Trail King Offers MG-HG Interchangeable Gooseneck Trailer

Trail King announced the introduction of the Commercial MG-HG detachable gooseneck trailer, featuring interchangeable gooseneck styles.

The Commercial MG-HG trailer has been engineered for corrosion resistance, with moisture trapping areas being designed out of the structure of the trailer. This has the effect of minimizing the build-up of road debris and moisture accumulation that leads to corrosion.

The trailer is primed and painted before the air, hydraulic, and electrical liens and decking are installed for increased protection from the elements. Optional lightweight, aluminum features, including aluminum I-beam or box beam cross members, outer rails, decking, and front and rear channels, provide even more corrosion resistance.

It comes standard with the full-width mechanical gooseneck and is engineered to accommodate four interchangeable gooseneck styles. Goosenecks can be ordered in either full-width or narrow-width, and mechanical or hydraulic to accommodate different customer demands and provide maximum flexibility.

“Our newest detachable gooseneck delivers the strength and dependable performance that Trail King is known for,” said Rick Farris, vice president of sales and marketing for Trail King Industries. “The Commercial MG-HG represents the next step in the evolution of our mechanical gooseneck trailer. The most notable demonstration of this is its ability to accommodate a variety of gooseneck styles. The Commercial MG-HG offers the most standard equipment of any trailer of its kind on the market, plus a variety of options, for the ultimate in hauling versatility.”

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Stertil-Koni Lift Boasts 132,000-Pound Capacity

Stertil-Koni's ST 4600 is a four-post lift with designed for high-capacity lifting and suited to vehicles with low-ground clearance.

The ST 4600 has a capacity of 132,000 pounds with a 36-foot, 3-inch runway length. It also has the ability to handle various size wheelbases and raise vehicles to a height of 74-inches in 190 seconds.

The four-post lift can be installed on any suitable concrete floor through Stertil-Koni's distributor network. It features multiple safety enhances including a height measuring device and an electro-mechanical fall safety system. It is ALI certified to the provisions of ANSI/ALI ALCTV-current edition and offers the safety features of a platform lift, in which the vehicle wheels reside on drive-on runways. It also has an automatic overload protection device.

Other ST 4600 features include an internal air-line kit and optional jacking beams that can lift axles off the runways providing wheels-free access. Additional accessories include LED lighting sets and an anti-skid runway coating.

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Buying fleet vehicles part 3: Using clear vision

“Blind as a bat” makes sense, because bats have to use a kind of radar system to get around, right?

Yes and no. Some bats do use echolocation, but they aren't blind: All bat species have eyes and can see. Our knowledge of history and science is filled with these common misconceptions that are easily proven false.

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Minimizer Releases Floor Mats for 8 Different International Trucks

Minimizer has expanded its existing lineup of Floor Mats to include a selection designed to several models of International trucks.

Minimizer's Custom Molded Floor Mat kits are designed to fit eight different International trucks including the 5900i, 9200i, 9400i and 9900i models.

The differences in options and models of international trucks required Minimizer to create 12 different Floor Mat models to cover the eight International models, the company says. These differences in cabs can be small and based on transmission type and gearshift location.

“We've had Floor Mats for the ProStars and LoneStars for a while, and lots of the vocational models too, but it's exciting to know that we now have Floor Mats for some of International's most popular models,” said Craig Kruckeberg Minimizer CEO and chief visionary. “Our Custom Molded Floor Mats are designed to be a perfect fit, which can be tough logistically, but I'm proud to say our R&D team has pulled it off.”

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HDT Wants Your Top 50 Green Fleets Nominations

Heavy Duty Trucking magazine is looking for fleets that have made a commitment to sustainability, alternative fuels and lowering greenhouse gas emissions for its 2017 Top 50 Green Fleets.

HDT's editors are asking fleets to fill out a short survey online with basic information about their fleet, alternative fuel use, and SmartWay participation, plus room to offer additional comments on "green" projects.

Top 50 Green Fleets will have made a commitment to sustainability, reducing emissions, increasing fuel economy or adapting new fuels. The designation goes beyond the truck and trailer and extends to facilities that are greener or companies with green policies. Fleets of all sizes and types are encouraged to enter. Special attention will be paid to initiatives from the past year.

The Top Green Fleets will be featured in the November issue of HDT and on Truckinginfo.com.

Fill out the survey and nominate your fleet here.

Check out the 2016 Top 50 Green Fleets Winners

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Mesilla Valley Adopts Auxiliary Solar System

Note the eNow solar panel on the roof fairing of this MVT rig. Photo courtesy MVT.

Mesilla Valley Transportation recently purchased close to 1,000 eNow solar auxiliary energy systems for its fleet of Navistar trucks. It'll be one of the technologies showcased on MVT's entry in the "Run on Less" fuel economy program next month put on by the North American Council for Freight Efficiency.

"We're always looking for innovative, more effective and efficient ways to operate," says Royal Jones, CEO and president of MVT. "Our daily idle time is less than 6% on the whole company fleet and we utilize electric APUs 100%."

The problem is, the electric APUs typically don't last the full rest cycle for drivers, especially in the American Southwest where much of MVT's fleet operates. The solar panels help the electric APUs keep drivers comfortable the entire rest period, Jones explains. In addition, "Over time we had noticed shortened battery life and shortened alternator life due to the demand on batteries and the fact that we run eight batteries."

In testing the solar system from eNow, MVT noted increased daily run time for auxiliary equipment, such as in-cab HVAC; increased battery life from six months to two years; saving approximately 3 gallons of fuel per day from reduced engine idling; and decreased maintenance cost due to reduction in engine idling.

That testing, combined with Navistar's testing of the eNow system on its CatalIST SuperTruck at Navistar Proving Grounds, led to the purchase of the eNow energy systems for the MVT fleet.

This wasn't MVT's first foray into using solar power. MVT had tried making its own system about five years ago, before flexible solar panels were available to the industry, but abandoned the effort when it discovered the loss in aerodynamics created too much of a ...Read the rest of this story

Are European Truck Makers Poised for Big Gains in China?

Helping fuel a strong drive toward European trucks is a new emphasis on total ownership costs, the Bain study found. Photo: Scania

According to a report compiled by Bain Insights and published on the Forbes website last month, most Chinese carriers still intend to purchase domestic- or European-Chinese-joint venture trucks the next time they upgrade their fleets. But this does little to dampen the good news for European OEMs, which the study found enjoy significantly higher customer loyalty rankings than Chinese and joint venture (JV) trucks.

Moreover, the findings indicate a substantial number of Chinese fleets are prosperous enough now to pay more for better quality trucks, stay with those brands longer, and generate positive word of mouth about the vehicles. Even better: The majority of respondents who indicated a preference for European-built trucks also indicated they plan to purchase new vehicles in the next three years.

According to the Bain analysts, the study also points to a Chinese trucking industry that is maturing rapidly, as more truck buyers there are increasingly focused on total cost of vehicle ownership, including fuel economy. This dovetails with additional shifts in the Chinese trucking industry identified in the report, which notes that early Chinese fleet operations were focused in construction applications as the country launched a massive infrastructure modernization program. But now they appear to be moving toward more logistics-style long- and short-haul applications.

European OEMs still have work to do, the Bain report noted, including localizing production to further reduce acquisition costs and ...Read the rest of this story