New International A26 12.4L Engine

Ive talked to several service guys at various dealers. There is a recall currently on the rockers. Apparently sucking a valve has been a moderate issue. Navistar per the service guy wasted no time fixing the issue. The only other issue mentioned was a def sensor which they have also recalled and replaced from a different manufacturer.

He did say all new builds will have these fixes applied.

That being said and depending on what you read or who you talk to, 2019 will be a defining year for a lot of owner operators. Rates will settle back down. 2018 was an anamoly. Given the condition of the current spot market, it's looking bleak.

 

Any after treatment issues will be the same as anyone running a Cummins motor as the systems are identical. Same goes with borg Warner vgt turbo. They are the same as well.

 

Cummins uses a Holset VGT, A26 uses Borg Warner. Haven’t heard about the rocker issue yet,

 

Interesting, I was just going off what the dealer said, didn't look into it any further.

 

I saw the collision avoidance system runs a couple Grand on the spec sheet. I was considering swapping the battery powered apu that I believe runs about 5k for a to. If I removed the collision system the swap to a full fledged Apu would almost be a wash. What are your thoughts on that?

 

**TK

 

If it’s your truck and not for a company guy I’d pass on the collision avoidance. Unless you can get discounts on liability insurance by having an “advanced safety system,” as they say.
If you don’t do a lot of sitting, the battery APU is a good choice. If you’re sitting 12-14 hours at a time, it won’t last the whole time and you will need to make sure the truck has an auto start system to charge the batteries. For that reason, I prefer the engine powered APUs.
I recommend getting the inverter from International. Theirs is an 1800 watt and they’ll put the outlets in the sleeper and everything. Then you wouldn’t have to get it from TK or Carrier.
TK and Carrier both have good units. Carrier recently updated theirs to have the same BTU output and maintenance intervals as TK. The only difference is that Carrier is all electric, the motor drives a 6k watt generator that does all the work, including cab heat and can Power an electric block heater. TK is fully belt driven with a separate Espar. If Carrier had their improved units available when I got my truck I probably would have got theirs. The only tradeoff is that it would run more engine hours in winter because of the electric cab heat. And you can add a coolant heater to your truck instead of an electric block heater or shared coolant heat with the Carrier. Those stand alone Diesel coolant heaters are fantastic. It depends on what you’re comfortable with. They're both good units.

 

Quarter MPG ended at 8.64. It was almost 9 but December I did a lot of loads to SC, NC, FL, and GA. That area is where I get my worst fuel mileage. Total of 31,564 miles. Lots of Monteagle, Asheville, and Saluda. Needless to say, I was very annoyed with December.

 

interesting; we run the polar opposite routes. PNW, 88K gross (tri axle trailer) outbound, 72K inbound, at the speed limit. The new T680 / MX came in at 6.5 for the quarter.

So all the effort to run light, slow and flat with an optimized truck yields 2.2 MPG? That seems rather meager returns for all that effort?

 

I'd be curious to see a comparison between running balls to the wall and driving for fuel economy. I wonder if squeezing in a few more loads a year would offset the fuel economy loss?