When Mike Elliott, Maintenance Support Manager at Ruan Transportation Management Systems, needed an alternator for his fleet of power units and vehicles, he knew he needed a brand he could rely on.
“I’ve used Delco Remy products all my career,” says Elliott. “They are great products.”
As a freight and transportation provider, Iowa-based Ruan specializes in niche markets, such as bulk food grade and dairy, chemicals and industrial gases, medical and pharmaceutical, and other specialty manufacturing areas. As any company that hauls this type of product knows, there are often extra electrical loads to carry items to their destination.
That’s why five years ago, Ruan, a family-owned corporation founded in 1932, decided to begin moving to an alternator that was up to the job: the
Delco Remy 40SI™ High Output Brushless Alternator.
Making the Move
The first upgrade began with Ruan’s sleeper tractors.
“We moved to the 40SI alternator to maintain the charge on our sleeper cabs. These tractors have four AGM (absorbed glass-mat) batteries to deliver amps even when the engine is off,” Elliott explains. “We needed an alternator that could maintain the charge because our drivers are not just transporting these vehicles, they’re also eating and sleeping in them as they move product across the country for our customers.”
With the 40SI being “so quick on recovery time,” Elliott started thinking about the alternator for other applications in their fleet.
The day cabs were outfitted with the Delco Remy 28SI™ High Output Brush Type Alternator. These cabs began to experience problems because the electrical output was greater than what the 28SI was designed to provide.
“It was no fault of the 28SI alternator, we just began to need more charge as we started using lift gates for a specific customer requirement,” explains Elliot. “With heavy-duty life gate cycles on every load, we were starting to see failures on delivery. We needed something to maintain the larger electrical load.”
No surprise, the 40SI alternator was the answer.
Setting the Standard
Before long, Ruan decided the 40SI alternator was the alternator of choice for the entire fleet and made it standard on every vehicle in the fleet, including its Class 5 vehicles.
“With 55 maintenance shops, stocking just one alternator makes things so much simpler,” says Elliott. “Technicians don’t need to make decisions about the best alternator—everything gets the same because we’ve already decided the 40SI alternator is the best for all of them.”
Elliott says the standardization across the entire fleet is part of how they maintain a healthy fleet. They built the first million-mile truck and have carried their specs forward ever since, adapting as necessary for new innovative technology.
Rave Reviews
The decision to make the 40SI alternator standard has been well received.
“Our technicians love it,” says Elliot. “It’s easy to exchange when there’s a failure—though that doesn’t happen often as now we have an alternator that matches the electrical load of our cabs."