Equipment World Digital Magazine
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reporter | continued FIRST Competition trains tomorrow's engineers – continued from page 9 League (ages 9 to 16), and two high-school level programs, the FIRST Tech Challenge and the FIRST Robotics Competition. "We call it a sport and you get a varsity letter for it in most high schools," Grewe says. The difference between the FIRST Competition and other sports is that you don't win at the expense of others, he says. "One of the core values is you treat everybody in a gracious way, as a professional. One of the teams I worked on was in the championship round when one of their competitor's robots had a problem. Our team helped them fix their robot. They didn't want to win because the other robot failed. They wanted to win because they had a better robot when both were up to speed." For more information or go to www.usfirst.org –Tom Jackson Dire States: Former road builder drives rust bucket across America to demonstrate the sorry state of infrastructure W hat do a 1949 Hudson Commodore and America's infrastructure have in common? They're both old, neglected and in need of refurbishment. That's the point Dan McNichol is trying to make by driving his old car coast to coast across bridges and roads that were built not long after the Hudson came out of its factory. McNichol partnered with Case Construction Equipment for the trip and will be visiting Case dealers and road builder customers along the way to find ways to bring contractors, citizens and government officials together to identify new and innovative ways to put America's infrastructure back on a sustainable path. "America's infrastructure is in trouble, and it's not something we can gloss over when we see it on the nightly news," McNichol says. "Depending on this old car to get you to work every day is as foolish as depending on our current systems for everything we need to function as a society." A fifth-generation road builder from Boston, McNichol learned construction working for his father's company D. J. McNichol Construction. He was appointed by President Bush (41) to work for the United States Department of Transportation. He served as a spokes- person for Boston's Big Dig project and has published four books on related topics. The Hudson was originally purchased in 1949 for Dan McNichol is piloting this rusty '49 $2,900, but Hudson across the country to bring atsat up on tention to the dilapidated state of our blocks in nation's roadways. upstate New York for decades. McNichol and a friend gave it a new engine outfitted it with modern AC and brakes, but otherwise left the old car in its rusty state for their trip across the country. The tour is dubbed Dire States: The Drive to Revive America's Ailing Infrastructure. You can follow his progress on the web at DireStates.com, CASECE.com and related social media channels. –Tom Jackson JCB partners with Kohler for engines E ngland-based JCB announced in September it will be using a range of Tier 4 Final engines from Kohler's Global Power Group for many of its compact machine lines. The water-cooled Kohler direct injection (KDI) engines will be branded "JCB diesel by Kohler." The engines include the 1.9-liter, three-cylinder KDI 1903M and 1903TCR which deliver 41 horsepower and 93 pound-feet of torque and 56 horsepower and 166 pound-feet of torque, respectively. The 2.5-liter, four-cylinder KDI 2504M and 2504TCR are also included. They deliver 49 horsepower and 125 poundfeet of torque and 74 horsepower and 221 pound-feet of torque, respectively. The engines will be phased into the JCB lineup starting with its new Teletruk TLT35D. Also slated for the Kohler engines are the 406 and 409 compact wheel loaders; the 135, 155, 175, 190 and 205 skid steers; the 150T, 190T and 205T compact track loaders; and select compact excavator models. EW 10 October 2013 | EquipmentWorld.com EW1013_Reporter.indd 10 9/24/13 1:46 PM