WYDave - 5/2/2025 06:45

I handle maintenance for our department.

IMO, the single biggest pain in my backside is the newest truck, a Rosenbauer Timberwolf built on an International. The DEF/SCR system has been turning on the Check Engine light because the DEF isn't used frequently enough, and I have to change the DEF out every three months to keep the system from throwing codes. 

It's an absurd, messy job that should need to be done at all.

Then there are the electrical issues. One that's so simple and stupid is that we keep popping the breaker for the scene lights on one side of the truck, and to reset it requires disassembly of one of the cabinets in the rear of the truck. Recently we needed to have a sensor in the brake system replaced, because it was keeping the truck from going into gear. 

The modern trucks that are to be sold in America have panels without a single English word on them. Instead, you're required to learn hieroglyphics for the operation of the truck's systems.

Then we get to the documentation/support for the truck. It's laughably poor.

 

In the future, when we need a truck, I'm going to be voting for something older and simpler. In general, there's nothing as infuriating as the cheesy electronics they festoon over these trucks that looks impressive on the showroom floor, but fails (repeatedly) in the field under actual use conditions.