Heavy Duty Trucking, May 2018
Straying from standard Fleets like to stick with what they know and have become familiar with but occasionally those components are dropped from the data books or they become custom order items Bruce Stockton principal of Stockton Solutions Joplin Missouri based transportation fleet consultants says fleets should trust the OE when it comes to specing certain components unless you have data or experience that suggests otherwise Your current fleet will have its share of problems so draw on that experience in specing the new trucks says Stockton Ask what the OE has done about the problem youre having and whether its been resolved in the new generation of trucks The other danger in straying from the standard spec is availability of parts Standard parts are generally well stocked rarer items might not be That can lead to downtime while waiting for inventory warns Hart Stockton says on the whole trucks are pretty well made these days and stuff that we once worried about is no longer an issue drivelines transmissions and axles for example Most of the problems are going to come from engines and aftertreatment systems and their associated electronics and sensors You cant delete those from the spec so you need to learn everything you can about them to minimize the problems One possible solution is adding an auxiliary HVAC system to sleeper trucks This will lower idle time and reduce soot buildup in the DPF says Chris Marks director of maintenance at Ryder You need to pay special attention to things that affect the exhaust aftertreatment system like fuel economy speed loads and duty cycles he says If you get it wrong not only does it affect the vehicles reliability it can really drive up maintenance costs When ordering add ons like auxiliary power units or power take offs we always have it done at the factory to avoid installation issues with third parties and the problems they can lead to later in the vehicles life One of the big things that has changed with trucks in general today is that there is no longer any such thing as a general purpose truck Youll pay a big price over time if you try to run an over the road truck in a P D operation or vice versa Todays spec has to be duty cycle dependent factoring in annual miles application and everything else says Marks If you get the spec wrong from the start the cost will be substantial he says And its very expensive to try to fix it after the fact You have to get it right from the start or the maintenance budget will be eaten up So when considering the cost of specing possibly premium components or long life or maintenance free keep in mind that maintenance costs today are at a dollar a minute in a well run shop That should be good incentive to think twice about scrimping on your spec MAY 2018 HDT 77 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM
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