What year did glider kits start

Glider kits go back to the early 70's, when motors began to outlast trucks. Glider kits were popular when trucks were hard to come by. Why bother when there's a ton of older trucks out there, some may even have a fresh rebuild.

 

At least back in the 70's I remember,I built mine in 1985. There is a code in the vin# that will indicate glider.

 

My 1984 Eagle glider.

 

You can tell by the VIN number. Glider truck have been around for a long time. They kinda come back when the new emissions truck come out because they were so bad. Fitzgerald was making a lot of them but their quality was not so good from what I hear. Because they rebuilt the engines themselves vs getting on from Detroit or Cummins.

I don't think many would try going from emissions engine back to pre emissions engine in the truck. Because the wiring would be a mess. They can't just drop older engine in a truck. The truck has to be wired for the older engines

 

Some time in either the 50's or 60's, the irs made changes to how depreciation was done on equipment, this triggered expanding of trucks you could get void of a drive train.

 

Call dealer to check VIN.

 

Pre 17 digit VIN days Kenworths ended in "G" if it was a glider IIRC.

 

I saw a butterfly hood Kenworth at a shop in the early 2000s. I asked the guy in the office and he told me it was a glider that was never assembled.

Gliders really took off with the 2002 emissions engines, but they've been around for a long time.

 

When does the pre-2000 model year exception apply?

Read that link before you spend a bunch of money, there is better info, I didn't find it right now, but it claims you CAN put an older engine in your truck.