What truck company is 100% American?

One guy had Dodge buy back the 07 with the 6.7. Mileage never got better than the Ford. The check engine light came on and stayed on. They could never figure it out. He now has a 08 with 6.7. 30,000 miles on it. Empty he gets 18 loaded depends on the wind, 7-11. He is a Dodge person through and through.

Another friend has 08 and he has only run one trip with it. Needs to get it back out and check it out after the flashes.

One thing to keep in mind with the 6.7 versus 5.9.

5.9 could be idled all the time like a big truck. The 6.7 is not to be idled any more than needed. Like no time.

 

They are improving them to death aren't they..lol..I've had three Cummins from a '91 I bought new,good truck ROUGH ride and strayed all over the road ,'97 bought with low miles,total junk and an '01 model I bought with high miles that was pretty much junk too.All were 1 ton 4x4,ALL had a/c trouble,wandering steering,electrical probs,tranny trouble,cooling trouble and on and on...I've had at least a dozen or more powerstrokes over time,all f-350 4x4 c/c or supercab duallys and I knew what was going to break when I bought them,front lockouts,ball joints,vac pumps( I know the reason why on the vac pumps on the '99 and above and can cure that prob for about 3 cents now if you start out with a good pump,unhook your auto lock outs hose from the pump and plug it up if you have the lock out option,they leak and eventually burn the pump up)sensors of all types etc..etc.The last one pissed me off so bad after I snapped the second set of lock outs last fall that I sold it and traded down 8 yrs for a crew cab dually 4x4 Chev with a vortec 454 and a 5 spd...My friends all said it was a super sharp truck for what it was (it doesn't look to bad for its age,its in my profile pics) and laughed and made fun of me when I showed it around to them and the first day or so I had it, I kinda laughed and kicked rocks and stared at the ground kind of agreeing with them...We ain't laughing now...I passed the loudest mouth in the bunch going up 3 mile hill on I-57 and beat his ### to the 40 yardstick by a 1/4 mile or more while I was grossing 35,900 ( can you say IMPOUND)and he was grossing 27,600 in his F-350 4x4 c/c dually that he has over 5x as much money in and when we stopped for fuel and checked our mileage,he was getting almost exactly the same mpg...Plus I paid 57 cents less a gallon which gave me a hell of a leg up on his mpg.I kinda like the old truck now and my buddies are complaining about the price of fuel vs gas every time we fuel and are talking about buying gas jobs.Plus they don't gouge me by trying to pull out of a parking lot and thinking they can go run and hide from me anymore either.lol.In fact if I upgrade I think my next truck will be a newer one identically equipped (color and all)but with the 8.1 and an allison.Have you heard anything bad on them that I should watch out for?

 

I had a 2002 Ford F350 2x2 dually that I traded with 507,000 miles for my 07 Dodge 3500 4x4 dually with 26 miles in June 07. Now has 135,000 miles. I have the 5.9.

I heard many stories concerning the new engines developed by Ford. Would not even consider a ford because of them. I liked the Fords, but not the engines.

The Dodge came out with their new engine. No guinea pig for me.

It was between the Chevy Duramax and the old dodge 5.9. If no 5.9, it was going to be the Chevy.

 

I'll readily admit that a lot of my probs with all these trucks were directly related to the fact that all of them have been 4x4.The steering,hubs,vac pumps and maybe even tranny trouble too.A lot of my probs were because of using them like a class 8 truck too by pulling stock trailers,tractors,backhoes,small dozers and hay trailers with them .But I'm not a rough driver as far as taking off hard or slamming the brakes and such and I HAVE to have 4x4 one tons...Its not a COOL thing,its just a fact with some of the things I have to use the truck for.The fact that you can get away with a 2x2 helps you out a bunch.

 

I really dig the new toyota full size truck. with a bit of lift they look real good. Just wish they had a diesel. I hear it is coming though

 

Yeah I like them too.My "insignificant" other loves Toyota 4x4 extended cab trucks and up until a year ago thats what we always got for her to drive.I couldn't talk her into not buying that asian beer can she's driving now and she suffered for it this winter by staying stuck riding with me or staying home for almost two weeks during the two big storms. She hates both options because she's on the go constantly so staying home would kill her and she kinda hates me so riding with me kills her.I won either way.LOL. We never had a Tundra and with my height, I just have a hard time riding in the smaller ones with anything akin to comfort after about 20 minutes.Those new Tundras are huge inside though,very nice light duty truck.

 

Here's a surprise,
while Paccar International and Daimler build most of their trucks in Mexico,
Volvo builds all their US trucks and engines in the USofA...

 

where did you get that information ?

Daimler builds over 90% of its trucks for North America in the USA....North Carolina and Oregon to be exact. Kenworth does build a lot of trucks in Mexico, but nowhere near 50%...probably like Daimler at about 10%. Volvo and Mack are American made and foreign owned like Daimler. Navistar is mostly American but they do rely on a lot of content from foreign countries. There is no "pure" anything anymore.

Daimler also builds the Mercedes ML and R model sport utilities for the world in Vance, Alabama.

Detroit Diesels are built in Redford, Michigan...including the DD15 that will be shipped all over the world and put into Freightliners and Western Stars. Paccar will build their heavy duty engine in Mississippi.

I learned all of this as I have started to inquire about the globalization of the truck industry. What I found was even though some manufacturers are foreign owned, they still employ a hell of a lot of Americans here.

It's a global market out there and our national economy depends on good jobs but also efficient transportation. I predict you will see a swing of more production of all things back into the USA as the cost of transporting goods across the world...not to mention the environmental impact...will be too steep. This outsourcing to foreign countries will swing like a pendulum. But we have to earn it back...through efficiency and productivity.

 

Diamler is moving a lot of their class 8 (Freightliner and I think Westernstar) operations to Mexico in the very near future. They are building huge plants down there.

I bought my '06 Pete for two reasons.
1. The last year for the 379 model, so I'm almost guarenteed the resale price will go up.
2. It is at least assembled in the USA. Not all of it comes from the USA, but at it was assembled by American hands...even though the quality has dropped in the past few years.