The Future For New Products Is Now
OEMs sneak-previewed a lot of trucks at Mid-America last year – but this year, you can actually buy them.
Steve Sturgess
Executive Editor
The Mid-America Trucking Show in March was its usual bustling event for the press, with a slew of conferences and media events to see and talk about new industry products. But it was almost a deja vu event, of sorts, because much of what was on display had been sneak-previewed last year. The difference this time is that now, you can actually go out and buy the new trucks that are on display with their '07 engines.
Problem is, not many folks are buying the new technology and the market is anticipated to be off by about 40 percent this year.
But even against this gloomy background, there were smiles: There may be a fall-off in truck sales but it will be relatively short-lived. And, despite EPA 2010 looming just around the corner, sales are expected strong throughout 2008 and 2009. So the timing for the launch of new products is very appropriate, especially the much-anticipated MAN/International Big Bore engines set to debut in autumn. This will give the ProStar a major boost.
For the show, International released ratings for the 11- and 13-liter derivatives that are, as their basis, MAN's D20 and D26. The Internationals use the same graphite-iron blocks, heads, rotating parts and fuel injection, but the series-turbocharged air handling and EGR components are unique to the North American engines. Ratings will cover the range from 330 horsepower at the bottom of the 11-liter offering to 475 horsepower at the top. Peak torque will be 1,700 pounds-feet.
These are not especially high, but the profile of the torque curve in particular suggests they will lug down to 1,000 rpm or less and likely will be very fuel efficient – at least the manufacturer says they will.
These engines are promised to be super-quiet so when they get in to the International ProStar – already one of the quietest trucks in America – it will further help the launch of this over-the-highway contender and a strong competitor to Freightliner with the truckload fleets.
But Freightliner has its own plans that include the launch of a new conventional premium this month and a whole new range of engines in the fall. Called the HDEP – heavy-duty engine platform – the first of the worldwide product to appear will be a 14.8 liter for North America. There were few details available at press time, other than it's an in-line engine that will ultimately replace both the Series 60 and the MBE 4000.
And Freightliner's devoting engineering resources to other components than just the engine. One development I applaud is the introduction of rack and pinion steering, which I drove for the first time in a short blast around some local Louisville roadways.
It will be a feature of the new chassis, and I drove it on a Century Class, where the steering system is an option today. It's an option everyone should experience. As rack and pinion does in a car, the Freightliner system imparts excellent road feel into the steering. There's no dead spot in the straight-ahead position, no sawing at the wheel to keep the truck pointed straight. And there's absolutely no bump steer, because the rack is mounted to the steer axle.
This results in an odd angle for the steering shaft when you look under the hood as it plunges southward to the axle. This brings another benefit: There's no steering box to limit right turn wheel cut. And the system's a little lighter as well. All in all it's a winning combination that drivers will love.
And there was a third engine announcement that leads to some reading between the lines: Paccar is investing $400 million in a major new plant in the southeast to build engines and transmissions for DAF, the Paccar brand that's big in Europe.
Already there are Paccar-branded engines over there – a very handy 12.9-liter MX and a smaller 9.2 liter engine. The folks at MATS said the plant is to support DAF production, but wouldn't it be convenient to pop that 12.9-liter into Peterbilt and Kenworth chassis? Especially since the plant is scheduled to go on-stream in 2009. That might give 'em a hammer to keep pricing for the upcoming Cats and Cummins in line for 2010, eh?
