Why do so many Americans hate European trucks?

I never got that impression, but I've only been dealing with the engine (R&D) division, not with corporate or other divisions.

 

Liebherr is the only company to follow Cat in using high drive on larger dozers, with the exception of a monstrosity by the name of Acco I think, who made one huge dozer that never went into production.

Disclaimer, this is from my memory; I did not Google it to try to make it seem as if I know more than I do. There could be other exceptions, but none that are prominent producers.

 

I have seen interviews with Liebherr family members, where they explained their business philosophy. Since they are a family company, they have a long term vision. "Investor relations", "shareholder value", and similar things that primarily focus on short term business results, have no meaning for them.

The Bauma (Bau Machinen / Building Machines) 2019 was opened at the very big Liebherr stand by the federal German minister for economic affairs, in the company of Liebherr family members.

 

My experience is limited, but I worked on a couple of Isuzu 6UZ1 truck engines. Inline 6, 10 litre.
What a joy....

One engine needed a set of new pistons.
It was a new engine on a dyno, so that made access much easier, but there is so much on and around the engine.....incredible.
Others were installed in trucks, and only neede minor work (thank God)

4 EGR coolers, one from front of exhaust manifold, sitting in front of the head, around the corner into the next cooler, similar set-up from rear of exhaust manifold, cooler behind/above the head, into the next cooler. Crossover in the middle.
Intake from air-air splits into 2 sort of resonance plenums, bolted to the intake manifold.
2 EGR valves, feeding the exhaust gasses into the 2 sides of the intake.
External coolant and fuel pipes all around the engine, 8mm, 10mm, 12mm diameter. I don't know how many, just crazy.

Part of EGR system:


Part of the engine, some of the wiring and hoses are because of the instrumentation on the dyno, most is original for the engine:


Picture from internet:

 

I know the JD 655C crawler loader we had was built in Austria was a Liebherr machine. Liebherr is building more diesel engines these days and was an article about it in the January Diesel Progress magazine. Article stated that they expanded the engine facility at it's headquarters in Bulle, Switzerland and built new one in Colmar, France which is close to their mining division site. Also started another joint venture with John Deere to evaluate, design, and develop engine technologies.


Appears to be more than financial facility.

 

The EU and associated member countries have made trade easy.
Add into that we have now deals with Canada,Korea and Japan.

As to Liebherr or others ,they can very easely built where it suits them.
Btw Switserland has 320 000 German,French and Italian workers.
Commuters.

 

Just got finished putting an Isuzu 4JJ1 back together. Compression leaking past injector sealing ring was issue. Took machine shop two weeks to say they couldn't repair eroded injector seat in aluminum cylinder head. $100.00 tool set and 0.006" of material later it cleaned up. Biggest joke was parts. Prices were sky high and lead times over 2 weeks. Nothing remotely compares to Caterpillar parts and service.

 

Liebherr also developed new 6 cylinder Euro V truck engines, and they are being produced at the Russian Kamaz truck factory. These engines can be easily modified to comply with Euro VI once the Russian government is ready to put Euro VI in the law books.

Certainly, including the holding company there are six Liebherr companies at that address, and they are producing there as well. The Liebherr hotel group headquarters is also at that address.

 

The 6UZ1 was a pain. I remember when Hitachi started using them. The Tier 3 ZX450-3 used a detuned 6WG1,15 litre. When the ZX470-5 replaced it, they used the 6UZ1. The four EGR coolers were quite the monstrosity. At least the Hitachi engineers were smart enough to make components as accessible as possible. The 6UZ1 Hitachi used had a much "cleaner" exterior than in those photos IIRC.

 

Thank you, I hope you like this clip.

This is about a rather odd trailer that is produced by a Slovak company called VS-Mont. They produce tippers and all kind of other things.

Look at the way a fifth wheel is used here.