Adrian Interiors at the 2015 NTEA Work Truck Show

The 2015 NTEA Work Truck Show was a huge success! Thank you to all who stopped by the Adrian Steel booth to talk with us and see the new vehicles and products!

2015 Savana Full Size Cargo Van

Savana comes with the most powertrain options of any full-size van, backed by a 5-year/100,000-mile transferrable powertrain limited warranty.² Savana also offers StabiliTrak^® to help you stay in control while driving.

POWERFUL ENGINE OPTIONS

Savana offers fuel options including gas, E85, compressed natural gas (CNG), and biodiesel. Powertrain choices include the most powerful diesel in its class, with 260 hp and 525 lb-ft of torque.


FlexFuel-Capable Engine Options:

• Vortec 6.0L V8 VVT
  

Additional Engine Options:

• Vortec 4.8L V8
• Vortec 6.0L V8 Compressed Natural Gas
• Duramax 6.6L V8 Turbo Diesel
  

STABILITRAK^® WITH TRACTION CONTROL

StabiliTrak^® monitors how your Savana is responding to your steering and braking commands, helps you stay in control and on track, and reduces the risk of vehicle rollover.

• Intelligently manages braking and throttle control
• Helps keep the vehicle on the path being steered
• Gives you control behind the wheel
  

COMPRESSED NATURAL GAS

Savana is the only full-size van offering a fully integrated compressed natural gas (CNG) system, helping reduce CO₂ emissions.

• Includes specially designed Vortec 6.0L V8 engines built for gaseous fuels, along with an integrated and warranted dedicated gaseous fuel system
• Offers two systems: a 3-tank system with a range up to approximately 200 miles³; or a 4-tank system with a range up to approximately 300 miles³
  

TOW/HAUL MODE

Tow/haul mode provides a dual-mode shift program that lets you hold gears longer, giving you more torque and providing a smooth transition between gears when climbing hills.

• Reduces excess shifting
• Allows you to select desired gears with manual range selection
• Enables activation of automatic grade braking
• Comes with 6-speed automatic transmission

See all the features and benefits at:  http://www.gmc.com/savana-cargo-van.html

A Day in the Life - W.J. Scott Company

To make a family business last from generation to generation, families pass down the best ethics and practices to keep their businesses the most successful that they can be. This is one thing that The Knapheide Manufacturing Company and W.J. Scott Company have in common.

Watch this video to find out why Matt and James Scott continue to choose Knapheide KUVs for their business for the fourth time in their company's history.

Head’s up! Clean Displays Help Keep Drivers Informed

Keeping eyes on the road 

aided by colorful, simplified HUD systems 

DETROIT – In the days of wearable technology that connects you to the world around you, the automotive head-up display, or HUD, is a seasoned veteran. General Motors pioneered the system decades ago, yet its design teams continue to refine both appearance and functionality to help reduce driver distraction.

“We know that keeping eyes on the road is critical to safe driving – and recent studies back this up,” said Jeff Boyer, vice president of GM Global Vehicle Safety. “Head-up displays can play an important role in maximizing ‘eyes-on-the-road’ time, and that’s what we’re striving for.”

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s 100-car Naturalist study showed that the odds of a crash or near-crash more than doubled when a driver’s eyes were off the road ahead for more than two seconds. In 2013, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a study that concluded that visual and manual distractions – such as dialing or texting on a handheld phone – increased between two and three times the risk of getting into a crash.

By projecting pertinent information onto the windshield and into the driver’s line of sight, head-up display systems allow drivers to keep their eyes on the road ahead instead of glancing at gauge clusters, infotainment screens and other devices. GM research shows drivers can spend 134 milliseconds shifting their gaze to a gauge cluster and back to the road. At 70 mph, a vehicle can travel 13 feet in that time, roughly the average length of a passenger car.

There’s far more work involved with developing HUD systems than just creating hardware: careful attention is paid to how the display looks and how it interacts with both the driver and other systems within the car.

“We have to make smart decisions about what content goes into the HUD,” said John Weiss, an interaction designer for HUD systems, “and how we can then present it to the driver in a manner that’s easy to read and intuitive to use.”

Simplified Screens
Today’s head-up displays, offered on more than 30 percent of GM vehicles sold in North America, can provide far more information than the first production system introduced on the 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. To reduce clutter, drivers can select from screens that focus on navigation, audio information, a tachometer, or simply a speedometer.

“The HUD screens are tailored to the driver,” said graphic designer William Thompson. “We do lots of prototyping, where we mock up different arrangements or graphics and get feedback from users.”

Fine Lines and Fonts
Compared to a gauge cluster or infotainment touchscreen, the head-up display space is constrained, forcing designers to work within a limited space. Designers inherently “think small,” but legibility restricts how far elements can be downsized. Icons are simplified, and lines must be at least four pixels wide. Fonts typically considered “grotesque,” – meaning letters are distinct and discrete from one another – are used.

Choosing the Right Colors

The use of a full-color screen allows designers more flexibility in selecting what colors to project. Each hue in the display is carefully selected to ensure it projects well and appeals to the driver.

Real-world testing helped the design team finalize color selections. White – the brightest color in the liquid crystal display, or LCD – is used for most fonts and displays. Winter testing helped find a hue that didn’t disappear against a snowy background. “We’ve done quite a bit of legwork to see what colors work best on the road,” said Weiss. “Some colors might look good when viewed on a computer screen but appear quite different when projected on a windshield.”

Simple Controls
Although the head-up display duplicates information shown elsewhere on the instrument panel, it doesn’t require a second set of controls. “You might have an incoming call notification pop up on both the gauge cluster’s driver information center and the head-up display,” says Weiss, “but you don’t have to dismiss each one separately. We make sure the control interface on the steering wheel can interact with both displays.”

In order to further reduce complication, HUD-specific controls largely focus on adjusting the screen’s height and brightness to the driver’s liking.

General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM, TSX: GMM) and its partners produce vehicles in 30 countries, and the company has leadership positions in the world's largest and fastest-growing automotive markets. GM, its subsidiaries and joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Cadillac, Baojun, Buick, GMC, Holden, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling brands. More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety, security and information services, can be found at http://www.gm.com  

GMC Sierra Pickup Truck | Exhaust Brake

For more information about towing and trailering with your Sierra pickup truck visit: http://www.gmc.com/sierra-1500-pickup...

Aluminum Work Truck Bodies

Aluminum bodies are becoming more mainstream. Though they have been around for decades, they have been hard to find and very expensive. A number of companies have made a commitment to building more aluminum bodies to help increase fuel economy and increase payload capacity. As a result, the cost of aluminum bodies has dropped significantly and now they are affordable for most customers. Lighter weight serves everyone and aluminum is light weight and yet retains its well-known strength.

Choose from a wide selection of aluminum Flatbeds, Stakebeds, Service Bodies, Contractor Bodies and Aluminum Dump Beds from manufacturers like Reading, ProTech, Highway Products, and many more every day.

GMC Pickups 101: Alphabet Soup of Acronyms

Explaining the GVWRs, the SRWs and the DRWs

Editor’s Note: For more than 100 years, GMC pickups have come in many varieties to suit a wide range of customer demands. From that have come a number of acronyms for various capacities and features. This third in an occasional series of “GMC Pickups 101” features explains those jumbles of letters.

DETROIT – Nearly every full-size pickup owner has a unique use for his or her truck. And considering the GMC Sierra’s 19 different cab and box combinations, the veritable alphabet soup of models practically has its own language of acronyms.

Some of the most important truck acronyms for owners to know are gross weight ratings. Exceeding any of a truck’s weight ratings is unsafe, and it’s a driver’s responsibility to know and avoid exceeding them.

“Nearly every vehicle performance attribute is designed and tested to one or more gross weight rating,” said Robert Krouse, General Motors trailering engineer. ”Body and chassis structural durability, powertrain and driveline durability, handling, braking, thermal and propulsion performance are all validated to specific ratings. That’s why it’s so important for owners to understand those limits.”

• GAWR, or Gross Axle Weight Rating, is the maximum amount of weight that can be placed on either a truck’s front or rear axle, including the weight of the truck, driver, passengers, equipment and cargo. A higher front GAWR generally means more capacity for accessories like plows, while a high rear GAWR relates to a higher payload.
• GVWR, or Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, is the maximum amount of weight for the entire truck and everything in it. This number isn’t simply each axle rating added together; for that to work, the owner would have to precisely load so that each axle weight rating is met just as the overall vehicle rating is met, which isn’t possible in real world conditions. As a result, GVWR is always lower than the sum of each axle to account for changes in weight distribution.
• GCWR, or Gross Combined Weight Rating, is the maximum weight of a truck and an attached trailer, plus everything in each of them. Some of a trailer’s weight is supported by the truck – this is known as tongue weight – a GCWR isn’t simply the GVWR plus the trailer’s weight. When attaching a trailer, an owner should factor tongue weight into a truck’s payload capacity.

“It’s very important that drivers observe these limits to maintain safe stopping distances,” said Krouse. “Not only that, overloading a truck causes excessive wear on suspension and brakes and could lead to engine or transmission failure.”

The 2013 Sierra’s highest GCWR is 30,500 pounds for a 3500HD Duramax DRW model. DRW, another truck acronym, applies only to 3500HD one-ton pickups. It implies a “dual rear wheel” option, as opposed to a “single rear wheel,” or SRW.

The option adds not only higher payload and weight limits, but also better stability with a large trailer attached. For a 2013 Sierra 3500HD 4x4 Crew Cab, a DRW option adds 5,700 pounds of available trailer weight rating and 1,011 pounds of payload capacity.

GMC has manufactured trucks since 1902, and is one of the industry's healthiest brands. Innovation and engineering excellence is built into all GMC vehicles and the brand is evolving to offer more fuel-efficient trucks and crossovers, including the Terrain small SUV and Acadia crossover.  GMC is the only manufacturer to offer three full-size hybrid trucks with the Yukon, Yukon Denali SUVs and the Sierra pickup. The Sierra Heavy Duty pickups are the most capable and powerful trucks in the market. Details on all GMC models are available at http://www.gmc.com/, on Twitter at @thisisgmc or at http://www.facebook.com/gmc.