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7Mary3

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Everything posted by 7Mary3

  1. That's just it. Why manufacture and install a bunch of parts that add no value to the vehicle whatsoever? I can certainly see leaving non-essential components off due to supply constraints to get the vehicle in the customer's hands as soon as possible. Either don't charge the customer for the missing parts or install them later when they become available. But this is ridiculous.
  2. Love to hear the reasoning behind this one. Because there isn't any rational reason. Ford is on drugs......
  3. I suspect it's because of the transmission. No Allison in the OAP trucks. I think the Torq-Shift transmissions are limited when it comes to P.T.O.'s. We had 'Blue Diamonds' with the 3000 World transmissions in them. But really, I don't think Ford cares about the specialized vocational end of the class 6 and 7 market.
  4. You can bet your last dollar that the EPA will eventually adopt the same standards nationwide, sooner rather than later. Of course the new CARB standards will be adopted immediately by the other CARB states, so these new NOX standards are well on their way to nation wide adoption anyway. From what I understand, new standards are going to be hard for diesels to comply to, particularly medium duty. Could be good for Ford and Isuzu, however.
  5. This is interesting, and we will likely be seeing it happen more often: https://www.isuzucv.com/en/news/headlines
  6. The BrightDrop vans are not in the same class as the Transit EV. The BrightDrop vehicles are purely commercial trucks for last mile delivery like FedEx. The BrightDrop has more interior volume and is a 'step-van' type of vehicle. From what I understand, GM is planning a BEV van to compete with the Transit EV that will be a 'ground-up' EV along with (surprisingly) an updated Savanna/Express ICE van.
  7. For better or worse, Ford has to do that. They have bet the future of the company on BEV's, if they fail Ford fails. But I don't think BEV's will fail. I wonder about Ford Pro though. Sure the volume is there, but what about the margins? There are a number of vehicles in the Ford Pro lineup that I believe gemerate little to no profit.
  8. Still no news on the F-650 and 750. Ordering is closed for the 2024 MY, nothing on a 2025 MY. Any dealer people have any information? Might hear more as UAW negotiations continue.
  9. Crowns were expensive (as were Gilligs), but California school districts could justify the higher price as Crowns and Gilligs typically outlasted other school buses by a significant margin. Many of the 50's era Hall-Scott powered Crowns were re-engined with diesels and stayed in service for decades.
  10. That's a Crown! Most tandem Crowns were twin-screw. Plenty of room for the engine, usually a horivontal mount 6-71 between the front and rear axles. Some were Cummins too, but the early versons had Hall-Scott gasoline power. Radiator is on the left side behind the left front wheel, you can see the grill. Big luggage comtarment in the rear. One well built bus.
  11. Might be right about the chassis, maybe it was the other way around. The diesel N was on an H chassis. Both the diesel N and the H had the Cummins engine laid over about 30 degrees to the right side. Yes, the H series prototypes were built by Hendrikson and PIE was one of the test fleets. Funny thing was as far as I know PIE never bought any Ford H's! Neat feature of Page & Page rocker arm tandem suspension was that the load distribution could be adjusted between the axles. 50%-50% to 70%-30% on the dead axle.
  12. The 2 piece grab handles were on trucks with the side storage compartments which were built into the original C series fender wells. The H series was before my time and I never had any first hand experiences with them, but I can say I never heard any positive remarks about the 'Two Story Falcon'! From what I understand the H was little more than an N series chassis with a C series cab mounted high enough to clear a Cummins diesel, though a few H series trucks had Super Duty gasoline V-8's. I remember the last H series I ever saw was back in '85 or '86 down in L.A.'s produce market district, it was probably up from Mexico. Those ABF tractors in the picture have Page & Page rocker arm rear suspension with a dead pusher axle, kind of an interesting setup,
  13. Ordering has already closed for the 2024 F-650 and 750. I assume the 2025 MY will start early 2024 if these trucks continue.
  14. Truth was Henry Ford was never interested in the heavy truck market. Before 1948, the largest Fords were nominally 1.5 ton models. The 1948 'Big Job' F-7 and F-8 were the first Ford Heavy trucks. Ford didn't build a domestic heavy duty diesel truck until 1961.
  15. https://www.ballard.com/about-ballard/newsroom/news-releases/2023/08/03/ballard-announces-partnership-with-ford-trucks-for-fuel-cell-powered-heavy-duty-trucks-initial-order
  16. Wow, that looks pretty good. If I buy a Bronco, I for one would never take the top off. So yes I would consider a Land Cruiser to be a competitor to a 4 door Bronco in my particular instance. Note to Toyota: Make the Tundra look like that and you will double sales.
  17. I wouldn't doubt that. I had a GMC engineer tell me years ago that at the time A GMC Brigadier with an L10 Cummins an 9 speed Fuller transmission had the lowest operating cost-per-mile of any class 8 tractor in the U.S., and this was consistently proven by one of the nation's largest fleets. Which probably explains why Yellow had so many of them....
  18. https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/22/business/ford-department-of-energy-loan/index.html
  19. That's it for Yellow-Roadway, they are closing their doors today. Sadly the merger between the two LTL carriers just postponed the inevitable. Remember all those Roadway Ford C series and Yellow GMC Brigadier tractors pulling single axle van trailers? Such a common sight up into the 90's.
  20. Keep in mind that Mustang sales have dropped from over 160,000 in 2006 to less than 50,000 in 2022. It's clearly a segment in decline, and 50,000 units isn't really enough to justify a unique platform. If the trend keeps up Ford will of course abandon the segment as well, which is why I think it was a good move to introduce a BEV 'Mustang' to keep the name alive.
  21. No, on the ground and ready to go. What is a bit distressing is that dealership is in an affluent area of Southern California that has a very high rate of BEV acceptance. I wonder what their sales rate is for Mach-E's.
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