When pickup trucks are brought in as a vehicle for automobile driving, critics proclaim that it assumes a typical oversized truck used for delivery perishable goods. Because car companies seek out the need for its hauling and towing purpose, they include special hybrid system to work as an entire multi-purpose vehicle conventionally. In addition, hybrid trucks release less emission of carbon dioxide up to 90 percent and hence, polluting less toxic gases in the environment.

Chevy and GMC are considered two of the best pickups that explore hardcore driving into a lifestyle expedition. Recently, car companies feature Ford-150, Toyota Tundra, Cadillac Excalade and Nissan Titan in the list of upstanding pickups but for Chevrolet’s Silverado model and GMC’s Sierra Hybrid are truly exceptional. Let’s bring the reality in the dynamic duo against the two best pickup trucks in the automotive market.

Both pickups are equipped with GM 2-Mode Hybrid system cruising to a 6-liter V8 engine with Active Fuel Management. The drivetrain transmit the same horsepower, handling and exterior dimension. They weigh in to a towing capacity of 6,100 pounds and are capable of running up to 30 mph. Headroom and legroom are the same for both hybrids. Dealing with destination charges and cost of refueling are relatively similar.

Alternatively, Chevy hybrid has limited options of a four-door crew cab. The one body style gives a perspective view in either the two or four-wheel drive. Unfortunately for GMC Sierra, it consumes the space in your garage compare to the Chevrolet Silverado. 

Chevy upgrades the 2012 design of the previous model in addition to excel the repertoire of pickups in the company. Refined tune-ups include a new navigation radio deliver, integrated hard drive, GPS system for navigation and the front chrome mesh grille.

However, GMC are preferred in terms of modern sleek look and its efficiency for driving. GMC Sierra opts for an affordable maintenance rate than Chevrolet’s Silverado. Towing and hauling capabilities are convenient for GMC according to car specialists who mount their vehicles for testing.

Buying the best pickup trucks can be pricy for some but if you consider their hybrid aspects for less carbon dioxide emission and its capabilities to tow and haul, it is worth the price.

Increasing the capacity of the turbo can be done in two ways; you can use a bigger turbocharger to go with the vehicle but you will need a lot of pipe work since the intakes, the exhaust, and the oil feeds are not in the same location. Another way to achieve added power without doing lots of costly modification in the engine is by using hybrid turbo.

A hybrid turbo is important if you want significant improvement on the performance of your modified engine. A hybrid looks the same as the standard unit but its inside has lots of modifications in the turbine housing and the compressor for aerodynamic purposes.  The alteration allows the turbo to roll up more efficiently and provide better power band.

The turbo uses bearings and these usually come in two kinds, the thrust and the ball bearings. The common turbo from the original equipment manufacturers (OEM) uses thrust bearing because they are usually cheaper, thrust bearings however are more brittle and they can easily fail when increased power is exerted resulting to oil leaks and other damages. Ball bearings on the other hand are more durable and can spool quicker to withstand pressure so they are preferred by most car tuners. Sometimes the original turbo housings are not designed to be replaced by ball bearings so performance parts and tuning companies create modified turbo units with a similar shape as the OEM counterpart to hold the upgrades. Some companies also started to incorporate ceramic bearings since it is more resistant to heat.

Since hybrid turbo is graded using power bands you should carefully consider your highest power before putting on a hybrid turbo. A remap is needed if you want to unleash the full power gain potential of your turbo since it’s not enough to just press on added air into the engine but in most cases a hybrid turbo can easily fit most vehicles using the standard map.

Abdullah Bazzi, the senior manager of Chrysler group, delivered a series of PHEV 1500 pickups as part of their hybrid mechanism project and in part of the national demonstration of a hundred forty vehicles. The demonstration is part of the plan of using the vehicles for the next 3 years and also to evaluate drive cycles, customer usage, thermal management, charging, impact and emission of electric grid and fuel economy. In addition, one hundred vehicles were delivered to about sixteen different cities for the past 6 months.

Bazzi, stated that cities were carefully analyzed, inspected and selected in order to help Chrysler Group LLC in collection of wide array of data. Bazzi also added that working in partnership with the local energy such as DTE would offer a wider combination of great rural and suburban driving plus the Michigan weather to compliment everything and would be ideal in the test cycle of the vehicles. Furthermore, the gradual charging will enable them to measure battery life and the impact to the whole mechanism and the charging efficiency. Ram Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle
The said Chrysler Group had started delivering Ram 1500 trucks to cities like Yuma, Ariz in the month of May year 2011 in taking the full advantage of the hot weather to conduct the thermal testing along the desert in the southwest. Cities like California, N.C., Mass, Boston, New York, Albany, Sacramento and San Francisco also received the demonstration of Ram 1500 hybrid trucks and in fact, the police department in New York also benefited from the delivery of 5 Ram 1500 PHEV trucks.

Trevor Lauer, vice president of the DTE Energy Renewables and Marketing  stated that the hybrid trucks provided a glimpse of the fuel saving mech that can be afforded; at this point, it is not only eco-friendly but also economical friendly as well. States and cities were especially selected to evaluate and conduct temperature test, geographies and diverse climates and urban traffic. The Ram PHEV 1500 trucks is said to have packs of lithium ion batteries and on-board charger for better performance and temperature management.  Added features include power AC generation, reverse power and full regenerative brakes and directional charging in capturing and storing more energy.

Mercedes Unimog U 5000

Truck News: Mercedes Benz Unimog-5000 Climbs to Volcanoes and Mountain Tops.  Unimog is known in the Mercedes Benz Company as Universal Motor Great. This is translated from the German language to English as Universal Motor Device.  Therefore, when everyone hears of a Unimog, they would easily recognize it as something from Mercedes Benz and it’s a form of truck automobile, which is definitely one of the strongest prides of the Mercedes Benz Motor Company today.

Universal Motor Device is a special type of truck which works and climbs up even the toughest terrains here on earth. Because of Unimog’s off the road capability, it can run its wheel even on the toughest and roughest terrains one could ever imagine.

There is no surprise why many travelers and tourists from all over the world pick to ride on this type of automobile as it is absolutely one of the best vehicles that can take them to the popular Torre del Filosofo, one of the world’s most famous in terms of great lava fields.

Getting on this place can be very challenging as the roads to take are rough and tough; ash fields and rough tracks await vehicles and passengers who are willing to climb up the mountain at 9629 ft. thinking of these things can make a person back off but not to the Unimog. As a matter of fact, Unimog only considers these terrains as ‘chicken’ to its strong and powerful engine and wheels.

Unimog comes with a flexible and strong ladder frame; it also comes with an all-wheel drive that comes with differential locks found in both axle portals.

Mercedes Benz Unimog U 5000

It also comes with a central inflation system for the tires, which assures all tires are taken care of during the journey.

Although the terrains are hard and difficult, passengers can just sit back inside, relax, and enjoy the sceneries outside the truck. The comfort given to the tourists and passengers is provided by the bus body that is placed on top of the Unimog’s frame.

Another version of the Unimog truck is known as the Unimog U550L. This truck like the Unimog 5000 also works efficiently and dutifully on the top of the mountain. It has the capability to clear ashes and snow on its way making the trail more comfortable and convenient.

However, Unimog trucks aren’t only used for climbing Mount Etna but these ultimate and superb trucks are also used for disaster controls, expedition support, and fire services.

One of the most anticipated events this year is the 5600 mile Dakar Rally 2012 that will take place in the challenging terrain of Peru and Argentina.  The modified Mini Countryman that was built by a German tuning company called the X-raid will definitely break the record in the coming event. It has different features and dimensions including the Countryman All4, the twin-turbocharged diesel engine, and the Mini’s suspension that was carefully reworked on this model. On the other hand, the Iveco truck group is expected to dominate the race with its Iveco Powerstar truck. It has the so-called FPT industrial C13 diesel engine that can also be found in the Iveco Trakker Evolution trucks. Gerard De Rooy will be driving the monstrous truck along with other Iveco team members. In other truck news, the new Land Rover Range Evoque is set to participate in next year’s Dakar Rally, that will be held somewhere in South America. At the moment, a British-based team is still prepping the new Land Rover for this illustrious race in the world.  There are many features of the new Land Rover Range Evoque including the integration of BF Goodrich desert tires, a turbocharged diesel engine courtesy of BMW, and the so-called Reiger coilever suspension as well. The new Land Rover will be driven by 3 great drivers namely Andrew Coley, Martin Rowe, and John Hardy. According to the news, the car company will set 3 vehicles to compete in the said racing event. Also, based on some reports, the Volkswagen will miss this year’s racing event because they are preparing and focusing their attention to the World Rally Championship 2013. On the other hand, the event is expected to welcome new teams, and will give an opportunity for others to win the top stop on this famous truck rally. In other breaking truck news, Toyota just announced that they would be boosting the Tundra and Tacoma Inventories after the devastating tsunami in Japan last year. For BMW enthusiast, reports claimed that BMW is testing their latest innovation called the next-gen X5 SUV in Germany.

There are many developments and truck news that are coming this year. Don’t forget to check out some other cool stuff that is being offered by truck companies and manufacturers today.

Hybrid Medium and Heavy Duty Trucks

Because of such highly classified decision, there would be an expected showcase of electric battery medium, plug in hybrid, hybrid and heavy duty types of trucks. Recently on a latest news report coming from the Pike Research, there is a growth of 92 percent of plug-ins and hybrids in the worldwide market this 2012, which would surpass the total sales of 19,000. Pushing forward, firms of market intelligence Cleantech expected an annual growth, which is compound that would be experienced by the market, a rate of 47.7 percent will be expected from 2011 and the year of 2017 that would reach up to 100,746 sales in trucks as the period ends.

According to Dave Hurst, a senior analyst, certain economic sectors would be playing an important role on the growing truck electric drive trains. Hurst also stated an example that a retail industry delivery, pick-up and rebound vehicle sales would all rebound together with it and later provide a positive impact amongst the battery electric, plug-in and hybrid truck markets. The point of the project is to project the desire of fleet owner’s in demonstrating their vehicles to be more eco-friendly compared to other competitor’s government and fleet emission regulations, which on the bottom line is cost impact fleet operators.

Together with the development of eco-friendly vehicles is the acceleration and spread of fueled vehicles that will pose a significant growth competition among electric and hybrid trucks especially when given a latter’s upfront costs. Aside from the trucks itself, natural gas is continuously growing in applications which is highly used by Class 8 types of trucks and transit buses in which cost of plug in and hybrid vehicles is relatively high and significant. By 2012, the trend will be expected to be continuous in particular to developing Asian and European markets.