Pete vs Ken

[Pain]

kw has the best ride i think

[Lowboy]

Originally Posted by straycat

Sounds sweet there Lowboy, haven't run into anyone with the Pits box on their truck up here, but have done some reading on it. The truck in my avitar is a 06e 475, pumped up to 525, and capable of 550. but Cat told me the crank would not hold up to any more than that. I suppose they are right if not driven correctly, but if you are rolling into it rather than jumping on it, I can't see it damaging the crank, but I am no mechanic. What are your thoughts on this.

Gord.

The C 15 refered to in the other post is in the 05 Pete 379 I have, the 900L has the 06E in it.

Sounds like a nice truck Gord. Have you heard of Tony Welch/Welch Performance Diesel. In IA I believe and runs a Dmax in the pulls? He's built a few hundred performance class 8 truck motors and is real knowledgeable on the late Cat motors. I know he's ran over a 1000 HP on a 3406 with no problems using the OR6051 Cat turbo. IMO, don't think the crank would be a problem at all with higher than 550 rating.

I drive my truck or my son drives it when he's around. He's got a new 07 Legacy with a 475 in it set up for heavy haul and runs 9 axle out of Vegas in 4 or 5 western states. Not too happy with the Acert motor tho. I think an ISX 600 would have been a better choice now.

Anyway in the 98 379, with the Pitts box set on only 5 I broke the factory 2050 fp clutch loose. I've got a 2250 fp clutch in now and it seems to hold it on 5. But that's only for less than 10 seconds with that much fuel.. The box will default back to stock at 1099 egt post turbo so it's fairly safe. I need to send the box back to reset that for a good dyno run tho..

--Paul

[straycat]

Sounds good Paul, that Pits box sounds like it does the job. I haven't heard about Welch, but will check into him. I don't need that much power any more, I don;t pull super trains now, just 5 axle, and thats just the way I like it hahaha. But a little more power on the hills would be nice. Over a period of time, I would like to do the exhaust, drop on a Holeset turbo, and do the Pits box on it. That should help with the EGTs, as well as give me more power.

Gord.

[Lowboy]

I do very little heavy haul anymore, it makes my day a lot easier pulling the semi dump over the mountain, and in our contract situation more money. Going around the pass takes up to 2 hours longer. That's why we truck, to make money, isn't it?

I've noticed on the forums drivers wonder why I need all that power to pull the end dump at only 80k. Some flatland wannabe truck drivers get "just flat" nasty about it. I told one that he needed to get a life and got my post deleted.

What ever happened to the US federal regulation that mandated a certain of truck horsepower so as not to hold up traffic?

In our situation, with a narrow 2 lane road and a 9000 elevation pass to go over with heavy traffic, IMO the only way to go. I don't like to follow slow vehicles so I don't feel I should hold folks up myself. I get accused all the time of running light. My answer is, you are welcome to go in the scale house and look at my invoice ticket.

We still have my Pete 359 wide nose 1971 3 axle tractor in the yard. It had a Cummins NTC 335 when I drove it out of the dealership new. Didn't take long for me to uprate the 335 to a NTA 420 (aftercooler/pistons/injectors/cam timing) along with a Switzer 4LH turbo. Put a couple million miles on that in the mountains, still has the original crankshaft/flywheel/block, but that's about all.

Right now I'm having more fun modding the 7.3, and the motor parts are easier to lift also.

[straycat]

Yup, you get into the mountains, you need power, no doubt about it, we have a lot of 2 lane on the Trans Canada going through the Rockies, and some of the passing lanes are so short they are a joke, so the better the power in your rig, the easier to get out of the way of people, and to get past the slower trucks. Makes a big differance on the overall trip times, and means more sleep at the end of the trip as well.

Gord.

[Lowboy]

I've been hearing a lot of complaints lately from truckers saying their losing power in the altitude. This summer we've had 80 F degrees plus many days in the west at 8 to 9,000 feet altitude. Normally on a warm day it's in the 60 F range at that elevation.

Talk about less power from a turbo diesel.. Air density goes down the tube and turbo shaft speeds are up usually up 20 to 30% and egt's 10%. This morning it cooled down under 60 F and before I looked I thought I'd left the Pitts on 2 instead of 1. I'd guess about 40/50 hp difference between 60 and 80 degrees F at that elevation.

The guy hauling for us the other day blew a compressor wheel up at about 8k on a 3406E 550 hp KW. Lucky the intercooler caught most of the big parts and no damage to the internals on the motor.

[billbigrig]

go with kw w9 all the way big sleeper. pete are like bellybutten every body got one.

[Ten_Bucks]

Personally, I like both the Pete 379 and the Kenworth W900L. If I were to build one for OTR trucking, it'd have a 550hp(or more) Cat or Cummins, and an 18 speed trans.

Scott

[BamaSixGun]

Peterbilt's slogan says it all.

CLASS PAYS!

Below is the new Parkin' Lot we bought in October.

[Lonno]

CAT or DD 60 series.