Duramax Plant Builds 374 Engines

The kind folks at the unstoppable Duramax plant came back to build almost 400 engines! It’s not news to anyone that the COVID-19 virus has ravaged the country. It has caused businesses and virtually our entire economy to shutter to a halt. Changing the way we all live our lives. The automotive industry is not immune. Plants across the United States have stopped making the needed components to continue to build vehicles. Additionally, employees have been furloughed. But to some, the sense of duty and necessity keeps them going.

Banks Tech, a division of Gale Banks Engineering, manufactures a purpose-built Duramax diesel engine based on the architecture of the truck engine. This is the powerplant for the Oshkosh Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (or JLTV for short). This vehicle is the replacement for the aging Humvee fleet our military uses. Comparatively, it is lightyears ahead in capability and occupant protection.

Banks Tech had exhausted their supply of base engines to alter into finished engines for the vehicle. At the request of Gale Banks, the DMAX assembly plant recalled the required employees familiar with the engine’s build and reopened for a week to make the needed supply for Banks. In one week they built an entire month’s supply of engines for Banks, 374 of them.

These engines will go through the Banks process, be finished to military specifications, and sent to the Oshkosh assembly plant for installation into waiting JLTVs. The Duramax plant and their employee’s actions put them, Banks Tech, and Oshkosh back to work. Furthermore ensuring that there would be no delay for the much-needed vehicle.

Read about Gale thanking all the workers at the Duramax plant with LokJaw.