Is anyone unlucky enough to have these new devices fitted to their truck ? More importantly can anybody please explain why the bloody things are being fitted ?
Apologies for having a “Hasler moment"but,when on cruise and some numpy pulls in front of you the system activates the brakes on the truck,obviously suited for the blind drivers amongst us but without a brail readout.Never being a driver to sit in the hammer lane I try to get relatively near to the vehicle in front before pulling out and passing,not with these devices cos it’ll kill your momentum.As for the collision alert system,well that’s just a joke,driving through a storm today the freakin thing was flashing and bleeping at every raindrop it detected “Collision Alert” “Collision Alert”,a tad tedious after 30 seconds let alone 30 minutes.Just to compound the situation,the idiots who installed the kit have mounted the"eye” where the towing pin should be,so if/when I get stuck/breakdown I’m buggered !!
I can only deduce that there must be a few politicians on the board of directors,desperately trying to mandate this sort of crap at great expense to the trucking industry just to line their already fat wallets.
Valid explanations welcome,because one of the reasons we moved here was to be rid of this sort of B/S…Ah,must be Kokanee time
Trikki Rikki,try reading Carnegies “how to win friends and influence people”,might find some useful hints rather than the constant b/s of "if you don’t like it F-off.
You need to get used to it, I have to admit it has probably saved my life more than once and the life of the idiot that chose to pull in front of me and stop.
When you are on cruise control it will sit at your selected speed, the screen on the radar system is blue, as you get near a vehicle in front it will turn green, showing how far in front that vehicle is and the speed of that vehicle, if you are going faster then you need to change lanes to pass and you will sail on by without any problems, if you don’t pull over to pass and you get withing stopping distance, the screen turns yellow and your speed drops to match the vehicle in front, if the evhicle is going much slower than you your engine brake comes on, if thats not enough the foot brake comes into action. If the twonk in front stops as some twonks do, the screen truns red an alarm sounds and your brakes come full on.
If you are not in cruise you can almost tailgate the vehicle unless you get really close, you can keep your foot well down and get speed up to pass when safe to pull out but ! again if you get in thats red zone your brakes come hard on.
It’s all a matter of getting used to it, now that I have I actually like it.
Just a shame that not much happens when they do, all this technomumbojumbo is a waste of time with crap drum brakes, discs all around would save far more lives
Have discs all round,roll stability on the trailers(although head office is alerted if it activates),both good ideas,but really can’t see where the expense of Bendix is justified,and as it only works on cruise will not be working for 7 months out of twelve.
Question for drivers of KW T800"s,mine wanders like hell on the highway and I’m constantly correcting it,sometimes it can be quite dramatic.Are they all like that ? Could it be an allignment issue with only 57000km’s ?
It still alerts you to the distance when the cruise is not on and still changes through the colours and warnes you when you are inside the safe stopping distance, it just doesn’t apply the brakes.
flat to the mat:
Have discs all round,roll stability on the trailers(although head office is alerted if it activates),both good ideas,but really can’t see where the expense of Bendix is justified,and as it only works on cruise will not be working for 7 months out of twelve.
Question for drivers of KW T800"s,mine wanders like hell on the highway and I’m constantly correcting it,sometimes it can be quite dramatic.Are they all like that ? Could it be an allignment issue with only 57000km’s ?
Could be an alignment issue fresh out of the box
Most likely to be the thrust angle, which is the angle between the two drive axles, they need to be closer together on one side than they are on the other, this way they fight against each other all the time, this may sound strange, but it’s needed to allow for the crown in the road, if you do a rough measurement of the distance between the two tyres and it’s the same both sides, there’s your problem
Tnx Mark,the drives are rounding off on the inside of the tread whilst still being square outside.Trouble is trying to get any sense from the dealership,bunch of clueless pricks as is the norm nowadays.I’ll try an allignment first,and go on from there,for sure if I were to mention thrust angles it’d be met with a blank stare .
Truck dealerships are where the phrase ‘jack of all trades and master of none’ originated
You have a pretty severe problem if you have tyre wear that quickly, although it may help getting it set up properly now. A good alignment shop will take one look at them tyres and know exactly what is causing the problem, a bad one will put it on an alignment rack and adjust things to factory spec without taking any notice of the story the tyres are telling
newmercman:
Truck dealerships are where the phrase ‘jack of all trades and master of none’ originated
You have a pretty severe problem if you have tyre wear that quickly, although it may help getting it set up properly now. A good alignment shop will take one look at them tyres and know exactly what is causing the problem, a bad one will put it on an alignment rack and adjust things to factory spec without taking any notice of the story the tyres are telling
We had 2 identical trucks arrive at the same time.and they both handle the same way ie dreadfully The second truck has about 40000 km’s on it now,I’ll check it’s tire wear next time I see it.Just hoping it’s not typical of them cos it’ll be a bloody nightmare later in the year .
Check out the Michelin website, there’s a chart on there showing all different types of tyre wear and what causes what, (I learned a lot about tyres and alignment from that) use that as a way to show your shop or transport manager that there is actually a problem
I don’t think the T800 has a problem with handling usually, I only drove one at BFS, it was a heap of junk, but it went in a straight line
I drove a T800 at Big Freight and I don’t like the ugly things unless they are six wheeler tippers but I can’t knock the steering or handling.
Like all KW’s or Pete’s you should be able to steer with one finger even at 70mph.
There must be something wrong with yours.
T800’s are crap, how can anyone drive a truck that you can lean over and wind the passenger window down ? Whats the point of such a narrow drivers area with a sleeper behind blocking your vision ? … Did I mention they are ugly ?
wire:
You can reach over to passenger side from the drivers seat in an Aston Martin DB9. So what?
So I have far more room in the cab and if I stick my head out and look back I don’t have the view obstructed by a sleeper or stacks, it’s a full width drivers area.
Lol. … Yeah I know your right. I guess I’ve kind of got conditioned to the traditional layout now but I wouldn’t say no to one of those fat wide Pete 587’s.
wire:
You can reach over to passenger side from the drivers seat in an Aston Martin DB9. So what?
So I have far more room in the cab and if I stick my head out and look back I don’t have the view obstructed by a sleeper or stacks, it’s a full width drivers area.
I spend my time in the front of the cab sitting in the driver’s seat and when I want to see what’s behind me I look in the mirrors, I use exactly the same procedure in any lorry I drive, so the width of the cab itself is unimportant
The size of the bunk is a different matter entirely, in that case, I use the same criteria I use for engines…there’s no substitute for cubic inches
Pat Hasler:
T800’s are crap, how can anyone drive a truck that you can lean over and wind the passenger window down ? Whats the point of such a narrow drivers area with a sleeper behind blocking your vision ? … Did I mention they are ugly ?
The second truck has about 40000 km’s on it now,I’ll check it’s tire wear next time I see it.Just hoping it’s not typical of them cos it’ll be a bloody nightmare later in the year 
