HoodXpress is an automatic truck hood opening system designed to help the trucker or mechanic get to their engines easier with a new level of safety and convenience.
“The HoodXpress opens and closes truck hoods with the touch of a key fob,” said Randy Wolters, former truck driver and now product manager for Tendeco Sales Inc., a sales and marketing partner of Litens Automotive Group. “Many truck hoods weigh as much as 300 pounds, and a lot of tugging and back muscles go into getting the hood open or closed.”
Similar to the pre-travel checking procedures made by an airplane pilot, truckers do a “walk-around” at least once a day to ensure the truck is in a safe operating condition.
“This requires raising the hood and looking at engine hoses, brakes, lines and mechanical parts,” said Wolters. “Simple tasks such as scraping ice off the windshield or adding window cleaner, requires the operator to open the hood and climb up on the tires to reach these service areas. With the average driver age increasing, and more female truck drivers on the roads, opening a truck hood can be a difficult task or at best cause risk of back-strain or injuries due to loosing a foothold on an icy bumper.”
According to Harvey Dix, lead design engineer for the HoodXpress program, “The professional drivers that spend most of their waking (and sleeping) hours in their truck keeping North America moving, deserve the same conveniences they have as “standard” on their personal cars. Fleets offering HoodXpress can attract professional drivers to fill the growing driver shortage, since first-class equipment demonstrates the value fleet owners place on their employees in tangible terms, as well as being an effective way to reduce down-time due to driver injury."
HoodXpress can be installed in about an hour by a person with average mechanical ability, according to the company. Currently available for Peterbilt 379 and Kenworth W900 models, other classic applications for Freightliner, Mack, and Western Star will be rolled-out this summer.
Aftermarket products produced by Litens are exclusively available in North America through Tendeco Sales Inc., Dublin, Ohio, and for all other global regions through ATech Vertriebs GmbH, Gelnhausen, Germany. HoodXpress is distributed by PANA-PACIFIC based in Campbell, Calif. It will be available through major truck dealerships across the country.
For more information, visit www.hoodxpress.com.
