Louisville Switching Blog

We had a great time at this year's Mid-America Truck Show in Louisville, Kentucky. We had two Ottawa Yard Trucks on display. One yard truck was a tandem axle with a standard cab, and the other was a single axle with the new Skycab. This was well received for several reasons. When drivers enter and exit the cab they often have to duck in and out, depending on their height. With the new Skycab feature they can stand upright without their head touching the ceiling. This new feature will save the backs of spotters who are making dozens of switches a day. Chris Troutt said, "If you are 6 foot tall you may need to duck a little bit, but it is the perfect height for the average height spotter." The floor to ceiling height is 69 inches so it makes it much more comfortable for the drivers to come in and out of their cabs.

This year's Mid America Truck Show was a tremendous success. Our brand new and spacious cab was on display. This cab is known as "The Skycab" and once you see it it will become apparent how this name was applied to this design. 

The Mid America Truck Show 2013 is shaping up to be spectacular this year. This is our 13th year in a row participating in the Truck Show! We will be manning the Kalmar/Ottawa booths with another dealer and also some OEM personnel. 

Most times, Louisville Switching can repair your yard truck right onsite. Save yourself the down time and the expense of the tow. With our mobile repair vehicles, we have most every tool we need to handle even the toughest jobs. We have cranes, mobile welding equipment, and much more. Our mechanics are Cummins and Ottawa certified. Never take your yard truck to a shop that doesn't specialize in yard trucks. We can't tell you how often those shops call us because they are stuck and Louisville Switching is the expert.

The last thing we want when we send our mechanics great distances to help our clients is for them to get there and not have what they need. Our clients are crucial in answering our questions before we let our mobile repair vehicles leave the shop to service and repair their yard trucks. There may be one or more primary symptoms that reveal the main issues we need to look at, but we will ask more than just obvious questions. We want to know about your whole fleet so we can accomplish more for our clients than a single repair while we are there.

We recently decided to add a new section to our website called "Ask Chuck." Chuck Duggins has been with Louisville Switching for 16 years and is highly respected in the world of yard trucks. This new section of the website will be dedicated to your questions and will be full of answers to the most common inquiries we receive about yard truck repair, ottawa yard trucks, and yard truck parts. We should have "Ask Chuck" up for you to start reviewing in January.

Chris Troutt was recently in Atlanta, Georgia working with a client. Chris loves talking with the drivers of the yard trucks to get their input on what they think of Ottawa. The other thing Chris loves to do when he's talking with the drivers is to ask if he can see inside the cab. This one particular driver agreed and showed Chris the cab of his Ottawa. It was as clean as a brand new yard truck. Chris asked him how he kept it so clean and the driver said, "I spend 12 hours a day  inside this truck and I want to make sure I keep it clean. It is my office."

“The Ottawa terminal tractor is the only terminal tractor that is CARB certified for a gasoline engine,” said David Wood, Ottawa Trucks (Director of Terminal Tractors in North America). “This is another "first‟ for Ottawa Truck.”