A summer weekend read for gearheads

While you bask in your sleeper’s cool air this weekend, you can read about how auxiliary power unit and air-to-air cooler technologies were developed over the last 33 years at OverdriveRetro’s Equipment Innovations.

Overdrive Equipment Editor John Baxter explains the importance of the late 1970s and early 1980s charge-air cooler innovations by Volvo and Mack truck makers, respectively, and the 1988 development of auxiliary power units, now heavily used in the trucking industry for fuel conservation.

More than 26 advancements described in “Equipment Innovations” explain how tractors become more efficient in the last half-century.

If your air conditiong gets too high this weekend, take a breather from the chill and turn up the heat. But not on your thermostat — just peruse Lynette Muncy’s hot pose in her sea-blue bikini for Overdrive’s October 1980 cover, in the “Ladies of Overdrive” photo gallery.