Jesus freakin Christ where do I begin ? My truck went for it’s safety and a service 8 days ago , no problem cos we had the second truck spare as its driver was on vacation . Today I call the dealership to see when I can collect my truck prior to my next shift starting on Monday , to be told that it has a DEF issue again and the OBC keeps shutting the motor down , a new part/sensor or god knows what is on order from Kenworth and should be arriving at the end of next week , dealers aren’t allowed to stock the item and it can only be ordered with the vin number from each specific vehicle WTF ? So it looks like I’ll be sitting at home for my next tour (mon - thurs) , and to compound the misery our other truck is also sick now to the point of drinking 6 litres of oil per day and was dropped into the dealers tonight , with a chance of being looked at on Thursday 
.
2 trucks just under a year old are both off the road AGAIN and Regina operations are halted until further notice , I still get paid handsomely but it really does boil my ■■■■ , not helped by Mrs FTTM laughing at my sudden onset of profanities 
At least you get paid others aint so lucky.
This situations with breakdowns and the time taken to repair trucks is a joke.
It seems like the customers are been used as the guinea pigs to test out the new technology. Most dealers don’t seem to know anything about these emmisions systems and its a case of what the computer tells then to replace or wait for the factory to tell them.
Most of you know the situation I found myself in a few months back and my vast experince of Freightliner dealers in North America.
Most of the other drivers I met were also there with emmisions control equipment problems too but even the ones that wasn’t were stuck for 3 or 4 days for things that most European dealers would have done in a day or so.
I’ve been told to lay off about it in my column, the magazines here earn their money through advertisisng rather than sales, so their loyallty is to the dollar bill from the manufacturers, rather than the reader, such a shame as I could fill every page with stories of the diabolical reliability of the new engines and earn a bloody fortune 
Although it isn’t the engines themself that are the problem, the metal bits are fine, it’s all the electronic crap that exists purely to appease the tree huggers
The EPA03 engines (EGR) were worse on fuel and far more unreliable than their predecessors, then in 07 they upped the EGR and added a DPF and things went downhill in a hurry, both in fuel consumption and reliabilty, so much so that Caterpillar pulled out of the heavy truck engine market. Now we have EGR, DPF and SCR and the engines are worse still, the last year models (2012) have a 46% probability of having an emissions related problem and were, on average, in the workshop for nearly a month 
If any other product had such inbuilt unreliabilty there would be a public outcry and people would take to the streets
To underline just how bad this junk on these engines are, you can take an EPA07 standard engine, the 60 series Detroit for example, it was bored and stroked from 12.7l to a 14l as the emissions controls strangled it so much it need the extra cubes to maintain a 500hp power rating Now, rip the EGR and DPF off it and reset the ECM and the 500hp at the crank becomes 630hp at the back wheels (and there’s a 20% loss of power in the driveline, so there’s more than 700hp at the crank) and that’s with the same boost pressure from the turbo, people who have done this are reporting between a 1.5 and 2mpg improvement in economy, their oil samples are coming back far cleaner and they think the bulb has blown in their check engine light as it doesn’t flash like a strobe light anymore. The only problem with that is, it’s illegal, nobody’s checking at the moment, but that’s about to change
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
As you say if this was with cars there would be national outrage.
Be interesting to see how euro 6 performs next year. Just read in this weeks cm scania have ditched egr for euro 6 and will meet the standard using SCR alone
I have never had any problem since the first week of using my Cascadia. 18 months of trouble free DEF stuff.
Mind you it has got to go for a recall on monday, something to do with the clutch.
Mate in Toontown went to collect his brand spanking new Lonestar the other week and never made it out of the dealers before the warning lights started
All this new technology really is pants tbh and is just a money making exercise for the mamufacturer… Have always been a bit of a petrol/derv head myself.
Some cars work on the same principles with EGR’S and DPF’S. I have a Vectra 1.9Cdti, and last year had no end of running problems, all pointed to the EGR, however I blanked it off and had it mapped out of my ECU. Not a ounce of trouble since, but a mate of mine had a EGR and DPF on his vec… He had similair trouble to me so the EGR was first to go, but then he was using £10 worth of diesel every 50miles, further investigation with my laptop found the DPF was trying to permanantley regenerate itself… Couple of uploads later saw that mapped out too, since then both our motors have run without missing a beat, and there is deffo a bit more ‘poke’ about it and the mpg has raised a few clicks. The only logical reason for these extra valves and filters on todays engines is more profit to the dealers and restricting the true power of the lump…
Ive never had the fun of a new Pete only an old un on a day run so …my mates been offered when he comes over a new Pete (not classic)2012 or 2013 manual box…OR a 4yr old 600 series KW , ■■■■■ power , manual…(for a yr until replaced wi petes)
any one got any thoughts on what un for him tae pick as a neewbie…
well i thought the auld KWs were bombproof. an never let me down on the back rd runs.
jimmy
Cascadia’s have another recall on them now, the line that provides grease to the return thrust bearing in the clutch housing breaks off or so it seems. My workmate with a truck just one number up from mine in the fleet was inspected last week and put out of service for it, it’s a transmission out job, he got it back on Friday. This morning I took a 10 hours break in Albany and then got mine inspected, I awaited the bad news and wearily eye’d the pile of crap sitting in the corner of the yard reserved for all out of service truck replacements 
The mechanic vanished under my truck for about 5 minutes then shouted “Congatulations Pat, seems you are in the lucky b**tard club”
I got he all clear and on my way 
Just be prepared because they all have to be checked.
newmercman:
I’ve been told to lay off about it in my column, the magazines here earn their money through advertisisng rather than sales, so their loyallty is to the dollar bill from the manufacturers, rather than the reader, such a shame as I could fill every page with stories of the diabolical reliability of the new engines and earn a bloody fortuneAlthough it isn’t the engines themself that are the problem, the metal bits are fine, it’s all the electronic crap that exists purely to appease the tree huggers
The EPA03 engines (EGR) were worse on fuel and far more unreliable than their predecessors, then in 07 they upped the EGR and added a DPF and things went downhill in a hurry, both in fuel consumption and reliabilty, so much so that Caterpillar pulled out of the heavy truck engine market. Now we have EGR, DPF and SCR and the engines are worse still, the last year models (2012) have a 46% probability of having an emissions related problem and were, on average, in the workshop for nearly a month
To underline just how bad this junk on these engines are, you can take an EPA07 standard engine, the 60 series Detroit for example, it was bored and stroked from 12.7l to a 14l as the emissions controls strangled it so much it need the extra cubes to maintain a 500hp power rating
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
Having said all that it seems a bit unfair in that case to have a go at the manufacturers for a problem that isn’t of their making.It you add that 14 Litre Detroit example,concerning chucking the smog bs in the skip,together with the one concerning CAT pulling it’s products out of the market,rather than suffer all the reulting issues of fitting it,then it seems obvious that the blame sits 110 % with the bonkers EPA requirements,of trying to turn engines into atmospheric air purifiers,not the manufacturers.I’m sure that no one from operators to manufacturers would have any objections to you ( rightly ) writing that situation up in the press reports.I think mass refusal to co operate with and disobedience of the bs Federal EPA laws,( as shown by the clear advantages in doing that in example which you’ve described there ),is probably going to be the only answer just as was the case with the old blanket 55 mph speed limits. 
It just so happens that one of our directors walked into the dealerships head office in Winnipeg at 8 15 on Monday morning , I’m not too sure which words of encouragement were uttered but miraculously both trucks were back on the road by 2 pm Monday . I have a couple of faults (radio and spots not working , why not as it was only in for safety and servive ) but that’s a minor detail .
Apparently the DEF emission regs are now spreading to diesel pick ups as I was told by a Dodge dealer today that all 2013 Rams with ■■■■■■■ come with DEF so thats another good engine ruined, although I suppose it could be bypassed and but there goes the warranty.
Jimmy, your mate will be best off flipping a coin, the KW will have a DPF and on a CAT they’re a total disaster, DPFs are trouble full stop, but on a CAT they’re big trouble, we got rid of all our DPF CATs and they were all a couple of years newer than my old nail, they just couldn’t afford to keep them on the road , so they went first:cry:
Called the dealer on Tuesday morning to say I’d be in on Thurs to have the radio/lights sorted and could they ask the mechanic who’d worked on my truck why there was a 12 amp fuse sitting in the cup holder ? Turned up there 9 am yesterday and they blankly refused to touch the truck unless I booked it in for a day,sometime next week !!! Then tried to argue that the fuse had fallen out onto the floor and had been placed in the holder for safe keeping and it was coincidence that my radio and spots no longer worked ," excuse me but do I look like the village idiot " I replied ,all the while another service receptionist was sniggering at the BS I was being fed which didn’t help the stand off .
A few phones calls to head office who assured me the situation would be sorted and to hang tight at the dealers , that was 11 am yesterday and the last I heard from them . Bollox , it’s my partners turn to try now as I’m on days off .
Ah, Paccar dealers and radios, not a good mix in my experience
My batteries took a beating this winter, they replace them every couple of years and mine were due to get done on the next service, so of course the [zb]ing things went flat as I was on my way back home
Called out Peterbilt at Kamloops to get me going and they sent out a spotty youth in a pick up with a set of batteries and jump leads, he then tried to blow my batteries up, smoke and sparks everywhere I jumped out and told him to go away in a calm relaxed manner, for which I’m well known, and hooked up the leads myself, all good, except the batteries he had were not much better than mine, so I said the only way would be to hook them directly to the starter, so as it was going to be a messy job I let spotty kid deal with that, after telling him what to do, put the red lead on the terminal on the solenoid on the starter, black lead on the earth strap connection on the chassis, well DH put the earth on first, so then did some welding as he tried to snake the cable through the small gap between chassis rail and starter, I quickly jumped out of the cab before he completely murdered the lorry, uttered a few polite phrases and he got in his pick up and locked the door
Spent the rest of that day in their shop as they checked the electrical system and replaced every fuse and relay in the lorry as they’d all blown The radio wouldn’t work though, the amp had burned out and they never had one in stock. I ended up going to Peterbilt in Calgary and spending another two days there while they tried to get the radio to work, fitting the new amp meant taking half the cab apart, but it never cured the problem, after all that and a $2,000 bill (on Peterbilt Kamloops) it turned out to be an inline fuse hidden behind the dash
All because of a DH who couldn’t put a set of jump leads on properly
all these days in workshops are they payed or unpaid …just wondering like…
Different company’s vary how they work. One I worked for paid hotel and $50 a day which realy only covers meals and a little bit of spending money.
Not ideal and I had a bad month with breakdowns in January and ended up been away all month but only having two weeks wages and a good veiw of of the beaten track hotels.
No use complaining that’s the way they work that side of the pond so you do it there way.
cliffystephens:
all these days in workshops are they payed or unpaid …just wondering like…
Every firm has a different policy on this, but I get paid, not quite as much as I would get if I did a big driving day, but not far off really and I get a hotel too if the truck is in the shop overnight, if it’s only a daytime event the driver’s lounge is ok to hang out in most of the time. They have showers, decent sofas, TV and wifi etc and are usually near a resturaunt of fast food joint, so although a PITA, it could be a lot worse 
As above , we get a hourly rate which is ok but shy of what we could earn if the wheels were turning , no complaints in that respect .
Just baffles me as to the attitude and total lack of customer service coming from the dealers , they can only stay in business because they have a captive market , it can’t be through their efficiency .
so looking at this kr79 you are in the the uk at the moment …is this a permanent thing