New 1 Ton P/U on the Market. Sterling Bullet

[Berniep]

Oh Aisin. I didn't know they made transmissions.

 

[DieselPower]

Aisin is actually the name of the transmission manufacturing company. If my memory hasn't completly gone I think that is what was in the Isuzu/rebadged GM small tilt cabs, the W4/NPR series truck. Of all the NPR's I ever worked on I never had to do any transmission work, come to think of it I never had to do much work on the 4 cylinder diesel engines either. They are hard little trucks to beat. Wern't much to look at but very durable.

 

[RobertN]

You mentioned CAT makes inlines in the size range of the Cummins used in Dodge. But what does CAT offer that is so cool? As mentioned in that other thread, my only experience is with 3208 turbo's in Ford 8000 series used in a Beck fire engine. The 3208 certainly is lacking power in the application.

An inline CAT motor was posted in that thread, but I did not see an advantage over Cummins. It certainly was a nice motor though.

Another question; what happened to Detroit? Having some exposure to fire apparatus, a lot of them were made, or repowered with Detroit's. Our GMC Topkick based Water Tender has a Detroit. That thing is LOUD! You can't hear yourself think when running the pump panel.

Yeah, I nod off now and th....zzzzzz....zzzzz...zzzzzz

Where was I? Oh yeah, but does it have the critical Cat engine, so necessary for bragging rights????

 

[mjncad]

RobertN:

I assume you mean Detroit Diesel? GM sold them to Daimler-Chrysler, or whatever they are calling themselves these days. The last time I looked at the DD web site, you couldn't find a "Double Breasted Yamaha" (71N, 92N) engine at all except in the company history links.

 

[sandman2234]

First thing, I don't follow diesel p/u trucks and what is happening to them, and my question was about Ford purchasing a good chunk of Cummins stock years ago. I did a quick search and it seems that Cummins realized that mistake and did a repurchase deal to buy back that outstanding stock or something to that effect. Anyway, my illusion that Ford was trying to get take over Cummins was apparently just that, an illusion. Sorry for being ten years behind on that little bit of trivia.
David from jax

 

[Berniep]

Aisin is actually the name of the transmission manufacturing company.

They also make other car parts. Like the loop that goes around the window on car doors. At least thats what they made in the Seymour IN plant a few years ago when I was there. Seems like my old Toyota Celica had an Aisin carb on it too. I just didn't know they made transmissions.

 

[Z-Michigan]

You mentioned CAT makes inlines in the size range of the Cummins used in Dodge. But what does CAT offer that is so cool?

I don't think it's that CAT has anything technically superior, just that a lot of people who are truck fans would be happy to boast about having a CAT engine, not otherwise available in any vehicle not requiring a CDL.

I'm sure there is some of this also with people who buy Ram's with the Cummins engine. I don't really see people putting stickers on their trucks boasting about their Navistar/Ford or Isuzu/GM (DMAX) engines though...

 

[swines]

RobertN:

I assume you mean Detroit Diesel? GM sold them to Daimler-Chrysler, or whatever they are calling themselves these days. The last time I looked at the DD web site, you couldn't find a "Double Breasted Yamaha" (71N, 92N) engine at all except in the company history links.

It's a Dodge 3500 chassis...

Number 1: Ford purchased $70 million of a $110 million dollar Cummins engine research project in about 1992 (when Ford still made heavy trucks). The deal was that Ford got first delivery on the engines for their trucks. Somehow, over the years this has become "Ford bought Cummins."

Number 2: Penske Corporation and General Motors formed a joint venture in 1988 and that resulted in Detroit Diesel the successor to Detroit Diesel Allison Division of General Motors. In 1993, Detroit Diesel became a publicly traded company. In 2000, Daimler Chrysler tendered an offer for all outstanding shares of stock including the 48.6% owned by Penske Corporation - and it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler Corporation.

Number 3: Sterling trucks - in 1997 Ford sold their heavy truck division to Freightliner, LLC a division of ----- Daimler Chrysler. There are a couple of stories about how the Sterling name was chosen. The Sterling name was not used when Ford owned the heavy truck division. The original Sterling trucks were manufactured in the '40's and 50's and became a part of White Motor company in 1953.

As a side note: In 1981, Volvo purchased control of White / Autocar to form Volvo/White. In 1988, Volvo formed a venture with GM Trucks and the products from Volvo/GM were WhiteGM and Autocar. In 1997 Volvo purchased all of GM's stake in Volvo/GM and formed Volvo North America - the company that today sells only Volvo trucks.

Lastly - you can all speculate on this one....about 3 weeks ago, Gerald Shaheen was elected to the Board of Directors of Ford Motor Company. Mr. Shaheen is a Group President at Caterpillar, Inc. Of course, you all know that Perkins Diesel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar....giving CAT access to a wide range of blocks beyond the ones painted yellow on which to build ...mmmm...whatever they feel like.

 

[patrick_g]

Dodge going to develop a diesel for the Jeep...

I saw my first diesel Jeep (it was a Cherokee thing) in about '97. I stopped somewhere in Colorado for diesel and there was a a young man with a couple head turning chicks as passengers at the diesel island filling up.

OK, so it was a prototype and he was a company test driver who was allowed to take vehicles out on weekends provided he bought his own fuel.

The diesel I have heard talked about for the Jeep (in recent years) is NOT A GOOD THING. While Chrysler was still attached at the head gasket to MB the obvious thing was to put the same MB diesel engine in the Jeep that goes into the Sprinter van. Now that would be a great match up.

So, I wonder what diesel will be in the Sprinter after the divorce? Will the Sprinter remain the same as the Freightliner version?

Pat

 

[Toiyabe]

So, I wonder what diesel will be in the Sprinter after the divorce? Will the Sprinter remain the same as the Freightliner version?

Dodge doesn't make the Sprinter, the US ones are assembled from kits shipped from Europe by Freightliner, which is still owned by Daimler. So Dodge is probably going to stick with Daimler engines or ditch the Sprinter entirely. I would guess the latter, the exchange rate has got to be hurting them.

The wierd thing is that Daimler is pushing both Sterling (Bullet) and Freightliner (Sprinter) in the US light truck market. Seems like it would be better to stick with just one.