Caterpillar Trucks for 2012

You have a link?

 

Nothing on CAT's website alludes to the production of on-highway trucks....But.....that doesn't mean it couldn't happen.....um...like Paccar engines....

 

They are not highway trucks they are vocational off highway trucks cat has been building for years.The difference will be that IH will be providing and putting the trucks together using the IH engine and bodys (based off of the cat engine).

"Navistar and Caterpillar continue to work on design and development of a new proprietary, purpose-built, heavy-duty CAT vocational truck for the North American market. The trucks, manufactured in Navistar's Garland, Texas, facility, will be sold and serviced through the CAT North American Dealer network. Caterpillar vocational trucks are scheduled for full production in mid-2011, the release said."

 

I did a search for any news items
I didn't find anything
This was posted some time back on their exit from making truck engines
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/trucks-eighteen-wheelers/46003-its-official-no-more-cat-truck.html

 

I can say for sure there is a Cat on highway truck due for release soon (months rather than years) in Australia, based on the deal signed with Navistar recently its a fair bet it will be a Navistar based product, the basic rumor amongst dealers is Cat is using its dealers outside North America to sell Navistar products, in return Navistar will help Cat develope a heavy haul on highway truck for North America.

BTW the exchanger Roadranger gearboxs you can buy now are remanufacture by Cat for Roadranger in their reman facility.

 

They actually have a loader designed to handle Brian....aka "Skid".....aka "Scarecrow"?????.....

 

All of this just goes to show how iffy this change in CAT is. So far what we know is: International & CAT have partnered to offer vocational (100% off-road only) trucks. International will build the truck and CAT will build the engine. So here are the various oddities:

A) The market for 100% off-road class 8 trucks is very low in the US. Most of the vocationals run 95% or so. That means they still need to meet emissions and DOT rules. What's the point of having a truck that has to be lowboy'd from worksite to worksite? So here we would be talking about Oil Field work in Canada, etc.

B) CAT has a huge amount of business in developing parts of the world where their customers don't need to worry about the environment. It would seem out of the question to build the truck here in the US and ship it to China and the middle east when CAT has an enormous facility in India. So why have navistar build them? CAT could simply buy cabs from TATA and throw them on their own frame and be done.