LACE THAN LIFE
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To Europeans, many American trucks look more like the stars of a road movie than a working wagon — as CM found at the Louisville truck show...
Abmerican truck shows are not large y the standard of Hanover or the NEC. But if you're used to European trucks and equipment, the Stateside shows do seem larger than life.
The largest of them all is in Louisville, Kentucky — the season-opening Mid-America Truck Show.
This year's event, broke its own records with more than 700 exhibitors and 35,000 visitors.
Mack used the show to launch its CL600 and CL700 models — trucks designed to take Mack or Caterpillar and Detroit engines up to 500hp (373kW). Ford centre-staged the Big ZZilla, a 460hp (343k'W) Cummins-powered conventional tractor-trailer created for the rock band ZZ Top to haul around the band's custom cars. And there was plenty of interest in the 360km/h (225mph) Navistar International diesel truck.
Among the 27 trailer exhibitors were jumbo 16.1m vans, and flatbeds that can carry 20 tonnes concentrated in 3m of deck, yet weigh only four tonnes. A full report on the bodywork exhibits will appear in CM at a later date.
The Mack CL is Mack's flagship: a long-haul, long-nosed tractor that will take Mack or proprietary engines, transmissions and axles, allowing for a wide choice of specifications to suit it for any kind of application.
As well as offering proprietary components — Caterpillar and Detriot Diesel enignes, Eaton and Rockwell drive trains — Mack's CL has the all-important long nose of the premium conventional (bonneted) truck. But its 3.05m from the bumper to the back of the day cab — 4.7m when equipped with the sleeper — pales a little alongside the Kenworth W900L. This throwback to America's trucks of yesteryear has no less than 3.3m of hood and cab length. Put that with the factory 1.62m sleeper and the truck measures over 4.88m from the front bumper to the back of the driver's living space. And out in the parking lot, away from the public's gaze was a prototype Kenworth conventional with a factory sleeper which was 510mm longer than that.
The look of the classic truck was very much in Freightliner's mind when launching its "Classic," also an show in Louisville. The truck is an unashamed regression, sparkling with "polish-me" chrome and with the set-forward front axle so distinctive of the traditional American bonneted trucks.
CONSTRUCTION
But Freightliner's big effort is less with the heavier Class 8, though it has a number of new construction models. At the moment Freightliner is going great guns with its Business Class, introduced just last year. It is now upgraded with the Cummins C-Series and tandem-drive axles, the Class 6, 7 (19,500Ib/8,775kg and up) and Light Class 8 (33,000lb/14,850 kg and up) straight-truck and tractor chassis on display generated a lot of owner-operator interest. The Business Class, with its cab derived from the Mercedes-Benz small N-Series, ideally fits an emerging hot-shot transport segment. Hot-shots are a straight truck and body or a small tractor trailer that hauls expedited less-than-truckload freight. It's an area where owner-operators can make some money, Peterbilt, perhaps the pinnacle of owner-operator aspirations, showed its latest aerodynamic model, the 377 AE, The truck recently had a few cosmetic changes that add to its aerodynamics. Such has been the pace of change among Peterbilt, Kenworth and Freightliner that they all have aerodynamic conventional trucks that have demonstrated over-the-road fuel mileages of around 28.21it/100km (10mpg) loaded between 28 and 36 tonnes.
Ford added refinements to its big tractor — the Aeromax 120 with the magic 120in BBC — but stealing the limelight at Ford's display was a cutaway of the latest Ford diesel for the American Cargo and F-Series models. Those who know their engines looked at it and were surprised to find that the new Ford was in fact a B-Series Cummins six cylinder: To its credit, Ford did not go wild over the announcement, as the company's only involvement in the development of the engine was to throw $100m (Z56m) at Cummins a couple of years back. Nevertheless, the new Ford engines will do Ford a lot of good as the Cummins B and the later C-Series engines, available from 120-205kW (I60-275hp), are lighter and more powerful than the Ford tractor-derived diesels the company had been using in its mid-range trucks. General Motors, which got out of the heavy truck business when it teamed up with Volvo GM, had no new trucks, but it did display a natural-gas-powered pickup which GMC is to offer as a factory option. Now, together with Dodge, two of the big three car and light commercial manufacturers are offering production natural gas vehicles, pointing the way to the future alternative fuel, especially in areas like southern California which have pollution problems and restrictive legislation either in force or in the pipeline.
BONNEVILLE
Navistar showed its record-breaking 12V71 Detroit diesel-powered "truck" and drew a strong crowd. Endeavour averaged 198mph (317km/h) over a two-way run at the Bonneville Salt Flats late last year, driven by engine builder Mike McCombs. It has a rear engine, sleek bodywork and weighs in at 4,550 kg (10,000lb).