What Fleets Are Saying
Matt Parker, maintenance supervisor, Parker Motor Freight, Grand Rapids
"No, I'm not worried about them," says Parker, a former mechanic at the family owned company, of EGR diesels. "I think they've done enough testing" on EGR. "Cummins has done a lot, and Detroit says it actually has improved fuel mileage on the engines it has running."
Parker runs about 200 power units, about evenly split between sleeper-cab road tractors with big-bore Cummins, Detroit and Cat diesels, and daycab P&D tractors with various midrange diesels. The fleet hauls manufactured goods, "everything from baby food to drive shafts," he explains.
He has not gotten any information on price increases, "but that doesn't bother me because it's not like we're buying hundreds" of trucks, he says. He expects to buy three daycabs this spring, but if he buys after October, he is not worried about the EGR systems that will come with most engines.
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Dan Chabiel, Vice President, Facilities and Equipment, Kings County Truck Lines, Tulare, Calif.
We've run two of 'em," says Chabiel of EGR-equipped Cummins engines. Kings County is a test fleet for Cummins, he explains, so he and his people are accustomed to new technology and are not afraid of it.
The two EGR diesels were not the fleet's standard engine, the 330- and 370-hp ISM, but appear to be 12-liter engines from the now-scuttled joint project with International Truck and Engine. One had no problems, but it ran only within the flat central valley. The other experimental diesel regularly overheated while climbing the Grapevine on Interstate 5.
Engineers tried extra fans and other cooling fixes, but finally installed a larger radiator in the tractor. That solved the cooling problem, as it probably will for production ISMs with EGR, Chabiel thinks. He is scheduled to get one of those next spring.
He also has seven Mercedes-Benz MBE4000 diesels on test. These don't have EGR because Mercedes and other foreign engine builders were not punished by the EPA's consent decree, as were domestic builders.
The MBE4000s, rated at 350 and 370 hp, "are performing well and the drivers like 'em because they have good acceleration," Chabiel says. After October, he may buy both the Mercedes and Cummins diesels.
"We're gonna try some," he says of the new ISMs. "You don't want to quit [buying] just because of EGR." He is concerned about the need for greater cooling and how a larger radiator and extra heat-producing plumbing will fit under the medium-length hood of the fleet's Freightliner Century 112s.
"It's pretty crowded under there," he says, but he doesn't want to go to the longer C120 because it's another $1,000. Cummins has not told him what EGR will add to an ISM's price, "but I've heard anywhere from 15-hundred to 25-hundred, maybe three" thousand dollars.
Chabiel says he started as a "yard go-fer" at Kings County Truck Lines more than 45 years ago, then became a mechanic and worked into management. KCTL runs tanker and reefer trailers, hauling milk and frozen foods in California and neighboring states. It also operates six other fleets hauling various commodities.
KCTL has tested particulate traps, catalytic converters and other devices for Cummins. His experience with the experimental equipment tells him that technicians need training on the new engines, especially their electronics packages.
"They're really good to us," he says of Cummins engineers who've visited Tulare to check on test engines. "They've trained all our technicians. But are they gonna do that for everybody who buys their engines? I don't know. Mercedes wants us to buy their engines. But are they gonna train us on 'em?"
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