[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by Mithrandir

I always wondered whether a long FOH (or more precisely a long snoot in front of the driver as in some of the old trucks here in India) on a school bus is good or bad?. I remember reading somewhere that a long snoot may reduce the risk of injuries to the driver and the front passengers in the event of a head-on collision. If this is true then I think its a must-have-feature at-least in School buses. I have observed that, most of the school buses in US have a long snoot in-front of them. Is it a safety mechanism or just a design trend?

Only in US there is such a strange regulated design. What if there is a collision from rear and side? In India the school bus designs are completely regulated by AIS 052 which calls for rollover protection and lot many impact tests which are actually better that Semi Forward designs in US.

[pamiboy]

Originally Posted by Ashley2

Only in US there is such a strange regulated design. What if there is a collision from rear and side? In India the school bus designs are completely regulated by AIS 052 which calls for rollover protection and lot many impact tests which are actually better that Semi Forward designs in US.

Road situations and therefore safety norms are not directly comparable or interchangeable between USA and India. Both countries are at the extreme ends of road / traffic / speed conditions. Their situations may require different safety norms than in India which is quite understandable. But to say (indirectly) that Indian school buses are safer than in USA is preposterous.

[Amartya]

Originally Posted by Ashley2

In India the school bus designs are completely regulated by AIS 052 which calls for rollover protection and lot many impact tests which are actually better that Semi Forward designs in US.

Do tell how it is better. Since you already know this stuff, for the benefit of the rest of the forum members, here's the link to a document that specs out the regulations in India: link.
For folks adventurous enough to open the PDF (document is riddled with typos), Chapter 3 is the one related to safety.

Originally Posted by pamiboy

Their situations may require different safety norms than in India which is quite understandable. But to say (indirectly) that Indian school buses are safer than in USA is preposterous.

Thank you so much for pointing this out. It is important to not treat subjects related to safety with laziness bordering on false information.
Safety is not just related to how the buses are built and whether they are built to spec.
A lot has to do with public training (e.g. there are laws dealing with how far one needs to stop behind a school bus, whether it's okay to overtake or not etc.) and with how the drivers themselves are trained. School bus drivers are screened prior to employment and have to take random drug/alcohol tests, similarly, they are also trained in managing student behavior, their driving record (including when they are not driving the bus) is also scrutinized.

By the way, school buses in the U.S. have extra reinforcement on the sides and do have rollover protection in the specs; turn to page 20. For the actual, more detailed Motor Vehicle Safety laws, feel free to peruse: Link

[urzdeepu]

Great set of pics Ashley. Kudos to your efforts put in covering this stream.

4940 E6 - Ashok Leyland made one huge leap in the industry and definitely as usual AL succeeded in bench marking the Euro 6 compliance in the industry when even car manufacturers have not thought about it. Above all the look of the truck is so massive that even a Volvo Globetrotter or a Merc Actros will look outdated in front of this giant.

Sunshine School bus - I have to say Tata Nano has given some inspiration for Ashok Leyland to design the cowl of this bus. Take the head light, bonnets all looks like a beefed up nano. and when going up its an Optare. Never the less AL has done a good job in designing this bus and it sure will attract a lot of schools for fleet addition.

Hybus - Concept is brilliant. But what is the real difference between the Hybus 2010 and Hybus 2016? i guess both have the plug in feature too. May be the latest one is having more powerful capacitors to churn out the best of what it is made for.

Guru - Even though it looks more like a stripped down version of Boss AFAIK its fitted with a 3 cylinder CRS engine. May be Ashley can throw more light on that product. From my assumption, it will be perfect choice for the last mile operation and if its a 3 cylinder pot, the owner sure makes some extra money out of it too. But AL should have given the option of AC in the cab.


Dost - Come on AL, dont make us say negative when you showcased all these positive products. There is nothing new in a LS/LE version of dost you showcased except for the tipper body.

Last but not the least, Ashok Leyland should commercially produce these state of the art products and not just make them a show piece item of their engineering skills as per our historical experiences.

[Skyline_GT]

Great to see an Indian brand manufacturing products that meet international standards. All the buses and trucks on display look well designed. Kudos to AL in giving some serious thought before designing them and not just fitting ugly boxy designs. The Hybuses looks swanky and futuristic. Still AL has long way to go thou. Market leaders like Volvo and Scania are leaps ahead when it comes to build quality and utility.

P.S-Would be great to see these new generation models replace the decade old BEST fleet!

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by Amartya

Do tell how it is better. Since you already know this stuff, for the benefit of the rest of the forum members, here's the link to a document that specs out the regulations in India: link.
For folks adventurous enough to open the PDF (document is riddled with typos), Chapter 3 is the one related to safety.....

Thanks for Sharing the link.
Well, I am not here to debate which standard is better, all I had to tell is AIS 052 do have a set of standards like rollover and frontal impact test which makes it equally better if not inferior to just higher FOH design.

Originally Posted by urzdeepu

...

Hybus - Concept is brilliant. But what is the real difference between the Hybus 2010 and Hybus 2016? i guess both have the plug in feature too. May be the latest one is having more powerful capacitors to churn out the best of what it is made for.

Guru - Even though it looks more like a stripped down version of Boss AFAIK its fitted with a 3 cylinder CRS engine. May be Ashley can throw more light on that product. From my assumption, it will be perfect choice for the last mile operation and if its a 3 cylinder pot, the owner sure makes some extra money out of it too. But AL should have given the option of AC in the cab.


Last but not the least, Ashok Leyland should commercially produce these state of the art products and not just make them a show piece item of their engineering skills as per our historical experiences.

Auto Expo is best looked at an avenue to showcase technology and to announce the new arrivals. If you look at past new products were always been a part of Auto Expo and of course concepts were also launched. This is same across all manufacturers and is more common in passenger car.

From 2010 - Hybus Plug in was shown as a concept and now a next generation of the same is shown.
From 2012 - Jan Bus and 3723, both are successfully on road
From 2014 - No much of concepts more of road going vehicles.

Hybus 2010 was a CNG Plug in Hybrid and was far ahead of its times. Now time has come to wake up the concept to make it more closer to road. And primarily this is not Plug in.
The engine charges the micro capacitors continuously and that drives the wheels.
Guru is more for rated load application and will be positioned a notch below Boss.

[Mithrandir]

Originally Posted by Amartya

Thank you so much for pointing this out. It is important to not treat subjects related to safety with laziness bordering on false information.
Safety is not just related to how the buses are built and whether they are built to spec.
A lot has to do with public training (e.g. there are laws dealing with how far one needs to stop behind a school bus, whether it's okay to overtake or not etc.) and with how the drivers themselves are trained. School bus drivers are screened prior to employment and have to take random drug/alcohol tests, similarly, they are also trained in managing student behavior, their driving record (including when they are not driving the bus) is also scrutinized.

By the way, school buses in the U.S. have extra reinforcement on the sides and do have rollover protection in the specs; turn to page 20. For the actual, more detailed Motor Vehicle Safety laws, feel free to peruse: Link

I remember watching a documentary in HISTORY channel (I think) about the manufacturing of seats for school buses in US. There were lots of safety tests conducted just on seats.
Coming to the issue of rules and regulations in India, we have plenty of them on paper. But, how much do we care about them?. Usually, I take bus to work as its just 10 minutes journey. Last week, when I was getting down from the bus in the bus stand, a maniac on a motorcycle almost grazed past me. He was literally riding his motorcycle on the bus stand platform..!!!. What can you do about these guys?. How safe are our kids when our roads are filled with these maniacs. No rules or regulation can help us until we start respecting them.

[AJ-got-BHP]

Ashok Leyland @ The Auto Expo; some snaps from my end :

[ajman28]

Originally Posted by Ashley2

Hybus:

What type of transmission is used in the Hybus? Is it an Allison AT?

I am surprised AL has not showcased any of their AMT vehicles!

Is the Guru equipped with CRS engine?

[romeomidhun]

With the tie-up with Nissan about to break, what is the future of Dost?

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by ajman28

What type of transmission is used in the Hybus? Is it an Allison AT?

I am surprised AL has not showcased any of their AMT vehicles!

Is the Guru equipped with CRS engine?

AMT models are available for last 4 years and AL is the first to take it to production variant in RESLF and Janbus. Hybus does use Allison and Guru is with CRS engine.

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by tharian

Spotted this low deck double rear axle camouflaged test truck headed towards Hosur from Krishnagiri.
It had a long deck and small wheels for a Hcv.

The wheels are not small. It is just an illusion. CV's are gradually shifting to 285/80R22.5 tubeless radials from the 10.00X20 tube radial, this seems to be that aspect.

Rahul