NEW TWIST ON THE RADAR THEME

February 13, 2008 Vol. 4, No. 4

I had to go to Florida the week before last. It was work. First there was a couple of days with the folks from Meritor WABCO, which I’ll tell you about in a minute, and then it was TMC. The annual meeting of the Technology and Maintenance Council in Orlando, to be precise, along with its small but lively trade show. Sure, the weather was warm and the sun was shining, but it was work. Pure coincidence that it was cold and snowy in Toronto the whole week I was away.

So was it worth facing the jealous sneers of family and friends and co-workers when I got back? Yep.

TMC’s big event is always worth the trip, of course, and this year there was the bonus of track time with Meritor WABCO beforehand. They were introducing the press to what seems like a terrific new product called OnGuard, which I’ve written about in the second item below. It’s a radar-based adaptive cruise control system with the significant addition of active braking, the first time we’ve seen such technology in North America. Active braking automatically uses the truck’s foundation brakes to slow the truck – and alert the driver to impending trouble if he’s ignored the audible and visual warnings -- when a pre-set vehicle following distance is compromised.

The system will stop the truck ultimately, as I discovered during testing at a small Orlando airport, but that’s not the intent. Collision avoidance is the name of the game, though the automatic braking action – delivering about a third of a full brake application – would certainly reduce the impact of an unavoidable collision.

OnGuard watches the vehicle ahead – it will also spot pedestrians, for example – by way of a mono-pulse radar beam, and a yaw sensor adjusts its angle to ensure that it’s following the truck’s line of travel. There’s really not much else to it, on the face of things. It’s fully integrated with Meritor WABCO’s ABS and stability control systems, all of them running off the single ABS electronic control unit in a building block sort of way -- versus having other add-on systems. The only OnGuard additions are the radar sensor and dash display, aside from the software that co-ordinates responses from the radar sensor, engine, transmission, and ABS, communicating across an SAE J1939 data network.

And yes, the brake lights do come on when the system’s active.

On the airport tarmac it worked a treat, though a couple of times before I’ve seen the same system in slightly different prototype form work equally well at WABCO’s test track in Germany. In one of those tests, I rode shotgun with a driver who put his feet up on the dash as soon as we’d reached cruise speed of 80 km/h on the 3-kilometer oval. He left his feet there as we rounded the fourth corner and blasted toward a cardboard van blocking our lane. There were beeps and whistles and all manner of other warnings, or so it seemed, but my driver held the wheel straight and his feet high, determined to smash that pesky van. Then the system took over and jolted us to a stop not 15 ft away from hypothetical disaster. Very impressive.

The present OnGuard system won’t do that sort of panic stop, but it’s probably coming. Meritor WABCO chief Jon Morrison says future systems will include autonomous braking with more aggressive intervention. That demands the addition of secondary sensors and a video camera to ensure that a panic stop wouldn’t create more trouble than it was trying to avoid. Making sure that the driver is belted in, for example, and refusing to go active if he isn’t. I’m not sure when we’ll be taking that next step, though the requisite technology is there and waiting for a green light.

The question, of course, is, who will buy it? It will cost a few thousand dollars, and so far the insurance industry hasn’t stepped up to the plate and offered discounts or other incentives for carriers that employ such safety technology. I think they will, sooner rather than later, and it may take that – or even a government mandate as with ABS – to make advanced systems like this fly. They’re worth it.

OVER AT TMC, THE COST OF RUNNING AN EPA-COMPLIANT ENGINE was front and center during a technical panel session that focused on experience with 2007 diesels so far. The panel was made up of Steve Duley from Schneider national, Dan Umphress of FedEx Freight, and Tom Newby of Old Dominion Freight Lines.

The additional cost of running emissions-compliant diesel engines made since 2002 amounts to between 6.7-8.2 cents per mile, said Duley, Schneider’s vice president of purchasing. That includes the incremental acquisition cost of 2002/04 and 2007 engines ($4000 and $7000 respectively for Duley’s fleet), additional fuel expenses arising from efficiency losses in both the engine and in the ultra-low-sulfur fuel that ‘07s must drink, and the extra maintenance required on emissions hardware.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to get back to pre-2004 costs,” Duley said, “but we’re getting better.”

That was one of the key points of consensus in this session. All three men praised the efforts of their engine suppliers in rectifying problems and making things work better, even though the overall experience has not been a happy one. Umphress, for instance, noted that his first 2004-spec engines were 16% off the mark in terms of fuel economy. A few re-calibrations later and that was just 3%. Not pleasant, but under the circumstances a near victory. His ’07 engines are a little better than that so far.

Tom Newby, director of field maintenance at Old Dominion, said that an unexpected benefit of all this emissions turmoil is a new and better relationship with his engine supplier.

“We got that personalized communication back,” he said, echoing his panel mates.

The biggest issue with current engines so far, and there really haven’t been enough miles run to draw any conclusions yet, is the diesel particulate filter and the regeneration process. Duley said it’s been a big hassle, meaning quite a lot of downtime, partly because his drivers are doing too many manual regens that don’t really need to be done. They had an hour’s training on the new engines, and it seems like they need more.

A variation on the theme was raised by Umphress, who said he’d like to see standardized regen switches across all truck OEMs. One truck maker provides a simple toggle switch, which he doesn’t like very much because drivers can abuse it.

Nobody in this group, and probably nowhere else either, has run an ’07 engine over enough miles to know the DPF cleaning interval. Umphress said FedEx is guessing 200,000 miles, and they’ll be buying cleaning machines for in-house use.

The other key issue with ’07 diesels is the lubricant they use. Among these three, only FedEx has changed over completely to the new CJ-4 spec, even though only a tiny percentage of the total fleet needs it. Both Schneider and Old Dominion are still using CI-4 Plus oils, in ’07 engines as well as earlier models. Newby was adamant about the matter.

“At this point we have no intention of changing over to the CJ-4 oil,” he said.

So I informally canvassed both engine and oil suppliers during the rest of the convention and found opinions all over the map. Cummins is on record saying that CI-4 Plus oils are actually OK with ’07 diesels under most conditions, but nobody else has taken a position pro or con. Off the record, a Volvo/Mack engineer said “absolutely not” when asked if the older lube was OK in the newer engine.

That stance pleases the oil guys, some of whom registered real dismay on this matter. They said they were upset that after spending millions developing the new oil, they were now finding opposition to the idea of using it. Can’t blame ‘em, I figure.

As one veteran diesel engineer said to me, “What’s the big deal? CJ-4 oils are definitely superior and they’re only about 10% more expensive. Making the switch won’t cost even a hundred bucks more a year per truck. That’s peanuts for any fleet. Why sweat the small stuff?”

AND FINALLY THE LONESTAR. I could hardly end this newsletter without a comment on International’s bold new LoneStar tractor. With its dramatically prominent and chromed-up snout, it’s creating a lot of buzz, and I’ve heard nothing at all between “I hate it” and “I love it.” This, I think, is exactly what International was after.

I can’t help remembering the introduction of Kenworth’s ground-breaking T600 tractor back in 1985 or so. People loved it or they hated it, and you couldn’t sit on the fence. The fact that it’s still around, still being made, shows that it really did break new ground.

I’m not sure that the LoneStar does exactly that, but these are early days and the jury’s going to be out for quite a while. I’m going to guess that it will grow on people and that it’s rather rebellious statement will really appeal to some folks in a deep-in-the-gut way.

We’ll know that it’s been a success when some other OEM lets a design stylist fantasize a bit and then produces something equally out of the ordinary.

And no matter what you may think of this truck, you’ve got to hand it to International for injecting a little liveliness into an industry that’s been doing a lot of moaning and groaning lately.

This newsletter is published every two weeks. It's a heads-up notice about what's going on with trucking technology as well as what you can see at www.todaystrucking.com where you'll find in-detail coverage of nearly everything that's new. Plus interesting products that may not have had the 'air play' they deserved within the last few months. Why not subscribe today?

And while you’re there at www.todaystrucking.com, check out the Decision Centers. They’re essentially libraries on specific subjects like Engines or Braking Systems. We’ve gathered all manner of information from maintenance manuals to research reports – and we’re always finding more – to help you make decisions about spec’ing, operating, and maintaining trucks and truck systems.

If you have comments of whatever sort about Product Watch, or maybe a gizmo I should know about, please contact me at rlockwood@newcom.ca.

THE LONESTAR

(February 13, 2008) -- Latest International highway tractor breaks new style ground

COLLISION AVOIDANCE

(February 13, 2008) -- Meritor WABCO’s OnGuard is a radar-based system with active braking

WEB-BASED DISPATCH

(February 13, 2008) -- Virtual Dispatch releases a complete web-based dispatch system

HANDHELD SCAN TOOL

(February 13, 2008) -- From NEXIQ Technologies comes the next-generation Pro-Link iQ

NEW STERLING OPTIONS

(February 13, 2008) -- New safety features include air disc brakes and roll stability control, plus the DD15 engine