Mack, SAF Holland Roll Out Extra-Heavy-Duty Options
MONTREAL — Equipment manufacturers Mack Trucks and SAF Holland rolled out extra-heavy-duty options here at the ExpoCam truck show, while an executive with trailer maker Manac Inc. pointed out that his customers often have to heat their dry vans.
Mack has been highlighting the drive axles it manufactures for its powertrain, but on April 20, the company launched its FXL steer axle rated for up to 16,000 pounds, up from a more customary 14,500.
The new axle, designed and engineered by Mack and manufactured by Meritor Inc., is available for order now on U.S. and Canadian Mack Pinnacle tractors, both axle-back and axle-forward.
“It’s designed significantly heavier so that our customers can improve their efficiency by transporting more payload at one time,” Roy Horton, Mack 's director of product strategy, said here.
Trucks working in oil field services are a prime target for the new front axle.
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SAF showed off a new family of severe-duty fifth wheel systems. Ron Froese, a company sales director, said the new connection systems will replace the 7000 series fifth wheels.
While the standard gross vehicle weight limit in the United States is 80,000 pounds, it is 115,000 pounds in Canada for a 6-axle tractor-trailer, and special heavy-haul loads can go higher.
Jonathan S. Reiskin/Transport TopicsFroese said the new fifth wheels can handle a maximum vertical load of 80,000 pounds, up from 70,000, and have a drawbar pull-capacity maximum of 200,000 pounds of force, up from 150,000.
Froese said the new systems go into production on July 1 at the company’s Wylie, Texas, plant. They are an option that can be selected through a truck maker.
The third new aspect is an easy-to-read plunger indicator that shows if the fifth wheel is properly locked in place after adjustment for extension.
The new systems are available in three different plate tops and in Kompensator and No-Tilt varieties.
SAF’s global headquarters is in Bessenbach, Germany, and its U.S. operations are run from Muskegon, Mich.
For Manac, a maker of vans, flatbeds and dump trailers based in St-Georges, Quebec, ExpoCam is in its back yard. Tom Ramsden, vice president of sales and marketing, said the company works both sides of the border.
About 90% of Canadian production stays in the country, he said, but Manac also has a plant in Oran, Mo., and 90% of what is made there stays in the United States.
Ramsden said the Canadian trailers are engineered to withstand minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, which doesn’t happen often, but minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit is not unheard of in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he said. Making sure that valves work and that metal can withstand corrosion from de-icing chemicals is a challenge.
In much of the country, dry vans need to be heated from mid-October to mid-April so freight does not freeze, Ramsden explained.
