Favorite big truck? Tractor related

bigboreG

Member
Was hauling a Deere 4940 sprayer yesterday, and even in the strong west wind, the 2007 379 long hood Pete just sets down and pulls. 550 Cat, 13 spd, 70" standup. Has been a very good truck, just turned 500K. Drove alot of different brands and models, I will have to say Peterbilt makes a darn good truck in my opinion.
 

I found Petes to be somewhat cramped for space in the cab. I like the roominess in the IH Prostar Plus I push nowadays. Plenty of power, quiet, and nimble for a big truck.
 
Dont know if this counts,but my favorite medium duty is Chevy.67 to late 70s or so.C50,C60...Here's a pic of 'Blue'My good old '68 C50 whom I've owned since 1979.
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Did you get the engine figgered out on it? I remember 366 cid in those. Big block, big bore with short stroke crank. Cammed for low end torque. Liked those engines. When you said it had a small block in it, I figgered someone switched out the original.
 
Toss up. IH Prostar gets award for cab -sleeper ..Very good trucks.Peterbilt for dealer servise. Both Peterilt -- Kenworth -- Ih trouble free other than alternator on ocassion however was kind of embarsing to have to stop at Kenworth-Peterbilt garage to servise Ih on weekends as Ih werent open.
 
I've driven Petes KW and IH. Give me an IH anyday. More room in cab, and quietest of them all. Basically they are all the same mechanically. The big difference is in the cab. And that just happens to be where I spend most of my time.
 
Yep, I guess I'm lucky to have an IH dealer that will go the extra mile for me when I'm in a bind. They have been really good but then this is the 4th truck from them for me.......
 
I like my Pete's Have had 2 of them over 18 years both with over a million miles on. Yes they are not the wide open spaces in the cab but compared to a Freightliner They sure stand up better. I have drove about every brand of truck on the market in the class 8 and always wind up back at Pete. I have owned a Mack, Volvo,and 2 Pete's. The Mack spent more time in the hospital than on the road and the Volvo was a pain to work on since everything was crammed together and built like a car. I will give consideration to the Volvo being on the better side of worn out when I got it. Didn't pay much for it and parted it out when I was done with it.
 
Drove IH, Mack, Pete, Ford, & last 9 years before retiring, Volvo. Liked the Volvo best, quiet, roomy, good insulation for winter comfort, good handling, esp in tight spaces.
Some comparances- sight line over hood to ground, Volvo could see ground at 12 feet from bumper, Pete couldn't see ground less than 75 feet over long hood. Inside space, with seat belt on, reach out with right hand, Volvo just touch shotgun seat, Pete could touch window. Sound level, Volvo quiet as most cars, even pulling western mountains with 80k under me, or going down, barely hear Jake.
This is getting long, there are other features I liked, but this is personal opinion, others may have different likings.
Willie
 
There's too many variables to declare one certain truck as being the 'best'. Any truck that gets good mileage and doesn't break down all the time is good in my opinion. It depends if you are an owner who pays the bills or a just a driver. Or a long hauler or short hauler. An owner who wants to progress in business will look more at overhead expenses and less at a cushy cab. One mile per gallon can add up to $10,000-12,000 per year or more so does he want a smaller engine and better fuel mileage for a short hauler or 550 HP and lower fuel mileage for a long hauler? Yeah, I know, someone will tell me the huge horsepower engine doesn't work as hard so it gets better mileage.

The best truck for me is a pre-emissions truck with a Detroit or a N14 Cummins. The mileage is better and there's no EGR to act up. Cat engines run slow and easy and are good for torque but the mileage isn't as good, they don't live as long, and parts are $$$$$. Just my humble opinion. Jim
 

I Had an International 5900i triaxle dump for two years. C-15 set at 475, Hendrix rears, 18 speed, full lockers. I got 6.5 mpg, nice roomy quiet cab. One time, I was hauling in line with a few others and heard some others whining about this awful big bad hill. I was pulling it dropping only a half a gear. I had very few problems, I think the worst was an ABS sensor. I think it had about 60,000 when I got it and still under a hundred when I sold it. The dealer always bent over backwards for me. Two big cab Petes, sorry I don't know numbers, that I drove halfway across the country for a friend were noisey and got only 7mpg bobtailing.
 
Well since you said favorite this one is it. 1963 Diamond-T 990 220 Cummins with a fuller road ranger 10 speed. Not fast but sure would pull. Wish I had the $$ to fix the engine and get it back on the road. Blew #2 piston/sleeve out of it as in a cracked sleeve. Not been able to find the parts to fix it for a price I can afford to spend
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too many to pick just 1, i liked the A model narrow nose kw i owned it had a big cam 400 cummings in it but the A model cab was somewhat cramped as was the 359 pete i had later, but for sheer good looks and long running life those are hard to beat, single at that time i put huge anounts of cash in both trucks , chromed everything i could get loose from them, i want another one of either, my B model kw had much more room in the cab, but the hood was only half as thick at the one on the A model and constant paint crazing was annoying as all get out, after the first bill the new wife wouldnt let me near a chrome shop for the b model lol , the 379 pete i currently drive is nice and roomy although the cab seems drafty in the winter, compared to the kw's and the 359, both the later 2 were cat powered, cummins and cat make good motors but like mentioned cat stuff is high dollar to buy and the cat jake brakes dont have near the holding power that they did on the cummins motors
 
I too have driven about every make and model. My favorite, is still a 96 379 unibilt Pete. Put in an aftermarket seat, and move it back about 6 inches. I hated the Binders. Always hurt my knees, but then again they were day cabs.
More ponies is always good, as long as you aren't paying the fuel bill.
 
I will be the first to admit, yes the Petes are a little less roomy than others. I do wish they had just a touch more room between the seats, it seems crowded with a passenger at times. I put alot of miles on a 9900I Binder with 565 Cummins, really liked that truck. It pulled like a freight train and did fairly well on fuel. Cant expect perfect mileage pulling a bull rack though, as thats what I was doing at the time. That truck met its fate one winter in Wyoming in a blizzard. Had 1,400,000 miles.
 
You may have saw some of my postings re the cabover type lorrys we have in Britain and Europe. Renault always boasted of having the largest cab....At a recent truck show Mercedes was launching their new truck/lorry....Renault had their new lorry there all plastered with stickers saying it had the largest cab of any...but when Mercedes took the wraps off their new cab it had a Renault cab inside!!!! They actually took the roof of the Mercedes cab and dropped the Renault in then fitted the roof back on....A lot of red faces on the Renault stand at that show!!!!
Sam
 
Used to haul haz mat/ haz waste and explosives of all things. Guess thats why i got gray hair early on.Drove IH KW and a Mack. I liked my Ford L9000 the best. Mack the least.
 
98 Ford. A million and a half miles and still no air leaks or rattles. N 14 Cummins in framed at 1.4 million. Its a 9522 model, condo, or two story Thunderbird as some call it.
 
Put me in a KW any day. Then a Pete . Spent many of miles in Awfulcars ,Diamond reo"s , and the likes. Most with Hendrickson suspension. When I started my own company I wanted something that was a little nicer than the rest. Running a W900L with a c15 ,18spd and a aero cab. Would have to say the worst was the one I drove with the rubber block suspension , It beat me so bad I cant remember what it was! I think it was a FWD mixer chassis converted to semi.
 
I hate the cab on a Peterbilt. They must not look at many truck drivers. Many of us are a plus size. I hate going between the seats. Then the idiot that make the bunk floor have a step down right behind the seats. So you are twisting around side ways to get between the seats and then you have to step down.

I currently have three IH 9400I and they are pretty good cab wise. I also really like a Frieghtliner Coronado. I am looking at one right now that is a one year old glider kit. Zero emission stuff.
 
With the price bracket in which I buy trucks... I don't have the luxury of having too much preference. Had a Freightliner COE. Present one is an IH9400. In my opinion a Petercar isn't that much better to demand the premium they want...

Rod
 
well myself i liked the older R modle Macks for off road on road dump and oil filed work and fell in love with the Binders when the 42-4300 came out , first truck that i ever drove that i had to slide the seat forward on . and the last one i drove was a 9400 flat top with a 550 cat that had the Pittsburg power box on it and was setting just under 750 Hp. , made for nice driving with big loads coupled to a 13 speed and 3.90 gears and what i really liked was the 6.7 MPG during the summer months and would drop down to 6-6.2 in the winter .Rode nice handled nice and pulled almost as well as my old 4300 with the tweaked up 855 . The only thing i did not like on the Cat was the jake brake as it did not have the hold back as the cummins did .I have drive just about everything out there and i did not care for the Petes as i felt like i was setting in a V W bug .
 
I just bought a KW W900 bank repo a couple months back. Lotta truck just to drag around my old Wilson grain hopper. After owning all sorts of worn out junk for the last 40 years, it seems like space age technology. Until now, my favorite used to be R series Macks.
 
(quoted from post at 14:41:47 01/19/13) I hate the cab on a Peterbilt. They must not look at many truck drivers. Many of us are a plus size. I hate going between the seats. Then the idiot that make the bunk floor have a step down right behind the seats. So you are twisting around side ways to get between the seats and then you have to step down.

I currently have three IH 9400I and they are pretty good cab wise. I also really like a Frieghtliner Coronado. I am looking at one right now that is a one year old glider kit. Zero emission stuff.

I think that the worst thing about a Pete is that if you are more than 5 ft 8 or so tall, in order to be able to sit so that only your eyes and cap can be seen above the bottom of the side window, you have to take the seat right out of it and sit on the floor. That can get awful uncomfortable after awhile. I'm glad I never had to drive one.
 
When I was on the harvest my favorite truck was an old IH 9300 with a big cam 400 Cummins and 13 speed. The 400 was cranked a bit so it could keep up with the 4 1/4's the two Petes had. The cab was not air ride but it rode pretty darned smooth and drove straight as an arrow. The front axle was way forward right behind the bumper and I had to use the whole intersection and then some to make a turn with a 53' spread axle combine trailer but that's probably the reason it rode so nice. One night another fella and I bobtailed from Sterling Co. to Garden City Kan. and I could sleep fairly well in the bunk. I tried sleeping in a 377 Pete and I was darned near pitched out on the floor a few times. But the Pete had a smaller turning radius, to it's favor. The favorite remark about the 9300 was "how can a truck that's so hot in the summer be so cold in the winter" LOL. Jim
 
IH 9400 & 9900 s have really done us great job. Sure hated to see Cat engines go out as we had real good service out of the C 15s . IXI cummins are ok but just as expensive to build as the Cats.
 
I'm on my 3rd KW, W900L, 600 Cummins 18 speed day cab, I really like just about everything these trucks, I'm only 5'9" tall so I don't need alot of leg room. I put on 110,000 - 115,000 miles a year hauling tanker. 11,000 gal gasoline.
 
I ran a Prostar for a week about 5 years ago. For the amount of effort they say they put into getting the cab just right, it sure was a turd! The window switches were out of reach. In the 9400 I normally drove I swapped the driver window and door lock switches, and my hand fell right on the one I used most.
If you forgot to shut the jakes off you had to stop turning the wheel in the middle of an intersection to shut it off. Same with hitting the air horn.
Then there was the little kick-up at the back edge of the hood. With the sun high over your right shoulder, it would reflect off that little patch of hood and blind you.
450 ISX 10 speed in it did pull WAY WAY WAY better than the 430 C15/13 speed though.

I didn't mind the 86 359 with 400 B model. The heavier it was loaded the better it ran. The 94 379X turned a lot better than I expected and rode nice. Didn't like the 15 speed though. 300 RPM drop between gears, never really got the hang of it.

9300 SBA with 444 big cam 3, I really liked that one. Tractor-tread floaters and forage box. It was loud. And fun.

FLD freightliner. Daycab, OK. I spent a couple years in a condo, I can get in one today and in 10 minutes I am in a bad mood. If I spend a night in a truck it's the same way, will take me a week to get any ambition back.

Couple R models, the one I couldn't find the tag for the truck, but the box was built in 72. Really liked the twin stick, especially when having to reverse a lot.

Really like the DT466 in a 4700/4900 IH for a smaller truck.

Favorite would be the 79 Brigadier tandem dump we had. 6v-71T Detroit and 13 speed, really deep rears. 65 top speed, downhill with a tailwind and a heavy load. Still got 7 MPG on a 120 mile round trip running 56,000 loaded. 18K steers, 38K rears on walking beams. Had plans to turn it into an RV/toyhauler and upgrade stuff like wheels and axles til I rolled it.

I really prefer the Big Cams and Detroits to the other motors. We have a Century factory daycab conversion with a 60 series and 10 speed at work, and I like driving it. Thinking of having it set up to a straight 430 (or whatever it can be set at) and swapping in a 13 speed.
 
In 1995 I spent time behind the wheel of a 1976 IH Transtar II 4070 or 6070 I think it was. 350 Cummins and 13 speed. Rough riding springer. Big heavy old truck but I liked driving it.
 
(quoted from post at 09:40:37 01/19/13) Was hauling a Deere 4940 sprayer yesterday, and even in the strong west wind, the 2007 379 long hood Pete just sets down and pulls. 550 Cat, 13 spd, 70" standup. Has been a very good truck, just turned 500K. Drove alot of different brands and models, I will have to say Peterbilt makes a darn good truck in my opinion.
onstellation cab Western Star. Surprised no one else mentioned them, lots of them up here, had good luck with them.
 

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