Archive for May, 2008

Did you know that the brakes that stop your 80,000 pound rig are directly descended from wood blocks? That’s what was used to stop or slow down horse-drawn wagons in the earliest days of commercial transportation. Wood wheels had iron bands as tires to protect the wheels from rocks and ruts. The metal presented a perfect surface to apply a clamping force to stop the wheel turning. That’s wheel, singular. In those days, “trucks” had one wheel braking. The driver used a…

I must admit that I am not the world’s greatest truck driver, nor even second best behind you, my current reader. I will agree that my driving skills are commensurate with my experience. After all, I drive big rigs as much every year as many of my friends do in a week, especially a week with a holiday in it. Why do I bring up my relative inexperience? Because I found International’s new MaxxForce 13, the subject of my test drive earlier this year, to be a versatile, forgiving eng…

When a firefighter dies in the line of duty, tradition in most departments is for an engine to serve as the hearse, with six or eight uniformed pallbearers accompanying the casket. That ritual presented problems for the Detroit Fire Department. Its engines stay busy with an average of 10 calls per day. Vehicles have gotten larger, so maneuvering from funerals to cemeteries was often challenging. And there was Detroit’s often brutal weather. All of the difficulties of using an in-servic…

In a move that could shake up North American heavy truck design, International introduced its latest Class 8 road tractor, the LoneStar, at the Chicago Auto Show in February. Officially, LoneStar is described as an “advanced classic,” combining bold styling that normally appeals to owner-operators and other premier truck buyers with fuel-saving aerodynamics popular among large fleet managers. It’s clear that International’s designers were given the permission to colo…

Doug Donnelly contacted Road King on a whim. “I have a great story to tell,” he wrote. A conversation with his dad, Bill (above), turned to Bill’s beloved 1980 Kenworth. Hearing that the rig was close to hitting the four million mile mark, Doug wanted to know if we were interested in hearing about the truck and its driver. Donnelly had never written about trucking before. He is the city editor of a daily newspaper, The Monroe Evening News in Michigan, and has often written …