UPS 6.0

http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=392546

I wonder how many miles they'll put on these before they will sell used.

Look for a UPS rollover in a junkyard near you?

TIGMOTORSPORTS wrote: I wonder how many miles they'll put on these before they will sell used.

A lot.

I heard somewhere that UPS never scraps for parts or sells off their old vehicles. Something about patented features built into the vehicles. Look like they would make an excellent contractor's vehicle, but never seen one used as such. Slickest vehicle I've ever seen reused as a contractor's truck is a box truck style ambulance.

In reply to tr8todd:

Those old ambulances can make one mean mobile radio room. The emergency response team I'm in uses a trailer complete with potty and kitchen.

My friend's dad uses a potato chip delivery truck sometimes for contractor work. It's awesome. lol
I can't believe they went with a gas engine though. pretty weird. A couple years ago there was all this hype about them using hybrid-type drivetrains with regenerative braking or something of the like, and now they're running chevy ls motors.. strange.

Is it a gasoline engine or are they running natural gas or propane?

UPS destroys all their out of service trucks.

I miss the old UPS trucks. You could always tell when they were coming down the street.

I called UPS years ago and asked about buying one of their used vehicles, they told me they don't offer them for sale to the general public.

They also only turn right. Seriously, Google it.

In reply to pinchvalve:

It's to reduce accidents. My company always tells us to avoid left turns as much as possible.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

Mythbusters also proved it to be more fuel efficient.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: I miss the old UPS trucks. You could always tell when they were coming down the street.

they still look like that around here.

Also notice that when the driver gets out of the truck, he will take the key and put it on his pinky finger. It saves a minuscule amount of time over digging it out of a pocket, but over a year it is a ridiculous amount of money.

In reply to novaderrik:

They replaced those with diesel powered hybrids in my area.

funny how a small picture and short paragraph in the tech section of the latest Car Craft magazine about the 6.0 in the new UPS trucks leads to someone digging up a thread from over a year ago on a GTO board to be talked about on the GRM board....

I was curious about the actual recovery time, so naturally I made a spreadsheet to figure out at what point a diesel makes sense given the current fuel prices and difference in initial cost. It's interesting to play around with, diesel's don't make as much sense as you'd think. The difference in fuel price just kills them.

You should be able to download/save this and edit a copy.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuDa5_gx3XSpdE00YXFIRWl3el8zYl8xOU5lQ3I2RkE

Way back when they were mostly powered by inline 6's, it seems the engine was based on the 292 Chevy 6 banger but had a head/intake/exhaust either designed or specified by UPS and they were not for sale when UPS was done with them. So that's been going on for quite a while. Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing any old FedEx trucks being recycled for public use but I have seen DHL's (you can still see the shadow of the original vinyls).

didn't someone on here once tell a story of how a UPS guy flopped his truck over and a bunch of men in black suits showed up, painted over the UPS logo, and towed the thing away within minutes?

also, i remember the hybrid being indirect hydraulic, where the motor would pressurize a tank under the truck, which was used to power the truck. regenerative braking would also add pressure to the tank. an additional advantage is that when the truck was driven into a warehouse, the engine could be shut off to eliminate emissions inside the warehouse.

pretty much settles the gas vs. diesel debate for me.

About gas vs diesel - one thing I noticed while towing across the US is that gas prices vary quite a bit, but diesel tends to be a lot more consistent. I'm guessing the size of long-haul trucker's fuel tanks has something to do with it.

In reply to N Sperlo:

Interesting- as my son was just talking about finding a used ambulance to replace their old van that blew up while on tour (band vehicle).

I suggested a used high mile Suburban

More interesting trivia for you...those 6.0 gassers come with an Allison transmission behind them (some 1000s, some 2000s). They also don't have all that ABS, body controller, crash sensor, onstar type of crap. Just the bare minimum to run an auto trans, control emissions, and drive down the road. Can't get that combo in any GM truck!

Unfortunately, UPS doesn't sell their stuff used. Fortunately, UPS isn't the only company who buys them! Anybody can buy one from Freightliner Custom Chassis...you can't buy many vehicles more stripped down than this if you want a good donor:

Bryce

they were in brown suits, not black....I had the misfortune of meeting them once....

Nashco wrote: More interesting trivia for you...those 6.0 gassers come with an Allison transmission behind them (some 1000s, some 2000s). They also don't have all that ABS, body controller, crash sensor, onstar type of crap. Just the bare minimum to run an auto trans, control emissions, and drive down the road. Can't get that combo in any GM truck! Unfortunately, UPS doesn't sell their stuff used. Fortunately, UPS isn't the only company who buys them! Anybody can buy one from Freightliner Custom Chassis...you can't buy many vehicles more stripped down than this if you want a good donor: Bryce

I wonder how much one of these would cost?