A Monthly Update of Global Trucking News

Compiled Exclusively for FleetWatch by Frank Beeton of Econometrix (Pty Ltd.

Cummins Co-operation.

Following on from our "American Trucks" piece in last month's WorldWatch, some additional reports have emerged concerning joint ventures entered into by US diesel engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. The first of these covers the 50/50 co-operative formation of a new company to be known as Cummins-Scania XPI Manufacturing LLP which will produce a new generation of fuel injection systems for heavy-duty trucks. This venture will consolidate and extend a 13-year fuel system development and manufacturing partnership between Cummins and Swedish truckbuilder Scania AB. Starting in 2006, new XPI extra-high-pressure common rail injection systems will enter production at the Cummins group plants located in Columbus, Ohio, USA, and Juarez, Mexico. The HPI fuel injection systems currently fitted to Scania trucks are manufactured at the Columbus plant, and these are to be replaced by the new XPI systems as Euro 5 and 6- level emissions requirements come into effect.

The second report concerns the production of the 11-litre Cummins ISM engine by Xi'an Cummins Engine Company in Shaanxi Province, China. Xi'an Cummins will materialize as a 50/50 joint venture between Cummins Inc. and Shaanqi Group, through the latter company's Shaanxi Heavy-duty Truck Company, Limited subsidiary. The formation of this new enterprise will reportedly absorb a joint investment of $US 24 million, and erection of the engine manufacturing plant is due to commence before the end of the current calendar year, with production start-up expected around one year later. A build tempo of 50 000 engines per annum is projected by 2010, and these power units will be suitable for fitment into trucks up to 44 tons gross ratings, long-distance coaches and double-decker buses. Shaanqi Group, as a leading Chinese manufacturer of medium-heavy and heavy duty trucks and buses, is already using a small volume of imported Cummins ISM engines, and is expected to take up the majority of the new JV's production capacity. Cummins' East Asia sales structure is to handle the outside marketing of the remaining Xi'an Cummins products. 

It is not clear whether this latter announcement will have any direct impact on the future availability of the Cummins ISM/ISMe engine family in the US and Europe after the next round of EPA and Euro4 standards take effect. However, it has become obvious that Cummins, with 20 facilities and six manufacturing sites in China, is looking to its Asian operations and production volumes as significant contributors to its future prosperity. China is progressively phasing-in progressively more demanding emission controls, but tends to lag slightly behind the First World in this respect, and implements the standards on a differentiated regional, rather than a national, basis. This should make it possible for engines complying with earlier US and European standards to live on in that market even after cut-off dates in the West have been passed. There are also important potential implications for some export markets, where less sophisticated Chinese trucks could emerge as increasingly attractive propositions as their manufacturers become more active internationally. 

Nissan Diesel News.

Et tu, Foden?

Slowly, but surely, the drama that was once the great British commercial vehicle manufacturing industry, continues to play itself out. Back in July, a short statement from US owner PACCAR noted that production of the Foden Alpha range was under review for termination at the Leyland, Lancashire plant, to which it had been transferred from its original Cheshire home during 2000, in order to make room for additional DAF build capacity. 

Edwin Foden Sons and Company Limited was founded in 1887, and was soon producing "superior" steam wagons for civilian and military customers. During the 1920's family dissent over the future of steam traction led to the departure of Edwin's son, E.R. Foden to found the truck-manufacturing company which bore his initials. Shortly thereafter, Fodens themselves switched progressively to diesel vehicle production, followed by a considerable amount of military vehicle and munitions manufacture during World War II, and a fair degree of commercial success after the war. By the end of the nineteen-seventies, however, the company's financial position had deteriorated, and it went into receivership. It was then purchased by the American truck manufacturing group, PACCAR, to become the base for their first serious foray into the European market.

Foden enjoyed many years of success in South Africa, and was one of the most favoured marques of the United Transport group (now Unitrans) prior to the era in which they standardized almost entirely on Mercedes-Benz. Foden's last period of local prominence was during the nineteen-seventies and early eighties, after which the compulsory local content programme effectively killed off the Cummins and Gardner engine options favoured by the local transport community, and removed the main reasons for Foden's continued existence in this market. 

Back in Europe, PACCAR had also acquired the much larger Dutch DAF operation in 1996, followed by the Leyland truck plant shortly thereafter. Rapidly, the central thrust of PACCAR's European operation shifted, understandably, to DAF, but Foden was progressively rationalized, and kept alive, until now. Unfortunately, it now seems that the end is near, as dealers in the UK are reported to be actively canvassing the Hino importer in Ireland for an alternative franchise. The famous "kite" emblem, it seems, will soon be consigned to history alongside so many of the other famous British marques of yesterday.

New Medium Hinos.

The implementation of Japan's new "Long-term Exhaust Emission Regulations", with their requirement for greatly reduced particulate matter emissions, during 2005, has necessitated an understandably significant engineering response from the local truckbuilding community. These new standards limit PM levels to 0,027g/kWh, which represents a 90% reduction over the permitted value in force prior to October, 2003.

In order to ensure full compliance by its Ranger medium truck range, Hino has introduced new engine specifications The new power lineup consists of a four-cylinder J05D unit of 4,7-litre displacement, a five-cylinder, 6,4-litre J07E, and, from October, a 6-cylinder, 7,7-litre J08E, all of which are of in-line configuration, and equipped with turbochargers and intercoolers.. The emissions control technology applied to these units has been incrementally developed from the 2003 specification level and now reportedly includes Exhaust Gas Recirculation, Hino's DPR (diesel particulate active reduction) filtration system, a newly-developed catalyst to incinerate the particulates, and a new high pressure common rail fuel injection system. 

Although export models of the Ranger series cover the payload spectrum up to around eight tons, domestic Japanese market variants are mainly utilized for four ton "Just-in-Time" delivery applications. 

New Roadrangers.

What, exactly, is a "Roadranger"? Older readers might say, "Why, of course, it's a Fuller gearbox!", but they'd only be partially correct. Since 1998, American specialist truck component manufacturers Eaton Corporation and Dana Corporation have been using the Roadranger brand to jointly market a full range of products including axles, brakes, clutches, suspensions, driveshafts, traction control, collision warning systems, tyre pressure control systems and even lubricants. And, of course, transmissions. The 50 year-old heritage of Roadranger as a highly respected gearbox brand was too important an asset to be ignored in this joint marketing effort.

Strangely enough, Eaton have tended to play down the "Fuller" name in recent years, particularly once new synchromesh range-change gearbox designs had started to displace the traditional constant-mesh units as their main sales thrust. However, with the latest Ultrashift automated transmission models now entering the market, "Fuller" is right back in the spotlight, and, in the case of the LHP (Linehaul High Performance) unit, the magic letters "RT" (the old Roadranger twin-countershaft designation) have even found their way back into the promotional copy.

The UltraShift LHP is a two-pedal controlled, 14-speed, automated transmission designed for on-highway linehaul applications. It has an input torque capacity of over 2 300 Nm and can be used at Gross Combination Mass ratings of up to 50 tons. It uses a system of "gathered ratios" at the upper and lower ends of the speed range, to handle a variety of load and terrain conditions. The low starting gear has a reduction of 12,2:1, and three usable reverse gear ratios are provided to facilitate maneuvering and trailer coupling. The UltraShift system employs shift-by-wire technology, and SAE-J1939 protocol for its interface with the electronic engine control function.

Lower down the mass scale, Roadranger is also introducing the UltraShift HV fully automated transmission. Designed for vehicles grossing around 15 tons, with an input torque limitation of 900 Nm, this unit is being targeted at operators in the local delivery, public utility and recovery fields of activity. The UltraShift HV is intended to provide fuel economy and maintenance benefits over the more traditional torque converter/planetary gear automatic transmissions used in this class of vehicles, and also incorporates "Hill Assist" to prevent rollback on grades of up to 10% severity. 

Both the new LHP and HV UltraShift transmissions were put out initially on a Limited Quantity Release basis. In the case of the heavier gearbox model, 400 units were released for sale prior to the commencement of volume production in the fourth quarter of 2005, whereas 500 of the HV models will be made available to bridge the gap until the inception of free supply in April, 2006.