Heavy Duty Trucking, March 2020
ENGINES ARE SMARTER THAN YOU THINK Smart powertrains have made possible incredible gains in fuel efficiency performance and safety based in good old fashioned sound driving principles Back in my driving days when travelling over the Three Sisters on I 80 in Wyoming or nearly any other significant hill in the country drivers with fleets that had locked down speed limits of 55 would descend the hills with the brakes on all the way down not daring to exceed 55 by even 1 mph They burned their brakes all the way down and created traffic mayhem as their under powered trucks crawled up the other side Meanwhile drivers who werent living under the speed limited sword of Damocles let the trucks roll out a little to preserve momentum and reduce brake wear OK and to make a little time Thats exactly what the predictive cruise control and neutral coast features do for drivers today with the added advantage of some electronic oversight Features such as cruise brake overspeed allows customers to control runout speeds on negative grades notes John Moore Volvo Trucks powertrain marketing manager The customer can set the runout speed a little higher than cruise speed to take advantage of the momentum coming off a hill without the driver letting it run way over the set speed Also predictive cruise works in conjunction with Eco Roll to disengage the drivelines faster when no driveline load is experienced again to take advantage of By Jim Park Equipment Editor jpark@ truckinginfo com mart powertrains are nothing more than modern extensions of what the best drivers did back in the day when everything was mechanical and electronics S were limited to CB radios I have to say in all modesty as a former driver myself it has taken a long time for the technology to catch up but it now leaves even the best drivers in the dust What drivers could do by their own wits is far exceeded by the micro precise adjustments and finely tuned calibrations electronic controls can deliver The gains in performance and efficiency are stunning but they are still HDT MARCH 2020 48 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM PHOTOS JIM PARK Smart powertrains build on how good drivers used to operate their trucks but improvements made possible with technology have left even the best drivers in the dust
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