7Mary3

Understatement. The Mazda-sourced cab unsuitable for drivers over 5'9" was probably a mistake too.

Freightliner finally ditched that instrument cluster left over from the 'Business Class' FL days along with the Chrysler sourced dash vents.

Freightliner seems to have addressed my major gripe of the M2 and SD trucks- a lousy HVAC system. The rest of the truck sees a lot of detail improvements, and some of the changes are for easier upfits. And there is the transition to all Cummins-based engines. Freightliner is moving in the right direction. Compared to the F-650 and 750 I would say it's better in all respects, and in some areas substantially. The Freightliner is, however, more expensive.

Yes, Powertrain Solutions still offers a 8.8L version of the old Chevy Big Block. Navistar uses it in school buses, both gasoline and LPG. Never understood why Navistar didn't extend the option to trucks, but maybe they will now.

Ford will no doubt beat Freightliner and PACCAR on price, but Ford will likely lose market share. That is if they are still in class 6/7 come 2025. Heard rumors that Ram will use the Cummins gasoline 6.7L, but I don't believe it yet. I see the Hemi staying in production for trucks.

I think Cummins will be in a pretty good position with their 'fuel agnostic' engines for class 7 and 8.

This, coupled with Ford's renewed interest in hybrids, is disturbing.

I noticed in some other threads that it was mentioned Ford is notifying the UAW that they are planning a significant increase in 7.3L production. Again, probably related to increasingly stringent diesel emissions regulations. I see more gasoline powered medium duty trucks.

EPA and CARB are going to make it increasingly difficult and expensive to get diesels certified (particularly to meet NOX standards) starting in 2025.

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.

Love to hear the reasoning behind this one. Because there isn't any rational reason. Ford is on drugs......

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.

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.

This is interesting, and we will likely be seeing it happen more often: https://www.isuzucv.com/en/news/headlines

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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,

Whole thing sounds like a case of mid-engine envy if you ask me.

Ordering has already closed for the 2024 F-650 and 750. I assume the 2025 MY will start early 2024 if these trucks continue.

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.

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