Re: Haldex pump
Reply #51 –
As David has stated, it is ultimately fruitless to question engineering decisions made 2 decades ago... STILL, I find it hard to think of any rational explanation for these different hydraulic pump fitments. Sure, his coach has a different engine, and slightly different "packaging" requirements. When you are in the process of building a coach, how tough is it to design a bracket that bolts on any given engine and provides a mounting point for a specific pump? His coach came down the FOT assembly line 12 units behind mine. On my coach, "they" decided to install a common off-the-shelf pump that was used in countless hydraulic systems around the world. On his coach "they" decided to use a custom built, seemingly one-of-a kind pump apparently used in very few other applications. WHY would "they" make that decision? All they had to do was tweak the mounting bracket design slightly, and they could have used the Vickers pump, same as on my coach.
I don't mean this as a criticism of FOT or the factory employees who built these wonderful coaches. I just have to wonder what was going on in the engineer's heads...it baffles me.