Bullheaded

Ya, I hear you. It still burns you though. And yes, my town is FULL of crappy dealers. it's like no one cares any more nowadays. I did like my VW products. Pricing is good and they were enjoyable to drive.

Well, I used to be more of a VW fan until recently. I bought brand new Jetta and a Tiguan Highline, paid them off first year. Dealer broke grill on Tiguan while doing an oil change. Then put the hoist right through the floor on my Jetta and tried to blame my wife. Told her she ran something over. They wouldn't come good for anything so I called VW Canada and they just blew me off. I even had all kinds of pics documenting all the damage my dealer has done and all they could say was "sorry for your luck." So I hope they don't bring that attitude to International, because on the car side they don't care about customers that buy two at a time and pay them off.

You use Scania's in Australia also Paul? I have a friend in Australia but I haven't seen any Scania's in his pictures he sends me from the shows. I guess he figures I am just interested in the Mack's, Internationals and Star's.

Yes, there seems to be a lot of scamming going on now. I have a couple vehicles I don't use so I put them on Kijiji (kinda like a Canadian Craigslist I guess) It is the most popular site people use here, they kinda surpassed Auto trader. Anyway, I never made it 4 days and I removed the adds. I'd rather have them rot into the ground in my yard. I had nothing but calls from people that can't speak English, and all those clever stories like "I would love to come to showing, but alas, I work on offshore drilling rig. So you put in shipping container and send to this address and I will send cheque." I even got that same one for a dump truck I had listed. Ya, I'll just put that in a shipping container, LOL

Speaking of Scania, I'm watching "How'd They Do It" on Discovery Channel. They are at the Scania factory showing a new V8 being built! They even forge their own metals.

Ya, but do you really want a new Cat with emission equipment? It will be a headache just like every other engine out there. I respect Cat for getting out, rather than sell us government mandated junk.

Unfortunately the same could be said for Mack up here. We have dealers that don't seem to be interested at all in selling them. They make their living off maintenance contracts for a couple mega fleets that run no Mack products. When would you have ever thought you'd see Peterbilt taking over the ready mix market!! Lafarge has been buying nothing but Peterbilts around here now.

Yes, I see both sides here. They really did mortally wound their reputation. And the Cat truck was also a huge disaster. But they seem to have been really working on making a better product over the last few years. And I also agree, it will be a hard road to win customers back. We all know what it's like to get burned. You tend to walk away. But that HX is a really good product. My my last two higher priced Star's (a 2013 and a 2020 don't compare) It's really too bad the Maxxforce didn't work out. They had two of the best engine blocks around (MAN and the C15 Cat) with bad fuel and emission systems on them. Think of the hero International would have been if it would have worked....to have the only on road engine with no DEF fluid. That's why a big fleet up here bought a whole bunch of them. They were having problems with their Freightliner's DEF systems freezing on the ice roads.

Would it be too much to ask to get a sun visor, chrome grill and bumper and some Bulldog mirrors?

Well I'm kinda used to calipers sticking HeavyGunner. If you ever owned an F150 or Superduty you know all about sticking calipers, LOL I see they still have quite the upcharge when you order on a new truck. Prices I have been seeing here is $6000.00

And the DT466 was an awesome motor too. There's a reason it (and a John Deere) are about the only two engine blocks still used in 4000 horsepower sled pulling tractors.

Well, they failed with some of their engines, but go try a new HX. Nicest built, best riding, quietest truck out there. And my Paystar and 9900i were absolutely bulletproof. I would put them in a dead even tie with my old R model as the best trucks I have ever been in. Went to work every day, and never failed.

OK. Thanks MACKS.

One thing about that truck. It would be a lot easier to wash than my Star, LOL.

Yes, but they look more at home on a Volvo.

Anyone know why the leveling valves repeatedly fall off new Mack Granite's with this suspension? The big local construction company here bought a bunch of new Granites, both dump trucks and Granite HOS sleeper float tractors, and the leveling valves continuously fall off them? I haven't looked at one up close to know what is going on. Their new Stars have the same suspension and don't seen to suffer.

I have looked at disc brakes, but does anyone know how well they would stand up in a high dust/dirt environment like dump trucking? I tried a new Pete dump truck a dealer brought to my town for demo with disc brakes and it did have very nice braking feel. But no one I have talked to has given them a positive outlook in high dirt applications.

We have dumb axle laws here. I would much rather run a tri-drive with a 17 or 18 foot box. Big axle spreads and giant long trucks......for no good reason.

21 foot. That's what we run up here. Mine has 48 inch sides but I run sideboards, so it is 60 inch, same as the tailgate height.

Interesting......no DD15? I wonder if what my salesman told me is true? He told me Detroit wants to discontinue the 16 litre motor just as Volvo/Mack has done, and they want to again make the DD15 the flagship engine.

No, that's what the new Canadians order. They buy the low side boxes so the truck can't be loaded as much. They also weld steel plate from the top of the front of the box, sloped down towards the back to the floor. Wouldn't do you any good if you had to axle weigh though. If they just quit working cheap they wouldn't have to mess with all this.

I better trade my half ton pickup for one if that is the case, LOL

A friend sent me this. Pretty odd. An Ontario spec VNX dump truck. I actually think it looks better than the VHD vocational model. But it will be problematic with that T-Ride rear suspension and the Ontario mandated SPIF lift axle. Air ride works much better with the self equalizing SPIF axles. https://www.visiontruckgroup.com/truck/details/id/112

First I gotta say, I'm not really a big Anthem fan. I HATE the headlights and the hood side intake vents. And those hood mirrors. But I do think the grill and hood shape would work well on a vocational truck. But what I wanted to discuss here is, have you noticed there some seems to be a LOT of hype about them for their fuel efficiency? They seem to be getting more praise in the long haul world than the new Volvo's. So what's everyone think? Are they really that good? Are they really more aerodynamic than all the others? I just find it really odd that Volvo has killed Mack in the heavy haul and construction world, and yet are allowing Mack to shine on the highway front.

I want that in a new International!! I wonder if we will start seeing any of this Scania goodness in the Internationals as they move forward in this merger?