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The Super Brigadier, by GM Latin America


kscarbel2

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Interesting, were those built in Pontiac or Brazil/Argentina?  There was a later version of the 'Super Brigadier' based on the White/GMC Autocar:

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The Brigadier was the only GMC heavy truck that stayed in production after the formation of Volvo-GM Heavy Truck.  The Brigadier continued in production at the old GM Truck and Coach plant in Pontiac with little more than a new 'WhiteGMC' nameplate on it's hood until sometime in late 1989 or maybe early 1990 when the Pontiac plant closed and GM medium duty production (all-new 1990 TopKick and Kodiak) moved to Janesville WI..  Volvo replaced the still-popular (particularly with auto transporters) Brigadier with the WG, a truck that I don't think ever equaled the old Brigadier in popularity or durability.    

 

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Beautiful Brigadier with GMC and Chevy bowtie! How did that happen? Mistake? When I was hauling new Ford's in the late 70s was fairly common to get a Ford Fairmont with Fairmont on one fender and Zephyr on the other! Also had a few pickups with F150 on one fender and F250 or F350 on the other! Maybe built on a Monday! In the 80s I drove a few Brigadiers with 671 Detroit's and those gawdawful straight 7speeds,slowest truck I ever drove! Anchor Motor Freight had recently gotten the largest fine for log violations to date, so they  governed the trucks at 55, and we were required to log no more than 480 miles per day! Prior to the fine drivers were logging 700 miles per day! ( define optimist)! We had one Brigadier with a 20 speed Spicer air shift behind a 671 with a blower and a turbo! ( Some early fuel economy experiment) Nobody wanted to drive it! They were trying to drive it like a 5 speed! Imagine how well that worked! Having little seniority I got "stuck" with it! One of the sweetest shifting trannys I ever drove!

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Beautiful Brigadier with GMC and Chevy bowtie! How did that happen? Mistake? When I was hauling new Ford's in the late 70s was fairly common to get a Ford Fairmont with Fairmont on one fender and Zephyr on the other! Also had a few pickups with F150 on one fender and F250 or F350 on the other! Maybe built on a Monday! In the 80s I drove a few Brigadiers with 671 Detroit's and those gawdawful straight 7speeds,slowest truck I ever drove! Anchor Motor Freight had recently gotten the largest fine for log violations to date, so they  governed the trucks at 55, and we were required to log no more than 480 miles per day! Prior to the fine drivers were logging 700 miles per day! ( define optimist)! We had one Brigadier with a 20 speed Spicer air shift behind a 671 with a blower and a turbo! ( Some early fuel economy experiment) Nobody wanted to drive it! They were trying to drive it like a 5 speed! Imagine how well that worked! Having little seniority I got "stuck" with it! One of the sweetest shifting trannys I ever drove!

The 14 and 20 speed Spicers were a pleasure to drive, if you took the time to learn. Love the big blue shift knob! An outfit I worked for years ago had 3 freightliners with them, and as a mechanic, thought they would never hold up with the rookie drivers, as these 3 were the oldest trucks in the fleet at the time. But we had less trouble with them than any other transmission, really bulletproof. The worst trouble we had was driveshafts, because the drivers would get bogged down off-road and gouge on it in low gear! Lots of torque from the 3406 CAT, more than the driveshaft could handle.

 

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I've also seen pictures of the Brigadier sold in South America with Volvo emblems. They had very high import duties in many south american countries, so manufacturers were forced to do local assembly despite the small volumes. To accomplish that they used the leftover tooling for obsolete U.S. and European models, which explains why these countries got brand new Falcons and Fairmonts for decades after they were replaced in the U.S, market.

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As for the Spicer transmission, got "stuck" with one for about a week, was a 10 speed splitter behind an 8V-71. For hauling bread with the 2100 RPM governed speed it worked pretty nice, you'd typically start out in 2nd high, shift full gear jumps to 3rd high and 4th high, then 5 low and 5 high.

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  • 2 years later...

My research suggests that the Super Brigadiers were assembled at the General Motors "Colmotores" factory in Bogota, Colombia.

The first generation General Motors-based Super Brigadier was produced over the 1985 to 1990 model years.

The second generation Autocar-based Super Brigadier was produced over the 1991 to 1999 model years.

All rolled off the line with Chevrolet badging. Any GMC badges are aftermarket.

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1 hour ago, RoadwayR said:

What did they have for power, 6V-92 Silver?

Certainly Detroit Diesel was very popular in Australia, but as in Western Europe, I want to say that Cummins was always the sales leader from Mexico to South America.

The Autocar-based Super Brigadiers had Cummins N14s. I assume the GM-based Super Brigadier had Cummins power as well, due to the strong after-sales support.

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  • 5 months later...

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