Kevin Rutherfrauds $200000 Signature glider truck has complete engine failure!!!

Very well said. I definitely agree that was his biggest mistake, getting involved with kr. But I'm not sure i agree his reputation took a big hit. At least not in a way that effects his core business. The guys that are influenced by what happened with this truck were very unlikely to be using him to begin with. After all, he builds high powered engines, not exactly what the market the fuel sipping trucks are in. His core market are guys that have been working on engines their entire lives. I doubt they put any stock in claims of some greenhorn that didn't know how to check his turbo and turbo to intake system for leaks when he couldn't build boost.

 

You raise a good point. Bruce's theory is more power you have, the better mileage you will get because you aren't driving the snot out of it to get it to go down the road. KR loves the 11.1 because light it should get better mileage. Real world is you are shifting constantly and flogging it in order to pull 80,000 up a hill.

 

In my experience they are both right depending on the application. If all i ran was light loads in relatively flat areas of the country that 11.1 detroit would be the most fuel efficient. Running up to 80k and in in hills, more power gets better fuel efficiency. That said, in the real world very few of us have long term contacts pulling light loads in flat regions so speccing a truck for that is just stupid.

Side note, one of my first trucks had a bruce built 290 cummins. It was a pure beast in a little package. I'd get laughed at in that ford L9000 by the large cars riding my rear bumper, but they shut up real quick when they couldn't keep up on the hills with their stock silver 92s and big cam cummins.

 

I drove a silver 92

 

Another likely scenario is Bruce himself probably didn't do the heavy work. It's hard to put rods and mains in and talk to customers on the phone. I have known guys that hire out as mechanics to say this is stupid these ain't hurt so I'm not putting them in or write a bigger est. It's hard to watch all the time. I can see making ECM and turbo changes knowing better but trying to please the guy at all costs. Its what happens when you grow. Sometimes money becomes more important when you get that big.

 

Yep it's doubtful he turns many wrenches these days. Very possible a careless mechanic got hired on. That happens at every shop, the same as even the best carriers get a bad driver on occasion, it does absolutely fall on him to make it right when one of his employees screws up. You also bring up a great point about the ecm programming, it's like if someone paid you or me to install a certain set of injectors that we wouldn't want in our truck, but you do what the guy writing the check insists upon.

This brings up a thought about the ecm tune. Does any one know for sure if the tune that was supposed to go in the truck at pp one they have tested and used many times or was it an unneeded experimental one? What makes me wonder that is so many of the things or in this truck are what i consider experimental products. Evans cooling and microblue for example. I could see a conversation between kr, Bruce and jeff going along the lines of we want to get these fuel results so let's try changing this and that settings cause in theory it should improve fuel mileage.

 

Good help is hard to find. That's why we have to lift the hood and make sure nothing is going to fall off every time we get our truck out of a shop any shop. Sad, but True!

 

I think Jeff was more along for the ride. He had less than 2 years experience, did not yet own a truck, yet he had been certified a "master contractor". As you say, this baby was KR's. The owner wasn't the first to pony up the money, rather he was the one selected by KR for the "privilege" of owning this truck. What were his qualifications? IMO, that he didn't know much, and could be led around by KR.

He only threw PP under the bus, but remained loyal to KR!

 

So what's the verdict? Did the guy get his money back?

 

No one knows but him and pp and he stopped talking over a year ago. Pp had consistently kept the line they built a good engine. Basically all we are doing is speculating.