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Wayne
02-11-2004 20:18:07
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Re: 2000 Freightliner FL 50 Lo-pro in reply to frankie, 02-11-2004 15:14:00
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Hey Frankie, I'm not sure what electronic gizmos your talking about, but Freightliner has been using electronic controled engines since at least '95 I know. My service truck is a '95 FL106 with the Series 50 Detroit and a MD 3060P 6 speed Allison automatic and it's all electronic from the throttle to the pushbutton transmission controls. If it's the engine your talking about though I can't say for sure when it all started, but the electronic control package is considered as part of the engine. So I guess it would depend on wether you had a Cummins, CAT, Detroit, or one of the newer Mercedes engines since the electronic controls would only have been used only if the engine or transmission required them. If the truck your looking at has a 5.7 liter Cummins, run as fast as you can from it, especially if they have it rated anywhere near 200 horses. I'm a heavy equipment mechanic and know alot of guys that work on trucks for a living and that's all we heard from them when we started looking. Their reaason was that Freightliner/Cummins took a pickup engine and stuffed it into a bigger chassis and tried to get way too much out of an engine that small. The result was the majority of the engines were failing prematurely because they were simply overworked. Fromm what I've seen and heard if you can find one with the 3126 CAT you can't go wrong there. I don't think they put the 50 Series Detroits in the lighter FL series trucks, but if they did and you can find one, it's an awsome engine with torque to spare. An outfit close to us had three 2000 model FL70s with the 3126 for their field service trucks and they ran heavy/loaded all the time. They put alot of miles on them and had no major problems except for the guy that flipped one 3 times, but that's another story. If you do pick up one with the electronic controls you'll be money ahead to look on ebay and find you a Pro-Link and the right cartridges for your particular electronics package. I got lucky and found one with the right engine and transmission cartridges for mine right after we bought it. It cost me $1000, which was a steal over new prices. All it took was one time being able to pin point a problem and override a bad senser to keep the truck going when I was working 200 miles from home, instead of having to pay a tow bill home and lose the weeks work, and it had more than paid for itself. If you can get the right engine I think you'l like the Freightliner alot better than any of the other brands. It has a good tight turning raduis, good visibility, and is simply alot more comfortable to drive than any of the others we looked at. Good luck, hope you find what your looking for, hope this helps you some with your choice.
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