Maxidyne

I suspect the reason for the "Ford engines only" policy might be in the union contract- Ford UAW workers made concessions in return for Ford promising to maintain jobs at current plants. That said, Ford's PowerStroke has been developed to the point where it's the equal of the Cummins B series, so the choice is moot unless the buyer is heavily invested tool and training wise or more commonly psychologically in the B Series. As for the Allison, despite GM having sold off Allison IIRC GM invested a lot in the 1000 series and probably has an exclusive on it.

Ain't so much that it's not that pretty, but it's a Freightliner... And we'd prefer a Mack MH!

And here we thought MAN was going to provide VW Group's medium truck range...

Direct drive is doable with AC motors, iffy with DC. For decades the diesel-electric locomotives were pure DC, but they had to limit current when starting a heavy load to keep the motors from burning up. Locomotives went to AC as high power inverters and rectifiers became available, but the cost to upgrade from DC to AC motors was around a million $$$ on top of the million and a half $$$ cost of a DC drive locomotive. They've got the upcharge down to about half that now and with the price increases to become Tier 4 compliant, most new locomotives are being built with AC drive. But for a couple hundred thousand dollar truck, the upcharge for the high power inverters and rectifiers to provide direct drive might be a deal killer.

Unusually long sentence for a white collar crime, and very unusual for an environmental violation. No wonder VW Group USA now kowtows to the EPA.

Ah, the joys of high performance 2 stroke power curves...

GM owned Detroit Diesel from the 1930s until it was sold to Penske AFTER the 60 Series was introduced. I've heard the rumors of Deere contributing to the 60 series development, but never seen it documented. As far as Penske involvement, Penske was much smaller in the trucking business then so I doubt they had a major involvement.

GM seems to be half way there already. And does this business model work for Apple? I've been waiting for over a week for Apple to produce and deliver a new laptop for me, and my patience is getting thin.

Correct, the 2 strokes went electronic first. While Penske Leasing may have encouraged GM to go electronic, Penske didn't buy Detroit until after the 60 series was introduced. So I suspect GM went with electronic controls because they worked better and they had the financial resources to develop them, and emissions standards were a lesser motivating factor.

The 60 series Detroit was an electronic engine from the start, way back in the mid 80s when emissions standards were pretty lax. If mechanical injection control is so great, how come Detroit didn't go mechanical?

Would probably get less HP with a mechanical pump- Electronic injection can control more dimensions of the fuel injection with more precision than mechanical ever could. The big turbos though would help provided you could scale the venturi opening to suit RPM, load, etc..

IIRC, gliders with engines 2000 or later will have to have ELDs, unless they fall under another exemption. Those "pre emissions" engines are probably mislabeled, as we've had heavy duty diesel emissions regs in the U.S. since the mid 80s, and any older cores were mostly long ago melted down. As far as safety equipment, it'd be nice to lose some of the nanny stuff, but basic stuff like ABS should be required and I suspect a lot of gliders do not have functional ABS.

Before the U.S. Surface Traffic Assistance Act of 1982 eliminated overall length limits and made conventional cabs with sleepers practical, the cabover market was so big that Mack could afford to offer a couple models. Thus the premium G model was offered at the same time as the cheaper H model, and the premium WS/WL Cruiseliner was offered at the same time as the F model. There were even two versions of the F model for awhile, with a premium "Western" model available with aluminum components.

Ah, the joy of a good motoring bookstore! Classic Motorbooks started up in my neighborhood, was great to browse through and got a lot of discounts on blems and overstocks. They gradually moved farther away, but even then they were a nice hour's drive out of the city. Sadly they got bought out by a big media conglomerate and then disappeared...

Was down there in October, look like the debris haulers were putting some pretty long hours.

Run outa hurricane debris to haul?

If anything the demand for glider power and electronic logs are pushing up the prices of 90s engines. I can see where the manufacturers want out of the glider business- If somebody builds a 2020 model year glider with a 90s engine and it has the typical working life of 20 years or so, they'll be stuck providing parts for 40 and 50 year old engines!

Interesting machines, had one parked in a siding near me so got a close look at one. They have to meet all the legal requirements for both a truck and locomotive, which may explain why flat windshield trucks like the Pete and Western Star are most popular for these conversions- locomotives are required to have much thicker glass than trucks. In most cases they have to meet the weight limits for trucks, so even with tri axles they can only put 20 tons or so on the drive wheels limiting their tractive effort. I've heard they're using one of the off road Allison transmissions which would give a bit more capacity and allow the full 600 HP the 15-16 liter engines can produce, but I imagine some variants like the Metro Transit's "tow truck" don't need as much power- They were using it to test the LRT cars and track before the wire was energized, and it flew up the overpasses! But while 600 HP is impressive in the world of trucks, that'll only pull 4 loaded cars at 1 HP/Ton. Clearly GE and EMD don't have to worry much about truck competition on the rails...

Locomotives use diesel-electric drive because no transmission will take the torque of their 4000+ HP engines and have the gear reduction to start loads with a power to weight ratio of 2HP/Ton or less. Mechanical transmissions are more efficient, but aren't up to heavy locomotive duty. That said, truck diesels are being used in some lighter switching locomotives with some success, and the toughest of the truck automatics might be up to moving a few loaded cars. Keep in mind, just one North American loaded railcar weights 268,000 pounds...

Agreed- One of the main reasons for my lack of enthusiasm for actually driving trucks OTR today is that the trucks have become such pigs- conventionals plus big sleepers equals a 200 inch plus wheelbase and they handle like pigs. Give me a set back axle conventional with a day cab or better yet a cabover and I'm happy. Being as new cabover tractors aren't available in the U.S. anymore, A setback front axle conventional with a short sleeper makes an ideal combination, especially since you need a 170 inch or more wheelbase to "bridge" and that leaves a long gap between a day cab and the trailer... Makes sense to put a sleeper in there and make use of that space. International, Freightliner with the M2, KW, and now Western Star get it and are offering these options. Mack, not so much...

As Ford joins GM and FCA in their retreats to their home markets, perhaps Ford's Turkish partners, the Kocs, will buy out more of Ford's ROW operations?

Yup, check for unpublicized warranty extensions in the TSBs, etc.. Often the manufacturer doesn't publicize them and unless you're a big fleet, in which case the parts seem to magically arrive whether needed or not- I remember brand new doors arriving for the International Transtar cabovers that were never used, and a whole collection of new body panels and doors for the badly rusting 3rd generation Econolines.

USPS has experimented with electric power for the small step vans for years, but the modest savings in fuel cost could never overcome the steep upcharge for electrification. Heck, these little trucks put on so few miles that they couldn't even justify a diesel engine. And initial cost is just the first hit- Figure $5k for a replacement battery every 10 years, plus the cost of charging facilities, etc..

VW's had similar low pressure fuel pump failure problems with the TDIs. SOP for VW dealers has been to replace the whole fuel system at a cost of around $10,000, but some TDI drivers found they can usually get by with replacing the failed pump and filters and thoroughly flushing out the rest of the fuel system. First they blamed it on misfueling with gas and put an insert in the fuel filler. The failures persisted so VW finally gave in and provided an extended warranty on the fuel pumps of the 2009-12 TDIs. That's now been superceded by VW's buyback of over 300,000 TDIs and an expensive emissions recall for those TDIs that remain on or return to the road. TDIs that get the emissions recall get an extended warranty on the whole fuel and emissions system as well as the engine.

With the newer engines like Ford's Powerstroke, there never was a pre-emmissions version.