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Posted by D. Sherman on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 11:39:14 :
Thought I'd ask here, even though it's O.T. We're buying a new trolley for the mine tour. Our old one is about 30 years old and is just having too many problems. It's a home-brew design, with a Mopar engine and tranny, Chevy axles, Ford steering, and a home-made frame. The mine tour's been making some money and we have some grants so we've been shopping for a new (used) one in the $30K - $50K range. They're all basically fancy bodies on stock bus or truck chassis, and they're all less than 10 years old. Here's my question. Of the half dozen we're considering, all of them have 427 engines (which I believe is the biggest big-block Chevy, but I'm not positive), except the one that we like the most, which has a Cat 3208 diesel with an Allison transmission. I've heard of the 3208 and I know it's common, but that's all I know about it. Is it a good engine? Is it easy to get parts for? For our tours we start and stop a lot (every half hour 8 hours/day 7 days/week during the season). Is it hard on a modern diesel to start and stop that much? Would we be better off looking for a gasser simply because of engine wear, or if we got the diesel should we leave it idling during brief stops? Any opinions are appreciated.
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