Anyone know 12.8L Mercedes diesel engines?

[Hay Dude]

Not looking for hyperbole or brand bashing opinions or other silliness.
Looking for experienced information on Mercedes heavy duty diesel truck engines in the 12/12.8L family.

 

[Paystar]

We ran two 450/1650 Mercedes in a Sterling and a Freightliner dump truck.
Pulled good, engine brake was not very strong though. And VERY easy on fuel. Only trucks I ever ran that were that good on fuel was the E6 350 Mack's.
Lots of people did have issues but we had none. Very important to not go over on oil changes and they will stay happy.
Another company in town was pulling pony dump trailer with theirs at 140,000 pounds and it had very little issues.
They are pretty much what became the modern Detroit Diesel DD series.

 

[Hay Dude]

We ran two 450/1650 Mercedes in a Sterling and a Freightliner dump truck.
Pulled good, engine brake was not very strong though. And VERY easy on fuel. Only trucks I ever ran that were that good on fuel was the E6 350 Mack's.

Lots of people did have issues but we had none. Very important to not go over on oil changes and they will stay happy.

Lack of staying up with oil changes resulted in injector problems? Or something else?

Another company in town was pulling pony dump trailer with theirs at 140,000 pounds and it had very little issues.
They are pretty much what became the modern Detroit Diesel DD series.

You mean Detroit Diesel copied their design?

 

[Paystar]

To be honest, I can't remember now what all the failures were. This was going back to 2005/2006. I've seen a few blow up, but it was guys that were lax on servicing.

Mercedes (Daimler) owns Freightliner and Detroit. Back when Detroit had the Series 60 Freightliner/Western Star was also offering the Mercedes engine. Then, to make the story short, the Mercedes kind of became the DD13, then they released the DD15 and 16 which were a similar design.
There are some changes, but all based off that platform.