Bob Rosadini Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 Speaking of tree service companys, ever notice almost every Asplundh truck you see is a GMC. Wonder why? They own a GMC dealer! Anyway, I have been told that the Sterling tooling will be up for auction soon. I wonder what will happen to the cab tooling. Maybe that new Diamond T outfit will use it. BTW- Red Wing is the finest work shoe. I just bought a new pair the other day.Buddy of mine bought a used Asplundh. 3126 Cat. Those trucks are loaded i terms of all the equipment they put on them. Where did you hear about the auction? As Ifeg said, probably does not include the dies- but if it did, boy that would solve one big issue- I would bet though that the last thing Freightliner would want to see is Ford back in business with something besides a Super duty cab. Foriegn Red Wings? Never seen a pair- Now Carhartt- they ARE selling imported stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7Mary3 Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share Posted April 20, 2009 Buddy of mine bought a used Asplundh. 3126 Cat. Those trucks are loaded i terms of all the equipment they put on them. Where did you hear about the auction? As Ifeg said, probably does not include the dies- but if it did, boy that would solve one big issue- I would bet though that the last thing Freightliner would want to see is Ford back in business with something besides a Super duty cab. Foriegn Red Wings? Never seen a pair- Now Carhartt- they ARE selling imported stuff. Sorry, I saw the auction mentioned in an article on the internet somewhere, but I can't seem to find it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7Mary3 Posted April 21, 2009 Author Share Posted April 21, 2009 Here it is: http://www.ttnews.com/articles/basetemplat...x?storyid=21678 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 Here it is: http://www.ttnews.com/articles/basetemplat...x?storyid=21678 7M3-thx- I did see that- as I reasd it though, what's left willbe the barest of production equipment. My bet is the stamping dies will be scrap. remember too- when Ford sold everything in 98, it even included I believe all the old tooling for the original Loiusville. for that matter, I would say hell, bring that back! Look at the Hino- same high cab, big windshield look- with an ugly Camry grill. I'm getting a little concerned though- two of the construction Mags I get have NOT had a Ford medium add in them for several months. And these were the only Ford truck adds that were decent- unlike those stupid Ford Fleet adds that have been in the likes of HDT and CCJ and feature some totally non- truck related copy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfeg Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 Odds are that the dies and tooling for the frame rails, crossmembers, and misc. items remain in the vendor plants that produced them. They may be around for a while, but will eventually be scrapped or reworked for a similar part. Sheet metal dies and tooling might be kept around for a short while to build up an inventory of replacement/crash parts that may be stocked internally or sold to an outside jobber, then the dies and tooling sold for scrap value. (with all of the stamping facility rationalization going on, space for storing unused dies is pretty much non-existent, and no one is willing to pay someone else to store them.) When the inventory of parts is gone, forget finding new sheet metal, except for something sitting in a dusty corner of a dealers parts dept. Any dies and tooling that belong to Sterling that is at a vendors plant is very likely to be scrapped within a year. Usually the vendor will notify the customer and give them 3 options for unused dies and tooling: Pay us to store it, Pay the Freight to ship it back, Or let us scrap it to pay the current storage costs accrued. Number 3 is very popular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 Odds are that the dies and tooling for the frame rails, crossmembers, and misc. items remain in the vendor plants that produced them. They may be around for a while, but will eventually be scrapped or reworked for a similar part. Sheet metal dies and tooling might be kept around for a short while to build up an inventory of replacement/crash parts that may be stocked internally or sold to an outside jobber, then the dies and tooling sold for scrap value. (with all of the stamping facility rationalization going on, space for storing unused dies is pretty much non-existent, and no one is willing to pay someone else to store them.) When the inventory of parts is gone, forget finding new sheet metal, except for something sitting in a dusty corner of a dealers parts dept. Any dies and tooling that belong to Sterling that is at a vendors plant is very likely to be scrapped within a year. Usually the vendor will notify the customer and give them 3 options for unused dies and tooling: Pay us to store it, Pay the Freight to ship it back, Or let us scrap it to pay the current storage costs accrued. Number 3 is very popular. Thx for the education- sounds like you know that piece of the business. I have to believe that there are a lot of dealers out there really hurt by this and I can't believe that there aren't lawsuits flying around. I would think if Ford became a viable class 7, vocational 8 provider, that would take some of the damages out of the Sterling dealers case. For example two big Sterling dealers here in Boston/Providence area. One just signed on with Navistar. the other guy has a Navistar dealer near him. Think he is going to survive on Western Stars and Ford's class 6 and 7 business? I doubt it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe771476 Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 Why can't Ford beef up the F750 and make a class 8? In this economy, they would make a killing! But would International go for it? Hell, bring it back to Louisville where it belongs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7Mary3 Posted April 21, 2009 Author Share Posted April 21, 2009 Why can't Ford beef up the F750 and make a class 8? In this economy, they would make a killing! But would International go for it? Hell, bring it back to Louisville where it belongs! It may be a case of International not wanting the competition. They are the leaders in class 8 vocational. I am not really optomistic about Ford's commercial truck ambitions at this time. The 'new' commercial vehicles they have recently announced are variations of existing vehicles (the commercial stripped chassis is a slightly modified motorhome chassis, the gas engined ambulance came about because Ford no longer has an appropriate diesel engine). The end of Sterling may have an adverse effect of a lot of Ford/Sterling commercial truck dealers, but the economy is enough to take many out of business anyway. There has been an almost total lack of advertising for the 650 and 750. It could have been due to the uncertainty of those model's future some months ago, given the lead times required by the magazines for advertising. We will just have to wait and see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe771476 Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 I'm seeing more and more F750's being used for various bodies )fire/light crane etc. in magazine print ads and on the road. Not a ton more, but more. So if International doesn't want the competition, then bring it back to Louisville or wherever the Super Duties are made. How much would it cost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7Mary3 Posted April 22, 2009 Author Share Posted April 22, 2009 I'm seeing more and more F750's being used for various bodies )fire/light crane etc. in magazine print ads and on the road. Not a ton more, but more. So if International doesn't want the competition, then bring it back to Louisville or wherever the Super Duties are made. How much would it cost? Probably an awful lot. Remember that the current F-650 and 750 are really not much more than an International 4400 with a Cummins engine and Ford cab. There is more International parts in them than Ford parts! Should Ford decide to manufacture medium duty trucks again, they would have to basically come up with a new design, as I doubt International would be willing to sell them all the parts they would need to continue manufacturing the current truck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groundassault Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 I have put this before but I will do it again......Ford killed the Bronco, tractor division (very pissed) and heavy truck division.....this is why I bought a Jeep....so did my bro and two best friends and countless other friends...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfeg Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 I have put this before but I will do it again......Ford killed the Bronco, tractor division (very pissed) and heavy truck division.....this is why I bought a Jeep....so did my bro and two best friends and countless other friends...... The Ford tractor business took up more in resources than it returned to the bottom line. The tractor business in general only has decent returns for those companies with much vertical integration and management focused on that business. Just look at how what was once Ford Tractor Operations has bounced around over the last 20 years. What are they now? Part of CNH, mostly owned by Fiat, and wanting a bailout for their financial operations arm. And the heavy truck business. Sure, they had good market penetration and a solid product, but when it came to the money end the Louisville facilities could contribute much more profit by being reconfigured to build the Super Duty light and light mediums. And the proceeds on the sale of the heavy medium and heavy lines was icing on the cake. I was disappointed when it happened, because it was the end of an era, but I understood the reasons behind it. We must remember that Ford is in business to make money, and we can hope that they will get back into segments such as heavy mediums when they can make money doing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe771476 Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 A lot of news recently: First: I think this was mentioned before but I just read it in two truck mags in the past few days so maybe it is new. Ford is introducing a 2011 F-59 stripped chassis with the V-10 Triton initially. Diesel option may come later. Second, a 2010 E-series is coming also with the Triton and is priced thousands less than a diesel would be. Again, a diesel announcement will come later. The best news is that Head of Commercial Truck Len Deluca says Ford remains committed to the Blue Diamond collaboration and a continued offering of F650/F750's is assured! He states that Ford class 2-7 marketshare is 40 percent. Also, Ford has won the 2009 "Worktruck of the year" award for the the second time. On a side note, an article about 2010 emissions states that Cummins, Detroit Diesel, Fuso, GM?Isuzu, Hino, Mack/Volvo, and UD are using Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems. So apparently we can assume that International/Caterpillar and Ford are using EGR? This SCR system is scary. An SCR-equipped engine cannot be allowed to operate withoutDiesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF). When the DEF gets down to a certian level the driver has only 20 engine starts left! Latest figure on cost of DEF is $2.50 per gallon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 A lot of news recently: First: I think this was mentioned before but I just read it in two truck mags in the past few days so maybe it is new. Ford is introducing a 2011 F-59 stripped chassis with the V-10 Triton initially. Diesel option may come later. Second, a 2010 E-series is coming also with the Triton and is priced thousands less than a diesel would be. Again, a diesel announcement will come later. The best news is that Head of Commercial Truck Len Deluca says Ford remains committed to the Blue Diamond collaboration and a continued offering of F650/F750's is assured! He states that Ford class 2-7 marketshare is 40 percent. Also, Ford has won the 2009 "Worktruck of the year" award for the the second time. On a side note, an article about 2010 emissions states that Cummins, Detroit Diesel, Fuso, GM?Isuzu, Hino, Mack/Volvo, and UD are using Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems. So apparently we can assume that International/Caterpillar and Ford are using EGR? This SCR system is scary. An SCR-equipped engine cannot be allowed to operate withoutDiesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF). When the DEF gets down to a certian level the driver has only 20 engine starts left! Latest figure on cost of DEF is $2.50 per gallon.Joe, Where did you see the quote from DeLuca? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groundassault Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 The Ford tractor business took up more in resources than it returned to the bottom line. The tractor business in general only has decent returns for those companies with much vertical integration and management focused on that business. Just look at how what was once Ford Tractor Operations has bounced around over the last 20 years. What are they now? Part of CNH, mostly owned by Fiat, and wanting a bailout for their financial operations arm. And the heavy truck business. Sure, they had good market penetration and a solid product, but when it came to the money end the Louisville facilities could contribute much more profit by being reconfigured to build the Super Duty light and light mediums. And the proceeds on the sale of the heavy medium and heavy lines was icing on the cake. I was disappointed when it happened, because it was the end of an era, but I understood the reasons behind it. We must remember that Ford is in business to make money, and we can hope that they will get back into segments such as heavy mediums when they can make money doing it. I understand about the heavy truck business because it would be way easier to get back into that then to go back to the tractor business. The thing that really irked me was that Henry Ford started Fordson because FoMoCo didnt want to have anything to do with tractors. He turned it into a thriving business that FoMoCo ended up absorbing. Cat, NH, and Deere have all made successful tractor business. GE is a conglomerate and makes all kinds of things from desalination plants to jet engines. It was the board that voted it out in the early 90's letting the Ford name be used to 2000. But it is a profitable business. Honda has a thriving small engine business; and while thats not the same thing, it just goes to show that it is possible. I still buy Ford Tractors, I realize it has gone the way of the Dodo, but to think that they had no brand equity by a customer buying a F-150 and a lawn tractor from the same reliable company is short sight. My dad is a AT&T higher higher and because of his Ford tractor, truck and LGT ownership he has pushed his company to Super Duties over the Silverado Heavy Duty......that is an impression. Look, I know that it is hard to have multiple successful operations, but its possible and I am still mad over it....lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe771476 Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 Bob: I'm quite sure it was Heavy Duty Trucking, April edition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 Bob: I'm quite sure it was Heavy Duty Trucking, April edition. 10-4- I'll post sonething else on this later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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