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Fitzgerald Glider Kit News


kscarbel2

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KSB, a great deal of thrashing around in the industry to avoid ever stricter emissions compliance and computer logs! When I drove for Leaseway Motorcar in 87 they were coming off the largest hours of service violation in history! 500k fine! A slap on the wrist today! Drivers were logging 700 miles a day on the east coast in a 55mph truckLOL! Predictably the company having been chastised then went the other way,we were only allowed to log 480 miles on the old 10 hrs log! "Always changing never changing" as Overdrive used to say! I'm surprised none of the members have commented on the nearly incomprehensible debacle in San Antonio! The drivers latest comment in the Tampa paper this morning "I didn't know there was anyone in the trailer"! That 300" Pete doesn't ride that well! That dude makes Pol Pot look like a humanitarian! Most of us remember the situation in Victoria Tx in 2003! Wish I was on the road to hear the cb chatter!

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If any of you are actually serious about buying a Fitzgerald glider with a series 60 I highly suggest you do research.  A good bunch of my customers have them and bearing failures are too common to be a fluke. Warranty claims are tough to begin with and come the transition to the Nikola trucks I imagine it will only get more difficult.

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7 minutes ago, BGarofalo said:

If any of you are actually serious about buying a Fitzgerald glider with a series 60 I highly suggest you do research.  A good bunch of my customers have them and bearing failures are too common to be a fluke. Warranty claims are tough to begin with and come the transition to the Nikola trucks I imagine it will only get more difficult.

I don't expect the Nikola truck to be realized.

The Series 60 is a proven engine, not only the the US market, but the world over, from South Africa to Australia. Say what you want, but I myself have 100 percent confidence in the Series 60.

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Series 60 and 50 were designed for a mid-life bearing roll-in, and bull gear bearings too... look after these and the 60 is a smart choice.... 

Our dinosaur 50's are far more reliable than our Cummins ISL/M... lower maintenance cost $/mile and only thing against them is a minor fuel economy disadvantage.

I wonder if it was ever considered for the MH...??  maybe built too late, but the 14Lt with DDEC4 had 500hp available

You can see the lineage in the engines offered today by the MB empire..

BC Mack

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13 minutes ago, BC Mack said:

Series 60 and 50 were designed for a mid-life bearing roll-in, and bull gear bearings too... look after these and the 60 is a smart choice.... 

Our dinosaur 50's are far more reliable than our Cummins ISL/M... lower maintenance cost $/mile and only thing against them is a minor fuel economy disadvantage.

I wonder if it was ever considered for the MH...??  maybe built too late, but the 14Lt with DDEC4 had 500hp available

You can see the lineage in the engines offered today by the MB empire..

BC Mack

The Series 60 was never considered because we had such a hard time selling the ninety Series 92-powered MHs that we built at the beginning in 1984-85. 

Ryder wanted and purchased a respectable number of Cummins-powered units (1,317 total units produced). But aside from Ryder, most of our customers including Penske naturally wanted Mack power.

Ryder purchased a few Caterpillar-powered MHs. But we only built 141 CAT-powered units total, because again most customers wanted Mack power.

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I can understand the 92 not being desired, early problems left a bad taste and it took some time to iron out... even the 60 had early issues, we went to sodium exhaust valves as soon as they were offered.

BC Mack

 

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                                      The company I work for has 20 Freightliner Coronado gliders with the 14 liter 550 hp-1850 torque Series 60. We have had a few problems with them, but there

                                      recon engines so we expected some problems. But over all those engines have out performed the ISX and C15 engines we had hands down. Just the price of

                                      injectors alone for a DD15 or 16 will damn near scare you away, $958.00 each. Plus the DD15 is not that friendly to work on. Change a air compressor on a

                                      DD15 and you will understand.  The Series 60 powered glider is a good way to go, we bought ours from Freightliner. This truck pictured unfortunately was wrecked

                                      last year in a head on, and it was the fault of the other vehicle. Our driver was ok.

 

                                      Truck Shop

004.JPG

One ping only

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14 minutes ago, TeamsterGrrrl said:

No such thing as a "pre-emissions" Series 60- there were already emissions standards when it was introduced back in the late '80s.

I have to tell you, pre-1998, one can realistically call them pre-emissions engines.

The Series 60 engines installed by Fitzgerald are pre- EPA2004 spec engines. In older words, they are EPA 1998 spec engines which have an extremely small amount of emission's control, a meaningless amount versus today's engines.

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IIRC, the first diesel big truck emission standards were around 1984 and pretty much made turbochargers mandatory. The standards were ratcheted up every 3 years or so, and we started noting some drivability compromises and drop in fuel economy with the 2001 and 2004 standards. but the 2007 and 2010 standards were much more noticeable with major price increases and a drop in fuel economy with the engines that tried to slide by without DEF aftertreatment.

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We stopped rebuilding our own but can still get "official Detroit 50" engines from the Canadian Detroit dealer. However, they come out of the Mexican factory... we stipulate new block, new head with sodium exhaust, new crank... the rest is Reliabilt... $35k cdn exchange

We found the blocks never were much good at the third rebuild at about 1.4mil kms of city transit work, pretty tough environment.

Depending on the criteria that Fitzgerald uses for "inspection" prior to "rebuild", that could be a factor in shorter than expected life.

It could be a 'varsol overhaul'... can't be established unless you ask for the dimension sheet of the engine on teardown and rebuild, that usually tells a story..!!!

BC Mack

 

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A new (for all intents and purposes) left-hand drive COE available today in North America, and with a so-called pre-emissions 500 horsepower Detroit Diesel Series 60 powerplant.

I've experienced these Cleveland, North Carolina-built trucks (in right-hand drive configuration) in South Africa and Australia. A truck to be respected.

.

 

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