valhalla360 wrote:
JRscooby wrote:
The talk of picking engine to put in any brand off truck has been common in heavy trucks forever.
IMHO, a great improvement in TV market would be for the manufacturers to sell glider kit or complete trucks without engines, so a guy that spent all the money to buy a truck with half million mile engine can use the engine for it's lifespan. And to give you a reason I think this is good idea, I bought a '76 Pete with a 1693 Cat. Records on the engine showed that was the 3rd truck.
1) No manufacturer is going to purposely cut out a big part of the cost of a truck...including the associated profits.
I thought the OP was discussing a better world. But you are right, as long as people are willing to throw half the engine life away when they replace a pickup the manufacturer is happy to sell.
2) The days of simple mechanical diesels are long gone. Over 20yrs (typical life of a truck), the technology is likely to be wildly different and limiting the chassie so it can plug and play with a 20yr old engine would be a huge hassle and likely to run up against emissions and other regulatory issues.
I have looked at heavy trucks for over 50 years, seen changes in patterns. I remember ads in industry magazines from early '70s International selling Glider Kits (Steering axle, frame and cab) set up for 427 GMC spark plug motor. (Last 427 I worked was in '71 Diamond Rio) Back then, if you took good care of engine and drive train, the numbers often worked to upgrade at parts counter than (GK) instead of show room. Then the oil embargo forced major changes in engines. (Friend replaced his 8V71 that needed overhaul with 6V92 in his old cabover IHC. Said by the time he changed oil 3rd time had saved enough fuel to pay the difference) At the same time, laws changed so GK stopped selling. But over the last 15 years, emission regulations change, some are buy GKs and running older engines, (3406E out of my last truck, '95 Pete, is in 2019 Western Star)
And how many people on this site have bought new pickup, with all the whiz-bang tech, had problems and been told the best solution is to delete the emission control system? Nobody will admit that for a very large percentage of RVers a better available option would of been buy gasoline powered where the emission system problems have been worked out to the point we have both more power and better economy than pre emission standard levels. A perfect world, another option would be use the last half of the life of the engine out of the truck that has started to nickel/dime you.
Then you have the PR issues when people take photos of the new 2022 Brand X truck broken down on the side of the road because someone mucked up the engine install.
Sorry, but I assume most people/shops that would take on the job of building a truck out of a pickup glider kit would be able to do a quality job. And would that PR be that much worse than multi-thousand dollar engine repair right after warrantee ends?
Honestly, if you are OK with outdated technology, you can keep chassie and engine going for 40yrs...but after a point, it doesn't make much sense.
If I could prove it, I would bet that a very large percentage of people don't much care about tech of engine as long as it does a good job, compared to the number that demand all of what I call FREDs in the cab.
