Driver responsibility with the cleanliness of issued trucks?

Heheh, actually the reason we were talking at all is because I think you'd be great to work for, not because I'm picky about trucks. It's the things I'd mentioned before that count, like X hassle, vs X takehome, vs X hometime. Hard work never scared me, so it's not considered part of the "hassle" in the equation.

 

Skip the Volvos. Nothing says 'fleet truck' like a Volvo. It would be like having a garage full of exotic cars and a Chevy Citation among them. Or Heff choosing a drag queen as a PlayMate.

Alot of women drivers like them because they look and feel like a car. Alot of really fat men drivers like them because they can fit between the seats. Of course, you could get a couple so the rookie driver can look foward to getting a nicer truck in time.

 

I spoke with a mechanic last week that was telling me he didnt recomend buying anything new right now. He said these newer trucks coming out had like 30 sum sencors at 300 bucks each. Do to all these off the wall emision laws he said it would be better to wait till they came out with a better system. On another note, he also said he worked on military vehicles also, and get this, If you wanted a rebuild kit for a mechanical 318 detroit it would take about six months to get it because the military has bought up all of them. He told me when he asked why, he was told, "The newer engines are not reliable, and cost way more to maintain". He was told that they donot regulate the goverment on their emissions and if they tried to, they would be the ones getting regulated. Again, this is what I was told. Dont really know how factual this is, maybe someone in military could add some information on this?

 

Drove an 08 Columbia. Got it brand new. Decent truck except running the jake on the Detroit makes the regeneration mamdatory on the side of the road (WHAT A BONEHEAD SETUP!!!) 430 Detroit and a 9speed top 2 tranny. Beancounters convinced the company to cut the speed down to 65 mph and castrate the power. Fuel mileage dropped from 7 mpg to 4. Top 2 tranny wouldnt work with the setup and the tranny would just buck back and forth.
Cracked the head at 122k. Company told me to take the truck to the Dallas Freightliner. I told them that I would prefer to take it to the dealer at my home port. Freightliner told them that they would have the head replaced in 3 days max. I told the company that theyre being lied to and since the truck is under warrantee, the dealership will put this repair on the backburner. Company put me up into a motel and gave me breakdown pay.
Every day, the motel clerk would call me and ask if I wanted to catch the shuttle to the dealership. I would get in the shuttle and just ride by the Freightliner dealer and see my truck sitting there. I would tell the driver to keep going. I would get breakfast and stock up on food and drinks. I sat in that motel from July 22 til the 2nd week in August. THREE AND A HALF WEEKS!!! Had a good time. Went swimming every day and got paid to do it. Company had a cow, but they chose not to listen to me and I reaped the rewards.
For the record, Freightliner sux! You couldnt give me a Freightliner truck because of the piss poor service dept. Got a new Pete 386. Decent truck. Has that ISX motor. I run the jake all the time and it has never needed to sit and do that regeneration thing. Ive had some issues with the truck but Peterbilt's service is galaxies beyond anything coming from Freightliner. As far as emissions motors go, ISX owns Detroit.
What abour Cat? Saw a buddy of mine changing trucks. He was going from an 09 4 axle Pete to an 07 Pete. The 09 Pete had a Cat. I asked why he was going from a brand new truck to an older rig and he told me that he got sick and tired of being under a 200000 lb load and hitting the shoulder of the road to do a regen. Guess that means that Cat is having the troubles I did with that Detroit.

 

Hey guys, mind answering a stupid question?

What are you talking about when you are talking about "regeneration?"

 

The 07-09 trucks have this big, fat catalytic converter thingy that catches emmissions and soot. On the Detroit I had, this thing would clog up and this warning light would come on telling you that it needs to burn the clog out of the system. If you ignored the warning, the engine's computer would flash all the red idiot lights and shut the truck down in 30 seconds.

So, you would have to pull off the road and start this regeneration cycle thing where your truck idles really high for 25 minutes to burn out the clog. The problem is, with an oversized load, you just cant pull off the road anywhere. This setup really robs HP and fuel economy too.

From what I hear, the 2010 trucks will have a different setup and supposedly get much better economy and power than the 07s-09s as they will do away with that funky catalytic stuff. If thats true, the prices for the 07-09s should plummet .