Pre ELD law, how long with the pre 2000's be exempt?

As some have pointed out, the exempt trucks are only getting older. They may remain exempt but how long will it take for some suit to declare that these trucks are not fit for interstate commerce and begin regulating what they can be used for? Sooner or later there won't be a problem. the only trucks of that era will be in shows.

 

the exemption isnt the truck year, its the engine year. how do people still not know this? Its not really how long the truck will last, but the engine. You could take a twin turbo c15 acert strip it down to the block and build an eld exempt 3406e out of it, same with any 12.7 detriot, n14 cummins or an early isx. As long as the end product has an serial number identifying it as a 1999 or older engine it is exempt

 

And if your vin doesn’t have a “GL” in it then any given officer can decide to write you up for engine emissions not meeting model year of truck.

The guy I drove flatbed for stopped at Sage Jct ID scale after we started running eld’s. He asked what they are going to be looking for since they won’t be inspecting log books. The younger guy that works there said that if someone is claiming an exemption based on model year and the truck is newer than a 99 then it better be a glider.

 

Yes that is true, speaking only of gliders. A truck with a 2002 6nz could easily become a 1999 2ws. Or any Fitzgerald with a 2000+ 12.7 could easily become a pre 2000 12.7. You could say that all glider kit trucks are/could be ELD exempt, so the "how many pre 2000 trucks run otr anymore" argument is invalid

 

Oh, I remember it very well.

 

And if it’s not a glider then the engine has to meet the emission requirements of the year of the truck. So if it’s not a glider then having a 2003 with a “99 2ws Cat” is useless if the right officer starts digging. Unless it’s a glider you can’t go backwards on emissions. Now I realize the likelihood of getting caught is low, but it only takes one guy.

 

They didnt put 2003 engines in 2003 trucks. 2004 trucks still had pre-egr engines. The EPA regs are fairly clear, you can not modify emission controls. So if the truck never had it, then it isn't required.

 

You’re correct. But if you read his first post he said to take a twin turbo Acert and built it back to an exempt 6nz, which technically can get you in trouble.

 

Ok, then you and I are arguing over a technicality. With the writing on the wall, Cat, Detroit and Cummins were concerned about the public buying the emission engines, so they ramped up production in 2002, before the new standards went into effect. They made enough engines that for 2 years truck manufacturers didn't use current model year engines, they used 2002.

The EPA regulations are not that a truck has to have the emissions controls of that model year's engine. The regulations are it has to have the emissions control of the engine that was originally put in it. From my understanding, no 2003-2004 truck had a 2003 or 2004 engine in it.

As far as exempt 6nz, there were about 6000 made in 1999. Trying to get one of those is a pipe dream

 

[QUOTE="ZVar, post: 8264949, member:]
No,what will happen is in a few years the only trucks that are older than 2000 will be show trucks. Everything else will have simply worn out and died off in due time.

I mean what, there are (yes a WAG) less than 2% of trucks out there now ELD exempt for the year of the truck? In any case it's not really enough for lawmakers to care about.[/QUOTE]

I have been thinking about what you wrote for several days. There are a few, very few, 359s still working out on the road, but you will see fewer and fewer each year.

But never have I seen as many old trucks on the road as I see now! I've been involved with trucks since the day I was born. My dad was on the road that day. I loved to see the old butterfly hood Kenworths, as well as the bullnose cabovers, along with the bubblenose Freightliners. Butterfly hood Peterbilts were technically not old, as the 358 and 359 came out after I was born.

Quite simply, I never saw a bubblenose Freightliner nor a bullnose Kenworth on the road, I only saw them in junkyards or in shops where they had been stripped. The oldest of these would have been no more than 20 years old in 1970 when my memories become much clearer, and the newest would have been around 13 years old from my earliest memories.

Virtually everyday I see as many FLDs as I saw of the butterfly hood Kenworths from my earliest memory until 1970.

When I used to go cross country with my dad in the late 70s, you saw for all intents and purposes, no butterfly hood trucks, even though for Kenworth they had stopped making them 14 years earlier and 10 years for Peterbilt. You saw virtually no small window W9s and 359.

Yet at one shipper alone there are 2 W900L that are at least 24 years old every other day. I see many FLDs still on the road. It is my belief that 90s trucks were the best quality. That there are so many, although not that many as a percent of all the trucks on the road, is proof that it is true.

There, I've channeled my inner x1heavy!