Product Innovations

How Your Truck Experiences Winter

As a trucker or fleet owner, you understand how dangerous winter driving can be — especially when it’s an 80,000-pound class 8 truck that’s out there trying to navigate the snow and ice. But also consider that it’s not just you or your drivers that are having to deal with winter — your truck is also experiencing it.

As it gets closer to the heart of winter, it’s important to not only make sure you’ve got the appropriate tires and that your brakes are at peak performance, but to also consider the major systems of your truck or fleet such as the HVAC and drivetrain, and take into account what they might need to help you stay “up” this season.

A Driveline is a Driveline, Right?

Wrong! Although the driveline is responsible for one of the most important processes in your truck — delivering the power from the engine and transmission to the wheels — one size does not fit all. A true line-haul application that needs to achieve highway speeds at least 80 percent of the time does not have the same driveline needs as a truck that does partial line haul and partial inner-city deliveries, for example.

Don’t feel bad if you haven’t thought about your driveline in a while — it’s an easy part of your truck to forget about. The configuration of a driveline is different depending on whether you have front-wheel, rear-wheel, or all-wheel drive, but unless something goes very wrong with it, chances are you’re not climbing up into your undercarriage to pay it a casual visit.

Whether you already need to upgrade your driveline or you aren’t sure if the one you’ve got is serving you properly, there are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you outfit your vehicle with the best driveline parts before a catastrophic failure happens.

What is Engine Downspeeding?

In our industry, things are either up or down, and depending on the situation that can either be a really great thing or a not so great thing. At the end of the day, we want trucks that are up and costs that are down, but there are other ups and downs to contend with in the meantime. For example, keeping fuel efficiency up by keeping the speed of the engine down, or downspeeding.

According to the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE), engine downspeeding is one of the primary strategies to improve fuel economy in heavy-duty powertrains. The basic idea is this: when the rear gear ratio is sped up, the speed of the engine is lowered. While this concept was first pioneered a few years ago by Volvo, it is fast becoming a common technology upgrade for many heavy-duty powertrain systems.

Why Wash Wheel Ends?

Everyone knows that your truck or fleet needs a good scrubbing and power-washing every now and then, but have you ever thought about paying specific attention to your wheel ends? Don’t feel bad — this part of your undercarriage is typically an afterthought.

Replacing Truck Mirrors and Brackets

It’s easy to underestimate the importance of your side mirrors until they need to be replaced. Like all of your truck’s operational systems, your mirror system consists of multiple individual parts that work together to make sure you can have a clear, crisp, wide and unobstructed field of vision while on the road.

Whether you’ve got cracked glass or the whole mirror system is barely holding on by a thread, there are a few things to consider before ordering a replacement mirror.

1. Mirrors On Big Trucks Are A Big Deal

Even though your truck mirrors aren’t responsible for the power or mobility of your vehicle or fleet, they should still be given considerable attention. No matter what size truck you’re driving, there’s only so much you can see with the naked eye. Your mirrors amplify your visibility of not only the back of your truck but also what the drivers on both sides of you are doing. Mirrors are also your first line of defense in making sure you can change lanes safely and anticipate any road situations in which you have to stop or maneuver quickly.

With so much to keep up with in your day-to-day driving and business, it can be easy to just jump in the truck and go without giving a second thought to the clarity, condition and setup of your mirror system, but when it comes to how and what you see, there’s a lot to consider.