Why do so many Americans hate European trucks?

6X4 dump......nice

 

A few days ago I browsed through a Dutch truck magazine. It contained an article about the DAF construction event some weeks ago. At that event some new, heavier construction trucks were introduced.

The editor asked DAF if there would be something like 8 x 8 or 10 x 8 DAF tippers. The answer: no, if you want a truck like that, buy a Tatra. Of course Tatra does buy engines and cabs from DAF, but that's it, as far as I'm aware there are no other formal relations. But perhaps DAF is going to use Tatra as their off-road truck division. Could be a smart move, from no off-road division to probably the best off-road trucks.

The editor also wrote about the heavy 8 x 4 FTM tractor, that is now capable of a 120 tonne GCW. He wrote that the only thing missing is a more powerful engine. Translated: DAF has told him that a new powerful engine is coming. Some have said that it will be the Cummins X15. That engine does exist in a Euro VI version, but it only has 600 HP, whereas the MX-13 has 530 HP. Not a very big step. Cummins offers the X12 and the X15 in Euro VI, so that's a bigger step. The Cummins X15 - EuroVI was introduced in Australia last year, don't know if it is being sold right now.

At the moment about 55 to 60% of all Paccar trucks in the US are still being sold with the X15. Now imagine what would happen if Paccar would come up with a MX-16 with for instance 650 HP. That engine would be more in line with DAF's competitors in Europe, and it would give the "I want the biggest engine' crowd in the US a good reason to buy a Paccar engine. Just a thought.

 

Paccar won’t do that ... they have emissions deal with government no more then 550 hp.....600 at max to meet standards

 

It doesn't matter if they introduced a 750 hp mx. Most here will not touch an mx because they have a history of not being dependable and breaking down time after time after time.

 

Which is why UPS and FEDEX are using them on almost all of their trucks,

 

Lowest bidder don't mean anything to you?

 

How much does downtime cost for companies like these?
There are plenty of testimonials to be found of companies that claim the MX engines are more reliable then the Cummins engines.

 

Paccar/DAF only produce the high volume components themselves.

You can see it with axles.
DAF have their own (tandem drive) hub reduction axles, but are now switching to Meritor, after several years of use in test fleets.
Same with the light tandem drive for markets like Australia: Meritor again.
Only the high volume single reduction axles will remain as a true Paccar/DAF drive axle, because of the production volume.

For the smaller engines Paccar/DAF are already using Cummins engines, because the number of trucks they sell/produce in this range does not justify the development of an in-house engine.

DAF have a 9 litre engine, but dropped it for EURO-VI, in favour of the Cummins ISB.
Why? Because the production volume is too small.


Only a small percentage of the X15's in Paccar trucks are high horsepower and high (2050) torque, majority is fleet spec engines with power and torque similar to what the MX offers.

So there must another reason to buy the X15 vs MX.
Introducing a larger true Paccar engine will not dramatically change this, and the production volume for a larger MX engine will still be small.

Negotiations are going on between DAF/Paccar and Cummins about larger (than MX) displacement Cummins engines to be used in DAF trucks in the future.

 

Don't forget that Cummin lost it's biggest customer in the EU.
With the merger off Scania and MAN into the Volkswagen group,Cummin lost the joint ventures it did in the past with Scania.
So maybe Cummin will looking for other partners offering better terms then in the past.

 

Some things about the VW-Scania_MAN-Navistar deals are not too clear to me.

This was announced in 2016 by Volkswagen:
"Scania will take the lead in the development of the common engine platform with a capacity of 13 litres, whilst MAN will be responsible for the engine platforms with capacities between five and nine litres."

So what about the larger engines, like the Scania V8 and MAN D38??
There were rumours some time ago that MAN was testing the V8 Scania's, but I never saw confirmation.

And what seems very strange to me is that within the Volkswagen group MAN would be responsible for the smaller engines, yet about 1.5 year after this announcement Scania presented a new 6.7 litre engine, largely based on the Cummins ISB.


As far as I know the Cummins-Scania joint-venture for fuel systems is still alive, and expanding.