2012 Laramie Longhorn/limited Edition 5.7l Auto Bright White Clearcoat on 2040-cars

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A beginner's guide to plowing snow with a heavy-duty truck

I live in a desert, so the only things getting plowed around here are mud flows and brewer neighbors. But I enjoy machinery and haven't plowed any snow since a "loaded" truck meant one with A/C and a CD player, so I jumped at the chance for a plow primer in a Ram HD on a Canadian airfield. Running a plow is like welding – the basics come quickly but experience pays dividends. The first thing to deal with is a frequently changing horizon because, stout as they are, even three-quarter-ton heavy-duty trucks will move up and down in front considerably with a 600-to-800-pound plow hanging off, and fast plow hydraulics rival some low-riders for bounce effect. Getting going is easy unless you forgot blocks and the plow froze to the ground, rookie. If you have to drive to your plowing assignment, blade height needs some experimentation to find the best cooling airflow; if you think sub-freezing temperatures negate that concern, remember you've installed what amounts to a 20-square-foot air brake up front that the truck has to overcome, and blowing snow could block some cooling air passages. Whether it's a "straight" blade or V design, always have it tilted to the right lest you catch a hidden post, solid mailbox, or edge of a snow bank. Most plow operators I spoke to rarely exceed 45 mph in transit because of cooling, front suspension travel, and common sense, and you should go even slower if you don't have some ballast like chains, extra fuel tanks, or a salt spreader to balance the load on the back. With trucks' relatively slow steering and all that weight up high, oversteer is best avoided. With a little clean space to get a run, stick it in Drive to gather momentum and lower the plow simultaneously to float, where the weight of the plow rests on and lets it run along the surface. Momentum is good until you hit something you didn't know about, at which point the plow's breakaway systems limit damage but your truck could still hit something big; caution never hurts. Start out at 10 to 15 mph, depending on consistency and depth, making a clean wave off one side. If you have to push it straight, as you slow coincidentally raise the blade at the bottom of the pile to shove it up higher. Carry too much speed here and you'll stop with an unceremonious thud. Common mistakes cited among a few experts were people pushing banks of snow rather than plowing it, and rushing the shift between Drive and Reverse, throttling up before the shift is completed.

2013 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year finalists announced [w/poll]

2012 is almost in the books and automakers are spending December gearing up for the 2013 auto show season, which tips off next month at the Detroit Auto Show. Traditionally, the latter opens up with the announcement of the North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year awards, and this year figures to be no different.
But up until this moment, we didn't know which six vehicles would be parked ahead of the stage as finalists, with executives and engineers waiting for the winners to be disclosed. Whittled down from October's "short list" of nominees (11 cars and 10 truck/utility vehicles), the finalists are as follows:
2013 North American Car of the Year:

Jeep and Ram could be spun off from FCA, says Marchionne

Jeep is surely the biggest single feather left in the cap of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles portfolio. Under Sergio Marchionne's leadership, Jeep went from fewer than 500,000 annual sales in 2008 to 1.4 million in 2016, and is on track for 2 million by 2018. Add in the brand's legacy, status as one of the most recognizable nameplates in the world, and rabid fan base, and Jeep has extraordinary monetary value to its parent company. Investors and analysts have certainly noticed Jeep's inherent value. According to The Detroit Free Press, Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas asked FCA chief Sergio Marchionne if he would ever consider spinning Jeep and Ram, FCA's dedicated truck brand, into a separate corporate entity, and he responded with a simple "Yes." Jonas estimated Jeep's worth in January of this year at $22 billion. Ram was valued at $11.2 billion. Marchionne has a history of spinning off brands while keeping them part of FCA's corporate umbrella. The most noteworthy example of this value maximization was with Ferrari, which now trades on the New York Stock Exchange and rakes in $3.4 billion in annual revenue and close to $435 million in net income, reports the Free Press. Marchionne still serves as chairman and CEO of Ferrari, and Fiat heir John Elkann owns 22 percent of the Italian marque's shares. Even if the offloading of Jeep and Ram into a separate entity would amount to little more than a profit-driven ownership change on paper, it would be huge news to the brands' loyal fanbases. In any case, such a move would likely take years to actually happen and probably wouldn't mean much at all to the products that Jeep and Ram produce. In other words, Jeep fans can keep the pitchforks in the shed ... for now. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.