SAIA | INTERNATIONAL TRUCKS ABSOLUTELY SUCK!

Got a ‘21 ‘Shaker with 36 miles on it. 180,xxx now. Like it less everyday. Anyone know where 13xxxx is? lol. Bring back some basic Volvos.
 
Intls have been flopping onto the world stage with their tractors for decades.

I remember a particular S body that was essentially punishment to drive.
 
If I was in that LTL type situation and needed to get into tiny places, I'll use a Ford 9000. With the setback forward axle and fuel tanks close to the drives. Add air conditoning and airride everything there is no better tractor...

Provided it has a small kitty and a rockwell.
 
If I was in that LTL type situation and needed to get into tiny places, I'll use a Ford 9000. With the setback forward axle and fuel tanks close to the drives. Add air conditoning and airride everything there is no better tractor...

Provided it has a small kitty and a rockwell.
The Louisville was a fine freight tractor, no doubt
This Freightliner model was one of my all-time favorites, 3406 Cat and 9 spd.
We didn't have air ride, our trucks were not equipped with air compressors.
They put 400 lbs of air in the tank when you left Charl, you had to be careful and not use all your air before you reached your destination.
This gave us more HP and saved on fuel.
 
The Louisville was a fine freight tractor, no doubt
This Freightliner model was one of my all-time favorites, 3406 Cat and 9 spd.
We didn't have air ride, our trucks were not equipped with air compressors.
They put 400 lbs of air in the tank when you left Charl, you had to be careful and not use all your air before you reached your destination.
This gave us more HP and saved on fuel.
At Maislin we did that and also used condensed fuel. That way we only had to fill the tanks half way and saved on half the fuel weight. Guy who thought that up saved the company lots of money.
 
The Louisville was a fine freight tractor, no doubt
This Freightliner model was one of my all-time favorites, 3406 Cat and 9 spd.
We didn't have air ride, our trucks were not equipped with air compressors.
They put 400 lbs of air in the tank when you left Charl, you had to be careful and not use all your air before you reached your destination.
This gave us more HP and saved on fuel.
I had a old '75 Freight shaker day cab with the cat and rockwell . I dont know where the rockwell came from. but that tractor if it were a woman today... after all these years... She did have heavy feet with the budd wheels and needed a certain amount of space.
 
The International trucks Saia has chosen to buy are absolute ****. They don't pull worth a damn and often make you wonder if you will make it up a small rise, much less a large hill or mountain.
Might be how they became known as Intertrashtional's.
 
I worked for two NE carriers.
Branch ran B60 gas Macks and tried out INTERNATIONAL gas V-8's..got 2.5 mpg plus 4-5 qts of oil on a 420 mile turn; then to White 9000 w/cummins and roadranger.
Sanborns ran Whites and tried five single axle INTERNATIONALS with the Triple Nickel engine for use in the city and dumped them in less than a year
 
Ok, I thought I was the only one who was having problems with the new 2022 Internationals. They really do blow!!

It's the way Saia has them programmed. They'll supposedly do 68 on cruise but when you push the fuel pedal at 68 to keep the sh*tbox from slowing down when passing, it'll kill all power and drop the speed to 62. Things are SO DANGEROUS!!

Keep writing them up and putting them out of service.
 
So the defacto company speed is 62. I dont know how you managed to get it up to 68? Its a question nothing more.

The 555 engine.

Natural Breathing engine. inadequate power in any mountain country above 500 feet MSL. They did offer a turbo to help you get sea level power in the mountains up to 9000 feet, but you found the engine was designed to derate the fuel flow I think 3% per 1000 feet up. I dont know how they got it to know how high it is. Maybe by a barometric sensor or something. You also used the physics of temperature. If you took off in a plane at 70 degrees in Searcy which is about 260 feet MSL (Mean Sea Level) and started climbing up to 10,000 and no clouds, no weather, no fog no rain etc. you lose so many degrees every 1000 up.

As of tonight Little Rock is showing 32-33 degrees F at 10,000 feet. and due to winds aloft at that altitude you are about 18F above Zero windchill and running about 41 mph winds give or take two mph with higher gusts.

You also will find that the 555 does not provide the compression worth a damn. So nothing burns. Some of it does burn. However some of it is going to gunk up your valves, into their seats where they meet the heads at a specific angle that wont exist anymore and not seal properly soon after. Next thing you know your rollers, springs and so on are all gunked over then heat up due to lack of oil flow etc. eventually metal contaminats and simple emissions soot chokes your entire engine.

Shes Dead Jim.

And thats just a plain V8 Deseil Engine they though up doing. Then when they realized that the parts inside of the engines are too cheap, too delicate, too weak and otherwise too badly built, designed or made to take the pounding of properly applied power it just destructs itself in due time.

IF you want a engine that had guts capable of standing up to your power potential at designed max HP RPM and MAX Torque RPM combined with air Cooling so many tons a equilivant ice per hour in engine oil and transmission oil as well as radiator or air cooling etc...

The moment you lug, overload or demand acceleration beyond what you found not acceptable are the three things you do to destroy that nice POS 555 engine you bought. Isnt that nice.
 
Back in the early 2010's when Saia bought a bunch of Internationals, I remember at one point like 3/4 of the new tractors were in the shop with motor issues. You'd think if you are going to lay out that kind of cash for capital expenditures, you'd at least have received a representative sample delivery of (for example) 10 tractors to see how they perform under real world conditions before taking delivery of the entire order only to have them sit on lots and in shops trying to diagnose and fix the issues. Common sense ain't common I guess.
 
Back in the early 2010's when Saia bought a bunch of Internationals, I remember at one point like 3/4 of the new tractors were in the shop with motor issues. You'd think if you are going to lay out that kind of cash for capital expenditures, you'd at least have received a representative sample delivery of (for example) 10 tractors to see how they perform under real world conditions before taking delivery of the entire order only to have them sit on lots and in shops trying to diagnose and fix the issues. Common sense ain't common I guess.
Common sense is a flower that doesn't grow in everyone's garden.
 
Back in the early 2010's when Saia bought a bunch of Internationals, I remember at one point like 3/4 of the new tractors were in the shop with motor issues. You'd think if you are going to lay out that kind of cash for capital expenditures, you'd at least have received a representative sample delivery of (for example) 10 tractors to see how they perform under real world conditions before taking delivery of the entire order only to have them sit on lots and in shops trying to diagnose and fix the issues. Common sense ain't common I guess.
Well here's the issue...Saia has been buying these International LT's since 2020 model year. I've driven quite a few of them on my LH run and theyre fine, with a Cummins X15 and 450hp. It'll get the job done and I'm able to keep my foot on the pedal when I have the cruise set to 68 so that the sh*tspreader doesn't decelerate when passing/climbing hills.

On the 2022 models, Saia has programmed them to still be governed at 68 on cruise, but only 65 on the pedal and to stop acceleration at 62(pedal) 65 (cruise). Eventually it should hit your target speed, but these damn things were programmed with the idea of fuel savings (no acceleration) and preventing the driver from following too closely.

They're DANGEROUS. You can't pass in them. If I get close enough to see that the vehicle in front of me is going 58 in a 65 and I go to pass, the truck will slam on it's brakes a football field away to match the speed of the vehicle in front of me. When there's an opening to pass and I move into the passing lane, the POS won't accelerate AT ALL until there's nothing around it in a 400 yard distance. Pushing on the fuel just cuts the power. So im left sitting in the passing lane, at this point going 10 under the speed limit and cars/trucks have now started flying past me in the right lane and tailgating behind me.

I'll get back in the right lane when safe, only to have the same stupid 58 mph vehicle reappear minutes later, forcing the same passing nonsense.

Along with the camera BS and general thumb on driver feel from corporate, this last move with the truck programming has really killed any last drop of enjoyment I had at this job.

C'mon Saia, why the change from 2021 to 2022 models?!?
 
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