COLUMBUS, Ind. -- Cummins’ ISX15 engine has been certified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), meeting both the EPA 2013 regulations and the new greenhouse gas and fuel-efficiency rules that will take effect in 2014. Cummins 2014 greenhouse gas certification is the first engine certificate issued by the EPA, the company said.
Cummins says efficiency improvements to its base engine include optimized combustion and reduced parasitic load through high-efficiency water, fuel and lube pump systems. Officials say the ISX15 will achieve up to 2% fuel economy improvement over today's product. The Cummins ISX15 for 2013 will use the same base engine with the XPI fuel system, VGT Turbocharger, Cummins aftertreatment system with diesel particulate filter and selective catalytic reduction technology, and fully integrated electronics.
"Cummins 2013 truck engines will deliver better fuel economy with no major hardware changes," said Jeff Jones, Cummins’ vice-president of sales and market communications. "This results in improved reliability due to stable architecture.
"The certification of the ISX15 demonstrates Cummins commitment to deliver products that exceed both environmental and customer requirements. We are confident that we'll receive certification for our other on-highway engines well before the end of the year.”
Cummins entire lineup of on-highway engines for truck, bus, RV and specialty-vehicle markets will enter production on Jan. 2. Company officials say they expect all engines to be certified a full year early to the 2014 greenhouse gas and fuel-efficiency rules.
If you are driving Interstate 90 or I-15 through Montana you will want to stop in Butte to see the underground mining districts and the largest concentration of landmark historical sites of the American Wild West. Where tall mine frames dot the hillsides and light up red as beacons in the night sky, a memorial to times gone by.
One of the highlights of touring Butte is The Copper King Mansion, a 34-room Victorian mansion built in the 1880s as local home of William Andrews Clark, one of the “Copper Kings” and a scandalous Senator of Montana. It was one of many homes he built around the world at a cost of $250,000, a huge sum of money in those days but which was only half of one day’s earnings for him.
Drive out for a look into Berkley Pit, the open pit copper mine that ate up the hillside and was once the largest truck operated copper mine in the United States. It is approximately 1,780 feet deep and filled to a depth of about 900 feet with acidic water after it was closed in 1982. There is a tunnel from the gift shop to the pit overlook.
Driving on I-70 through Utah means cutting across one of the emptiest and least developed regions of Utah, it is a long drive but there is beautiful country to see. It may surprise you how very scenic this road trip can be in any season, with access roads branching off to Moab, Canyonlands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park and numerous State Parks; the most popular being Goblin Valley State Park.
You will see jutting rock formations the Native American Indians called the silent cities, slicing into the sky, colors that burn your memory with visions of the Southwest. When you see a wide plateau crossed by two entrenched river systems and surrounded by a ring of upturned strata; this is the San Rafael Swell. It is an arid, very scenic area, with mesas, cliffs, buttes, springs and canyons. The Swell itself is an oval shaped uplifted area of layered rocks, most of which has been eroded away forming the mostly flat central plateau, while the strata at the edges are left exposed and angled near vertically. In the San Rafael Reef are found most of the spectacular canyons especially in the southeast section.
Devils Canyon is a beautiful slot seen in a section of the San Rafael Swell to the north of the highway. Access is relatively easy. Devils Canyon roughly parallels I-70 on the west side of the Swell. Take Exit 114 (Moore Cutoff) and drive south from the freeway onto Justensen Flat. The road winds east and then south as it drops down the cliff face into Devils Canyon but it is only for four wheel drive vehicles, trucks should stick to the rest stop pull-out overlooks to enjoy the view.
It is a little scary getting into the overlook points in the winter if the snow piles up. But during other months of the year there is truck parking up the hill into the overlook and I usually find another truckers stopped there too. Drivers can get out of the cab to stretch or even walk down the trails to the rim. At the pull out view points the Native Americans also sell their wares and tourists stop for pictures.