The Contenders
We spent two days this past winter with Woody Rogers and T.J. Campbell, product information specialists for Tire Rack, comparing popular 275/65R18 tires on a twisting, curving half-mile section of track three behind the wheel of two identical 2016 Ford F-150 4x4s. The tire comparison contenders were:

• Goodyear Wrangler Fortitude HT OWL SL (P-metric)
• Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 SL (P-metric)
• Goodyear Ultra Grip Ice WRT LT (E load range)
• BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 RWL LT (C load range)
• Firestone Destination MT LT (E load range)

Source: www.pickuptrucks.com

Read more at: http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2016/03/winter-tire-test-some-treads-are-better-than-others.html

EcoSkirt™ Semi Truck Skirt

The STEMCO EcoSkirt™ truck skirt improves fuel efficiency by reducing aerodynamic drag under the trailer where air hits the trailer’s rear axles. The EcoSkirt™ side fairings streamline and guide the air around the sides and to the back of the truck trailer. By combining EcoSkirt™ with the STEMCO TrailerTail^®, fleets can achieve 8-12% fuel savings.

Ultra-Flex Panels.

EcoSkirt™ fairings are constructed of an ultra-durable and flexible thermoplastic composite material similar to that used in trailer scuff liners. The material’s fibers allow the panels to withstand frequent impacts with road elements such as concrete curbs, steep loading docks and ice banks. The material is also extremely lightweight for minimal payload impact.

Universal Application.

EcoSkirt™ technology is compatible with all trailer models and is available to be factory installed on new trailer orders or retrofitted to your existing fleet. Custom options are available for trailer applications requiring access to underside-mounted equipment such as hydraulic life-gate boxes, loading ramps and spare tire carriers.

Proven to reduce under-trailer aerodynamic drag by directing airflow smoothly to the back of the trailer.

Durability.

The EcoSkirt™ reinforced panels are designed to give with impact and return to form, resist extreme heat, cold and precipitation, and employ galvanized steel hardware for tough, corrosion-free performance, year after year.

Options.

EcoSkirt™ panels are offered in a variety of configurations to best fit your fleet profile and operating needs. Custom options, including colors, decals and shapes, are available to maximize branding visibility.

Safety.

EcoSkirt™ side fairings streamline the airflow under and around your semi-trailers, stabilizing your trailers and improving visibility by reducing road spray. The EcoSkirt™ also acts as a protective guard, mitigating the occurrence and severity of under-vehicle accidents with vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians.

To learn more on how much you can save with EcoSkirt™, contact a STEMCO sales representative, or call 888-283-8245.

Otto – Self-Driving Trucks

Meet Otto, the company behind new self-driving trucking technology. 

Learn more at: http://fleetowner.com/technology/otto-uber-and-true-no-touch-freight

FUEL SAVING TIPS FOR TRUCKS: REDUCE IDLING, SAVE ON GAS

STUDY PROVES TURNING YOUR VEHICLE OFF MINIMIZES BOTH FUEL CONSUMPTION AND CO2 EMISSIONS.

You may have heard that it takes more fuel to turn your vehicle off and back on again than it does to stay idling when stopped. One fast food chain even made a claim that it was “Greener” to use the drive-through than parking and walking in for a to-go order. With fuel costs and anti-idling laws being an essential consideration for vehicle owners and fleet managers, it’s important to know the facts.

The fact is that even for short stops, it saves fuel to turn off your vehicle. Idling for even 10 seconds produces more CO2 emissions and burns more fuel than simply turning your engine off, and restarting. This was found by a study done by Argonne National Laboratory, and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Program.

IDLING STUDY RESULTS
Engineers were tasked to study vehicles in the Argonne laboratory’s Advanced Powertrain Research Facility to determine the impacts of idling and restarting. Dynamometer tests were conducted at the facility and revealed that parking a vehicle, turning it off, and then restarting it uses less fuel and produces less CO2 than idling for just 10 seconds. In addition, the study also revealed that the fastest way to warm up a car engine is to drive the vehicle, not by idling it. Argonne found that depending on the vehicle’s size, 0.2 to 0.5 gallons of fuel per hour is used when idling.

EMBRACE ANTI-IDLING LAWS
With these findings, and as states, provinces, and countries continue to introduce climate change action plans and green initiatives focused on greenhouse gas emissions, now is the perfect time to start embracing an anti-idle mindset in day-to-day driving and work operations. And for those that use air compressors, the VMAC UNDERHOOD70 – Green Series Air Compressor integrates perfectly into environmentally-friendly and fuel-conscious operations.

UNDERHOOD70-GREEN SERIES AIR COMPRESSOR
The VMAC UNDERHOOD70 – Green Series Air Compressor produces up to 70 CFM at 100% duty cycle. This powerful rotary screw air compressor is installed under the hood of the work truck and its throttle control automatically adjusts truck engine idle speed just enough to match air demand, which reduces fuel consumption. What’s more, the easy-to-use VMAC intelligent digital controls also cut down on idling, as the control system shuts the truck off when air isn’t being used, and then automatically turns the truck back on when air is needed. This reduces fuel consumption and emissions as the vehicle is not idling when tools are not in use. Learn more about the VMAC UNDERHOOD70 – Green Series Air Compressor.

VEHICLE IDLING STUDY CONCLUSION
Going back to the fast food chain’s claim, no, it is not greener to use the drive-through than it is to park and pick up your order inside the restaurant. Here are the facts:

• Idling for more than 10 seconds burns more fuel, and produces more C02 emissions than turning the engine on and off
• Idling for an hour uses 0.2 to 0.5 gallons of fuel, depending on the vehicle, and fuel consumption increases as idling speed increases
• Warming up a vehicle by driving is more effective than idling

Consider these findings next time you find yourself idling your truck, whether working on a job site, picking up a food order, or warming up your truck this winter. And when planning to purchase a new air compressor, consider the VMAC UNDERHOOD70 – Green Series Air Compressor.

Source and learn more at: https://www.vmacair.com/blog/


Related blogs: Going Green with VMAC: Lightweight & Fuel Saving Air Compressors

Demos with Drones: Pro Trailer Backup Assist™ | F-150 | Ford

Sure, you can back up in a straight line, but let’s see how the Ford F-150 fares with a winding course, using only available Pro Trailer Backup Assist.™*

*Optional features shown. Driver-assist features are supplemental and do not replace the driver’s attention, judgment and the need to control the vehicle.

Ford Service Advice: What to Know About Collision Repair | Service Advice | Ford

Do you know your rights when it comes to collision repair? This video will inform you on what you need to know about repair shops, estimates, aftermarket and OEM parts and more.

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