New Light & Medium Duty News

[Joe771476]

On 2/4/2024 at 7:38 PM, 7Mary3 said:

A 'B' series Cummins is the current 6.7L, installed in a Ram or otherwise.  

 

And speaking of the 650 and 750, according to the thread on sales of these trucks are down 42.7% over last year.  A 737 sales for January and over 5000 units in inventory?

We must be living in the Twilight Zone here in New England because F650/750's are booming here! CT DOT bought a bunch. They haven't bought Ford class 6/7 since 1997!  I'm seeing a ton of flatbeds, dumps, rentals, box/general delivery.

[GearheadGrrrl]

Could be that a major dealer has gotten aggressive on bid pricing, possibly with Ford's assistance. Used to see this around Minnesota when Boyer Ford dominated the fleet market here.

[Bob Rosadini]

On 2/6/2024 at 11:28 AM, GearheadGrrrl said:

Could be that a major dealer has gotten aggressive on bid pricing, possibly with Ford's assistance. Used to see this around Minnesota when Boyer Ford dominated the fleet market here.

Well to  make Joe feel better just watching New England cable news.  12+ inches of snow we were supposed to  get up here in Worcester county now happening on south shore.  Newscast from  Wareham near Cape and as gal is doing her report Mass DOT 650/750 goes by plowing Rt 28.  No clue how many they have but for sure they are scattered around state. 

[ice-capades]

17 minutes ago, Bob Rosadini said:

Well to  make Joe feel better just watching New England cable news.  12+ inches of snow we were supposed to  get up here in Worcester county now happening on south shore.  Newscast from  Wareham near Cape and as gal is doing her report Mass DOT 650/750 goes by plowing Rt 28.  No clue how many they have but for sure they are scattered around state. 

 

The forecast here (Hamden, CT) was for 6-11" but the storm track shifted and now it looks like we'll only get 4" of snow. CT DOT plows 2 long, main arteries in town (Hamden, CT) here which are state roads. Unfortunately, I don't remember what HD trucks are in the CT DOT or Hamden municipal fleets.  

[7Mary3]

Question:  Are the CT DOT Fords gas or diesel?  Reason I ask is Conneticut is a CARB state (as is Mass.) and I am wondering if the 2025 diesel 650's and 750's will be available in other CARB states.  

Edited February 14, 2024 by 7Mary3

[Bob Rosadini]

7 hours ago, 7Mary3 said:

Question:  Are the CT DOT Fords gas or diesel?  Reason I ask is Conneticut is a CARB state (as is Mass.) and I am wondering if the 2025 diesel 650's and 750's will be available in other CARB states.  

 

 

7 hours ago, 7Mary3 said:

 

7M..Just checked with a friend in Conn.  He said both State of Conn DOT and City of New Haven DPW running 650/750 Power Strokes. And for sure  as I believe I recently reported a Mass DOT "sighting" at a barn near me  since then I've seen them in other parts of state.  Last night I'm watching storm coverage on New England  Cable News and reporter is on Rt 28 in Wareham which is at the Cape Cod Canal.  As she is giving her report a DOT 650/750 goes by pushing snow.

[Joe771476]

So I haven't been hallucinating?!!!  LOL

[akirby]

40 minutes ago, Joe771476 said:

So I haven't been hallucinating?!!!  LOL

I wouldn’t go that far….

[Joe771476]

On 2/15/2024 at 9:05 AM, akirby said:

I wouldn’t go that far….

Good one!

[Bob Rosadini]

Did a check on all the Ford dealer adds in latest Bi-weekly truck/equipment publication that covers New England states, there were 30 new 350-550 trucks in stock-majority 550's and 2 F-600's.  I'm surprised that the dealers who have multiple 550's in stock had no 600's. 

 

There were 5 650's in stock-one  chassis  and the other 4 set up with 6-8 yd dumps, load covers etc. I was checking out the latest 550 my town DPW just put in service.  Set up with heavy 10' plow with high ends- makes for good casting right or left.  Very heavy headgear too..hope the front end holds up. This for sure should have been a 600 IMO.

[ausrutherford]

I traded by '21 Bronco Sport for a '23 F-150 STX with the 5.0 on Monday. ?

[Bob Rosadini]

16 hours ago, ausrutherford said:

I traded by '21 Bronco Sport for a '23 F-150 STX with the 5.0 on Monday. ?

5.0 and 10 speed?  What axle?

[ausrutherford]

6 hours ago, Bob Rosadini said:

5.0 and 10 speed?  What axle?

3.31 with the locking rear diff. 

[7Mary3]

Didn't hear anything out of Ford from the NTEA show this year, but Ram had a big announcement:

 

https://www.fleetowner.com/equipment/article/21284237/stellantis-unveils-ram-professional-its-new-commercial-vehicle-division-to-take-on-ford-pro

[Joe771476]

Just watched an episode of American Greed. The episode was titled "Chasing Tesla.  It's about the Nikola hydrogen truck hoax.  You gotta watch this show; It's amazing what these various fraudsters will do for the almighty dollar!  Anyway, the promos pitching the truck tractor and the Badger pickup truck were hoaxes. The video promo showing the tractor trailer doing 60 MPH on a road was the result of sending the truck down a steep hill and then filming it on level ground! It had no motor! The Badger pickup truck was a cosmetic makeover of a Ford F150! At the time of the episode airing, he was supposedly going to be sentenced in 2023. But the Nikola company is supposedly still in business, but I don't know to what extent and I haven't searched it yet. Even GM was hoodwinked and  hooked up with Nikola at some point.

[Andrew L]

25 minutes ago, Joe771476 said:

Just watched an episode of American Greed. The episode was titled "Chasing Tesla.  It's about the Nikola hydrogen truck hoax.  You gotta watch this show; It's amazing what these various fraudsters will do for the almighty dollar!  Anyway, the promos pitching the truck tractor and the Badger pickup truck were hoaxes. The video promo showing the tractor trailer doing 60 MPH on a road was the result of sending the truck down a steep hill and then filming it on level ground! It had no motor! The Badger pickup truck was a cosmetic makeover of a Ford F150! At the time of the episode airing, he was supposedly going to be sentenced in 2023. But the Nikola company is supposedly still in business, but I don't know to what extent and I haven't searched it yet. Even GM was hoodwinked and  hooked up with Nikola at some point.

 

I somehow missed the news on this I will have to hunt that episode down and watch it.  Just finished reading about it on wikipeda.

[7Mary3]

Nikola may have started as a scam, but they are making a pretty good go of it now.  Jury is still out on hydrogen, but good chance it may eventually replace diesel in long haul trucking.  And if it does Nikola will be in a good position:

 

https://www.nikolamotor.com/ 

[GearheadGrrrl]

While giving IVECO a foot in the door to re-enter the US market.

[Bob Rosadini]

8 hours ago, 7Mary3 said:

Nikola may have started as a scam, but they are making a pretty good go of it now.  Jury is still out on hydrogen, but good chance it may eventually replace diesel in long haul trucking.  And if it does Nikola will be in a good position:

 

https://www.nikolamotor.com/ 

Trevor Milton was the guy that  started it and was behind all the phony demos.  He ultimately was prosecuted and is no longer involved I do believe.

[Bob Rosadini]

Further thought on Nikola, given a tractor weight of 29,000 lbs and given subsidies that I am paying for to lower the price, I guess I have to view this as another "green initiative" being shoved down our throats.

My broken record speech...in due time when the free market says it makes sense.  Or how about...let's solve the "climate crisis" by starting with China, India, etc who continue to crank out new coal fired power plants that generate far more pollutants than I believe we do with our entire ICE "fleet".

 

May well be a better alternative to electrics-a loser for sure-, but still seems like a loser when all factors are considered-or so it seems to me.  

 

But forgive me, what am I thinking, why would we consider ALL factors?🤔

 

PS..After working my butt off for 44 years, and thinking my grandkids will benefit from my hard work, I now have to shell out a big number every year to satisfy such subsidies like this.  I'd feel much better if my money was buying a few more 155 shells to help out the Ukrainians.

[GearheadGrrrl]

Putting the politics aside, a 29K# semi tractor is 10K# too heavy to compete!

[Rick73]

21 hours ago, GearheadGrrrl said:

Putting the politics aside, a 29K# semi tractor is 10K# too heavy to compete!

I believe that 29,000 pounds applies to BEV tractor, but did not see a weight for fuel cell variant.  I wonder if it’s because they don’t know FCEV weight, or because it’s even higher and don’t want to release it yet?

 

Anyway, found charging trailer interesting.  If connected to grid with 480 VAC it makes a bit more sense, but 350 kW Genset option piqued my curiosity.  Under what conditions would you run a Genset to charge a tractor/truck?  I would assume it would be primarily for BEV tractor, and that Genset likely runs on diesel, though I missed fuel type if it was specified.

[Bob Rosadini]

On 3/31/2024 at 6:35 PM, Rick73 said:

I believe that 29,000 pounds applies to BEV tractor, but did not see a weight for fuel cell variant.  I wonder if it’s because they don’t know FCEV weight, or because it’s even higher and don’t want to release it yet?

 

Anyway, found charging trailer interesting.  If connected to grid with 480 VAC it makes a bit more sense, but 350 kW Genset option piqued my curiosity.  Under what conditions would you run a Genset to charge a tractor/truck?  I would assume it would be primarily for BEV tractor, and that Genset likely runs on diesel, though I missed fuel type if it was specified.

29,000 lb is from Nikola web site..had to hunt for it..like they really wanted to give it little coverage😎

[Rick73]

9 hours ago, Bob Rosadini said:

29,000 lb is from Nikola web site..had to hunt for it..like they really wanted to give it little coverage😎

Yeah, I saw that too, but their specs only show weight for Battery Electric tractor, yet conveniently left off weight on Fuel-Cell Electric tractor specs.  I don’t want to assume it’s necessarily worse (heavier), but certainly makes me curious.  They could at least have added a footnote explaining why FCEV weight was not listed.  Hydrogen-based energy storage doesn’t seem that promising to me so I don’t follow the technology close enough to know details like typical weight for entire system.  I have personal bias against vehicles with multiple 10,000 PSI storage tanks.

[Bob Rosadini]

3 hours ago, Rick73 said:

Yeah, I saw that too, but their specs only show weight for Battery Electric tractor, yet conveniently left off weight on Fuel-Cell Electric tractor specs.  I don’t want to assume it’s necessarily worse (heavier), but certainly makes me curious.  They could at least have added a footnote explaining why FCEV weight was not listed.  Hydrogen-based energy storage doesn’t seem that promising to me so I don’t follow the technology close enough to know details like typical weight for entire system.  I have personal bias against vehicles with multiple 10,000 PSI storage tanks.

Thx-good catch.  I did not think they were pushing a battery electric- I assumed all their efforts now were focused  on hydrogen.  But I would have to assume the weight of the hydrogen tank to  say nothing of what is required to convert it to electricity, is not insignificant??