Caterpillar Used To Build Legendary Truck Engines. Here's Why It Quit

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Truck engines don't usually get arsenic overmuch fanfare arsenic those of nan big luxury coupes. Perhaps it's because they're built for grit complete glamour. But return a person look, and you'll find a fewer that earned legendary position done axenic capacity and reliability, for illustration nan ones built by Caterpillar. The institution made its people successful nan 1980s pinch nan 3406 and 3408 motor family. These engines were businesslike capable to predominate nan Cat-sponsored title that highlighted substance ratio successful trucks. 

Even nan group who drove them each time knew they were special. In nan Cat Haul Talk podcast, Alan Kitzhaber, longtime proprietor of a 3406E, recalled that "when you stood astir astatine nan motortruck stops and debated which motor to buy, you didn't person excessively galore group reason erstwhile you said that Caterpillar pulls better." Such praise made it difficult to ideate that nan institution would discontinue building motortruck engines.

However, nan progressively strict EPA emanation standards done nan 2000s saw Caterpillar adopt nan Advanced Combustion Emission Reduction Technology (ACERT) system. It utilized a bid of precise substance injections and cleaner combustion processes to trim emissions without relying connected cooled exhaust aftertreatment. Unfortunately, keeping nan strategy reliable proved difficult as ACERT engines were costly to build and harder to maintain.

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While respective factors played into making Caterpillar discontinue making motortruck engines, nan costs implications stood out. The institution had spent good complete $500 cardinal connected processing nan system. As Jim Parker, Caterpillar's vice president of motor marketing, told Construction Equipment astatine nan time, "It has been nan astir expensive, largest improvement programme Cat has undertaken. We've spent much connected it than connected improvement of nan high-drive tractors."

And moreover though ACERT engines met nan reliable emanation rules (the rules would only get tougher later), Caterpillar had to many times rework its engines. Each caller EPA shape meant caller engineering, testing, and compliance costs connected apical of nan monolithic finance already sunk into ACERT. The 1990 Clean Air Act amendments became a rhythm of escalating expenses. Initial limits applied to 1994 models pinch stricter thresholds for 2004, and moreover tougher benchmarks group for 2007 and 2010.

By nan mid 2000s, Caterpillar's on-highway motortruck engines made up only a mini information of its full business. Caterpillar's 2008 yearly study stated that on-highway engines made up astir 8% of its full motor production. In 2010, Caterpillar realized nan strategy was unsustainable and near nan on-highway motortruck motor business. The institution refocused connected off-highway markets for illustration construction, mining, and business power.