Friday 27 January 2017

Mack Trucks pulls 16-litre engine

According to Transport Topics (TT). Mack Trucks in the US has opted to pull its Titan model and its 16-litre MP10 engine.
Mack spokesman Christopher Heffner has confirmed the company has decided to discontinue its Titan model and its 16-liter MP10 engine, which offers up to 605 bhp and 2,060 lbft torque.
The engine is the most powerful offered by Mack and came standard in the Titan, which Mack previously described as the ideal truck for heavy-haul, severe-duty applications such as logging, oversized hauling and oil-field work.
Hefner reportedly said Mack decided to discontinue the Titan and the MP10 engine because "many of the applications that the Titan served can be handled by Mack Pinnacle and Granite models equipped with the newer higher horsepower and torque outputs of the Mack MP8 13-litre engine."
In April, Mack unveiled its 2017 engine lineup in Austin, Texas, an announcement that included the new MP8 engine with a turbo-compounding system, which converts energy from the exhaust into mechanical energy that is fed back to the engine.
Mack claims turbo-compounding can add 50 bhp and increases fuel efficiency by up to 8.8 per cent. Those performance gains have to be offset by the added cost and complexity of turbo-compounding technology. However, the D16 weighs in at 1,260kg whereas the D13TC weighs only 1,182kg, offering operators a payload gain.
According to TT, that announcement made little mention of the MP10 engine, other than that it would carry over unchanged.
Mack's decision to discontinue the Titan is understood to be effective immediately, although Heffner said that a handful of customers with an unfulfilled Titan order for the Titan will receive their orders. While Mack will continue to provide full aftermarket service and support to Titan customers.
The spokesman said Mack's Lehigh Valley Operations with about 1,480 employees will not be affected by the decision. Mack's local operations include its 1 million-square-foot plant in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania, where all Mack trucks built for the North American market and export are assembled.

Mack's sister company, Volvo Trucks North America, also announced that it is discontinuing its 16-litre D16 engine. The Sweden-based Volvo Group is Mack's parent company but there is no mention of the D-16 being killed. Mack Trucks media site is equally silent on the subject.

1 comment:

Alan Bunting said...

Deleting the 16 litre option from the trucks it sells in North America, under both Volvo and Mack brand names is surprising in one way but understandable in another. The take-up for the big engine has been small, even though US and Canadian buyers set great store by generous engine capacity, as witnessed by the popularity of Cummins 15 litre ISX - now dubbed simply the X15.
Because of the low numbers, the D16 - unlike the mainstream D13 - has never gone into volume production at Volvo's Hagerstown, Maryland, plant, the engine being shipped in virtually complete from the company's main engine plant at Skovde.
Clearly the company has satisfied itself that the turbocompounded D13 can match the more conventionally turbocharged D16 in performance (ie power and torque) terms. Whether it can also emulate its bigger stablemate's durability remains to be seen. As to its ability to compete on fuel economy, that will depend on operating conditions. For long-haul work on US Interstate highways, the turbocompounded 13 litre is likely to be a fuel saver vis-à-vis the D16. But in Mack's Granite truck models for example, which are aimed at extra heavy-duty operations, such as logging and on/off-highway quarry operation, where engine load and speed fluctuate a good deal, the fuel efficiency benefits of turbocompounding are more questionable.