Are Detroits THAT bad?

You guys do some nice work. When I win the lottery I'll be by to see you.

 

The old 12.7s were great motors. Easy to maintain, pretty low cost to keep up. I had a 92 WIA64T with the 12.7 in it. Don't know much about the 14.0, MBE4000/DD13, or DD15, except that the 14.0 and the MBE4000 had LOT of teething troubles when it first entered the US market.
Granted, the 12.7s weren't exactly a powerhouse compared to the 3406E or N14, but we're talking about a 12.7 liter motor vs. 14.6 liter motors.

 

The other 3 trucks I owned all had 3406e's in them never had any trouble with any of those motors...Now the C-15 has tested my loyalty to the fullest but thats another rant and for the good of the forum I won't even start on that boat anchor..

Another thing I might add is I was using the Detroit shop in Syracuse, NY which was another very bad move on my part......all in all my Freightliner/Detroit adventure wasn't a good one..

 

is that a kt motor in the pic of the sled puller nice! who do i talk to in building a glider heavy haul truck with a cat?

 

It's a more fair comparision to match a 12.7 DD to a C12 or C13 - not a C15. I've never owned either. Last Detroit I owned was one of those big silver ones in a 79 Pete. Got 3.5MPG with it!

 

Just my own personal experience. I've ran Cat Cummins Detroit Mack, and Volvo engines. Never had a single issue with the Cat engines. Had an injecter blow the tip off due to ? On an n14. No issue with the Mack but it was an old flathead. The Volvo had retarder issues. The Detroits all did ok with the exception of the egr series 60. Every one of them in our fleet and there are over 300 of them runs badly. Miss and puff smoke on almost ever gear change. And sometimes in the middle of the gear for no apparent reason. Our shop can't figure it out other than soot buildup on the intake side of the engine.

 

Also I've found that I have always gotten better service no matter what engine I had going to a Paccar shop rather than a Freightliner shop. FL always seem to take 2 days to do a 4 hr job. May just be I'm unlucky but its why I'm going with a Cat powered Kenworth.

 

Thank you, we have alot of pride in everything do.

 

Yes sir. It dyno'd 750 to the ground and gets 5-5.5 mpg.

 

I sent you a pm.