Recommendation for 10-12 company trucks

I have a friend who drives a new Cascadia with a Detroit and a 10 speed. His fuel mileage is pretty good. He just changed the batteries out and now has several fault codes. I don't know if it was something that they did (or failed to do) when they changed the batteries. He plans on having it checked Friday when he gets home after waiting 6 hours to get in at a dealer in Idaho. I don't think that he has 50,000 on the truck. I don't know how the automatics are holding up. I would not want automatics in class 8 trucks. Repairs are much more expensive with an automatic than a manual.

I have had very good service from International. There are service centers throughout Canada and the U.S. The aero Peterbilt or Kenworth trucks are usually reliable, but normally cost more to purchase. I don't know how many you will find with automatic transmissions. Trucks with auto's in them are sometimes difficult to sell, especially with Paccar trucks.

 

would seem to me if half the volvos have blown engines i would look at maintence and drivers
most volvo complaints on here seem to be electrical and code issues

Trans Am has late model T660 auto 2008-2009 for sale everyday

 

Kenworth does not do gliders anymore. And to put an old Detroit in a new glider takes some work. Understand everybodies gliders (and everybody is Pete, Western Star and Freightliner) are built with current electronics so an old non electronic engine will not have the connections to run the guages, etc. In fact as the throttles are "drive-by-wire" you will have an issue just getting a throttle system. It is not "plug and play" to do an old style powertrain in a new chassis.

There is a LOT of work to build a glider and most trucking company shops are not set up to do the wiring and fabrication to do an old style engine into a current chassis. If you really want to go that way you will be money ahead to contract with one of the glider building specialty shops.

Also remember that glider resale tends to be lower than a factory truck. Not an issue for the O/O who is keeping it forever, but a concern to a company that runs a trade cycle.

 

Wired for 2004 is no issue, you can still run a 6NZ or any electronic single turbo CAT engine out there on that wiring system. CAT engines up to 2002 cannot be beat when you factor in everything, so if your going to do a glider, don't even consider anything except yellow paint under that hood.

Even if you dropped in a 1st generation ACCERT twin turbo cat, you would still be much better off than buying new. Those engines were still very reliable up to the last production runs of 2007 model years. 2008 to 2011 CAT engines were the worst engines CAT ever made, and they even admitted this, but they had to meet the EPA requirements. As I was going to say, you could still drop in a 1st generation ACCERT, and have that converted over to a 6NZ engine, very easily.

I've said it before and I will say it again, don't buy anything other than Paccar trucks. Stay away from the MX engine, but the trucks themselves can't be beat. The resale value alone is tens of thousands of dollars higher than any other brand out there. It's easy to sell Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks because that's what the majority of people want. If you buy ANYTHING OTHER than a Peterbilt or a Kenworth, you bought a throw away truck with no resale value, and something that no one else wants.

 

Paint a Detroit yellow and you're A for away. Lol.

 

Scania meets all your specs!