The flagship of the manufacture’s severe duty line of vocational trucks, the 122SD suits specialty/heavy-haul, cane and oversized loads, along with mixers and dumps. New options announced at the 2015 Work Truck Show in Indianapolis are best suited for severe terrain and off-road applications: oil pan skid plates; 12-in. frame rails; threaded front suspension spring pins and bushing; and, heavy-duty bolted cross-members. Factory-installed front-bumper mud flaps and fog lights with rock guards are also available.
Freightliner engineers credit the 122SD’s standard features—reinforced aluminum cab and modifications for severe duty environments, among them—with contributing to uptime and dependability. With a GVWR of up to 92,000 lb. and a GCWR of up to 160,000 lb., the 122SD is available with manual and automated manual transmissions, plus powerful engines with ratings up to 600 hp and 2,050 lb.-ft. of torque. — www.freightlinertrucks.com
ECONOMIC DRIVERS
The Freightliner Trucks Hardest Working Cities campaign kicked off in early March to recognize the role vocational trucks, and the men and women who operate them, play in stimulating economies across the United States and Canada. Indianapolis was the first stop on the Hardest Working Cities list.
“We feel this is not only a great occasion for the Freightliner Trucks family to honor those who take our products to the next level,” says Daimler Trucks North America General Manager, Marketing and Strategy Diane Hames. “We’re more than a truck manufacturer, we give our customers tools to impact their communities, and it’s important to recognize the innovation taking place in cities large and small.”
“This will be an ongoing program to salute determination, innovation and job creation,” adds Freightliner Trucks Director of Product Marketing Mary Aufdemberg. “We see the impact of vibrant economies and how investments in construction, manufacturing and transportation help create stronger communities. We found a correlation between cities that indexed the highest and markets with the strongest vocational truck sales. It makes sense because whether it is a concrete mixer truck making runs to a construction site, a bucket truck maintaining utility lines or a delivery truck stocking restaurants, vocational trucks and people who drive them are tools that help keep communities thriving.”
Cities were chosen based on 11 different criteria ranging from impact on overall gross domestic product to growth in employment to the number of jobs in key industry sectors, including construction, manufacturing and logistics. Approximately 400 metropolitan census areas in the U.S. and Canada were analyzed. — www.HardestWorkingCities.com