Did any of you canadian drivers seen it? I’ve seen it outside Seattle on I-5.European set up. Straight truck pulling trailer with axles in the middle of it. European light, european markings. Cab was a Globbetrotter. Looked better than new with sharp dark green paint job and all the chicken lights you could fit on it. Sign said midland farm/plants or something like that.Somebody must have really liked it to bring it here.
Think it was a dutchman brought it over several years ago. I will try to find the story. Not seen it myself.
Saw a yellow Daf XF 105 super space cab on I-5 north of Seattle the other week (tractor unit only) looked a lot smarter than most of the Yank tanks that you normally see apart from the newer volvos. Apparently there are several of them that have been imported by the parent company Paccar and the often travel between their test workshops and Paccar HQ, followed by an LF 7.5 tonner, made me miss my old 510 XF 105.
chazzer
The Daf you saw was probably labelled as a KW. I saw several in Houston a while back.
Thats strange because the only DAF’s ive seen over here have been Peterbilts.
They use the XF cab on some super heavy oil field chassis, don’t forget that the Kenworth HQ is in Seattle, the XFs you see may just be ready to roll test beds for technology that they’re bringing in from Daf, the MX engine & disc brakes are a prime example, they may also be looking at the ZF auto shift gearboxes as they already have the gubbins to bolt straight to the engine whereas the Eaton examples will have to be set up to the MX engine’s characteristics.
Jon, Pete & KW are both part of Paccar, as are Daf so you’ll see both KW & Peterbilt badged Dafs around 
bobthedog, the Daf 105 I saw was identical to a european one still badged as a Daf as they are as Newmercman puts it imported by Paccar as test rigs because they are looking at using the MX engine in some of their trucks along with some of the other technology used in europe. Don’t forget we are a lot further advanced in truck emissions and safety than in the US, I mean they’re still using steel leaf springs on a lot of trailers over here that don’t look very old and when was the last time you saw them in the uk.
chazzer
Not so long ago as you may think. Lots of the tanks I pulled before I bought my own were on steel, several were on mutileaf, too.
All our trailers, vans and decks, are on air. I don’t see many on steel over here except the odd bush truck. I know Europe is advanced when it comes to emissions standards. I have been here long enough to have a very clear picture of that. The only reason I said anything about the Dafs was because I have seen several 105 cabbed trucks over here, usually 4 or 5 axle straight trucks.
If the US wants to import a Daf engine then they should import the 480 from before the advent of the adblue. That motor gave excellent returns on fuel and was much better behaved. I still have my doubts about how the euro motors will cope. You can just about run this CAT of mine on chip fat and axle grease, and the winter fuels we have are, I reckon, a little too impure for ultramodern motors.
They are not importing the European MX engine Rob. They have just built a huge new factory in Columbus, Mississippi especialy to build a US version from scratch. It is identical to the Euro version so all the technology is from Eindhoven but every thing including the casting and tooling is done in the US.
wire:
They are not importing the European MX engine Rob. They have just built a huge new factory in Columbus, Mississippi especialy to build a US version from scratch. It is identical to the Euro version so all the technology is from Eindhoven but every thing including the casting and tooling is done in the US.
I thought that factory was in Tennessee! Wish they’d make their minds up 
Chazzer, you’re right about the springs, I picked up a few brand new trailers last year from Wabash in Indiana, there was a whole yard full of Xtra rental trailers on springs, all brand spanking new, must be to lower their running costs, no problems from air bags & valves if there ain’t any 
I followed one down through Wisconsin the other day, the road is all tore up after the winter & the wheels were off the ground more than they were on it, can’t say I’d fancy dragging one of those around, luckily all ours are on air
Monoleaf steel is still a fair bit lighter than air as well. With the obsession they have here for 80000lbs, maybe they are trying to squeeze that last little bit on as well as saving on costs… What the split would show on a tandem running steel when they have the bogie at 36 feet is anyones guess I reckon.
I was sort of hoping they would bring a couple of the better motors over here, if only to show that there is a possibility of decent performance with reasonable economy. I still doubt the euro spec engines would handle our fuels, but it must be worth a try. There was talk a few years back of bringing the 10 litre MAN engine across, and the Macks often have the older Renault 12 litre in them, but they still manage to screw up the cooling system on them so they always blow coolant out.
Shortcut:
Did any of you canadian drivers seen it? I’ve seen it outside Seattle on I-5.European set up. Straight truck pulling trailer with axles in the middle of it. European light, european markings. Cab was a Globbetrotter. Looked better than new with sharp dark green paint job and all the chicken lights you could fit on it. Sign said midland farm/plants or something like that.Somebody must have really liked it to bring it here.
I saw it about 2 years ago going north on I-87 near saratoga, it had Florida plates on the trailer.
Funny the one I’ve seen had British Columbia plates.
bobthedog:
Monoleaf steel is still a fair bit lighter than air as well. With the obsession they have here for 80000lbs, maybe they are trying to squeeze that last little bit on as well as saving on costs… What the split would show on a tandem running steel when they have the bogie at 36 feet is anyones guess I reckon.
I was sort of hoping they would bring a couple of the better motors over here, if only to show that there is a possibility of decent performance with reasonable economy. I still doubt the euro spec engines would handle our fuels, but it must be worth a try. There was talk a few years back of bringing the 10 litre MAN engine across, and the Macks often have the older Renault 12 litre in them, but they still manage to screw up the cooling system on them so they always blow coolant out.
Bob, you already have both 10.5 and 12.4 litre MAN engines over there, they are in Navistar rebadged as International D11 and D13. In fact a pal of mine who works as a development engineer for Clean Air Technologies in Leyland has just been in San Diego, working on CNG conversions for the International/MAN 12.4 litre and the Volvo D13. They have now brought the US spec engines back to Leyland for further work.
acd1202:
bobthedog:
Monoleaf steel is still a fair bit lighter than air as well. With the obsession they have here for 80000lbs, maybe they are trying to squeeze that last little bit on as well as saving on costs… What the split would show on a tandem running steel when they have the bogie at 36 feet is anyones guess I reckon.
I was sort of hoping they would bring a couple of the better motors over here, if only to show that there is a possibility of decent performance with reasonable economy. I still doubt the euro spec engines would handle our fuels, but it must be worth a try. There was talk a few years back of bringing the 10 litre MAN engine across, and the Macks often have the older Renault 12 litre in them, but they still manage to screw up the cooling system on them so they always blow coolant out.Bob, you already have both 10.5 and 12.4 litre MAN engines over there, they are in Navistar rebadged as International D11 and D13. In fact a pal of mine who works as a development engineer for Clean Air Technologies in Leyland has just been in San Diego, working on CNG conversions for the International/MAN 12.4 litre and the Volvo D13. They have now brought the US spec engines back to Leyland for further work.
■■■■■■■ Westport already have a CNG engine, it’s been taken up by a lot of the local boys in California, it has taken off far better than the examples we had in the UK in the early 2000s, the ■■■■■■■ is an adaption of their standard range, not a conversion. A lot of the big fleets (Walmart, Swift, Heartland & Crete) have gone for the non SCR engined International trucks this year, it seems that they are not keen on ad-blue, which is hardly surprising considering the donkeys that drive their trucks couldn’t be trusted to fill the tank Many of the so called ‘experts’ over here said Navistar were mad to stick with EGR, but I’ve seen a lot more 2010 Internationals than any other new truck on the road, so that remains to be seen, they obviosly have the ear of the big fleets so maybe they have an inside track on alternative fuels too. BTW I said the International/MAN?CAT engines were called Duramax, they’re actually badged as Maxxforce 
When I say conversions, that should probably read redeveloped. They will be on the price list and sold as original equipment, the development work is at the request of, and being paid for by Volvo and Navistar.
The Volvo is further down the line than the Maxxforce, I knew it had a name. They currently have an engine in a FM rated at 460 and running up and down the M6 with a test trailer; I have been trying to get a trip in it, but whist he hasn’t said no, it hasn’t happened yet.
acd1202:
When I say conversions, that should probably read redeveloped. They will be on the price list and sold as original equipment, the development work is at the request of, and being paid for by Volvo and Navistar.The Volvo is further down the line than the Maxxforce, I knew it had a name. They currently have an engine in a FM rated at 460 and running up and down the M6 with a test trailer; I have been trying to get a trip in it, but whist he hasn’t said no, it hasn’t happened yet.
When I was at TRUCK mag I was doing a fair bit of research into alternative fuels, those CNG/LNG engines are pretty impressive, the ones I had a go in were using technology that is now at least 10yrs old & they performed really well, I imagine the current ones are even better, so keep hounding your mate for a ride, you’ll be impressed.
From what I understand there are a couple of thousand of the ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ engines running around in California, I’m on my way down there now so maybe I’ll be able to see a few & find out some more (if the drivers speak English, my spanish starts & ends with cerveza )
So Volvo still run up & down the M6 with their prototypes then, I got scoop pics of the version2 FM when I was doing a test match for TRUCK, sitting in Charnock Richard, I noticed an FM that didn’t look quite right so wandered over to have a look & saw all the false panels, I quickly called the photographer over & he did his magic, the driver came back & started doing his nut, I told him that he shouldn’t park there if he wanted to be incognito & gave him an issue of Trucking magazine that I had just read (checking out the enemy) I bet Trucking’s editor, Richard Simpson was puzzled by all the phone calls from Warwick