Adios Caterpillar in OTR

[Builder]

Looks like the mighty CAT doesn't want any more over the road truck business.

Never thought I'd see the day when CAT diesels would no longer be used in OTR trucks!

Light & Medium Truck | Caterpillar Exits U.S. Truck Market, Partners With Navistar

 

[kennyd]

WOW

 

[Builder]

Scary, huh?
I think ACCERT did them in.

 

[Ductape]

Yeah, hard to believe the ACCERT was the best they could come up with. Still hard to believe nonetheless.

 

[LarryRB]

I get that same magazine and several from Cat it self,, they have been saying this at least the last 3 years that they most likely will leave OTR<,,

 

[Builder]

I get that same magazine and several from Cat it self,, they have been saying this at least the last 3 years that they most likely will leave OTR<,,

Have you ever seen an ACCERT motor? Man, there's more tubes, wires than anything I've ever seen.....spark plugs, too!

 

[LarryRB]

A long time ago, my last cat owned tractor trailer and Cat automatically added you to their "Cat members club". To this day, each week I receive a four page letter, usually something about an engine change or engine part,,, Every now and then they go off from engines and hit other topics. The other "topics" is almost exclusively, why they will not stay in on road vehicles and obviously the bottom line is meeting Tier 4 environment requirements,,, So,, for at least three years they have had the warning signs out there.,

 

[QRTRHRS]

Guess this means that a CAT engine for pickups is out of the picture? Just kidding.

Seriously, I drove several C15 powered trucks up until February when I left that job including a new 07' that I put over 100k on. To me, the engines were just plain querky the way they responded to varying road conditions. The word inconsistant comes to mind. The amount of shop time would have been tough on an owner/operator.

There were quite a few number of units and drivers and if you were to poll the drivers, I would venture to say that every single one would say the same things that I have.

 

[Renze]

So, it is the TIER 4 and 5 emission standards that led to this decision, despite that CAT introduced ACERT quite some years ago ?

why would CAT, with ACERT, give up when Tatra, army and offroad truck maker of the Czech republic, can achieve a step beyond Euro 4 / TIER 4 that with a very traditional air cooled diesel and a mechanically controlled inline fuel injection pump:
http://www.tatra.cz/en/zajimavosti/Press ReleaseEURO5.pdf

It shows that modern electronics still cant beat classic engineering excellence

 

[Builder]

So, it is the TIER 4 and 5 emission standards that led to this decision, despite that CAT introduced ACERT quite some years ago ?

why would CAT, with ACERT, give up when Tatra, army and offroad truck maker of the Czech republic, can achieve a step beyond Euro 4 / TIER 4 that with a very traditional air cooled diesel and a mechanically controlled inline fuel injection pump:
http://www.tatra.cz/en/zajimavosti/Press%20ReleaseEURO5.pdf

It shows that modern electronics still cant beat classic engineering excellence

Because ACCERT basically flopped. It was a bandage, not a real solution. Cummins & Navistar seems to have a lot less trouble.

With the chips down in the middle of a war, I'll take my old Yankee diesels over the euro diesels 24/7.