NASHVILLE. Terminal tractor manufacturer Capacity Trucks highlighted its all-new Sabre at the 2015 Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) annual meeting, which will eventually replace the company’s current TJ (short for “tractor jockey”) 5000, 7000, and 9000 models.
During a press conference here at TMC, Capacity’s President Scott Lord noted that the company put the new Sabre – introduced back in January this year – through the equivalent of three years’ worth of durability testing at the Bosch Proving Grounds in South Bend, IN, with focused testing on doors and other components handled in Buchanan, MI.
[The video below shows what Capacity’s previous models endured during such testing.]
“We used 110,000 psi [pounds per square inch] military grade steel for the Sabre’s [c-channel] frame rails; steel strong enough for us to offer a 10-year structural frame warranty,” Lord noted.
Testing included 96,000 door opening and closing cycles, along with 96,000 boom hooking cycles. That test exposed the boom to 5.8 gravities worth of force, Lord pointed out; so much force that the testing equipment itself actually broke under the strain.
He added that the new Sabre is engineered to deliver the lowest total cost of operation or TCO to fleets via improved durability, reliability, serviceability, and especially driver ergonomics.
“We’ve been able to ‘tune’ this truck so the driver won’t feel bumps,” Lord (at right) explained, via the use of airbags under the cab and the vibration dampening design of the tractor’s seat. “We’ve also made some subtle cab changes, too; making the cab wider and raising their height of gauge display.”
He also noted that Capacity offers a wide range of customization for its “yard mules” so pricing for the new Sabre model will vary. Yet the base cost for an on-road Sabre configuration will remain the same as the TJ models it’s replacing: roughly around $95,000.
Capacity is a division of Allied Specialty Vehicles (ASV), a U.S.-based manufacturer that produces between 18,000 and 19,000 emergency vehicles, small buses, terminal trucks, recreation vehicles and street sweepers annually.
