Trucks at Work Blog

“In a hybrid system, the electrical energy could be used to charge the battery. In a conventional engine, this could perhaps even replace the alternator without any load on the engine.” –Jan Aase, director of General Motor’s Vehicle Development Research Laboratory

One of the interesting paths being followed in vehicle research and development these days is how to figure out ways to operate a variety of systems without tapping into the car or truck’s engine.

For example, General Motors is starting work on a prototype system to capture the heat from vehicle engine exhaust and then convert to mechanical energy capable of powering a car or truck stereo, power seats and air conditioning system.

Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) is the critical component here, for generating electricity from the heat in automotive exhaust, explained Jan Aase, director of GM’s Vehicle Development Research Laboratory.

“When you heat up a stretched SMA wire, it shrinks back to its pre-stretched length, and when it cools back down it becomes less stiff and can revert to the original shape,” he said. “A loop of this wire could be used to drive an electric generator to charge a battery. In a conventional engine, this could perhaps even replace the alternator without any load on the engine.”

GM received a $2.7 million federal government grant to help build an SMA prototype, awarded from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Program Agency. GM is working with several firms to try and make SMA technology a reality: HRL Laboratories; Dynalloy, Inc., a Tustin, CA manufacturer of shape memory alloys specially made to be used as actuators,;and the Smart Materials Collaborative Research Lab at the University of Michigan.

“The idea of an SMA heat engine has been around for 30 years,” Aase said. “But the few devices that have been built were too large and too inefficient to make it worthwhile. Even now, the technology is in the very early stages, so over the next two years, [we] will work to create a working prototype.”

Toyota offers another example of tapping into external power sources to reduce the engine load on its vehicles – and in its case, this is technology already rolling off the production line.

On its third generation Prius hybrid sedan (the 2010 models), the vehicle’s sliding glass moon-roof is packaged with solar panels, located over the rear seating area, to power a new ventilation system.

Toyota said this solar powered ventilation system helps keep the interior air temperature near the outside ambient temperature when the vehicle is parked directly in the sun, so cool-down time is shorter when the driver returns to the vehicle – thus reducing the use of air conditioning.

[A short video clip about the Prius’ “solar roof” is below, but I warn you – it doesn’t contain much on the technical details of the system.]

Though these technologies are currently in high development gear in the automotive world, they’ve got plenty of potential for the trucking industry.

Take the solar cell concept for starters: I talked with David Kiefer, director of marketing and product management for Carrier Transicold not too long ago and we discussed the possibility of using a similar type of system on refrigeration units in the not-so-distant future.

While Kiefer stressed bringing solar-generated electricity into the reefer – either when connect to solar-equipped buildings or possibly from roof-mounted panels on trailers and truck dry van boxes – is about five years away at the earliest, it holds a lot of promise for fleets operating in parts of the country (think Arizona) where sunshine is abundant and thus the power load on reefers is heavy.

“You couldn’t power the entire hybrid reefer off solar power … but maybe you could get half of the electricity you need from the sun – and that would allow you to reduce the load on the system’s batteries, diesel engine, etc.,” he explained to me.

“Right now, though, solar cells are still not practical – they cost about $3 a cell and you need to get down to around $1 per cell to make it work. Plus there are reliability and durability issues to look at,” Kiefer cautioned. “Yet just five years ago, such cells cost $7 per unit, so the price of the technology is dropping. In another five years, some of these ideas could become reality – but we’re still several years away from this.”

Still, grabbing power little by little from external sources to vehicles – and in comes cases, commercial freight trailers – seems to hold a lot of promise in terms of helping reduce overall fuel consumption as well as individual system power needs.

“Our work with the University of Michigan is helping us develop the next generation of Ford hybrids and bring them to market even faster.” –Ryan McGee, supervisor of vehicle controls architecture and algorithm design at Ford Motor Co.’s Research and Advanced Engineering group

OK – it’s no secret that the Japanese (specifically Toyota) beat U.S. automakers to the punch with hybrid vehicles. However, that situation is changing – and changing fast – as Ford Motor Co. and General Motors are now quickly deploying more fuel efficient hybrid vehicles across a range of models.

And that could be very important as fuel prices still demonstrate extreme volatility, even as the global recession continues to tamp down petroleum demand.

For starters, Ford and the University of Michigan are working together to speed up “virtual testing” of hybrid components; conducting as many as 175,000 design simulations of hybrid control systems a week to further improve fuel efficiency and drivability.

Researchers at both Ford and the university are also analyzing data from 2,500 road trips to determine how internal electronic vehicle controls could be tweaked to further improve fuel efficiency and fun-to-drive attributes.

So far, Ford and the university have tested nearly 1 million design simulations of hybrid vehicle control systems to date, focusing on marrying fuel economy and drivability.

Though this “virtual research” of hybrid technology is still in its infancy, the automaker says initial results are promising.

“Working together with the University of Michigan research team, we are testing the boundaries of hybrid vehicle technology, exploring innovative ways to raise the bar on fuel economy and drivability,” said Dr. Gerhard Schmidt, chief technical officer for Ford’s Research and Advanced Engineering group.

[Here’s a look at Ford’s 2010 Fusion Hybrid sedan and how new designs seek to improve driver understanding of fuel saving options.]

Through September, Ford has sold 26,016 hybrid vehicles, up 73% versus the same period in 2008, according to figures from Autodata Inc. Moving forward, Ford said it also plans to produce a pure battery electric version of its new Transit Connect commercial van in 2010, a battery electric Focus compact car in 2011, and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and next-generation hybrid electric vehicle in 2012.

GM is following a similar path, using new math and simulation-based tools from private sector firm MathWorks to speed up its hybrid development process. GM noted it developed the next-generation prototype of its “Two-Mode” hybrid powertrain control system in 9 months using these “virtual testing” tools – shaving 24 months off the expected development time.

Also, by verifying the control system before hardware prototyping and by using production code generated from the controller models, GM said it rolled out production vehicles featuring the hybrid powertrain within four years of starting the control system design process. To date, its complex two-mode hybrid system is currently available with the GMC Sierra Hybrid, GMC Yukon Hybrid, Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, Chevy Silverado Hybrid, and Cadillac Escalade Hybrid vehicles.

The ability to reuse design information has helped GM’s global development teams foster more efficient communication and reduced response time, eliminating integration issues, said Larry Nitz, GM executive director of hybrid and electric powertrains.

“It helps us work at a higher level of abstraction, allowing us to verify designs early,” he noted “This ability to simulate and correct systems before committing to hardware allows us to try new control strategies virtually, while the use of production code generation accelerates design iterations and eliminates translation errors common in hand coding.”

In the end, it all boils down to one thing – delivering more fuel efficient hybrid vehicles to the market faster and with (hopefully) higher initial quality. That in turn will hopefully encourage wider sales of hybrids by consumers and thus lead to a reduction in U.S. petroleum consumption. That’s the hope hybrid technology offers — at least from where I sit.

“Our partnership with EPA will help us to develop and nurture science and engineering talent with real-world training and experience, allowing these engineering graduates to transition more rapidly into careers in the green vehicle industry.” –Patrick Davis, the U.S. Department of Energy’s vehicle technologies program manager, on the addition of the Environmental Protection Agency to the EcoCAR consortium

One of the important things going on largely behind the scenes in the realm of vehicle research is an effort by various government agencies – notably the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – and manufacturers, like General Motors, to spur innovation.

And what better way to do than hold a nationwide contest pitting research teams made of university students and professors from the U.S. and Canada against one another? It’s a classic form of “friendly competition” that fires up imaginations, unleashes the drive to win, yet in the end benefits everyone involved – especially the environment, where new designs and technological paths can help further lessen the impact of motorized vehicles.

The EcoCAR Challenge is one such event, sponsored by DOE (and the EPA as well now) along with GM that challenges 17 universities across the U.S. and Canada to redesign and reengineer a 2009 Saturn VUE (a small SUV now sadly on its way to extinction) to minimize fuel consumption and reduce emissions. It’s a competition that – in the words of Margo Oge, EPA’s director of the office of transportation and air quality – is designed to “inspire” the next generation of automotive scientists and engineers.

[Here’s a look at the teams on “Day One” of this year’s EcoCAR event.]

Oge’s office provided technical advice and mentoring in the areas of greenhouse gas and tailpipe emissions for this year’s “EcoCAR event” and also conducted dynamometer emissions testing on the competition vehicles at the EPA’s National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan. GM provides vehicles, vehicle components, seed money, technical mentoring and operational support, while the DOE and its research and development facility, Argonne National Laboratory, provides competition management, team evaluation and technical and logistical support.

The Ohio State University (at left) earned top honors at the 2009 finals held in Toronto, Canada, this year – beating out 17 EcoCAR university teams with an Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) powered by a 1.8 liter engine and fueled by E85 ethanol – a blended fuel comprised of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.

The second place vehicle design, engineered by students at Canada’s University of Victoria in Toronto, also was an EREV operating on E85 ethanol, while Mississippi State University snagged third place for its EREV model, powered by B20 – a blend of 20% biodiesel fuel, made from soybeans, and 80% regular petroleum diesel.

[Here’s a look at “Day Four” of the EcoCAR challenge.]

One of the reasons government agencies like the DOE are getting involved in such efforts like EcoCAR is that they know innovation can’t be manufactured on an assembly line. Patrick Davis, DOE’s vehicle technologies program manager, noted that innovation gets back to the concept of the “backyard garage,” where human minds tinker and toy with all sorts of possibilities.

Apple, for example, got its start in a Los Altos garage where the now-famous Steven Jobs and lesser known Steve Wozniak tinkered with their new computer prototype. Stanford University classmates Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard built HP’s first product in a Palo Alto garage in 1939. And, more recently, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin forever changed the Internet in a Menlo Park garage.

The garage, in Davis’ view, is an icon of innovation, emblematic of a spirit of invention that gives us hope that together any challenge can be overcome.

[Davis shares more of his insight on the DOE’s work with the EcoCAR challenge in the clip below.]

Hopefully, despite the troubled economic times we’re living through, competitions like the “EcoCAR challenge” can keep going, for at some point, hopefully, they just might produce a silver bullet of sorts to solve the fuel consumption and emission hurdles all motor vehicles face today.

“We continue to see brakes as the most significant problem in the enforcement data, representing more than half of all out-of-service violations.” –Stephen F. Campbell, executive director, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance

The brake systems on commercial vehicles large and small are going to be a top focus of roadside inspections today through Sept. 19 as the annual “Operation Air Brake Campaign” sponsored by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) gets underway – part of the group’s “brake safety week” initiative to not only enforce standards but to especially educate industry personnel about the importance of proper brake maintenance.

“Commercial vehicle brake systems, vital to these vehicles’ safe operation, are complicated and contain many parts, all of which need constant inspection and attention to ensure proper operation and performance,” noted Stephen Campbell, CVSA’s executive director.

Started back in 2005, the CVSA’s “Operation Air Brake Campaign” is designed to reinforce the importance of keeping brakes in tip-top condition – something that’s not always the case. For example, brakes still comprised the largest percentage – some 52.5% – of out-of-service violations cited in roadside inspections during CVSA’s Roadcheck 2008 enforcements blitz.

One top of that, results from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) recent Large Truck Crash Causation Study indicated that brake problems were present at the time of the crash in nearly one-third of all cases.

“Brake Safety Week puts a spotlight on this issue,” noted CVSA’s Campbell. “It emphasizes both enforcement and education activities that attempt to improve knowledge and regulatory compliance, and ultimately to reduce crashes.”

Since its inception, CVSA said its “Operation Air Brake Campaign” has resulted in more than 2.2 commercial vehicle million brakes inspected, with a strong focus on brake adjustment. Of the brakes inspected in total to date, 8.9% of those equipped with manual brake adjusters were placed out of service, 3.9% of self-adjusting brake adjusters were placed out of service, and 17.1% of all vehicles inspected were placed out of service for a brake-related defect.

The tough economic climate exacerbates this issue, too, as brakes – along with other vehicle components – can suffer as truck owners of all sizes try to over-extend maintenance intervals in order to save desperately-needed cash.

It’s an issue quite familiar to Master Trooper Eric Berge (seen here at left working the safety beat), a nearly 25-veteran of the Virginia State Police, whom I interviewed back in June during CVSA’s broader Roadcheck safety enforcement blitz.

Berge, who’s worked the motor carrier enforcement beat for almost 19 years, said that during tough economic times like these he starts to see some carriers let lots of things slide in terms of vehicle maintenance.

While they may think they are saving money, they are creating a bigger safety risk that could come back to haunt them down the road, he told me.

“You know, a guy will try and drive 10,000 extra miles on a set of tires. That saves him money, sure, but it increases the risk of a tire failure on the road,” he explained to me. “My job isn’t just to catch that, though; it’s to try and change the habits of the fleets and drivers – habits that create risks. You want to make sure the equipment gets fixed then and there, but you also want to make sure they don’t keep letting things go in the future.”

“In extreme off-road tires, reinforced sidewalls with Kevlar help increase sidewall puncture resistance.” –Jon Bellissimo, Goodyear’s North American director of consumer tire technology

Here’s an interesting concept to consider: armored truck tires. Yep, that’s right – applying the same material used to make bulletproof body armor for police and soldiers to truck tires. Right now, this is purely for consumer-grade tires, but from where I sit, one would think medium- and heavy-duty truckers that perform a lot of off-road work could benefit from this technology as well.

The armor material in question – Kevlar fiber – is made by DuPont and is being applied to Goodyear tires targeted for use in conditions ranging from tough, rocky terrain to everyday highway driving. Thomas Powell, vice president and general manager for DuPont Protection Technologies, said the reason for merging Kevlar and tires together is pretty straightforward, as this armored material helps help provide stability, toughness and comfort.

[You can see these tires in action below via the “rock and roll” styled video Goodyear and DuPont put together to promote these armored tires.]

Powell noted, however, that tire reinforcement was the initial application for Kevlar more than 40 years ago – it only gradually seeped into the body armor market. Thus the concept of “armored tires” isn’t new: in fact, Goodyear introduced Wrangler and Fortera tires with SilentArmor Technology – a basically a layer of Kevlar under the tread – back in 2005, and a year later began offering the Eagle branded tire line with what it called ResponsEdge Technology; a sound- and shock-absorbing InsuLayer made with DuPont Kevlar.

Now, Goodyear is widening its use of Kevlar, adding it to its new Wrangler MT/R off-road tire; the first made in the with Kevlar to boost sidewall puncture resistance by about 35% said Powell. That armored material also helps reinforce the sidewall for when drivers return to the pavement for the drive home.

Goodyear’s subsidiary Dunlop, working with designer Pininfarina, also unveiled an ultra-lightweight concept tire in Europe featuring Kevalr to replace traditional steel components. At 20% less weight, “this would lead to significant lower levels of rolling resistance and fuel consumption,” said Bernd Loewenhaupt, Dunlop’s director of consumer tire technology.

This is all pretty cool stuff – and the applications for commercial trucks would seem to be a no-brainer. However, as always, there’s the cost factor to consider. Yet if Kevlar could make commercial truck tires last longer and perform better off-road and on-highway, that extra cost might be worth it – in fact helping drive down the life cycle costs of tires. That will be the real trick, of course – we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

“Trailer aerodynamic devices have gone from being fringe products to accepted, mainstream components all due to the dramatic fluctuations in fuel prices we’ve experienced lately.” –Andrew Smith, CEO, ATDynamics

Spent some time with ATDynamics here at the Mid America Trucking Show talking about the almost 180 degree shift in thinking that’s occurred over the last few months in the trucking industry about the aerodynamic footprint of freight trailers.

Andrew Smith’s quote above really says it all I think – no longer are trailer “boat tails,” side skirts, even wheel covers considered “fringe” components anymore, right up there with cow magnets and other snake oil goodies.

After the volatile price swings in oil and diesel prices over the last year, fleets understand that improving fuel efficiency – no matter how small the increments – helps save them a ton of money.

“The one thing we know about fuel prices know is, while we don’t know whether they will go up or down, they will definitely change – and change dramatically,” Smith told me here at the show during a press conference his company put on to unveil some new trailer aerodynamic devices.

[Smith and Jeff Grossmann, director of customer fulfillment for ATDynamics, talk about the company’s new trailer side skirts and this new awareness regarding the importance of fuel savings in the clip below.]

“What fleets need to do now is get to the point where they are not so negatively impacted when fuel prices are high, yet also benefit when fuel prices are low,” Smith explained to me. “The point is the U.S. trucking industry and U.S. consumers as a whole cannot continue to transfer huge amounts of wealth to the oil suppliers of the Middle East. That can only come from better approaches to minimizing fuel consumption.”

In 2008 at Mid America, the company introduced its patented rear-mounted “TrailerTail” – foldable panels that fit over the rear doors of a trailer to reduce drag – can improve fuel efficiency by 5.1% at 62 mph based on SAE J1321 testing.

Now ATDynamics is bringing a new “side skirt” design to the trailer market, built with a durable yet flexible thermoplastic composite material so it “bends” rather than dents or breaks. These new side skirts – manufactured in a partnership with Montreal-based Transtex Composite Inc. – demonstrated a 7.4% fuel-efficiency improvement at 62 mph, based on SAE J1321 testing validated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program, said Smith.

Jeff Grossmann, director of customer fulfillment for ATDynamics, noted that these new side skirts are designed to withstand extreme temperatures and uneven terrain and should last 10 years. The company is confident enough in the design and the material to offer a five year warranty on them.

“Performance means nothing without durability,” said Grossmann. “We looked at the landscape of side skirts that are on or almost on the market. Over the long term, the panels used in the Transtex design should provide the lowest cost operation to fleets.”

ATDynamics even offers special “wheel covers” that help improve fuel economy, though only by a measly 0.2% when covering the back wheels of a tractor and 0.5% on the trailer’s wheels. Yet when diesel surged over $5 per gallon in many parts of the country last summer, such incremental improvements would’ve saved a lot of money.

The company also brought another interesting new product to the market – the “SuperSpare” tire mount, designed so fleets that use wide-base tires can mount a spare unit on either the trailer or tractor while not affecting the under-chassis airflow, which would increase drag and thus impact fuel economy.

Developed in partnership with Mesilla Valley Transportation of Las Cruces, New Mexico, the SuperSpare is compatible with any tractor with 43 inches of clear frame rail between its fuel tank and drive wheels. On trailers, it fits between cross members on the underside of a trailer and allows unobstructed access to a spare tire on a trailer equipped with side skirts, said Grossman.

But none of this stuff comes cheap – and that fact needs to factored into a fleet’s fuel savings calculation. Retail pricing for the company’s TrailerTail, for starters, starts at $2,800 per unit. One set of the new side skirts (which weigh 175 pounds combined and requires two people three hours to install) runs around $2,200 for a 53-foot trailer. The SuperSpare costs $385 per unit, whether used on a tractor or trailer, and a set of four “wind shield” wheel covers will set you back $295.

Still, it’s wise to look at the “big picture,” said Smith. If a fleet installed all of the company’s aerodynamic products on a big rig – wheel covers, side skirts, and boat tail – the total fuel economy improvement for the vehicle would improve 12% when running down the road at 62 miles per hour. “The savings really come down to how many miles a tractor-trailer drives every year at highway speed,” he explained to me. “The more miles you log, the more you save.”

For fleets in California, however, none of this is academic, he stressed, as new regulations promulgated by the “Golden State” are going to mandate trailer aerodynamic improvements in the very near future.

Under first-of-their-kind standards for trailer aerodynamics approved by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), effective in phases beginning in 2010, most 53-foot dry vans operating in the state must be equipped with aerodynamic devices that improve fuel efficiency by at least 5%, while for refrigerated trailers the benchmark is 4%.

That’s yet another example of why trailer aerodynamic devices are getting a lot more attention these days.

“Turning wrenches is just what I love to do.” –Steven Custode, second generation diesel mechanic, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

There was a time when the skills needed to drive big rigs and meet their maintenance needs were learned the old fashioned way. Like journeymen of old, driver and mechanic wannabes worked side by side with a veteran for months – if not years – to learn the necessary skills by watching and then doing, repeating the process until they got it right.

Not that there’s anything wrong with today’s school-based environments for training truck drivers and technicians. In fact, one reason the old title of “mechanic” is headed for retirement is due to the complex computer-controlled systems on trucks today – stuff that requires a vastly different kind of knowledge than what was required of mechanics in the past.

Schools also help standardize training, in that they allow everyone to (hopefully) learn how to do things the most efficient and safest way possible, eliminating the possibility of incorrect information being passed along.

All that aside, it’s still refreshing to meet guys like Steven Custode – a product of the old school, taught how to repair trucks by his father Jerry. “I am a very proud second generation diesel mechanic,” he told me from his home in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. “I learned everything I know from my father, who has been doing heavy truck repair his whole life.”

And when he says “diesel mechanic” he means “bumper-to-bumper” diesel mechanic – able to work on anything from axles and wheel hubs to transmissions, clutches and engines, you name it.

“There are a lot of great technicians out there, but so many of them today specialize in just one area – Cummins engines, or transmissions,” Steve told me. “Also, a lot of our customers out here are owner-operators and about 30% of my work is emergency repairs. So there isn’t time to work with – our customers want us to get them back on the road as fast as we can at a fair price so they can get back to making money.”

The Custode’s story starts like many in this great nation on ours, via immigration. Jerry Custode, Steve’s father, came to America from Sicily, settled in the cold climes of Chicago and got to work making a living – first learning to repair trucks, then drive them.

Jerry eventually established his own trucking company – JJMS Trucking – back in the 1970s, but by the 1980s wanted to leave the frigid temperatures of Chicago behind. Thus he sold his company, relocated his family to Hawaii, and stuck to turning wrenches for a living.

Steven literally learned the diesel mechanic’s at his father’s side, working with him when he turned 16 and kept right on at it after finishing high school. Yet Steve also wanted his own business, so he got his CDL and lucked into a nearly brand new Kenworth T-800 back in 1999. He also bought and fixed an old dump trailer and quickly got into the business hauling cinders for a living – using the moniker “S & K Hauling” for his company (short for “Steve & Kim,” Kim being Steve’s wife).

They were heady times, Steve recalled to me – hauling heavy loads up and down 18% grades, maneuvering in and out of tight construction sites. He loved being at the helm of a big rig, especially his own. But he got a scary reminder that being a truck driver isn’t all fun when he crashed and flipped his rig one afternoon in 2002 – rolling it over a couple of times. Though he walked away without a scratch, the crash made changes in Steve’s approach to trucking.

“It was a horrible experience – scared me to death,” he told me. “But I learned so much from that. I learned to be so much more careful, to appreciate just how fine a line separates you from disaster at times.”

It’s when Steve became a father, though, that the writing showed up on the wall for him (his daughter Jillian is now five, and his son Nick is now three). Early loads that got rolling at 3 a.m. followed by late evenings on other days, combined with the hazards of the road, convinced Steve to return to his hard-earned roots as a mechanic.

He sold his trucking business in 2005 and re-joined his father working on trucks to make a living. Yet right away he encountered a new issue – the mobile service trucks he and his dad used were just too small to adequately serve their customer base.

“We were using F-350s with 10,000 GVW chassis, and they were just too small – we couldn’t carry all the parts or tools we need,” Steve told me. “We needed something bigger yet designed for our business.”

He saw an old Peterbilt truck for sale one day and instantly, an idea came to him. Steve snapped it up, brought it back to an old gravel plot of land he owned, and started getting to work.

Using all of his mechanical knowledge, combined with his trucking experience, he rebuilt that truck by hand with parts from other wrecks he’d bought – creating a heavy-duty mobile garage, for lack of a better term.

The primary frame is a 1987 Peterbilt 357, equipped with tandem rear axles, a rebuilt 18 speed transmission, a wireless remote-controlled crane, and a “Triple 4” Cummins that is soon to be replaced by a 3406 B Caterpillar engine cranking out 425 horses.

Steve overbuilt the frame and the tool boxes so the truck could take a pounding and then some, resulting in an empty weight of 7,000 lbs. Altogether, it took Steve nine months to build his one-of-a-kind vehicle, including the home-made heavy-duty service body.

“This truck just carries so much more – brake shoes, turbochargers … I even had a spare engine in the back once,” he told me. “The point is, when you are out on a breakdown run, trying to get a guy going again, you can’t stop and go back to the garage for a part – you’ve got to have everything with you. I’ve got to be as prepared as possible.”

About 70% of Steve’s work is scheduled maintenance, with 30% emergency road service on all makes and models of commercial trucks.

He does everything – clutch repair, engine repair, even welding. “It’s really rewarding when you show up and get someone back on the road fast,” Steve said.

For now, Steve and his truck are making a good living but he foresees a “reverse migration” in his future one day.

He and his wife bought some land in Utah as they plan for an eventual return to the U.S. mainland – largely to make sure their kids get opportunities that aren’t available on the islands.

“I can do just about anything – turn a wrench, drive a truck, and even build my own truck,” he said. “That confidence comes from my dad – he was a tough teacher, but those lessons are paying off now. I have strong values in America and its trucking past. I work hard every day and know it will pay off some day.”

“Fleets need to do everything they can to improve fuel mileage.” –Kevin Rohlwing, senior vice president of training for the Tire Industry Association and FleetOwner columnist

With fuel prices poised to start trending upwards yet again – this time due almost solely to refinery production cutbacks – it would do fleets well to take a fresh look at how the type of tires they use impacts fuel economy.

This isn’t a new story by any means, for every tire maker serving the trucking industry – Michelin, Bridgestone/Firestone, Continental, Hankook, Double Coin, and Goodyear, among others – offers tires designed specifically to help fleets maximize fuel economy.

The question fleets need to address, however, is about the monetary trade-off involved – for, usually, a tire that offers improved fuel efficiency isn’t going to last like one designed for long tread life. Nor is the most fuel efficient tire the best model for fleets operating in a lot of rough conditions, where snow and ice are common concerns.

Yet that doesn’t mean the fuel savings associated with super fuel efficient tire designs are outweighed by less tread life. I recently talked to Goodyear’s Tim Miller about this very subject at the Technology & Maintenance Council’s (TMC) annual meeting. Goodyear – like other truck tire makers – invested a lot of time and money to develop a fuel saving line of tires using what it calls Fuel Max Technology.

Rolled out several years ago, “Fuel Max” tires combine specifically-designed tread patterns along with different tire material compounds and manufacturing technologies to help optimize fuel economy while maintaining a low cost-per-mile for fleets and owner-operators, he said.

In analyzing rolling resistance factors, Goodyear scientists and engineers found that the tread – in this case the pattern, groove depth and compound material in combination – accounted for more than half of a truck tire’s rolling resistance. And by reducing rolling resistance, you increase fuel economy.

[Miller explains this in more detail in the clip below.]

A few years ago, Goodyear subjected its Fuel Max tires to the fuel economy test that is the gold standard in the trucking market – the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J1321 Joint TMC/SAE Fuel Consumption Test Procedure - Type II. The results showed an 8 percent improvement in fuel economy using Fuel Max tires compared to standard Goodyear over-the-road tires.

However, since no one drives at constant speed on flat terrain for a 10-hour shift, Goodyear engineers adjusted the SAE results to 4 percent to estimate real-world conditions, such as varying driver inputs, road conditions and terrain and truck aerodynamics. That’s still some pretty serious savings, and with the U.S. average price for diesel fuel still up over $2.18 per gallon, getting 4 percent better fuel economy can pay off handsomely over time.

Again, it’s just one of the many cost management factors fleets need to keep firmly in mind as we wait for yet another inevitable spike in the price of fuel.

“We’re all in a tough market right now – everyone is just trying to survive. That’s why we’re trying to come up with new ways to build platform trailers; not just to tweak their design, but to find a whole new way to do things.” –Buck Buchanan, VP-marketing, Fontaine Trailer Company

You know, all of the trailer manufacturers serving this industry are bringing new innovations to the table for dry van, refrigerated, and tanker designs, just to name a few. But about the very last place I ever expected to hear the term “friction stir welding” used was by a flatbed OEM.

The term is familiar to me from my days covering the air cargo market, as it’s how airplane manufacturers weld metal together. Actually, the term is a misnomer of sorts, because it’s not really “welding” in the traditional sense. What happens is a high speed drill literally “softens” two pieces of metal using friction instead of direct heat from a welder’s torch to the point where molecules of the two metals literally get “stirred” together and then re-harden – creating much neater and more consistent bond.

So it came as a surprise to find that Alabama-based Fontaine Trailer Company is using what is literally an aerospace manufacturing process to build flatbed trailers. It just goes to show you that in this day and age, even when it comes to some of the most fundamental components of the trucking business, expect to see – and keep seeing – big changes.

“Why do we need lighter yet stronger trailers? Because fleets need to haul more payload to make money, but also to compensate for tractors that are getting heavier due to the addition al of emission control technology,” explained Buck Buchanan, the company’s VP-marketing. “It also helps us drive cost and complexity out of the manufacturing process for us.”

During a press conference here at the Technology & Maintenance Council’s annual meeting in Orlando, Buchanan broke it down this way. The typical 48-foot flatbed weighs in at 10,000 pounds and requires 1,400 screws, 44 steel I-beams, eight wing braces, plus wood and aluminum strips for the flooring – a total of 3,700 parts. The screwed-in floor can lead to “wracking” under load, making the trailer develop a “wiggle” for lack of a better term over time, causing loads to shift and tires to wear unevenly.

Buchanan then pointed to how new techniques such as stir welding help Fontaine’s all-aluminum weigh in at 8,000 pounds, with its Revolution H (a steel/aluminum hybrid design) coming in at 9,000 pounds. The floor of the trailers themselves are now made in honeycombed “blocks” stir-welded together that not only eliminates the need for screws but also act as internal cross members for far more trailer rigidity – and thus eliminating the need for standard cross members. That change alone helped cut the parts required for the Revolution flatbed line down to 1,500.

[Allen Peacock, Fontaine’s engineering manager, explains some of the design features in more detail below.]

That’s not all, of course. The top of the floor itself is covered evenly in metal traction points along with grooves designed in for a set of removable chain tie downs – giving flatbed fleets a lot more flexibility in where they want to locate tie-down points without cutting holes in the flooring. Then there’s the side rails – long, extruded pieces of aluminum that have holes cut in for load straps that are not built by welding metal together. This creates a far stronger rail – 12 times stronger than traditionally-built rails actually – one that can absorb forklift impacts with no damage.

In another neat bit of thinking, all the air and electrical lines are run right down the middle of the trailer’s underside in a protected channel – reducing exposure to harsh road chemicals while making it easy for technicians to get in and make repairs, instead of chasing connections all over the unit. Fontaine partnered with Grote to use LED [light emitting diode] lights for the Revolution line, which are not only brighter than incandescent lights but reduce electrical connections by 60%.

Now, Buchanan readily admits that despite the labor savings, the Revolution trailers cost more than the comparable standard 48-foot models available today – by as much as a couple thousand dollars. The difference between the all-aluminum Revolution and steel/aluminum hybrid Revolution H is even more steep – a $3,000 difference. But the payback is there for flatbed fleets – usually as fast as a year, said Buchanan.

He noted the savings come from several areas – a lighter trailer offers the ability to haul more freight and thus generate more revenue while helping improve fuel economy. Less wracking result in longer tire life – 200,000 miles on the tandem axle tires as opposed to the typical 125,000 mile life expectancy, with wide base tires lasting 100,000 miles as opposed to 60,000.

The result of four years worth of research and design, Buchanan (at left) noted Fontaine is still trying to make the Revolution trailer family even more fuel friendly, looking to take the standard underside storage boxes and create more aerodynamic shapes for them so they act as fairings to reduce drag.

Like I said, it’s unexpected to see this kind of innovation going on in flatbed trailers today – and more importantly fleets are seeing the benefit of it. “In a down economy, we’re still selling these,” said Buchanan.

“A study by Mercedes Truck found that 90% of accidents caused by ‘delayed recognition’ of a situation could be avoided if the driver hit the brakes just one second earlier.” –Alan Korn, director of engineering, Meritor Wabco

I got to spend some time this week out at the Orlando Executive Airport getting an up close and personal look at a variety of truck safety technologies, courtesy of ArvinMeritor – roll stability control (RSC), electronic stability control (ESC), and the OnGuard collision mitigation system. I’ve written about these technologies before, but what’s surprising to me is how long it’s taking to get them into widespread use in the trucking industry.

The quote from Alan Korn above highlights the critical nature of such systems – how the difference of mere seconds (if not milliseconds) can determine how serious a highway crash is going to be, or even if one occurs at all. Of course, there’s a steep price at the moment for such systems (OnGuard alone lists for $4,000 per truck), yet the costs pales in comparison to the horrendous nature of truck accidents.

Take rollovers, for example. Research by Volvo Trucks North America found that the average cost of a single rollover is $109,000: $50,000 to repair the vehicle, $20,000 in cargo claims, $10,000 for towing, $10,000 for clean-up, $10,000 in down time, and $10,000 for higher insurance premiums.

Accidents, however, are even worse. According to statistics compiled by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the cost per truck accident when injuries are involved averages $245,000; when a fatality is involved this amount escalates to $3.4 million – and these are merely the direct costs, which don’t include the hidden costs of vehicle downtime, missed deadlines, and damage to a carrier’s reputation (read THAT as “getting the pants sued off you.”)

That’s why companies like ArvinMeritor that design and sell safety systems are trying to take them to the next level – to build up what Jon Morrison (pictured at left), president of Meritor Wabco , calls “the pyramid of safety.”

“It’s about complete brake system integration with stability control, collision avoidance systems, etc.,” he told me at the demonstration. “It’s not about looking at each technology independently of each other; it’s about combining them and using them to achieve FVC – full vehicle control.”

[Below, Morrison explains this approach in more detail.]

In Morrison’s view, it’s about layering safety systems on top of one another. At the foundation of the pyramid are the brakes – in this case, air disc brakes, which offer more stopping power and longer life compared to drum brakes. Next comes antilock braking systems (ABS) and traction control, followed by stability control systems, then collision avoidance and mitigation systems, and finally total vehicle monitoring.

The reason “monitoring” is at the “peak” of the pyramid is twofold, Korn explained to me. The first is maintenance: “None of these systems will work properly unless they are maintained properly – and having the systems monitor themselves, alerting the fleet to brakes out of adjustment, etc., is a critical part of that.”

The second part deals with helping drivers learn from close calls. “Even seasoned drivers have difficulty know the roll and stability tipping points of their vehicles – they ride and handle so well you don’t know you’re in trouble until it’s almost too late,” he said. “But let me stress this – you need good drivers. These systems are there to help drivers, not to replace them.”

[How OnGuard can step in and help truck drivers is shown below – especially in situations where the actions of the car driver put both the car and truck at risk for a crash.]

Even in this time of economic upheaval, the technological leaps occurring with safety systems continue unabated. In 2011, Meritor Wabco hopes to roll out an ESC system that literally “learns” about the specific vehicle’s characteristics as its driven – allowing OEMs to build a standard system that customizes itself to the specific trucking application over time.

Another interesting idea – tying GPS roadway data into stability control technology, allowing the system to “look ahead” at the specific curves of the driver’s chosen highway, adjusting vehicle speed BEFORE reaching a tight corner. That, if I may say, is pretty cool.

In two years, Meritor Wabco also hopes to have an updated version of its OnGuard system available not only with added benefits, such as lane departure warning (LDW) and blind spot detection (BSD) all in one package, but also with full autonomous emergency braking (AEB) capability.

“Today’s radar-based system only tracks objects if they are moving,” Korn (pictured at right) told me. “The next generation will use two sensor arrays, one of them being video, so it can detect with accuracy PARKED or totally stopped vehicles. It will also allow the truck to fully deploy the brakes – a full 0.5 G stop – in an emergency without any action by a driver.”

Talk about the ultimate in safety nets – both for truckers and the car drivers around them. It’ll take a lot of doing, but no doubt technology like this is going to become reality. Let’s hope that ways to encourage truckers to adopt and use such systems – from insurance premium deductions to perhaps even tax incentives – become reality as well. That fiscal support is what will help the pyramid of safety reach its full potential, I think.