LET THERE BE LED LIGHT

July 30, 2008 Vol. 4, No. 16

Well, somebody’s finally done it. An LED headlamp is actually in production. Who knows how much it will cost, but Truck-Lite has a bunch of them in seven-inch round, 24-volt form in U.S. military use and it’s apparently nearly ready for mass consumption in 12 volts. That’s pretty cool.

I’ve been waiting for this ever since since I presented the very first Truck Writers of North America Technical Achievement Award at TMC way back in 1991. Grote won that inaugural honor for its red LED marker lamp, which was a serious breakthrough product at the time. For the longest while we waited for a white LED – it was hard to develop that technology – but it seemed to me that a headlight was always the real goal. It took a while but we’re now there, or nearly so.

I’m guessing that it will be expensive, though as I put this newsletter together Truck-Lite (www.truck-lite.com) hadn’t yet come back to me with a response to the price question. But like marker lights and signal lamps and all the other present LED applications, I expect there will be a way to justify the cost. If the thing lasts as long as Truck-Lite says it will – a whopping 50 times longer than the standard 400 hours of a typical current lamp – then it could be a no-brainer in some cases.

Truck-Lite talks about U.S. Army technicians reporting on the new lamp after final development work at the Army Cold Regions Test Center in Alaska. “The Truck-Lite LED headlamps we’re testing are much easier on the eyes,” wrote one evaluator, according to the manufacturer’s press release. “Despite their brightness, they should last through the 20- to 30-year lifetime of military vehicles,” wrote another, commenting that “The LED headlights provide daylight clarity. On the spruce trees up here, every needle stood out, unlike the incandescent lamps that glowed like mere candles in comparison.”

Obviously, we all want to test these headlamps for ourselves, and then work out the cost/benefit numbers. I’ll do both as soon as I can.

By the way, Michelin's Durable Technologies was named the top Technical Achievement for 2007 by the truck writer’s group.

AND SPEAKING OF MICHELIN, most of you Canadians will know by now that as of July 1, “new generation” wide-single truck tires are now approved for widespread use across Canada. Amendments to the country’s Memorandum of Understanding on Vehicle Weights and Dimensions were made in June to re-define the weight limits and track-width requirements for new generation wide base single tires. And we have Michelin to thank for the most part, especially Ralph Beaveridge working with Vern Seeley of the Irving Group. Between the two of them, they worked the backrooms well. My hat’s off to them.

The changes establish consistency with U.S. regulations and will allow trucks and trailers equipped with wide singles to operate from coast to coast and move freely between both countries. The new rules apply to tires on drive axles with a width of 445 mm (17.5 in.) or more. The new weight allowances call for loads not to exceed 7700 kg (16,975 lb) for single axle vehicles and 15,400 kg (33,950 lb) for tandem-axle groups. To allow trailers to be safely retrofitted with wide singles, the minimum track-width requirement of 2.5 m (8.2 ft) has been reduced to 2.3 m (7.5 ft) for trailers built in 2007 or earlier.

Michelin says that its X One tires (www.gowidesavegreen.com) can improve fuel efficiency by up to 10% and allow for significantly larger payloads. The official update, issued by the Canadian government, acknowledges “that the new wide base single tire designs offer improvements in fuel efficiency, vehicle roll stability and reduced tare weight.”

The rules will be in effect for all Canadian provinces, with three regional exceptions. These pertain to roads in the Northwest Territories, secondary roads in Newfoundland and Labrador, and roads in New Brunswick, depending on their highway classification.

ELSEWHERE ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL FRONT, where there never seems to be a shortage of pronouncements these days, there’s a small piece of news, but significant in its way, coming out of Cap-Saint-Ignace, Québec. That’s where an interesting company called Prolam builds premium trailer floors (www.prolamfloors.com). I visited this outfit a couple of years ago and found one of those rare companies where everyone in the plant, from front office to back, seemed to be genuinely excited about what they do and what they make.

Another Quebec company, Simard Suspensions, is similar in this regard, and I’ll be writing about what they’ve been doing in another newsletter soon. Back to Prolam, the company says its now capable of producing 100% SFI- certified trailer floors, the only trailer floor manufacturer to be able to make such a boast. With more than 152 million acres certified across North America, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certification program is one of the largest in the world, with a standard based on principles and measures that promote responsible environmental behavior and sound forest management including measures to protect water quality, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, species at risk and forests of exceptional conservation value.

Prolam says its two major hardwood suppliers have earned SFI certification, meaning a portion of the laminated floors it produces use SFI-certified hardwood. About 3000 SFI floors can be produced per year, says Prolam's general manager Benoit Risi. Launched in 1997, the company’s main claim to fame is its innovative zig-zag joint technology.

AND ON THE INTERNATIONAL PLAYING FIELD, KAMAZ (www.kamaz.ru/en/) is going to get another mention here for the second newsletter in a row as Daimler Trucks looks at acquiring a 42% stake in the giant Russian truck-maker.

Last time out I described the raw fun of a lap around Germany’s Nurburgring race track at serious speed in a Paris-Dakar rally truck built by Kamaz, which is a regular – and often successful -- competitor in that insane race. At least one of my dear readers thought I was blowing smoke with that one, but not so. In all its handbrake-induced tail-wagging glory, a brutal looking Kamaz race truck took smiling me around the challenging ‘Ring, the only disappointment being that Boris wouldn’t let me drive it.

One note about that tale… I wrote last time that the handbrake was used to manage oversteer, but of course I meant understeer. Given its way, that beast would plough through turns nose first unless something was done to break the tail free. And Boris accomplished that with practised efficiency. That’s just how rally trucks or cars are driven.

And another note to answer a query about the Moose Club I mentioned a couple of weeks ago – an obscure reference, I grant you, but it’s a bar in Paris, a Canadian bar of all things, and I imagined that Boris the chauffeur was hurrying to that fine establishment’s Moscow branch. It’s also a wildly exclusive little group of international motor noters and a couple of fine PR people who dared me to mention it somehow. Obscure indeed.

Anyway, I’ve got a soft spot of sorts for this Russian outfit, Kamaz, which built what is still the world’s largest truck plant quite a few years ago, in 1969. In the old days of Soviet Union central planning, the maestros of Moscow first decided they wanted to build a truck plant because the country needed its own truck. Then they asked themselves where they might do such a thing and decided on a location in Tatarstan. Trouble was, there were no people nearby who might work in the plant they were going to create. So the next step was to build a city nearby, which is exactly what they did. Really, that’s how it came together.

The trucks they build are crude by western standards, though getting better, especially with the help of components from advanced western European suppliers like ZF and Knorr-Bremse. And now there’s news out of Stuttgart that Daimler Trucks is looking at the possibility of buying a 42% stake in Kamaz. It’s part of the German company’s examination of possibilities in Russia, already the world’s single largest truck market with total sales of more than 154,000 trucks over six tons GVW in 2007.

Russia clearly offers much potential. Daimler says sales of new trucks in Russia are expected to increase by about 20% over the next two years, fuelled by demand for heavy-duty trucks in particular.

Kamaz is the leader there, not surprisingly, having sold more than 53,000 trucks last year and posting revenues of nearly $4 billion. Its market share is about 30%. Some 25% of Kamaz production is exported, mainly to Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, and Asia. The company built a second plant in Iran three years ago.

Daimler could also enter the Russian volume market by building a new factory there for local assembly of Mercedes-Benz trucks, but getting a stake in Kamaz would enable the two companies to combine their development, production, and sales expertise – German technology and know-how mated with the production facilities, sales structures, and solid network of Kamaz.

Daimler would buy its 42% share of Kamaz from the investment company Troika Dialog, and it has already started the due-diligence process. A final decision on its Russian strategy will be made by the end of the year.

Not incidentally, with a market share of 25%, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, Fuso, and Freightliner brands are already the leaders in the used-truck segment of the Russian market. The division is now in the midst of a “massive expansion“ of its Russian sales and service network, increasing the number of Mercedes-Benz service outlets alone from 30 to 48 between now and 2010.

Who could resist?

Me, I just want another lap or three with Boris in the rally truck.

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