Design, Maintenance of Key Components to Be Focus of TMC’s Meeting in Tampa

This story appears in the Feb. 7 print edition of Transport Topics.

Many of the maintenance professionals who keep U.S. truck fleets running smoothly will focus their attention on wider dissemination of the motor freight industry’s recommended engineering practices at the Technology & Maintenance Council’s annual meeting in Tampa, Fla.

TMC will also focus on regulatory developments affecting maintenance practices, most notably the latest federal stopping distance rule for big trucks. That rule will be phased in this year for some tractor configurations.

“If the meeting has a theme, it is the utility of the recommended practices in the industry,” said Carl Kirk, TMC’s executive director. TMC, part of American Trucking Associations, will hold the first of its two annual meetings Feb. 8 through Feb. 11.

The professional group’s core function is the creation of recommended maintenance practices for fleets and engineering practices for equipment manufacturers.

Lately, as big trucks and their components have become increasingly complex in their engineering, TMC has crafted more engineering recommendations for equipment makers than it has crafted maintenance recommendations for end-users, Kirk said.

That focus has prompted TMC to embark on a drive to “increase the awareness of the recommended engineering practices among component and vehicle manufacturers,” Kirk said last week.

TMC seeks to spread its engineering recommendations by encouraging more fleets to include them in the specifications they quote when they order trucks, Kirk said.

Several advanced engineering features that are common in late-model tractors, he said, have spawned particular technical and maintenance challenges for fleet mechanics.

For example, a truck’s auxiliary pin circuit — the source of electric power for anti-lock braking systems — remains a source of frustration for maintenance professionals more than a decade after trucks first were required to use ABS technology, TMC said.

Specifically, problems with the pin circuit can cause voltage drops that result in insufficient power delivered to the anti-lock braking system, which consequently hampers braking performance.

The council has created recommended engineering practices for equipment makers to help ensure adequate power at all times, and TMC’s Electrical & Instruments Study Group is planning an in-depth discussion about the issue on Feb. 9.

Besides anti-lock brakes, ABS also is integrated with advanced safety systems, including collision prevention and stability control.

The emission control systems found on 2007 and later model-year trucks also have created new maintenance challenges.

The modern emission-cleansing technology in these trucks creates additional under-hood heat. As a result, manufacturers had to improve heat dissipation techniques. They did so by linking cooling fans with a truck’s engine control module. This, TMC said, allows fans to operate at peak efficiency and to always turn on when they are needed most.

The council’s Engines Study Group will host representatives of fan-drive manufacturers on Feb. 10 to discuss why and how maintenance chiefs can transition their fleets’ ECM-controlled drive fans.

Meanwhile, TMC has said that equipment manufacturers are poised to reveal how they will meet the latest federal stopping-distance rule.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has cut the minimum stopping distance for big trucks by about 30%, and trucks now must be able to decelerate to a stop from 60 mph in 250 feet or less.

By the NHTSA rule, original equipment manufacturers must ensure that their trucks are compliant by model-year 2012.

After years of waiting, “manufacturers have committed to reveal their specific solutions with TMC at its annual meeting” this year, the group said.

There are some exceptions to the braking rule’s model-year 2012 phase-in. For example, the compliance deadline for 3-axle tractors with tandem drive axles and a gross vehicle weight rating of 59,600 pounds or fewer is Aug. 1.

It is widely anticipated by industry groups such as TMC that drum brakes — albeit larger ones than are used to comply with the old minimum distance — will remain a viable choice to comply with the new rule.

Aside from technical discussions, TMC will host its annual technology exhibition, which Kirk said will feature 300 vendors this year.

Bill Graves, American Trucking Associations president and chief executive officer, is scheduled for a Feb. 9 keynote address.

At the conclusion of the annual meeting TMC, Roy Gambrell, director of maintenance at flatbed carrier Truck It Inc., Franklin, Ky., will be installed as the group’s chairman.

Gambrell,  currently TMC’s vice chairman and chairman of meetings, will succeed Jerry Thrift, manager for new product development at Ryder System, whose one-year term as chairman is drawing to a close.