Anyone in here familiar with Cat engine electronics?

Yeah, that's why I stayed away from those. They are cool trucks and I like them but all the engines are underpowered. It's possible could be gearing but most guys I've talked to say they are underpowered. That's both with the 12.9 or the cat so it's not a cat-specific thing.

 

Too bad they didn't put the C9's in many of those. That's a proper truck engine. Wet sleeve. Up to 1200 ft/lbs or so. Most of those ended up in motorcoaches I think.

 

Pardon my ignorance, what is the advantage of Wet versus Dry sleeve ? Thanks

 

Wet sleve or liners can be replaced as they wear out where dry sleve or parent bore engines, the cylinder are actually part of the block and need to be honed/bored and over sized pistons installed when they get worn out enough.

 

Parent bore motors are commonly referred to as "throw-away engines" in the heavy duty world, where an engine may actually get used for enough hours or miles to wear it out to the point of needing a rebuild. All automotive sized engines in cars and light trucks are parent bore up to and including many medium duty diesel engines such as the B6.7 Cummins, CAT 3126/C7, All Duramax and Powerstroke engines. These can last a long time...half a million miles or more with proper maintenance, but the whole engine block has to come out of the truck and be re-machined to rebuild...a tedious and expensive process that most of the time is not worth it when the cost of another good used engine is considered.

A wet liner heavy duty diesel engine will be rebuildable basically unlimited times without removing the block by replacing the cylinder packs, commonly referred to as an "in-frame". All big truck engines are like this but there is a cut-off down in the upper medium range where this type of engine design starts. The CAT C9 is the smallest one like that. Also the Cummins ISC8.3 and Navistar DT466 I think. Better resale value since they are considered more serviceable.

 

No truck payments…..now you are stream boating !

 

You want to put larger diameter tires on it or it already has larger diameter tires? If anything lower-profile tires would be the direction to go on a truck that has modest power. Slightly better gearing leverage by effectively raising the final drive ratio.