Bullheaded

Well I'm kinda amazed now. They had to put a whole new harness in for the SCR system and I have just ran 3 twelve hour shifts in MINUS 45°F weather and it is still running!!!!! Only one parked regen in those 3 days. It's a miracle!! I still hate it though.

I loved my CH. A 2000 with E7 460, 18 speed, 16 and 46's on Mack Air. I pulled 5 and 6 walking floor and log trailer on and off road. That truck never got stuck where other trucks could not go for some reason. I had all the bottom pieces of the fairings ripped off and it still kept pulling through the mud in the bush and the mill sites. Was a very good handling truck in the winter. Never ever made you nervous. It had a lot of engine issues. Was one of the ones that came out of factory with casting sand in the block. So it cooked 5 air compressors and air dryers before they finally got it cleaned out. Then it dropped a valve and it also had the famous "lightning bolt" issue. But it still wasn't as big a lemon as this new Star/Detroit.

Awe yes, lets not forget these....when Volvo also ruined Autocar.

Well my cities airport bought a brand new million dollar airport rescue fire truck and they still have to use the old one because the new one is always down with emission system issues and codes.

I wonder if International will offer them in the HX?

I would have been ok if I could have just done a couple things to get it on the road, then work on it as I go, but they want me to do everything to it before they will safety it. And that's not even my dealer, it was a cut rate shop. But everybody is scared here now because the ministry busted a bunch of shops over the last year. The ministry has even been showing up at peoples houses 8 am Saturday morning to inspect vehicles they just got safetied!! I had my friend look at it. He has done some ground up builds. He said if he was doing it for himself, probably could be done for 20 to 22 grand.

They are getting ridiculous in Ontario Canada. A whole bunch of trucks got nailed for being deleted too. Now they are starting test for that for your annual safety too. That's how they force us to buy this emission motored crap so we can all go bankrupt. So now I'm forced to keep driving this Western Star DD15 lemon. I've only had to idle it across town into dealer three times this month derated. Awesome!!

Well it's still for sale. I decided not to do it. It has far too many issues to make it worth it to me. It would be a good truck for someone that does restorations but I need something that can go to work and be picked at as I go. Went through it all and basically that is all it is, a perfect interior on good tires and back brakes. They even wanted me to pull the insert out of the frame. It doesn't look bad to me, I can't see any scale or rust jacking, but they told me they won't safety it because it is rotten. So between that, a blown head gasket, and all the electrical and small stuff and paint and the stuff I knew it needed, just more than I wanna do.

It's the new trend. Because I know FAR more about trucks and what options are available than every single salesman I have talked to in the last 10 years. I knew ONE good Mack salesman and he finally had enough and changed careers. Now back to my original thought.....I'm surprised to see that Mack mixer in LaFarge colors because they announced not long ago they were switching to all Peterbilt and praising how great Pete's are. I know for two seasons I was seen hundreds of new LaFarge Pete's coming through town here getting delivered.

It's hard to know what to buy now kscarbel2. There is a local crushing company here that has a whole bunch of crushing plants and equipment. They used to be all Mack. At one time they had 30 trucks that pulled the crushers, equipment and belly dumps. They were Cat powered Superliner's and some R and DM's when they had to lease extra trucks. Then they switched to Cat powered CL's. Then when Mack dropped Cat, they dropped Mack and went to T800's. Now they just bought some new T880's and they are looking at other brands now. They said the T880's just don't have the build quality the old T800's had. I have only sat in T880's, but I have ran quite a few T800's and they were good tough trucks (up until 2005 when I drove my last one.) They said they are looking at Western Star, but I know I am very displeased with the build quality of my lemon.

There is NOTHING Western Star or Detroit can ever do to make me want another. I realize they aren't all bad, but mine is such a lemon It made it so I can't even stand looking at a W Star. The Detroit has been solid as far as hard parts (except for the fan belt tensioners) but it is an emission system nightmare. Whereas the ISX Cummins has had a lot of hard part failures but not nearly as many regens and shut downs as this DD15. This is just my opinion. I see many in long haul applications that are trouble free, but my Star was built with so many flaws I can't even list them all here. And that DD15 don't like in-town dump truck work in any weather, let alone when it is minus 10 to 20°F

That is what I did on my 88 R Model. It originally had a 12 speed but was changed to a 15 speed Eaton before I got it. So I used the air switch for the extended range. And when i was a company driver switching trucks all the time, I always kept a tool box full of roofing nails to plug off the air line at the puff limiter. Worked perfect! LOL. It was better using the switch though. Because then you can have black smoke and tail lights but if the MTO/DOT pulled you in, flip the switch and no smoke at all. Wouldn't pull itself empty, but no smoke for them to harass you.

Yep, just as Challenger said, cheapest bud wins. The mega fleets don't have pay what us regular working men have to pay.

Thanks for the info Swishy. Nice looking unit. Good variety of loads too. Keeps the boredom level down!

Yep. You want the biggest condo sleeper on a Western Star or 122SD? You got it. Want it twin steer with tri-drive? No problem. Want a steel butterfly hood? Okay. See how that works Volvo?

Ya, but those fenders look good on that truck! LOL. I loved driving the CL's. They were a nice truck. And the red Elite interior was one of the nicest ever.

I wonder if you can still find an original seat bottom cushion of these style seats as seen on the passenger side? The bottom of the driver side has been replaced with just a plain fabric cushion. I want to find a new steering wheel for it also. This ones all cracked.

Thanks a lot. It was really nice to drive. Not as rough as I thought it would be. Judging by the name on it looks like it was a farm truck or grain hauler? It's not very fast with that gearing, but like I say it will have an easy life now. Likely just going to pull a small 28 foot tandem dump trailer around town. And the good thing is even if something does go wrong, those NTC Cummin's are pretty simple and cheap to rebuild. When I drove it home I passed a convoy of cattle haulers on the highway and I got a lot of thumbs up! LOL.

Thank you kscarbel2. Going to try and make her nice again and keep it as original as possible.

I made a post in the proper place HeavyGunner instead of hi-jacking FJH's thread. You can see it here:

Finally found a way to fix all my emission system headaches with the new trucks. Just got this 1986 IH 9670 Eagle. It's been many years now since I have been as happy as I am now when I drive this truck. Just have to do some cosmetic stuff. Got a grab handle missing, some dents and extra mirror brackets and stuff to remove. And put the stack on straight. But the headliner and sleeper are still wrapped in plastic. Never been opened up. It's a little light spec'd compared to what I normally have, but many years ago I was in the bush with 38,000 rears and only broke one axle shaft once, so I'll be okay pulling a dump trailer with this. It's got an NTC Big Cam IV 400, 13 speed overdrive and 40,000 International (made by Rockwell) rears with 4.44 ratio. Kinda odd a light spec highway truck is geared that low, but it pulls pretty strong. And I will just be using it in town and on highway construction anyway. Man, I had forgot how glorious it is to drive an old truck with a mechanically governed engine and un-muffled straight pipe. I'm never going to want to drive the 4900 Star now. I missed out on a 350 Superliner, but I'm an International guy too, so this will work!

Solved my emissions issues. Just got home from picking up my new ride. I forgot how glorious mechanical motors are to drive! So between this and the 2013 Star, I know which one I'll be using most. Just gotta do a bit of body work where it has been dented in a few spots, some paint and good to go. Plastic wrap is still over all the interior, never been taken off. All the headliner, bunk walls, etc. Only the driver seat bottom cushion and the steering wheel are wore.

Imagine trying to hire drivers today that can even drive a Duplex! LOL.

I feel your pain. I just idled my derated Star into the dealer at 3am the other morning. And as if these new engines aren't bad enough....this time the problem was $1800 worth of wire harnesses that the dealer has been poking a test light into and now they are all rotten and failing. Then I finally find out why this truck has been a lemon all along. It's what they called a "hybrid bastard lemon" It was built with a mix of old and new emission system on this DD15. They had a hell of a time even trying to find the proper replacement harnesses for it.

I had wondered what happened to this company. I wasn't sure if they were still around. I had heard the first announcement, then it went quiet and I haven't seen a finished truck over the last few years. I'd like to see them successful too, but with the government now trying even harder to get rid of gliders again, it's going to be a hard road for them.