Truck Driving Jobs

Copperhead · #1 02-22-2012, 10:04 AM

Well, it took a lot of back and forth to get all the specs the way I wanted them, but my glider truck order is going in. 2013 Columbia, 500 hp DDEC IV, 18 speed, 2.79 rear ends, Midroof XT. I spec'd almost everything you could get in the interior. there isn't hardly a wall space that doesn't have some form of cabinet on it. Built in fridge, premium interior, arctic insulation and premium noise abatement insulation. Every gauge that is available in the dash with chrome accents. Set back fuel tanks, polished boxes under the cab entry doors, chrome bumper, LED lights all the way around and Alcoa Durabrites. Invoice price came in at roughly $108K. Brand new truck, no emissions junk. Similar new truck with all the emissions junk and spec'd out the same would have come in at around $140K-$150K. This is my last truck.

GMAN · #2 02-22-2012, 12:01 PM

It sounds like you saved a lot of money with the glider. Will the title say anything about it being a glider or just a 2013 Columbia?

Copperhead · #3 02-22-2012, 12:50 PM

The VIN will have a two letter identifier in it that shows it is a glider. But one would have to know what all the letters and numbers mean in a VIN to be able to tell. It would be registered as a 2013 Columbia. We spent a lot of time the last few weeks going back and forth on the specs.

One interesting note, Schneider did the same thing and dumped a 900 truck order for gliders. bogged down the entire system. Mine will not get completed till August! Just the first of the this year, the lead time was April. In 1.5 months the lead time jumped 3-4 extra months. Anyone even considering a similar thing better put a wiggle in it or get left behind. Freightliner is expecting a big demand and is having a hard time keeping up.

Now watch..... will get the thing and the EPA will come up with some form of mandate like CARB. Then I would have a nice lawn ornament. I am pretty confident the primary area I run, the Upper Midwest, will not do such a thing. It would just about have to come from the feds.

freebrd · #4 02-22-2012, 06:05 PM

Why not a cascadia or coronado? Too me both are better looking trucks and heard cascadia was good on fuel! Also by the rearend does that mean you pull light loads mostly flat land?

Copperhead · #5 02-22-2012, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebrd

Why not a cascadia or coronado? Too me both are better looking trucks and heard cascadia was good on fuel! Also by the rearend does that mean you pull light loads mostly flat land?

Cascadia not offered as a glider kit. Coronado is too much of a brick for me. I spend most of the time inside the truck, and I have spec'd everything you could ever hope to put in the interior of a Coronado. After I get done with the graphics on this one, it will not look like some fleet truck. No, not primarily running light on flat ground, the 18 speed with the 2.79 rears is ideal for pulling heavy in hilly midwest areas. Will operate the tranny primarily in direct drive (16th) where the best performance and fuel economy is. More power is actually making it to the wheels in direct drive. Overdrive steals power from the engine. The 18 has deeper reduction on the bottom end than a 13 or direct 10. And I will have all the splits right down into the basement for really nasty pulling. And if I am running light, on flat ground like I-80 in Nebraska, I can step up the pace and jump up to 17th. In 18th, at 1500 rpm, I would be busting 90 MPH. That is just not going to happen.

Keep in mind this is a DDEC IV 12.7 engine. If you can find a Cascadia with a pre-emissions engine option like this, I would like to hear about it. And this setup, driven right, will probably put Cascadia fuel economy to shame. The 12.7 Detroit was one of the most fuel efficient engines ever made. Run it in the sweet spot, in direct drive, with the right rears and tires, it is not far fetched to say that this combo would beat a DD15 in a Cascadia, load for load, by .5 to 1 mpg. I drove a truck for a guy back in the mid 90's with a 10 speed direct tied to tall rear ends like this. It would bust 8 mpg most of time and all day Sunday. Only when really loaded down in nasty weather would it get down to 7 mpg or high 6's. I will be putting on a ported and jet hot coated exhaust manifold and a 50% larger turbo on the engine once I get it. The exhaust will flow quite nicely and really give me the performance and fuel economy I want.

It is indeed somewhat unorthodox setup. But you have to step out of the normal way of thinking sometimes. This truck will be tweaked for what I do, how I do it, and where I do it. My last truck, so am going to do it right. It was fun tweaking the setup with the dealer. I thought they were going to stroke out on me! They never had someone work up a combo like this before.

firebird_1252 · #6 02-23-2012, 12:44 AM

you sir are my idol! i dont care what anyone says, the columbia is a damn good looking truck when clean. i'm curious who did you go to for the glider? i really REALLY want to build a glider out of my columbia. hell wouldnt mind the whole thing just in a new truck. my rears, my MBN cat. just put it with a 13speed.

just curious, did you get a price with out all the add ons? if you dont mind that is.

i too am scared if i build one the EPA will do something screwy.

Copperhead · #7 02-23-2012, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by firebird_1252

you sir are my idol! i dont care what anyone says, the columbia is a damn good looking truck when clean. i'm curious who did you go to for the glider? i really REALLY want to build a glider out of my columbia. hell wouldnt mind the whole thing just in a new truck. my rears, my MBN cat. just put it with a 13speed.

just curious, did you get a price with out all the add ons? if you dont mind that is.

i too am scared if i build one the EPA will do something screwy.

Well, I did go pretty wild and detailed on the specs. The guy I was primarily working with, Phil Woody, had to call in a guy higher up than him to help spec some of the stuff I did. I used Harrison Truck Center who is a Freightliner dealer near Waterloo, IA. Their glider division is at Clear Lake, IA, across the interstate from the Pilot T/S on I-35. They have a few of their gliders listed on the Truck Paper website if you wanted to take a look. Those are their "one size fits all" varieties.

Price? Well..... I did go crazy and the invoice price came in at $109,108. Did some checking around other dealerships, and a new production truck like a Cascadia or Coronado would have set me back between $140,000 and $150,000 for similar specs. Same for International and their Prostar.

You would get in one heck of a lot cheaper by using your drive train in it. The rears in mine are brand new.... that alone was $16,000. That is one area that Phil had to call in help to get spec'd out. I wanted Meritor RT 40-145A, 11mm aluminum housing with Dualtrac option. The engine and tranny are rebuilds with warranties. The color is a Pearl Blue Metallic base/clearcoat. I wanted set back fuel tanks instead of the normal tanks under the doors, and had them put on polished step boxes under the doors. Left side would be the battery box.

Order goes into the FL system today. I had concerns about any EPA thing messing things up in the future, and it probably will eventually. But they are not jumping thru hoops yet to put the brakes on pre-emissions gliders yet, so that will take a while, and considering the entire nation, it would probably have quite a long lead time before it went into effect and was enforced. What I think will go down, if this happens, is that the EPA will just cut off any glider use of pre-emission engines and just grandfather the others in. Then let attrition weed them out over time. To make the entire nation do what California did would be a nightmare.

Those who wait and don't get something done, they may miss the train. Procrastination can be a killer.

MichiganDriver · #8 02-23-2012, 11:32 PM

I'll bet that truck is the dream machine extraordinaire! It's ok to envy I hope.

Copperhead · #9 02-24-2012, 01:21 AM

Yeah, I won't get jealous. Anyone who wants to look at the spec sheets to see what this is all about can PM me and give me your email address and I will forward it to you in a PDF. It was a very laborious process going thru every minute detail. But if you only have one shot and better make it hit the target right where you aim.

mitchno1 · #10 02-24-2012, 03:58 AM

wow we get just over half your 90mph with our setups.isx 550hp peak at 580hp,rtl020918b,meritor rt46-160gp tandem rear,and wait for it ,4.3 diff ratio. pretty **** roads here and hilly,allowed 45.5 metric tonne all up without permits,mine just done 200,000ks at 2.05ks per litre.ha you change it to miles etc