Hooray!

There was a guy this morning with a new 389 Fitzgerald with a pretty big sleeper, not the dog box, I don't know Pete sizes, but it was bigger than a 63.

Anyway, it was nice. Lot's of chrome.
Detroit. 56K miles.

Said his boss got 4 of them with APUs for $165000 each.

6.0 MPG pulling a refer.

 

That provided me with a good chuckle. About as true as it gets.

 

Well that didn't take long

Court blocks administration’s glider kit emissions-enforcement policy

 

IMHO gliders are dead. The 2 major OEM's who provide them are not going to stop and start production based on the outcome of this as it winds it's way through the courts. Low profitability, cannibalizing new complete truck sales, and the perception of the general public that they are a dirty loophole and the negative press that imparts means they are simply not worth the effort.
Both Paccar and Daimler are going out of their way to develop "green" trucks, electric, hybrid, natural gas, hydrogen fuel cell to enhance a public image of them being on the side of clean air etc. Their continued production of glider kits cannot be justified to that public.

 

The ones who mass assemble gliders are the ones who will be affected the most by the regulations. You can and will still be able to get one if you’re going to build it yourself, like back in the old days before Fitz and others exploited the loophole. Instead of involving the epa the easiest way to end mass assembled glider sales would’ve been to go back to needing to turn in a salvage title for the vehicle you got parts from in order to license a new glider.

 

I can say that. Mines been in the shop for 1 day, but it was planned.

 

And you’re probably running around under 80k gross too.

 

You keep saying low profitability, where is the proof? The truck I’m in was a three axle rolling glider, didn’t have the lift axle on it or anything, and the invoice for it back in Oct 2016 was $91k. Seems like there would be some profit in that for Kenworth, no?

When stories about glider kits make the news the general public forgets about them the next day when something else starts making the rounds on the news.

The market for gliders will always be there, even if it’s only specialty trucks and the people doing general freight no longer want them. The performance and reliability of the new emission engines simply isn’t there for some specialized aspects of this industry. I run maxi flatbed in the NW and Western Canada and from Jan 30 2017 until today this truck has never been in the shop. I doubt many people with a new emission truck can say that.

 

When gliders were first available back in the 1980's, the only thing the manufacturer had to do was ship an current truck model without the essential drivetrain components( engine, trans or rear ends). Simple and profitable.
That is not how a glider is made now. All gliders are prior generation platforms that were originally designed for non emission engines. So they are specially manufactured, in relatively small numbers and do not share many components( cabs, instrument panels, wiring etc) with current production vehicles. Even at their peak, they only account for 3-4% of the class 8 truck market. Low volume means the individual parts peculiar to the earlier platform are more expensive. Enter the limits now placed on them by the EPA and instead of Freightliner making 6-8 thousand gliders, it will be a much smaller number. The only reason Freightliner is still making gliders is they still manufacture for export the same truck complete ( Columbia, Century and Coronado). As those designs become obsolete in those export markets and stop selling, the platform for the gliders goes away.
To use your example of profit on $91K, the price of a Kenworth glider with no major components installed. If they mark up their trucks an average of 20%, the profit of the glider is $18000. If they sell a complete tractor with emissions for $160K and mark it up the same 20%, the profit is $32000 per unit. And the emission truck is going to net them much more business in parts and service for the service life of the vehicle.
That is why I say they don't make as much profit on gliders as new trucks.

 

Selling the glider is their only source of profit. When you need Kenworth parts to assemble your Kenworth glider where do you get them? And how much are the parts marked up?

I see your point about service when a new truck breaks down. That is 100% the reason why there are truck salesmen today saying you can’t get a glider. But when they find out you’re dealing with someone else on a glider they’re quick to call up and try and sell you a glider.

If I run around 80k and under I would have no problem at least trying an emission truck. But the reliability isn’t there when it comes to 105k in the mountains day in and day out. The last time my boss tried an emission truck he had to leave a spare truck in Missoula for the driver to drive while his was in the shop.

 

Article said Volvo, diamler, and cummins were fighting to keep the epa regs, these mega corps will do anything to try and lock down a market and squeeze out a nitch... makes me ashamed I own a Volvo..