I was in Okinawa recently and on the flightline there the aircraft ground power unit was manufactured by the Essex company and was powered by a 12v, p-pumped, turbo'd 5.9 cummins.

I was surprised as usually most of our power carts are Detroit diesel powered Hobarts.

Anyway, my thought was to those folks who look for used engines on the cheap at govt auctions, here was a dandy. The hours these engines have are pretty much just running at rated speed and nowhere near putting a big load on the engine. The one I saw had 6000 hours and was clean as a whistle.

 

There's a guy in the 1st gen forum who has a Dodge military aircraft tug thing, with the rear axle right behind the cab with an incredibly low ratio in it and a "bed" full of concrete.

 

It comes as no surprise to me that Cummins engines see extensive use in Asia; Cummins had ties to Hyundai for a few years...some of their medium-duty trucks were available Stateside for a while under the BERING marque.

 

I have pictures of that thing somewhere, I'll see if I can dig em up. I think he said top speed was around 35mph.

 

Sounds a lot like spot trucks at warehouses/factories. ISB powered, and while some go faster, many top out at prolly 20-25. Maybe a 8ft wheelbase.

 

for sure they're lots of weird junk. I worked for an oilfield outfit years ago that had an Eaves 25ton forklift with a 12v cummins in it. I know theres a few Ottawa shunt trucks with 24v ISBs and allison trannys in them around here.

 

My company has GPUs that are mostly 3.9 ISBs. I can't remember who makes them but I cringe when I see how they're treated.

 

Just remembered Tug makes them. I think there are a couple of 5.9s.

 

i use to work on gse equipment. we had tri-electrons, davcos, and arvicos that were powered by 5.9 cummins. many of the hobarts had perkins with a few detroits. also had a few deere powered units also. funny thing was the perkins would run longer than the cummins before needing a overhaul.