Kenworth got their new engineers out on the road

[92U 3406]

I look at some of the equipment being built these days and honestly, I could build most of this stuff 10x better than an "engineer"

 

[Birken Vogt]

We need to get somebody with some money, somebody with some business sense and poach a bunch of good old disgusted engineers from Cat and the like and form a new company that builds things that make sense, and listens to the customer. We might make a lot of money. Or we might be crushed.

 

[Nige]

I like the ethos at the company where my #2 son works. Pretty much everyone at the top of the company started off right at the bottom driving a delivery van. Speaking to some of his managers they’re all pretty well grounded. None of them think their path to the top did them any harm at all.

 

[RZucker]

A hay hauling outfit I do a lot of truck work for has an old '86 Peterbilt 359 with a 3406B Cat, very well kept up by yours truly. they use it as a service rotation truck when the newer trucks are down. I swear you cant get the drivers out of it when their truck is ready to go. No tilt wheel, no power windows, no plastic, and no derates. But those guys love it.

 

[crane operator]

Grove crane built the first tms 250 and tms 300's in 1973. Those two models were built virtually unchanged from 1973, until the mid/late 1990's. The model 30 winches the tms 300 used were supplied with some grove cranes until the mid 2000's.

They are a simple, good design, no need to reinvent the wheel every year. The computer systems installed on a lot of the new stuff, in 10 years is no longer made/supported, so you can have a machine you can't run.

Nobody want's to build a crane with a 20' outrigger span, because they get a lot better chart with a 24' span, and less counterweight. Never mind that most driveways are less than 24'. National finally heard enough complaints, but instead of 20' they give you a 1/2 outrigger chart (which doesn't help much- your tailswing is still wider). And they give you a option of longer jacks, because everyone whines they are a pain to set up in a crooked spot.

The market for dedicated truck carriers has gotten tougher also, because of emissions. Its easier to just have kenworth, pete, and freightliner deal with the constant new engine designs, and just build a crane that mounts on their truck, than make their own. The design costs have to be horrible, for no more units than they would sell, to build a truck crane today.

Pre 2000's day cab semi-tractors by me are at a premium, if in good shape. No one wants to deal with e-logs, or again, the emissions. t800 and w900's. 359 and 379's. 3406- N-14, 12.7 60 series. Even good r-series mack dumps will bring good money. Good simple designs. Older Road trucks can have sleepers pulled and become day cabs or dumps. Not with any of the new areo trucks- the used market for them is nothing- their only worth is in parts- engine trans and rears.

late-90's early 2000 ford 7.3 and dodge cummins trucks are also premium priced. The problem with most of them, is that they are getting to have so many miles on them, they are almost unrebuildable. Two ford's side by side- one with a 7.3 and one with a 6.4, but the 6.4 ten years newer, will be $8-10,000 difference, and not for the newer truck.

"The dirt is the same as it ever was, we just keep inventing more and more complicated ways to move it" - paraphrased from Scrub Puller- ( I miss reading his posts)

 

[Truck Shop]

The list of dumb ideas that never seem to change in truck manufacturing goes on and on. KW and their crappy clutch linkage and weak cross shaft bearings for the clutch pedal.
Peterbilt and their crappy wiper system that cracks out the cowl. Freightliner and their cheap plastic dash that cracks out around the dash valves, They cut the airlines too short
to the dash valves when you remove them the air lines disappear in the dash. Window motors the size of a slot car engine that will toast if the engine isn't running. All three
companies have completely screwed up the wiring systems with Multiplex wiring. Glue in Windshields need I go on.

My favorite line I tell them when brass shows up at the shop {It's a good thing you don't build airplanes}

Truck Shop

 

[crane operator]

While I'm on a nonsense rant- a trucking magazine I get just had a huge write up about new Mack road tractors- aero cabs, which are probably just rebranded volvo's from the parent corp. Article reads pretty good, but they are probably advertisers in the magazine- so no real objectivity.

Mack's customers historically, have never been the over the road truckers. Their history is in the vocational, dump truck, concrete mixer hard use construction trucks. They seem to have totally given up that market, to chase the road trucks.

I have no idea who makes the decisions- probably all over in europe, but the mack dealer nearest me is no use to anyone. International seems to have taken over some of the vocational truck market here, with a smattering of paccar or freightliner/western star.

 

[Tags]

In a perfect world, maybe. But how do you imagine this? A talented architect drives a truck across a country for 5 years to gain some perspective?

How do I imagine this? It should be MANDATORY to get a degree, weather you're an architect or an engineer. Get you arse out in the field and see what's it like OUT THERE so what is designed has some real world experience behind it. Do you think operators of equipment just "showed up" when they decided "I want to run a machine" not until they could prove they could operate a shovel and show up everyday, day after day, I guarantee that.....

 

[grandpa]

Could start with automotive design. Give me an industrial grade pickup. Basic bare bones engine that will pass emissions. Hang that in a pair of straight frame rails. Put a bolt together cab. Heater and Air. Build a body that bolts together. It doesn't have to be pretty, just functionable. Top loaded tranny. Then like the volkswagon beetle, build it for ever with the same body parts.

 

[excavator]

A local company that I used to deal with manufactures raspberry harvesters. Probably 20-25 years ago they started a program where 2 engineers would design a new machine, then go out on the floor and help build it and then when completed were sent along with the machine for the harvest season. These machines were sent around the world and it was very interesting when the engineers returned home. Their first reactions were usually, "it broke" like nothing they would design would ever break, and then it was "and man was it hard to get at that piece to fix it". I can tell you numerous things changed on those machines after that. I loved it, finally and engineer was forced to deal with his creations.

 

[Truck Shop]

Pea viner's or pickers are a great example. A friend of mine that runs a machine shop here in town use to work building them. He always said about repairing one-
{You cut your way in and weld your way out}.

Truck Shop

 

[DMiller]

Worked with Enganears at the Nuke and at Gelco Rental, most were all ears until time to apply then did their own thing anyway most of the time getting their butts chewed out for wasting techs time. We had Sludge Ponds at the Nuke 3 acres square and designed to hold the mud from our water clarifying system. They saved the water thru a decant structure in a corner of the pond and set up BY BLUEPRINT to discharge the mud into the center. When that was TOO expensive to build they re-designed with opposite corner to decant mud spill entry. Was 'Enga splained' as to "the Mud will flow out and find level" looked that moron in the eye and said tell me that again in six months. It was around that time frame the first long reach excavator was rented to Shove the mud mass out toward center while trenching performed to add MORE discharge points to get More mud into a rapidly end filling pond. Spent close to four times as much remedying the issue all us Country Boys told them would NOT work as planned. They STILL build new ponds same as the old gonna prove us wrong.