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A new class 8 heavy truck interior system has been developed. Included are an injection molded structural foam dash, a compact heater-air conditioner unit, a new cab electrical system, and a new trim package. The system has been implemented into both cab-over-engine and conventional model vehicles.

The concept power steering ‘road feel’ is normally described as driver interpretation of vehicle handling characteristics under different driving conditions. The objective of this paper is to provide an introduction to driver ‘road feel’ and to describe the joint efforts of TRW and Freightliner toward improved ‘road feel’ on Freightliner's new medium conventional truck.

Freightliner has introduced two trucks which are based on the premise that customer satisfaction is a top priority. The new generation Freightliner Conventional and the New Generation Cab-Over-Engine (COE) are the result of an examination of issues facing both customers and the trucking industry. Both models feature improved aerodynamics and fuel efficiency, as well as a wide range of enhancements for safety and comfort. After extensive testing of the new generation conventional and the new generation COE, Freightliner is confident that these trucks will set new industry standards under actual road conditions.

This paper describes application examples of RAMSIS, a 3-D CAD human model for ergonomic truck evaluations, to truck design. RAMSIS realistically simulates truck driver postures and locations, an important prerequisite to having confidence in subsequent ergonomic analyses. We show examples of how visibility evaluations compare to traditional SAE methods, arm reach and force evaluation; and an example for entry/exit evaluations.

The dynamic behavior of commercial vehicles has been studied over the last 25 years, mainly in Europe and America. Earlier tests took place as far back as the thirties with the handicap, that tire properties were vastly unknown at that point in time. Today adequate computer systems have yielded the capability for studies of complex vehicle systems. Although being by no means complete, the knowledge of dynamic behavior of automobiles is considered state of the art, while that for commercial vehicles is still largely empirical. Some of the unique problems of commercial vehicles are: huge payloads and a wide range of variable masses which create high side to side and or fore aft load transfers, due to a high center of gravity, mutual influence of the various units of a truck combination by means of couplings, e.g. different accelerations or decelerations of tractor and trailer.