My impressions of the Pete that I drove…
Any pedestrians under six foot tall should run across pedestrian crossings cos I couldn’t see them 
Imagine driving a twenty five foot long mk2 Ford ■■■■■■ with the mirrors to match and you would be about right 
Still couldn’t stop grinning though 
cheers
STEVE.
John T:
American truck
Read April 12,o4 Transport Topics about Swift Transport,one of the nations largest carriers, recent purchase of 300 KW900.Why would Swift over look “State of the Art” Volvo to go with crappy old KW ?JOHN
If you had read Transport Topics sometime in Januarary I believe you would have seen the Story about Swift purchasing over 1500 Volvos!
As for the purchase of 300 KW’S, they are only buying them because Paccar offered them at such a knock down bargain basement discount price that Swift could’nt resist the offer, and no-one else wanted them anyway They are all dealer leftovers from last year, apparently they had a hard time trying to sell 'em! 
Your turn!..
Hi Cliff, This is John’s wife for John won’t be home until Tuesday. I called and read your mail to him and he said yes, he knows about Swift’s purchase of the Volvos and they are having nothing but trouble with them like electrical,water pumps.transmission housing ,etc.It’s because of this that turned Swift to KW’S because VOLVOS was breaking him,do you want him to go on?Right now John is at the Flying J in Spiceland,In. having a sandwich and looking at 38 trucks,4 are PETE’S ,7KW’S 1 International and the rest are Freightliners. VOLVOS must have got lost in the shuffle somewhere. Now it’s your turn to answer John’s bunch of “nonsense” since he is answering yours and don’t hold back cause John is tuff and tuff drivers drive KW’S.
Keep Safe,Luv & Kisses
J.T.
The trouble with KW’s & Pete’s is they are not made in the USA anymore, they are all built in Mexico. Only KW worth driving if the newer style T2000.
Having driven most types on both continents I can safely say that no truck here can compare to a European built truck …
Sorry John
Hi Pat, John has ask me to answer you as he won’t be home until Tuesday.
John says KW’s are built in Kirkland,Washington and Chilacothe,Ohio.
Some parts might be mfg.in Mexico,but what can you buy today that isn’t partially made
in Mexico,China,Japan,Taiwan,etc.?Electrical componets for the Concord was mfg. in Japan but that didn’t make it any lessor a great plane.KW is also mfg. in
Australia,does that make it a bad truck ? If Volvo doesn’t get its problems worked out soon they will be looking to Mexico to mfg.some of their componets.
As long as KW parts are mfg.to their strict standards does it really matter
where they are made?
European trucks would not hold up in this country and “Scania” can attest to that .Also,Cliff said he gets 7mpg, with his Volvo. John says he passed a big red Volvo yesterday hooked to the back of a tow truck .It’s no wonder Volvos get 7mpg.
Hang in there Pat,
J.T.
Maybe Scania would hold up better if they took care of the roads but when you drive across the whitestone bridge and as opposed to actually repairing the pot holes they rivet large 3 inch thick steel plates over them it doesn’t help.
I drove my Scania all over Europe as far east as Russia and as far south as North Africa (on a 6 week tour), the roads there are rough believe me, also a 5 week tour of Iceland driving on volcanic lava, Scania never let anyone down.
Why do the drivers in the NJ area who still own the old style Scania still tell other drivers that they are the best trucks ever built 
And they all drive very out dated models because they can’t get the new ones
The only fault I find with KW’s and Pete’s is the cab design, narrow, rear vision etc is obscured because they still fit mrrors from 50 years ago (T2000 excepted). Why do people who drive them forefit better visibility and safety … and come to that ‘Terrible manouverability’ for looks and tradition
I have seen photo’s of John’s KW and it is beautifull but it is still 30 years behind Europe in design… Nice to hear from you Mrs T. Why don’t you create your own log in ID like Kate did
Hey 
Drive safe John 
Mornin Pat, I can’t get thru to John because the reception is so bad in NM
but as I said yesterday,John will be home tomorrow afternoon( Tuesday) and he will be in touch.By the way,my name is Shirley and as far as my own ID,it is all I can do to help John post his replies when he is on the road !!! LOL
Steve are you a midget? LOL, take care JohnT
Okay all you knuckle heads this is the way it is, I would rather give up my Girl Friend than part with my Good Old Money making W900. so keep your EURO junkers, and have at it. LOL JohnT (I am back in Sunny California).
Cliff Warby:
Are you sure about the 45ft rule Pat?, it may be different up there, but most States enforce the 41ft rule (known as the ‘bridge’ law), which states that king pin to (centre) of trailer tandems must not be more than 41ft, which is why they finally outlawed 57 footers in Florida, because they kept the same rule as they did for 48’s and 53’s, the overhang on the 57’s was so bad that when a truck made tight turns from mulitple lanes of turning traffic they kept taking ‘out’ cars (turning them into convertibles!The fine for being overlength on the King-pin setting is usually alot more than being over on your axle weight and the DOT does rigourously enforce the bridge law.
OK Cliff, I have found out the actual Vt rules because i have just got back from taking a 53 footer to the northern end of Maine and this meant driving through Woodstock VT were the cop’s don’t have fathers
We have permits for this route to use 53 ft tailers, the centre of the rear axle must be no more than 43ft from the king pin and the overall legnth of the truck must not exeed 72ft.
As in Woodstock cop’s have very little to do they pull every 53ft trailer to check the permit and the distances, as I found out driving both ways.
PS;- Hello Shirley
John T:
Okay all you knuckle heads this is the way it is, I would rather give up my Girl Friend than part with my Good Old Money making W900. so keep your EURO junkers, and have at it. LOL JohnT (I am back in Sunny California).
As It seems that you have never driven a “Euro junker” I reckon you are unqualified to have an opinion on the pro’s and con’s of Euro trucks vs US trucks, unlike myself and most other US based ex-pats who have driven both Euro and US trucks and therefore do have qualified opinions!
Seeing as you are stuck in gear with the old ways of trucking and obviously will never give up that old Dinosaur of a KW…send your girlfriend down here! I’ll show her how much smoother the “ride” is, in a Modern truck!!
Your turn!
My .02 worth.
Those Scania trucks are as ugly as a dog with mange. Worse than the one stack Mack with a window in the back that I drive.
Now then, now then, as it happens boy’s and girls.
Stop all this bickering and fighting, everyone has the right to have their say and if ever anyone who hasn’t driven one of those highly advanced euro trucks ever get’s the chance to do so I am sure he or she will change his or her mind
.
In the meantime let everyone have a free oppinion
This debate seems to be polarising, due largely to the fact that most European participants have driven US trucks and thus have a clear basis of comparison, whereas most US participants haven’t driven European trucks (nor even visited Europe) and so have to rely on unsubstantiated assertion.
Come on over the water North American cousins and we’ll try and fix you up with a drive. Then we can have a proper debate based on concrete comparisons rather than nationalistic mudslinging.
Oh and for novices wondering what to do first when entering an American built truck? Simply reset the date for 1975…
Well said TK dave,
But while on the subject it isn’t only trucks over here that flag way behind in technology, it’s car also.
FORD, who we all know is a US company ahs a far more advanced range of vehicles in Europe. Before coming here I was involved in Ford promotion etc, then my first job here was a leasing agent for new Fords. Things considered the norm of Ford models in the Uk cannot be found here, quick clear screens for example, barrel keys etc.
Take the Ford Focus for an example, it was first launched in the UK (at Weatherby racecourse to be exact, I know because I was there) in October 1998 along with the Ford Cougar which over here became the Mercury Cougar. In Europe it has a service interval of 10,000 miles for an oil change and is galvanised, so it will not rot. The Focus was Launched here one year later and so was the Cougar, the Focus has the same Zetec engine, made in Germany but has a 3,000 mile service interval (so oil companies can sell the oil) and is not galvanized, it has old style keys and there is no such thing as ‘quick clear screens’ as any Ford dealer will tell you here.
The Mondeo range does not exist here nor does the best small sports car ford have ever made — ‘The Puma’
The worlds best selling vehicle is the Ford Transit, it is available in every country on the planet except the USA and Canada.
Remember the late 60s / early 70’s Bedford vans They still make those things here and Ford Cargo trucks which were phased out in 1992/3 are still up and running here, (The death traps that they are)
Yes, well said TK Dave!, but me?, Nationalistic? aaww come on
Hey Pat it may interest you to know and will underscore the universally recognised American arrogance, in regards to products they claim are theirs.
Back in 1993 when I was driving 17 ton straight trucks over here, it came to the time when the company I worked for needed to replace some of their trucks, I had been driving Internationals, Hino’s and Macks. The company asked me which truck I prefered to drive, I told them none of the above, I wanted something European, I was aiming for Volvo or Ford Cargo. The company they leased from did’nt have any Volvos, so it was down to the Ford Cargo. When I told the Ford dealer I wanted it because it was a European truck, he looked at me and laughed, saying it was an American truck and was as “American as Apple pie” I tried to explain that it was a British designed truck and that I had been driving them back in the UK long before they were launched in the States, to cut a long story short , he handed me the Official Ford truck sales blurb where it quite clearly (& proudly) stated the Ford Cargo '" Designed and built in America!" …no mention of the fact that it was actually designed and built in Langley or that it had been on the road in the UK for about 7 years before they brought it over here, nor did they mention that it was already obsolete in the UK and had already been superseeded by the Euro Cargo some two years before!.
Incidently, I still have that Ford Brochure, I thought it may one day be of Historical significance
The ‘septics’ also think they invented the Ford ■■■■■■ back in 1983 too! I believe the Ford ■■■■■■ was launched in the UK back in 1967!
There are so many other examples of this type of arrogance that it would takes weeks to chronicle it
By the way, the old Ford Cargo is still being made under the namebrands of Freightliner and Sterling.
Since you mention Frieghtliner Cliff, their "new inovative Sprinter’ is yet another European gift with a different grille badge. The Merc Sprinter, launched in 1997 I believe is now remodelled, I wonder how long it will be before the new version arrives here
In the mid 80’s I was presented with abrand new ford cargo 38 ton tractor as a demo for a week in place of my Volvo, I was given a form to be filled in every day for fuel consumption and sugested ideal use etc. The first day I drove it to Crick from Northampton, a distance of 25 miles, I returned and got the keys to my Volvo, handed the form back with ‘Sugested uses’ — KEEP LEFT BOLLARD or MILK FLOAT