Kenworth Truck Co. will build liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered trucks in Renton beginning next year.

The Kirkland-based subsidiary of Paccar Inc. (NASDAQ: PCAR) will build its Kenworth T800 LNG trucks using fuel system technology from Westport Innovations Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Westport technology will be installed in the Cummins ISX 15-liter truck engine.

Kenworth and Westport previously teamed up to offer the LNG-powered Kenworth trucks in an aftermarket conversion process on trucks used by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Those California ports recently approved a $1.6 billion plan to replace nearly 17,000 heavy-duty trucks that serve the ports with LNG-powered vehicles by 2012.

Westport’s LNG fuel system, according to Kenworth, is the only alternative fuel technology eligible for financial support as part of the ports’ new program.

Uncovered garbage trucks can no longer use the South Road Properties (SRP) road in going to the Inayawan landfill starting Monday.

Nagiel Bañacia, SRP’s newly appointed chief executive officer, announced Tuesday that the city will ban all uncovered trucks at the SRP to keep the area clean.

“This will keep the SRP area clean and free from falling garbage and filth,” Bañacia said.

Banacia said he noticed uncovered garbage trucks from the Department of Public Services (DPS) and the different barangays (villages) using the SRP road in going to the landfill.

Since the trucks were not covered, the garbage fell on the road. This happened especially to speeding trucks.

Banacia said the maintenance crew at the SRP spent more time cleaning the area of fallen garbage.

Banacia said cleanliness in the SRP area is important because this is the city’s prime project to attract investors.

He said he made the recommendation to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena who agreed to his proposal to ban uncovered trucks.

Banacia said the ban also applies to other types of uncovered trucks like hauler trucks and dump trucks carrying sand and gravel.

“If they want to use the SRP road, they should cover their trucks,” he said.

Starting Monday, Banacia said checkpoints will be posted at different entrances of the SRP.

Barangay captains were all notified.

Banacia said DPS chief Dionisio Gualisa is aware of the new rule.

Banacia added that by Monday, strict traffic rules will also be implemented in the SRP to avoid accidents, like the wearing of helmets for motorcycle riders, and backriders should be limited to just one person.

The mountain of twisted metal and debris scattered along the Trans-Canada Highway in the Alberta Rockies looked like the scene of a plane crash to crews who worked Thursday to carefully pry apart wreckage from a spectacular chain-reaction collision involving five semi-trailer trucks.

Three people in one vehicle died and five others received non-life threatening injuries when five, fully loaded transport trucks collided around 9 p.m. Wednesday along a narrow, dark stretch of single-lane highway about two kilometres west of Lake Louise in Banff National Park.

“One like this, it’s a little bit like a plane crash because those trucks just came apart,” said Douglas Kerr, area highways manager for Parks Canada on Thursday.

“I’ve seen many accidents involving transport trucks but to have five of them at the same time in the same location is quite unusual,” he said.

The curving stretch of highway that winds through some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in the Rockies was strewn with a chaotic jumble of debris from the crash — the impact so great that material being hauled by the trucks was flung about 350 metres, he said.

RCMP are still investigating what may have caused the collision in an area that is used as a main route for transport trucks.

Investigators know that all the vehicles slammed into one another within the space of a few minutes.

“It appears the first west-bound semi lost control and jackknifed across the road which caused a collision with an east-bound semi,” said Constable Brad Malacko.

“From there a second west-bound semi collided with the two first involved in the impact, then a second east-bound semi collided with that,” he said.

The driver of a fifth semi managed to avoid hitting the tangled pile of transport trucks but struck some debris and hit the ditch, Constable Malacko said.

The road conditions at the time weren’t particularly icy and the area had not had snow in the 24 hours before the collision, he said.

Police are investigating whether excessive speed or mechanical issues may be factors. Constable Malacko said it’s not believed the driver of the first semi fell asleep or slammed on the brakes to avoid wildlife on the road.

“He was probably going a bit too fast for the road conditions,” he said.

No names have been released and RCMP are refusing to say which provinces the trucks may have been from.

The highway was closed after the collision and remained closed Thursday while crews worked to clear the debris.

One trucker was airlifted to hospital in Calgary, suffering from broken bones, another was taken to hospital in Banff and was then released, while three others were treated on the scene for scrapes and bruises, Constable Malacko said.

“Basically we’re in the mountains and we have winter driving conditions. People need to drive for winter driving conditions,” Constable Malacko said.

The operators of at least two front-end loaders brought in to help clear away the debris had to carefully avoid toppling into steep ditches on either side of the highway filled with nearly two metres of snow, said Mr. Kerr.

“It’s a fairly confined area so there’s only so much equipment that you can operate at a scene like this,” he said, adding he hasn’t seen the crash site, but workers provided him with detailed descriptions.

The loaders slowly jockeyed back and forth across the narrow highway, scooping up bucket-loads of cultured stone which was flung out of one of the trucks and onto the road.

“A lot of it is unsafe, so you just can’t go in there and start working. You’ve got to understand what may still fall down,” said Mr. Kerr.

“It’s a lot of steel … so you’ve got to be very careful when you send people in there that they don’t get in there trying to deal with it,” he said.

Four large wrecking trucks and several tractor-trailer units hauling flat-bed trailers were brought in from as far away as Golden, B.C,. and Calgary to pry apart the cabs of the badly damaged semis and haul the debris away.

Tractor trailers like the ones involved in Wednesday’s collision can weigh as much as 63,000 kilograms and be almost 17 metres long, Kerr said.

Road conditions at the time of the collision were in fair to good winter driving condition and the road, which had compacted snow, had been recently sanded, Mr. Kerr said.

There’s a high proportion of commercial transport trucks that use that stretch of highway and Kerr estimated 8,000 vehicles per day use it.

The posted speed limit in the area is 90 kilometres per hour.

Emergency crews, including RCMP, volunteer fire departments and ambulance crews from Lake Louise and nearby Field, B.C., had to work in inky blackness Wednesday to find the bodies of the three people who were killed, and to extract the injured from the wreckage.

It shouldn’t have happened- another answer to a question nobody asked, but it happened. The El Camino is looking to make a U.S. comeback tour. The new El Camino is expected to be badged as a Pontiac, and sold in the U.S. as a derivative of the Austrailian “ute” platform. Shades of the “GTO” methinks.

Called the “G8 ST,” the new vehicle will be made available with GM’s corporate 6.0 liter V8, and nothing else. Details on further options, colors and accessories have not been revealed yet, but expect the Elky, err, G8 to cost around 30 large. Yep, 30 grand for a pickup truck, uh, car with no ground clearance, a gas-hog V8, two seats, and ho-hum styling. One has to be a little leery of the announcement, as (formerly) DCX’s Magnum was cut after just a few short years, and the revived Subaru BRAT (Baja) was a dismal failure. Oh well, best of luck to ‘em- mebbe they can throw in a few George Thorogood CDs to complete the package. In the mean time, I’ll break out my best wife beater and a tall boy to celebrate.

In the teens and 1920s, the Locomobile 48 was a mighty road giant, a car of top quality, built to last. There were lesser models of the Locomobile as well, offered during the mid-’20s when Billy Durant and Durant Motors had control of the company. But the 48 and nearly as big 90 were the stars of the Locomobile galaxy.

The 48 was so good, in fact, that the corporate heads decided to continue it, virtually unchanged, from the teens right up to the last of the 1929 Locomobiles.

When I was a kid in Oakland, Calif., I was really quite interested in old cars, and carefully read the Tribune auto classified ads — even at age 10 — looking for an occasional old car offered for sale. One day I saw a Locomobile in the classifieds. The odd name intrigued me: Was it half-locomotive and half-car?

It was the first time I’d heard of one, and I asked Mom if she would drive me over to see it. She didn’t, but she did allow me to go to see a yellow and black ‘37 Cord Coupe (a rare body type — only two coupes were built). I went there, sat on the curb near the two-of-a-kind Cord and drew a picture of it (which I colored in with crayon after I got back home).

As for Locomobiles, no others popped up in the classifieds, and I never knew what that mysterious marquee looked like until a few years later when I began collecting old-car advertisements.

Until you saw this picture and story, had YOU heard of a Locomobile? Old cars can be very interesting!

Here is a automotive site where u can find Used trucks for sale with huge database of new and old trucks with hundreds of Truck dealers at One Stop.

Much of Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC’s future success will depend on customer reaction to the latest upgrades of their full-size pickup trucks introduced to the press Sunday during the North American International Auto Show here.Ford showcased the 2009 model-year version of its keystone vehicle, the F-150. The truck has been the best selling full-size pickup truck for 30 years, according to the company, but its leadership cushion has been shrinking over the past few years as competitors, most notably Toyota, have been closing the gap.

The 2009 F-150 will have more rear seating room, more carrying and towing capacities, an integrated trailer brake controller, trailer sway control, new safety features and a new high-end trim level among its upgrades.

The Dodge Ram 1500 plays an equally important role for the Dodge division as part of the now privately owned Chrysler. The latest version of the Dodge Ram 1500, also a 2009 model-year, will have a crew cab option, the first for this full-size truck. Other features include more power and torque from the optional 5.7 liter Hemi V8, a new coil spring rear suspension for better ride and handling, and upgraded interiors, a response to customer complaints about the current offerings, company officials said.

Both models will begin production later this year and be available in the fall.

See the March issue of LIGHT & MEDIUM TRUCK for complete coverage of these models and other vehicles introduced at the show.

It may be more than a decade until technologies such as electric vehicles can have an effect on worldwide demand for oil, so General Motors Corp. is putting its near-term energy-saving focus on ethanol, Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and chief executive officer, told attendees Sunday at the North American International Auto Show here.GM is partnering with Coskata Inc., a Warrenville, Ill., company that has developed processes for making ethanol out of many degradable products, Wagoner said. He did not provide details, but a company spokesman said later that GM is a part owner of Coskata.

Ethanol is a “temporary solution” to the need to reduce petroleum use, but with six million vehicles in the United States that could run on E85, it “offers a quick alternative,” he said.

Wagoner said the federal government should do more to develop a unified energy strategy and to encourage ethanol use by helping to increase the number of ethanol fuel stations. “It’s time for the [United States] to address this matter. It’s eminently doable,” he said.

Wagoner said GM would continue its research into fuel cells and other alternative power systems. GM has several gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles on the market and is about to introduce a hybrid Chevrolet Tahoe full-size sport utility vehicle.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. said U.S. auto sales fell in December, capping the worst year in a decade, and predicted that 2008 probably won’t be any better, Bloomberg News reported.

GM’s sales of cars and light trucks dropped 4.4% from a year earlier. Ford’s total tumbled 9.2%, while Toyota’s fell 1.7%, Bloomberg said. Toyota moved up to second in annual sales, pushing Ford from the spot it had held since 1931.

Ford said it expects a “challenging” U.S. economy in 2008, and Toyota cut its annual sales-growth forecast, after Americans bought 16.1 million cars and light trucks last year, the least since 1998, Bloomberg reported. GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said the U.S. economy may be a “risk” to auto sales this year.

For December, Asian automakers’ share of the U.S. market rose to 41.3% from 40.4% a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Sales of Ford’s F-Series large pickups, the best-selling U.S. vehicles, slid 22% last month and 13% for the year, Bloomberg said.