Sterling trucks are no more

[John Deere 3520]

Ford i supose to have a 6speed behind the new motor they come out with, but GM is looking at an 8speed

Builder you have some nice equipment.. do you plow snow too?

 

[Builder]

I never much liked the Sterlings after Ford sold them off. They got pretty cheapy and plastic. Still sad to see them gone and more unemployment. Freightliner is also sending ALL Western Star production to Mexico. Thanks Freightliner. I remember when they were hand built in Vancouver, very good trucks, then Freightliner turned them into mass produced junk in Portland. But it's the same everywhere now I guess.
It's going to be hard to know who owns who anymore. International had an agreement to take over GM's medium truck business, but they both pulled out at the last minute. Then you have the EPA killing off engine businesses like Caterpillar with their ridiculous emmissions laws. I applaud Cat for pulling out of the on-road market. I would rather see them gone than tarnish their reputation more then they already have with their poor performing ACERT motors. Now they will be coming out with a Cat truck which is basically an International Paystar chassis. Going to be funny seeing a Cat truck with an International Maxx Force engine in it. I also wonder if they will be back eventually? Seems weird to pull out of the market after spending so much developing a new line of class 8 truck auto transmissions to compete with Allison.

The Sterlings did turn to junk. Ford built a decent vocational truck.

So CAT pulled out of it's transmission project? I heard they were going right after Allisons business!

 

[QRTRHRS]

The Sterlings did turn to junk. Ford built a decent vocational truck.

So CAT pulled out of it's transmission project? I heard they were going right after Allisons business!

I have not come across any news reports about CAT stopping the transmission project on any of the web sites that I frequent for trucking industry news. Nor, does CAT's website mention it.

If true, it would come as no surprise. Why go after the truck auto transmission market after pulling the plug on truck engines?

 

[Dargo]

When I shopped for trucks, I was all set on buying a 450 4x4 crewcab (because Ford's 350 couldn't compare to a GM 3500, the 6L was junk, the Torqslip couldn't compare to the ally and the Ford rear was lame). Anyway, I felt just the opposite about the interiors. I thought the GM interior had nicer seats, proportional gaugues instead of idiot gauges and a nicer rear seat folding system. The cab was quieter inside.
The only thing Ford had going for it was higher GVWRs.

ROFL! You're a funny guy. I've never heard anyone with such effective blinders on. The contractor who did the concrete for my barn floors got rid of most all of their GM pickups because of the Allison transmissions. They run about 30 light duty trucks (3500 range) to haul their skid steers and other sized equipment. Since they do jobs all around the area they tow quite a bit on the highway. With the runs they make, the Allison transmissions apparently have a really bad problem of not knowing what gear to be in. He spent thousands on aftermarket upgrades to prevent the Allison transmission from shifting inappropriately. A quote from him was that the number of gears that Allison brags about doesn't matter when it doesn't know what gear to use. Pure and simple, those trucks weren't working for his need. Rather than bash them, he simply went with another brand of truck that he had a couple of that were working fine for what he needed. So, yeah, the TorqShift doesn't compare in that area.

Besides, GM sold off the Allison division last year anyway. You can figure that either GM is in really, really sad shape or the Allison transmission division wasn't really making them all that much money in the light duty truck division. The transmissions seem to be fine, but these days it's all about making money. Allison transmissions simply are not head and shoulders above the competitor's transmissions. Therefore, as a company, if you can sell the division for more money than you feel it's making you as a company, it's gone. The 'invincibility' and 'nothing compares' from early advertising is gone. A quick search on the internet in all sorts of areas and discussion forums sure don't agree with your opinion either. As I said before, I wouldn't pay any more for an Allison over a TorqShift. Breakdown and failure statistics just don't support your opinion. You really love to repeat hearsay on the 6.0 Ford as well. I've given you proof that the 6.0 PSD had become one of the most durable engines built by Ford and had less warranty claims than any Ford engine in the 2006 model year. I guess you just don't like that fact so you just ignore it. I can find plenty of complaints on the web about the early run Dmax engines as well. You don't see me or Chris talking about all of the complaints you can find if you Google Duramax problems.

I buy and drive vehicles from all of the domestic manufacturers. The reliability facts simply don't support your "nothing but GM" mantra. As alluded to in an earlier post by dgl24087, I suppose you'll hate future Nissan pickups as well since Nissan has dropped building their Titan truck and they are going to buy their "Titan" trucks from Dodge in the future. A lot of changes are happening and it makes it tough for a guy who is a single manufacturer kind of guy. The Sterling name simply lost it's selling hype it once had, whether justified or not, so things are changing. One thing is for sure, if you think that advantages and quality of any brand is static, you'll end up being proven wrong. The only sure thing that is the same is change.

 

[Diamondpilot]

The searching for the gears was my only complaint I had with my 5 speed Allison. I did not have a problem on the up shift or acceleration stage but on the down shift it searched a lot more than I was used to. I am not jumping on a Dargo band wagon, I had mentioned that months ago for being one of the major reasons I went back to Ford after giving the Dmax and Allison a 9 month try.

As for the reliability the Ford Diesels have out sold GM and Dodge combined and well over 70% of all the 3/4 tons and better are deisels. The same does not hold true for the other manufactures so it may seem like tons of problems, the sure number of trucks out there make it looks so.

Chris

 

[Dargo]

I understand and am not asking you to jump on any bandwagon nor drag you into anything. I just don't have any diehard attraction to any manufacturer and I buy what suits my needs best based on facts and not barroom chatter. Perhaps most importantly, it seems that no single manufacturer seems to stay on top in any one area forever. Competition is great for us as consumers. It gives us choices. I just feel obligated to take advantage of those choices, that's all.

 

[Builder]

ROFL! You're a funny guy. I've never heard anyone with such effective blinders on. The contractor who did the concrete for my barn floors got rid of most all of their GM pickups because of the Allison transmissions. They run about 30 light duty trucks (3500 range) to haul their skid steers and other sized equipment. Since they do jobs all around the area they tow quite a bit on the highway. With the runs they make, the Allison transmissions apparently have a really bad problem of not knowing what gear to be in. He spent thousands on aftermarket upgrades to prevent the Allison transmission from shifting inappropriately. A quote from him was that the number of gears that Allison brags about doesn't matter when it doesn't know what gear to use. Pure and simple, those trucks weren't working for his need. Rather than bash them, he simply went with another brand of truck that he had a couple of that were working fine for what he needed. So, yeah, the TorqShift doesn't compare in that area.

Besides, GM sold off the Allison division last year anyway. You can figure that either GM is in really, really sad shape or the Allison transmission division wasn't really making them all that much money in the light duty truck division. The transmissions seem to be fine, but these days it's all about making money. Allison transmissions simply are not head and shoulders above the competitor's transmissions. Therefore, as a company, if you can sell the division for more money than you feel it's making you as a company, it's gone. The 'invincibility' and 'nothing compares' from early advertising is gone. A quick search on the internet in all sorts of areas and discussion forums sure don't agree with your opinion either. As I said before, I wouldn't pay any more for an Allison over a TorqShift. Breakdown and failure statistics just don't support your opinion. You really love to repeat hearsay on the 6.0 Ford as well. I've given you proof that the 6.0 PSD had become one of the most durable engines built by Ford and had less warranty claims than any Ford engine in the 2006 model year. I guess you just don't like that fact so you just ignore it. I can find plenty of complaints on the web about the early run Dmax engines as well. You don't see me or Chris talking about all of the complaints you can find if you Google Duramax problems.

I buy and drive vehicles from all of the domestic manufacturers. The reliability facts simply don't support your "nothing but GM" mantra. As alluded to in an earlier post by dgl24087, I suppose you'll hate future Nissan pickups as well since Nissan has dropped building their Titan truck and they are going to buy their "Titan" trucks from Dodge in the future. A lot of changes are happening and it makes it tough for a guy who is a single manufacturer kind of guy. The Sterling name simply lost it's selling hype it once had, whether justified or not, so things are changing. One thing is for sure, if you think that advantages and quality of any brand is static, you'll end up being proven wrong. The only sure thing that is the same is change.

It would be nice if you could write a post that wasn't so long once in a while. It just takes too long to read.

You know, I switched from Ford to GM mostly because of the Ford 6L problems and their pretty lame drivetrains. No, I don't own fleets of trucks, like you and your other wealthy business owning friends, but at least I can prove with pictures that I switched. I guess anyone can claim they sold off fleets of GM trucks and switched to Ford, right?

I also own an IH truck. So your "nothing but GM mantra" doesn't hold up. You would plainly be able to see that in my signature, but one member of this website complained about me listing my trucks in my signature, so I removed it.

If I wanted to google & post all the 6L problems out there, this website would run out of memory space. The 6L is considered by most a failure. In its' 4 yr run, it cost Ford more warranty problems than all 8 years of the DMAX combined. IH dumped it, Ford dumped it. It never made the power or had the reliability of the DMAX. That's why the DMAX came before the 6L and stayed long after the 6L was just a distant memory. I never bought one because many of my subs told me the nightmares they had with their's scared me away. Instead, I dumped $10,000 into the "wonderful" 4R100 transmissions Ford put behind my 7.3's and kept them duct taped togehter. While I pondered my decison of leaving Ford for another brand, Ford bought back a record 500 trucks due to 6 leaker problems. 2003-06 6.0L Diesel Spat Snarls 2007 6.4L Ford Super Duty launch | The Center for Autosafety

You know, I was going to give you some credit for being knowledgeable about cars/trucks, but you didn't know that GM actually did keep their Allison light truck transmission plant. http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.c...Management/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=62471


Besides, I don't care if GM owns Allison, I just care that they use Allison, just like Ford does in their big trucks when they need a tougher transmission than Ford can build.

Sorry for the lengthy reply, but you threw a lot of accusations at me.

 

[Dargo]

That's why the DMAX came before the 6L and stayed long after the 6L was just a distant memory.

Don't worry, I won't continue to correct you and prove you wrong, but Ford is STILL using the 6.0 diesel in certain applications. I'll move on to more interesting things and let you say whatever you want to say regardless of any facts.

 

[Eagleview]

It does not seem to matter what the thread topic is about , it seems to allways come down to a Chev , Ford bashing saga .

 

[Builder]

It does not seem to matter what the thread topic is about , it seems to allways come down to a Chev , Ford bashing saga .

Sorry mate!