IC Bus parent Navistar invited School Bus Fleet and other publications to visit the company’s new testing facility in Indiana. See the intrepid trade journalists take school buses and trucks for a spin.
PHOTOS: School buses, trucks brave Navistar Proving Grounds
The newly opened Navistar Proving Grounds is a 668-acre site in New Carlisle, Indiana, that includes a 3-mile paved and banked oval (seen here), as well as more rugged rural-type routes in a wooded area.
Attendees drove severe-service trucks, like this International WorkStar 7500, on a course that included an undulating gravel road and a stretch of concrete bumps that alternated from the left to the right side of the vehicle. The air-ride driver’s seats came in handy here.
This 4x4 bucket truck, an International WorkStar 7300, had the most rugged test track of all: a bumpy, muddy path that twisted and turned through the woods. The four-wheel drive came in handy here.
McMahon prepares to maneuver the WorkStar 7300 bucket truck through the woods. He made it.
On May 19, trade journalists were invited to get behind the wheel of Navistar’s school buses and trucks at the proving grounds.
Attendees tried out two IC Bus CE Series school buses. One was a diesel (right), and the other was the company’s new propane model.
Frank Di Giacomo, School Bus Fleet’s publisher emeritus, prepares to take a school bus for a spin around the Navistar Proving Grounds.
Trish Reed, vice president and general manager of IC Bus, told attendees about the features of the propane bus, and she rode along while they drove it.
School Bus Fleet Executive Editor Thomas McMahon navigates the IC Bus propane school bus around the proving grounds oval.
Attendees also got to try out a variety of Navistar’s trucks. These medium-duty models were driven on a course that entailed performing a tight U-turn and accelerating up a 30% grade.
The paved oval track may have been tamer than the other routes, but it wasn’t without its hazards. Here, a school bus had to stop for a flock of wild turkeys crossing the track. Read more about the Navistar Proving Grounds visit here.