Glider Kits

I think the price difference is for the exemption. I run paper legal but some just can't handle #####in betty counting down your minutes for you. Look on Truck Paper, 2016 W9s going for 90-125k.

Look in the Freightliner Glider section those can be had much more affordable. You can even still buy brand new 2020 Columbia and Coronados fully built. One dealer said on their ad 2020 is the last year l don't know if that is just for the Frreightliners.

One guy was bragging his used FL was a "genuine Detroit" not a Fitzgerald engine. Well Fitzgerald made many improvements including going to a serpintine belt, ported exhaust manifold with stronger much better bolts, better turbo and Pittsburgh Power tuning. They designed it with hardware so.it can be taken apart and put back together easier from what l heard.

Thought my 12.7 was 500hp but on the dyno at Clarke it put 487hp at the wheels with 2k miles on it. That is with a PP muffler and crank damper and the FASS..

 

Dang l would have been upset. That CAT was a $20,000 upgrade over the Detroit. Not worth it IMO.. Harrison Freightliner in Iowa had the new gen Coronados (with the squarish headlights and much improved interior) for $138,000 FET included with a rebuilt CAT 6NZ a.few years back. It was very tempting. Yet l liked how you could order your own personal rig through MHC and have Fitzgerald complete it for you.

Anyway to answer op's question yes sir even without the exemption I would buy another Glider kit if l.was able to. I went to Florida this week and l kid you not every new gen Volvo l passed had the two amber check engine lights on. One had the third red one shining also! I said to myself no one would believe it!. Perhaps l can get a camera mounted in the passenger window to prove it.

 

The DOT don’t care about emissions. That’s the EPA’s department.

 

To the wheels that is really good hp.

LOL at the Volvo comment. You can see their instrument cluster as you pass them and I see the same thing you do. I used to drive one of those POS VNL's as a company driver several years ago, actually had 3 different ones, and every #### one of them always had a "check ECU" or "check vehicle ECU" light on that the shop could never eliminate. If I ever saw one of those trucks that didn't have that lit up while it was running it would be the first.

 

My volvo's don't do that. Of course i've never seen them out of the shop. LOL

 

Who's doing the work or are u doing it

 

Shop in Utah . They did already 4 engines for me , several of my friends

 

They sure do where I’m from. Guys getting caught all the time by MTO up here in Ontario for deletes, or re-powering a newer truck with an old motor.

 

Glider's are all we run where I'm at. Since 2013 we've gotten 10 Western Star 4900's. They've been great so far. We had two Coronado's that were gliders, and they were good as well, but nobody really liked them, so they're gone.

They all came from a local dealer, some put together at our shop, some at the dealer, and one at a local shade tree mechanic. All but one has Cat power, from an older 5Ek model, to a newer MXS model. They've all been really good so far. The one other one has a Detroit, and it has had a few minor issues, but still works well.

Supposedly we can no longer get a Western Star glider, with the emissions laws. So the next new trucks will have all the garbage on them, but that should be a few years away, considering we don't put a ton of miles on. (The 2013 only has 560k on the odometer)


All that said, I think the key to having a good glider built is having your own engines to rebuild before you ever buy the truck.

Buying a Fitzgerald may be ok. But nobody knows, or cares about the engine's previous life. It could have been a block with 3 million miles on it. And for the mass production they were doing, I have to believe the quality of the rebuilds is suspect, at best.

 

They are excellent once you get Fitzgerald’s parts out of them. I wouldn’t sell mine for any amount if it meant owning an emissions truck in place of my glider.

 

So Fitzgerald's are great when you remove all the Fitzgerald stuff.... Ok.
Some would call that not a Fitzgerald at that point.