New stuff

Theweldor said:

I bought a new service truck in 06 had ann Allison put in it.
Told everyone that "It was smarter than me and knows when to shift"

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Truck Shop said:

I ferried one of the new tractors from the dealer back to the shop today, I tested it and my hunch was correct it has corrective steering incorporated with the lane change avoidance system.
It only worked at highway speed-the slowest I tried was 45. As soon as you get close to the fog line on right side there is a audible and you can feel the steering wheel tug to the left slightly.
On cruise it's a little more pronounced. I tried it letting it drift to the right in a corner, it steered it's self back to center of lane, there is also a warning in the main menu cluster that lights up
if you take your hands off the wheel even for a split second, first a audible tone then it says {Hands on wheel}. I believe the ambient temperature sensor will shut off the corrective steering
when ice could be present.

Below is a photo of the steering box with corrective steering apparatus.

View attachment 227207 View attachment 227208

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Truck Shop said:

Worked readying 7 new tractors today, I mainly installed the new QualComs-E-log on the dashes.

But I did notice a rather odd object attached to the top of the steering boxes--A computer controlled Servo.
Incorporated into the lane change avoidance system--Self correcting steering when vehicle comes to close
to other vehicles on the road. I have a call in with a service manager to discuss it's operation, he looked up
the last six of the vin then tells me the truck went into service 11-2-20 and he knew nothing about the new
steering, except that servo unit as far as he could tell wasn't even in a DC yet but it did have a price tag of
$6,300. And the steering gear is special to that system with a hefty price tag.

And people don't think driverless trucks will ever happen, other than a GPS guidance system needed also
this is getting pretty close.

I kind of like it-I'm more up and techno geek than the rest.

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Truck Shop said:

I ferried one of the new tractors from the dealer back to the shop today, I tested it and my hunch was correct it has corrective steering incorporated with the lane change avoidance system.
It only worked at highway speed-the slowest I tried was 45. As soon as you get close to the fog line on right side there is a audible and you can feel the steering wheel tug to the left slightly.
On cruise it's a little more pronounced. I tried it letting it drift to the right in a corner, it steered it's self back to center of lane, there is also a warning in the main menu cluster that lights up
if you take your hands off the wheel even for a split second, first a audible tone then it says {Hands on wheel}. I believe the ambient temperature sensor will shut off the corrective steering
when ice could be present.

Below is a photo of the steering box with corrective steering apparatus.

Boeing has something similar. They call it MCAS.

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Truck Shop said:

Cab heater cores on Freightliner Cascadia. Total disassembly of dash, the core is molded into dash. The core is cut out and a panel is screwed into place to retain core and cover the hole.
There are other models that are done the same way. Figure on a 8 hr day.

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suladas said:

.......I've seen the videos of Telsa self driving a small car, they still have glitches and issues, .

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John C. said:

It's called "vertical integration" and it's what happened with Kenworth and Peterbilt and drove the Cat truck engines off the market. The move is for cradle to grave control of the product line on everything from bearings to steering wheels to lights and drive train parts. There are a few laws in place to prevent that scenario for the time being, but as automated systems increasingly come on line, manufacturers will use safety as an aspect of forcing the little people out of the game. Automation is not far away.

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suladas said:

Land departure is a far far cry from self driving. How do they plan to have a driverless truck tie down loads? Check the load securement every 2 hours? Untie and make sure straps are back for next load? Backup in soft ground? Back up into the crazy tight loading docks with cars everywhere? Any bets the computer would just shut down and the truck block off the road until someone comes to fix it?

I've seen the videos of Telsa self driving a small car, they still have glitches and issues, they aren't even close to navigating a tractor trailer though a city.

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bam1968 said:

I think it would be great for my little operation. Put dozer on the lowboy. Tell the truck where to go. Follow the truck to the next jobsite. Unload the dozer and tell the truck to go back to the shop. That alone would save me quite a bit of time. I will probably be retired by the time I would be able to afford that kind of technology though.

I wonder how the DOT will get a self driving truck pulled over to give it an inspection??

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lantraxco said:

We return to the Henry Ford River Run complex theory, raw materials in at one end, finished product out the other.

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terex herder said:

River Rouge.
Largely still owned by Ford, but the steelmaking was sold off several years ago.

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lantraxco said:

Driverless will be for power only runs, portal to portal warehouse stuff in closed and sealed vans. Freight will be handled outside the warehouses the way it's handled inside, they won't even need lights inside the buildings because no humans will enter except to take care of malfunctions, breakdowns and unexpected "departures from programmed activities" that need cleaned up after. Trucks with no cabs will take some getting used to.

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Truck Shop said:

Word to the prospective buyer--if any. The 2018 and early 2019 DD15/16 has issues with intake valves
stretching and require a valve adjustment every 50 to 60,000 miles. Only way to solve it is replace
cylinder head. You can hear a thumping noise in the air cleaner from air pulsing past the intakes in some
cases, plus uneven cranking.

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lantraxco said:

Why is it we insist on making stuff "better" and it seems to bite the customers in the butt? CP4 sound familiar?

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