Anybody out there running newer municipal plow equipment? What's working for you and what isn't? The agency I work for has a mixed fleet of older Sterling's that are getting cycled out, 2010-2017 Internartionals, and now they're going to Western star. I don't think most of this is any secret, just curious what else is going on in the real world. The sterling's we've got have c-12 and c-13s and have been good old trucks, but the last of them are on their way out. I'm running a 2012 international with a Maxforce motor and an Allison, its a pretty comfortable truck to run, but its got 100K on it now and its obvious the best 100k are behind it. Turbo's are still original, but the EGR cooler's been replaced and its had EGR valve issues a few times already. As a whole the internationals seem to be down continuously at this point, mostly electrical and emissions related issues. The western stars are just coming into the fleet and are running DD13 or DD14's (Cant remember which) We have one in the truck station and they're currently working on some derating issues with it, to early to really tell how these will be. I'm looking at the long term on this stuff, after we're done with them the private contractors and small municipalities end up with them, and what I'm seeing after the Sterlings, I can't see these internationals being worth a damn to anyone, and it looks like the word is out, as the ones hitting the market aren't bringing much for what they are. Anyone running Macks or Freightliners? What do you think the future for the private guys is looking like? rebuild the old stuff or break down and go new?
I've been told the Maxiforce are pretty decent if you can do a complete emissions delete.
The Freightliners with the DD13 are a pretty good combination coupled with a DT12 AMT transmission.
They're really not bad when you do a whole maxiforce delete either and repower with anything else. Heck a Mercedes is a better engine then a Maxi-bortion
That’s funny.
I don't work on trucks anymore but from what I'm observing (reading online, hearing from drivers and owner ops I know) is that the Detroit seems to be one of the better engines on the market.
Maxxforce delete lok
Lol on the Maxxforce Delete. One of our Mechanics actually told the shop manager that they needed to get a class action law suit going against International on these trucks when they were still relatively new, it was kind of surprising at the time as he was a pretty quiet, conservative, religious guy, and not prone to negativity, lol.
I work for a municipality and my buddy is the highway mechanic. They had Internationals since the beginning of time but when they went to the Maxforce engines they were in the shop more than on the road. He was so frustrated that when it came time to replace a couple of them he specc'ed out Macks with Cummins engines. They haven't been happy with these because the turning radius sucks on a short 6 wheel truck. The International salesman paid a visit and wanted their business back and told him about their model with Cummins in it. They got a couple last year and a couple more this year. So far no engine related down time and they are happy with them. Many of the surrounding towns ran International too experiencing the same problems. Many of them switched to Freightliner though I don't know what engine they have. Towns around here run nearly all 6 wheelers.
I saw Cummins has a kit for replacing these International engines. First time I ever heard of a mass produced kit for swapping an engine in a mass produced truck but it exists.
Do you have any information on that?
Maybe it is only for buses. I just dug this up: (You may have to battle your computer past the expired certificate): https://international.cummins.com/bus-repower-program