18 Wheelers

Revell made a 1/25 Kenworth W900. It was a direct scale down from their 1/16 scale kit. It had a Cat 3408 engine under the hood.

The longest trailer I know of (I live in the UK) is the Italeri 1/24 48' Trailer. Not a spectacular kit by all accounts, but the longest I know of. I think the Revell Beall Tank Trailer was maybe a 45 footer (I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong).

No Peterbilt as far as I know. Italeri did a 377 and a 378 in 1.24 (based on their almost generic conventional chassis).

I do believe I saw a peterbuilt the other day and if I'm not mistaken a 53' reefer trailer. I should be getting back by there this week and will look again to be sure. I'm sure you could leave off the reffer parts to make a regular trailer.

As was stated, Revell offered several variations of a pre 1984 KW W900 which has been discontinued for some time now. I think they still might offer and Australian version. They recently re-released the Pete 359. Italeri has a 377 that is still currently available in their catalog. Italeri offered a 378 that has been discontinued for about two years. You might be able to find one, although they are rather sought after. Clint Freeman offers a fine transkit of a late 1990s W900L, it is still available. They offered a modern Petebilt 379, but it has been discontinued for years. Plaskit of Canada offers several conversion items to make a T800 and Ford L9000. Italeri's "48 foot American Reefer Trailer" is a joke. The dimensions for the trailer body are all wrong, the suspension is not anything I know of on a US trailer and the details of the model were poorly researched. I hope the next US truck model Italeri offers will be the corrected version of reefer trailer. They did it for the Euro reefer, why can't they do it for the US trailer!

The Pete 387 is the newest of the class 8 road tractors (kinda looks like it's cousin KW T-2000) so I don't know if anyone has an aftermarket conversion for it yet.

Go to www.plasticcowboy.com

He has links to aftermarket resin to do just about any conversion for modern class 8 road tractors. You'll need to buy a kit like AMT's Pete 357 and do a little hacking but the resin hood will turn it into a 379. He has a link to a company that makes custom aluminum saddle tanks and air cleaner cans.

As far as a 53 footer goes, just add 5 scale feet to the back of a 48. Just make sure the axle position stays the same.( don't want to violate the bridge laws!)

Wade

My mistake, I meant, 378. Kuenn McClinton had plans to offer a conversion kit for a 387, but cancelled after his release of his KW T2000 and some disagreements.

http://www.de-elegantmodeltrucks.com/

Don't know the specific differences, but AMT made a 1/25 Kenworth W925 (Kit #T519) in the mid-seventies. From pics I can find of the real McCoys, the two appear similar in their "long haul" versions. But I think this kit is pretty hard to find these days (recently saw one on EBay for $165. Yikes...and I've got one in the stash!). I can only find the Pete 387 in diecast (Testors 1/32) but I haven't done an exhaustive search. HTH. Blair

I found these links that were left on a server. De-Elegant Model Truck Fleet has discontinued these kits. You should contact him and ask if they will ever be re-introduced in his line up.

http://deelegantmodeltruckfleet.homestead.com/387.html
http://deelegantmodeltruckfleet.homestead.com/T2000.html
http://deelegantmodeltruckfleet.homestead.com/columbia.html
http://deelegantmodeltruckfleet.homestead.com/Coronado.html

and Clint Freeman's W900L (still available)

http://members.aol.com/modltrkbldr3/private/MS-7MR.jpg

and Italeri's 48 foot reefer (very inaccurate also still available)

http://www.italeri.com/Photos/742.jpg