How come you never hear anyone talk about Internationals?

Never really been a fan of Intertrashionals. I drove a couple here and there. Their engines sound like they're about 50 revolutions away from throwing a rod.

 

I've honestly never been close enough to a Mack truck to notice how they sound, or even what the engine looks like. Macks in general are pretty scarce around here.

 

Ive been dealing with internationals dating to the late 60's early 70's all the way through the then very nice new Eagles in which they tried to remake themselves in His image so to speak (To paraphrase...) back in the 80's all they did was plush and fluff with some extra cab and sleeper space back then. Still the same anemic engine and drive options compared to other more competitive and capable tractors out there. When you grow up in Maryland or southern PA you don't really NEED a big truck. Just something adequate to tool around in but nothing that stands out or does trucking really well. It is just it is.

In Arkansas my last international was a conventional 9800 Paystar I think is what they called it trade name in it's day. It's pluses was a custom frame long wheel base but it mattered not when there are thousands of rivets holding the cab floor and everything on it including YOU until everything falls through as it did one fine day on 30 SW of little rock. It is fortunate that the frame rails were there to catch everything and hold it there until we drift to a halt. that pretty much sealed for me personally that I will never touch another international again. I don't care much for them. And when a particular model with a really bad employer such as B&B Concrete in West Little Rock tries to take your life the way mine did... you make sure that in the future it will not happen again.

Now that Ive gotten the ranting semi out of the way sort of... I say this. The new Eagle Cabs from the late 80's for bulk hauling made for a quieter work day for those lucky to be assigned it. To get into a Eagle with Hahn Transport in my time was not in teh cards. You needed to be roughly the top 40% of all drivers on senority before they handed you a Eagle Cab. It ultimately does not matter beause I was to have a mother of all preventables and got eliminated from it within 20 hours of it happening. (I took off a Hood of another mack nose to tail with me in Rockville Fuel and Feed which is a concrete ready mix plant of some high intensity building out I-270 at that time. Total dedication to emptying bulk tankers asap and anything that delays that powder is unacceptable. So a suit ordered me out of my bad parking and get turned around. Fine. BOOM no hood off the one next to me, got turned around and then eliminated the product from the tanker. Boss man did not want to hear that he now has to spend 10,000 dollars for a new hood or possibly issue the poor victimized company driver a new eagle for his troubles.

Every trucker has a rig that he or she will fit nicely like a old shoe. And the very best thing about this thinking is really simple. You don't put any effort into the driving of said model truck that you are becoming one with. You think you go here. And it's here now. Still have sometime left on the logs before dinner. Want it now or later? Not tired yet, let's roll on. Put away some of tomorrows miles tongiht so that they are done and we are ahead of the appointment. For me it's either a Pete 379 specifically long hood set back axle and FLD 120 freight liner 95 model. I liked the rather common FLD series enough to commit 41K of my own money and future into purchasing one decades ago that was relatively new and has not yet reached 200K miles on that 400 kitty with the rockwell 9 and roughly 3.89 rears I think for the hill running in that part of PA.

Or a KW2000. Mack, any model except suicide cabover no sleeper. I cannot stand those. Mentally I develop a real bad case of I want out of this ##### now within the hour of driving one. SO we all have our limits of what we like and don't like. If money was no object it probably will be the newer W900 Studio large cars from the KW line. There isnt much you need to do to those for the first million anyhow provided you can get a 700 horse ACERT or similar engineering with at least 2000 pounds of torque. None of this crappy weed eating 500 and 1300 easy break specs.

 

I started out in a 9400. Wasn't too keen on it at first but I eventually came to like it; they are ugly trucks but they'll pull a grade like nobody's business; and the sleeper is a lot roomier than it looks from the outside. Plus, the clutch in mine seemed to be absolutely bulletproof. Sometimes I still kind of miss it, even if the company castrated it a bit.

The Prostars are another story altogether. You couldn't pay me enough to get in one of those things. It seemed like, every time I dropped by the shop, I could almost guarantee 100% I'd see a Junkstar on the rack.

 

First trucks I bought were 9400's and they were great trucks and last forever. Last trucks we bought were prostars and they were total plastic junk. They had isx engines which performed well but always had issue's with cracked heads , egr and turbo problems. But we were lucky because they where not maxforce engines which are total garbage.

 

13 letter crap spreader

 

Try driving a 2574 tractor for a few years then tell me how much you like them