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Modine Engine-Cooling System Helps Improve Truck Aerodynamics

25 October 2000

Modine Side-By-Side Engine-Cooling System Helps Peterbilt Improve Truck Aerodynamics

    RACINE, Wis.--Oct. 24, 2000--Peterbilt recently celebrated the first anniversary of its Model 387 truck, a vehicle that is noted for its bold, aerodynamic design featuring a sleek, dramatically sloped hood.
    Modine Manufacturing Company helped make that design possible by providing Peterbilt with a space-saving, side-by-side style of engine cooling system. Typically, the radiator and charge-air cooler in an engine-cooling system are mounted front-to-back.
    The Modine cooling system in the Peterbilt truck is the first fully engine-mounted system in a truck application and the first application of the side-by-side style in the heavy-truck (Class 8) market. Modine pioneered the application of side-by-side engine-cooling modules to solve clogging problems in the bus market back in 1991, when air-to-air charge-air cooling came on the scene.
    "Engine-mounting reduces the relative movement between the fan and the cooling system. This in turn permits the truckmaker to reduce shroud clearance, resulting in better airflow," explained Gregg Olson, product and application engineering manager, Modine Truck Division. Tests showed that there was an 18-percent increase in performance over the previously used system.. The system also weighs about 29-percent less and is significantly more durable. It is also easier to service -- remove and repair time on the old system took six and a half hours. The new system takes only one and a half hours.