Fitzgerald adds Kenworth Icon 900, Western Star 4900 to glider kit offerings

Overdrive / August 27, 2015

Fitzgerald Glider Kits (https://www.fitzgeraldgliderkits.com/) announced Aug. 27 it has added the the Kenworth Icon 900 and the Western Star 4900 to its glider kit offerings. The announcement came at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, Texas.

The Kenworth Icon 900 was unveiled in March at the Mid-America Trucking Show and is a modern take on Kenworth’s classic W900 tractor.

Fitzgerald is offering three 2006 and older engine choices for the Icon 900: a 12.7 liter Detroit 60 series, a Cummins N14 or a Cat 6NZ.

All engine choices can be spec’d with a 10-,13- or 18-speed Eaton Fuller reman transmission.

The Western Star 4900 will be available in three configurations: An over-the-road day cab, a heavy-haul configuration and the 4900EX 82-inch high-top sleeper.

Fitzgerald says it ordered 100 Icon 900 gliders and 300 Western Stars.

What the hell is special about the icon? It's no different at all from the rest of the w900's

About Fitzgerald in general, I believe what's special is the ability to purchase a new truck in year 2015 with a pre-emissions engine.

Aside from the Icon, which doesn't do anything for me either, they have a wide range of brand and model offerings.

Pretty sure W9's will be gone soon.

Too bad, in Canada you can't import a Glider that is less then 7 years old. I know lots of guys that want to import some Fitzgerald build ups but the government through up the road blocks back in January. If it comes up as an unfinished glider and there is a transferable old vin to the Glider vin it can be done. Otherwise we have been shut out of that market. No transferable Vin, it ha to have current emissions in the newly built Glider. Sucks.

This whole glider thing will be going away in 2017-2018. We have customers who bought these things who wish they didn't. The fuel mileage is no where near what a new SCR engine can provide. People that buy these things "think they are getting over" but really they are just getting a new truck with old outdate technology. In many cases you can buy a new 2016 truck from any OEM for less money than a glider - makes no sense to me.

Makes sense if you want simplicity compared to the newer models .

What, and not have all the smog equipment,def and other good stuff???

The prices for gliders and the cost to change over wasn't so bad about 5 years ago. The manufacturers and dealers that up fit the gliders have taken advantage of customer demands. It's the usual make every dollar you can off of those who are trying to make a dollar. Most of the older technology has long been proven more reliable. It's the added expenses of repairing and maintaining dpf's and scr systems that will negatively effect your fuel mileage savings as units get older.

Gone are the days when you mostly only worried about when your engine was going to need an overhaul. Now it's all of the failed components, sensor and wiring issues in between that can hurt a profit margin.

You can mitigate all these costs for DPF & SCR by purchasing extended warranty coverages. I recently sold a customer 40 2016 Mack CXU613 Double Bunk Sleepers, Mack MP8 SuperEconodyne packages. WE did a custom 60 months 650,000 miles FULL COVERAGE Engine & EATS warranty - cost per mile for this coverage is $0.012! The trucks are doing great - the fuel mileage is better than he expected and we are goin g to get an order for an additional 40 trucks for next year. In addition the Mack/Volvo recommended DPF cleaning interval has just been extended to 400,000 and the oil drain interval to 40,000 on highway trucks.

The 2010 and 2014 SCR engines from Mack & Volvo are doing a great job.

I own a few SCR equipped Macks. They have had a few issues just like every manufacturer. At this point, there isn't an SCR equipped truck in North America that is more then 5 years old. There are small fleet owners in this world that need or wish to keep a truck more then 5 years. Warranty is great to have, trust me I have used it to my advantage as well. I worry about the issues that have yet to come with trucks that are older then 5 years with 2010 equipped emission systems. Maybe in a few years we can revisit the concern realistically instead of optimistically. It's easy to sell big fleets on a fixed cost per mile over a fixed term. I worry for the small fleets or 1 truck customers that may have to purchase these equipped trucks after your customers fleets are done with them and what costly (no longer covered by warranty) issue will pop up.

Agreed on the gliders being overpriced- it seems that they price them just a hair less than a new truck. Back in the old days when a glider was maybe half the cost of new, they were worth it. But new truck price for a decade old powertrain?. No way!

You can mitigate all these costs for DPF & SCR by purchasing extended warranty coverages. I recently sold a customer 40 2016 Mack CXU613 Double Bunk Sleepers, Mack MP8 SuperEconodyne packages. WE did a custom 60 months 650,000 miles FULL COVERAGE Engine & EATS warranty - cost per mile for this coverage is $0.012! The trucks are doing great - the fuel mileage is better than he expected and we are goin g to get an order for an additional 40 trucks for next year. In addition the Mack/Volvo recommended DPF cleaning interval has just been extended to 400,000 and the oil drain interval to 40,000 on highway trucks.

The 2010 and 2014 SCR engines from Mack & Volvo are doing a great job.

You quote the fuel mileage been better than expected I have asked this before and I will ask again encase you missed my last question last time just what is the mileage these fleets are getting and is this a documented mileage and what sort of weight terrain are these trucks running on

Or I guess another way to look at is what is

How does the mileage compare to the older fleet ?????

Paul

Fitzgerald offers a 500,000 mile warranty on their gliders, so they must be doing something right. Their engines are completely rebuilt by Fitzgerald, or factory re-mans from Detroit Diesel, I would expect the Cummins and Cats to be the same. I'd love to have one with an N14.

Cline Everhart, owner of Everhart Transportation in Greeneville, Tn, likes them so much the majority of his fleet came from Fitzgerald, and he's still ordering new ones from them.

In my line of work my cl with a 460 averages 6.3 to 6.7mpg. Thats 80,000 gross straight truck. My titan with the 16 liter with same 18 spd and 3.73 rears instead of 3.86 gets between 5.8 to 7.0mpg. That truck will gross 91,000. Seems like the warmer the weather, the better the mileage the titan gets. I run 1/2 interstate and 1/2 rural roads. Idle time is 13% on the titan and over 33 on the cl. Average speed is 29 mph

When you quote the fuel economy of the newer scr equiped trucks, does anyone include the ad blue in that equation? Cause last time I checked, it doesn't grow on trees.

Good point Timmy

Paul

In 70,000 miles I used under 300 gallons of def. I buy it bulk for $1.60/gallon

In addition the Mack/Volvo recommended DPF cleaning interval has just been extended to 400,000 and the oil drain interval to 40,000 on highway trucks.

Is this across the board or have changes been made to the current models to extend the intervals?

When you quote the fuel economy of the newer scr equiped trucks, does anyone include the ad blue in that equation? Cause last time I checked, it doesn't grow on trees.

I drive a little over 400 miles a day and that's roughly 2.5 gallons of DEF a day in my DD15.

I serviced and repaired a fleet that ran some fitzgeralds. They were Freightliner Columbia and Corandos, about 6 of them. They were ok. They were all series 60 and 10 spd roadrangers. The problem I ran into was getting parts for the series 60. Fitzgeralds spec'd all of there with ddec 3 and 4 parts. So the serials numbers on the engines didn't mean anything to Detroit. He's warranties were up. I did two heads and some misc. parts. The main complaint with those trucks wasn't related to Fitzgeralds but to the build quality of Freightliner. In my opinion they are cheaply produced and cheap materials.

That's the down side of gliders- You're starting out with decade old engines and after another decade their may be no parts and service available for them.

"Cheaply produced and cheap materials" that's my experience with freightliner too. Basically they aren't a bad truck, but anything plastic (and there is lots) will break.