Archive for August, 2008
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
One of the great things about RVs and motorhomes is that you can take your home with you as you travel instead of staying in a series of hotel rooms. However, you will have to arrange a place to park your RV though and most often that will be in a campground. So these are some rv camping tips that you will need to know to be able to camp successfully as you travel, and here they are:
* Probably the smartest investment that you can make for RV travel is to buy one or both of the major campground directories and use them regularly to map out your overnight stays in advance. It’s a good idea to make your camping reservations in advance just to be sure that you have a place waiting for you when you arrive, and both Woodall’s and the Trailer Life directories have loads of campgrounds listed that you can choose from. Quite a few are not repeated in both books, so it may be very advantageous to have them both if you are on the road quite a bit of the time.
* If you aren’t already familiar with a particular campground, it can be a wise move to only arrange a one night stay there even if you plan to be in the area for several days. The one night stay will help you decide if this campground is a good fit for you. Many used RV have bought multi-night packages to save money only to find that the campground was not what they had originally thought. So just making a one night reservation lets you become familiar with your camping arrangements and if all is well you can always get a multi-night package afterward. If the accommodations are not up to scratch, then you can just look elsewhere for the second night.
* You really should have a membership to the Good Sam Club for many reasons, but one of the big ones is that a membership in their club can get you 10% off on overnight fees at most campgrounds across the country. This essentially means that you would be staying free for every 10th night or so and if you travel a lot that can add up to quite a bit of money.
* For those that are over 62 and like to visit our country’s national parks, you can get a Golden Age Passport that costs only $10 for processing and will entitle the carrier to free entry to any national park across the country for life. It also gets you 50% off on all usage fees if you decide to stay overnight. Again, if you like to visit the national parks this can result in considerable savings over time.
Using these rv campers tips can help you save money and time and help you focus on the thing that you really want to do, enjoy yourself as you travel this great country.
Posted in RV | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Toyota Motor Corp. is considering exporting U.S.-made vehicles as it sees potential demand for its large pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles overseas.
Toyota, now No. 2 in U.S. sales behind General Motors Corp , is facing the unprecedented problem of excess capacity in the U.S. market as demand for large vehicles such as its Tundra pickup trucks and Sequoia SUVs has tumbled in the wake of record gasoline prices.
Better-selling new or used cars such as the Camry and the Corolla are not part of that consideration because Toyota “cannot build the cars any faster than right now in the United States.
Toyota is considering measures to minimize the work force reductions, such as relocation of workers at plants producing larger vehicles to its Georgetown, Kentucky, plant, which builds better-selling, better-mileage cars such as the Camry, Avalon and Solara.
The sales of Toyota cars in U.S fell 7.6 percent year-to-date through the end of July, with a 15 percent drop in truck sales.
To respond to fast-chancing consumer needs, Toyota last month announced a major overhaul of its U.S. manufacturing plans to shift to more fuel-efficient cars.
Toyota is still looking to resume truck production in early November, but it is hard to predict the exact timing due to volatile gasoline prices, which have prompted a consumer defection from trucks and SUVs.
Posted in car | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
When I was growing up you hardly ever saw custom wheels on trucks, they were seen mainly on sports cars but now you seem them on just about any kind of vehicle and on trucks in particular. Gone are the days when trucks were used as just utility vehicles for hauling or work related jobs. Now trucks are bought by people who have no intention of ever using them to haul or tow anything. In my area you are just as likely to look over and see a girl or woman driving a truck as you are a guy. The light truck market consisting of pickups, SUVs, and vans accounts for over a quarter of all new vehicles sold so there is also a high demand for custom wheels for these vehicles.
Perhaps more than any other vehicles, trucks have a wide array of accessories that can be added to change their appearance. Think about it, you have lift kits for raising, lowering kits, ground effects, tonneau covers, racks, tool boxes, light kits, and of course custom wheels. In many cases the people don’t even make these changes for a utilitarian reason, they just like the look. I have a friend who has his truck lifted over 8 inches, has large oversized tires, tow bar, Fog Lights, etc, and he has never been off the road with it! He just likes the look of the big truck and many people are just like him.
Custom wheels bring more than just added appearance; they can also give you a better ride and increased performance. Choosing the wrong wheels can conversely affect your results in a negative way and can even cause damage to your vehicle. The great thing about custom truck wheels is that due to their popularity you can find a wide assortment of wheels to fit any truck no matter if it is a Ford or a Nissan, Four Wheel Drive, or Two Wheel Drive. The aftermarket custom truck wheel market has a product for any vehicle whether foreign or domestic.
I like to shop for custom wheels online, just like with almost everything else you can really get some super deals buy shopping the many vendors available on the internet. In addition to the huge variety of choices you can also view the wheels and in some cases they even have a virtual 360 degree view available.
You can find classified truck wheels in any size you want and save really big if you buy tires and wheels together plus some dealers even offer free shipping. Remember, not only are you enhancing the appearance of your truck you are also increasing the performance and handling with the right tires and wheels so make sure you get the best fit for your truck.
Posted in truck | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
The best way to add value to your semi-trailer truck is to accessorize it. While these words may seem like a sales pitch by an accessory dealer, the fact is that often the first thing noticed by a potential customer for a trucker’s services is his equipment. If the truck, or the whole fleet for that matter, looks well kept and attractive, the impression of that business is positive. This is true for a tow operator, fruit and produce distributor, over-the-road hauler, even sanitation pick-up and septic tank services.
Pride in a job well done and concern for customer service is reflected in the way a big rig is maintained. This can accomplished with a simple but well thought out paint job, and can go to the extreme with elaborate lighting and chrome accessories.For example, semi truck wheels can be simply painted and decorated with lug nut covers, or they can be covered with a variety of wheel accessories like axle covers or complete stainless simulators. A more expensive choice would be aluminum wheels with stainless axle covers and lug nut covers.
Increase Safety and Looks with LED Lights,
Big Rig Accessories Make Long Hours Behind the Wheel Enjoyable,
Make that truck shine with chrome.
Posted in truck | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
Everyone chuckled. Beside our tour bus was a pile of used dump-truck tires. Each one was the size of a garage door and as thick as a car.
“Anyone who wants one can have one,” repeated our tour guide, with a smile. “As long as you take it away.”
I toured Syncrude’s property in Fort McMurray last month. Syncrude is the largest oil company in Athabasca. It’s really a syndicate of eight oil companies, all joined together in one massive venture to mine the oil sands in a big way.
It turns out, you can’t do much with an old dump-truck tire.
Syncrude uses a few of them to line the roadways in its mine; farmers use a few of them as cattle feedlots. Some get used in playgrounds. The rest – some 600 tires annually – pile up on Syncrude’s property, where tourists can gawk at them.
Syncrude uses the dump trucks to mine the oil sands. These dump trucks are the biggest in the world. They carry 400 tons of oil sand to the top of a mine. A monument overlooks one of the mines. It’s a dump-truck tire with a plaque from the Michelin Tire Company underneath. The plaque says, “This is the largest truck tire ever made.”
Since Syncrude started using dump trucks in the mid-1990s, its crude oil output has quadrupled and its stock price has gone up 1,500%.
Now Fort McMurray oil-sand miners face a severe shortage of dump-truck tires. A new dump-truck tire runs about $60,000. Tires last about 12 months. Each truck uses six tires at a time. That’s more than $360,000 in tire expenses per truck every year. Syncrude owns 90 trucks.
Here’s the thing: The tire’s cost isn’t the main concern of a mining company. It’s availability. Oil-sand mines cannot operate without a supply of brand new dump-truck tires. Without dump-truck tires, they’d have to close their operations… and lose billions of dollars. So I bet the oil companies in Athabasca would pay $100,000 for new tires… if it meant keeping their mines open.
Today, I recommend you look into another critical Athabasca supply line, natural gas. Like tires, natural gas is an essential resource for the oil companies. You simply cannot produce oil without it.
Posted in Dump trucks | No Comments »
Monday, August 11th, 2008
Isuzu is still in the pickup truck business, selling their version of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon compact pickup. Isuzu’s version is a likeable truck, though the model range is limited.
At the first glance, the Isuzu i-series is often perceived, not quite correctly, as a warmed-over General Motors product. While the i-series is more or less identical to the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, the fact is that Isuzu did have a hand in the truck’s development. The deal was that Chevy and GMC would have first shot at selling the truck in North America while Isuzu would sell a slightly different diesel-powered version called the D-MAX in the Asia-Pacific region, which have been very marketable.
Isuzu started selling the i280 and i350 in the US in 2006, though sales were a fraction of those of the Colorado and Canyon. Part of the problem was lack of choice. The i-series came in just two versions: The faour-cylinder manual-transmission extended-cab 4×2 i280 and the five-cylinder automatic crew-cab 4×4 i350. Chevy and GMC continued to sell their versions of the truck with a wide variety of cabs, bed, engine, transmission, and driveline combinations.
The i290 has a payload capacity of just over 1500 lbs, whose towing capacity is 2,100 with the manual and 3,100 with the automatic, more than enough to haul a small boat, a couple of ATVs, or a utility trailer. Its bed width is 4′ 9″; bed length is 5′ for the crew cab and 6′ for the extended cab. Movable support cables allow the tailgate to be held half-way open and bear weight in this position.
Posted in truck | No Comments »
Friday, August 8th, 2008
Mack Trucks. is now offering a new first-of-its-kind stability system, the Mack Road Stability Advantage by Bendix (Mack RSA) for concrete customers.
Designed to reduce incident potential and enhance profitability, the full electronic stability system is now available for mixer applications on the Mack Granite model - the number one selling heavy-duty Class 8 conventional straight truck in the U.S.
“We’re very proud to be the first heavy-duty truck manufacturer to offer this technology to vocational customers,” said Steve Ginter, Mack vocational products marketing manager.
“Concrete customer demand for stability protection is strong because mixers, in general, are recognized to have a high center of gravity and carry dynamic loads.”
Mack RSA uses the existing ABS wheel speed sensors, along with steering, yaw and lateral acceleration inputs, to deactivate the throttle and selectively apply the brakes in sharp curves, sudden lane changes, or obstacle avoidance maneuvers, reducing the potential of a rollover.
In conjunction with Bendix Commercial trucks Systems, Mack began offering full electronic stability technology on its highway vehicles late last year.
Posted in truck | No Comments »
Friday, August 8th, 2008
Most of us like traveling. Going to new places with friends and family is a prospect that excites many of us. But when we finally manage to get away from it all and land up in a new place, and after the excitement of the itinerary and the new locale wears off a little, it’s easy to start feeling a little homesick. After all, your home is where your heart is. And few places will ever match the warmth and comfort of one’s home.
It’s a strange predicament. How do you get away from home without really getting away from it? The simplest solution in such a case is to carry your home with you wherever you go. Fix a set of wheels to your house and tow it with you. Paradoxical as it may seem, with a motorhome, you can make the impossible possible.
Welcome to the wonderful world of RV motorhomes (RV, by the way, stands for Recreational vehicles in case you didn’t know.) Owning a Fleetwood RV is an experience to cherish for a lifetime. It’s just like traveling with your home as you from location to location and explore your country. RV motorhomes come in two distinct varieties - towables and motorized. Towable RVs include such variants as the travel trailer, the fifth wheel and the tent trailer. A more recent addition to this category is the toy hauler, which features both ample living areas and a secure place to keep your favorite ‘toys’, like ATV’s and motorcycles. A towable RV motor home is designed to be towed by a pick up. It therefore provides the added flexibility of having a car that can be easily separated from the RV and put to independent use.
The real fun with RV motorhomes begins with the motorized kind. These are the bigger, better boys of the pack, and also among the more expensive ones. A motorhome, as it is popularly called, can belong to any of 3 Classes. Class A Motorhomes are either gas or diesel powered, with the diesel Class A motorhomes being referred to as Diesel Pushers and often the most expensive and luxurious of the RV types. Class B Motorhomes or van conversions are a large self-contained van, which includes living accommodations, and are the smaller version of the motorhomes. Class C Motorhomes are built on a truck chassis. They are cheaper than the other two types, yet offer excellent amenities and ample space.
Posted in RV | No Comments »
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
In less than two years, Volvo Construction Equipment has successfully launched over 40 new products, such as B-series wheeled and crawler loaders, B-series motor graders, a large range of E-series wheel loaders - all equipped with Volvo engines - B-series compact wheel loaders and compact excavators, as well as the internally developed backhoe loaders.
For the first nine months of 2003, the company’s net sales reached SEK16,655 million. This represents an increase of six per cent compared to the same period in 2002. Volvo CE was able to increase its share of the total market in several important product and geographical areas.
Over the years, Volvo Construction Equipment innovations such as drastically reduced service requirements on articulated haulers, torque parallel linkage, an electronic monitoring system for wheel loaders and the Care Cab have given the company a distinct competitive advantage.
Superior productivity and economy, reliability, quality, operator comfort and safety, service life and serviceability all are aspects that Volvo Construction Equipment emphasises in the design of its machines.
Volvo Construction Equipment is one of the world’s leading players in the construction equipment industry with production on four continents. The company’s product range includes wheel loaders, excavators, articulated haulers, motor graders and compact equipment. A variety of ’soft product’ offerings including financing programs and maintenance plans are also available.
Volvo Construction Equipment distributes its products to customers in over 100 countries, mainly through an independent dealer network and in parallel with a recently launched rental program. The products are primarily used in construction, including building and civil engineering, aggregate operations, quarries, industrial applications, forestry and rental/plant hire.
Volvo Construction Equipment became a wholly owned subsidiary of AB Volvo in 1995. The same year, Groupe Pel-Job, a manufacturer of compact equipment, was acquired. In 1997 the Canadian manufacturer of road graders, Champion Road Machinery Ltd, was incorporated into the Volvo Construction Equipment. In May 1998, Volvo acquired Samsung´s construction equipment business.
Posted in construction equipment | No Comments »
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
Dump Truck Equipment Leasing may fall under the more general leasing category of Heavy Equipment Leasing (meaning, dump trucks are classified as heavy equipment like bulldozers, backhoes, and excavators) or Commercial Equipment Leasing. The numbers show that more than $3 billion in construction equipment (like dump trucks) are leased annually by US companies alone. Why pursue Dump Truck Equipment Leasing?
Some companies opt for Dump Truck Equipment Leasing because they are trying to expand the business and need their existing cash flow for this. Others may choose Dump Truck Equipment Leasing because their existing equipment suddenly failed to function (due perhaps to old age or defects) so they need functional equipment quickly to keep operating. Dump Truck Equipment Leasing is also good for companies that want to gain a financial edge over their business rivals by being able to reap savings thru leasing equipment (as opposed to buying.) Dump Truck Equipment Leasing would probably appeal to contractors in the construction business that will always need dump trucks (whether to deliver materials or to cart away construction project debris.)
If you get lucky or are just plain smart about choosing a lender, you might be able to get a used Dump Truck Equipment Leasing arrangement customized to your business situation. This is very important because businesses (even those in the same industry) may experience different business cycles, and cash flow patterns, while company owners may have different ideas of what constitutes as a sufficient budget. Construction projects are sometimes seasonal in nature, so you need a Dump Truck Equipment Leasing arrangement which can give you the flexibility of adjusting payments to the months when business is peaking and you can afford the payments on the Dump Truck Equipment Leasing arrangement.
Some lenders may offer a very quick processing time (maybe even as fast as 24 hours sometimes) which gives company owners who are in a hurry an advantage for acquiring their dump trucks quickly. If you have the right documentation on hand, you could find yourself signing your Dump Truck Equipment Leasing contract fairly soon after submitting the leasing requirements.
Be sure though that the leasing options the Dump Truck Equipment Leasing arrangement you enter into has the right provisions you were seeking. For instance, if you are expecting to purchase the truck after the lease term has been completed, look carefully through the contract to make sure that that stipulation is there.
Posted in truck | No Comments »
