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Check this truck out.  'Ford Blue' 8V-71, and it must have been one of the rare deluxe 'owner operator' WT road tractors when new.  Notice the back trim panel in the sleeper!  Those trucks came factory with nice paint jobs and a lot of chrome, but very few were sold.  The W was a fleet truck, not many O/O's went for them.  

 

 

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I saw that back wall cover with all the cites on day cabs too, may have been standard. With the 5 speed originally it may have been a fleet spec, probably had Detroit's attempt at a Maxidyne which cut back the fuel above 1600 or so RPM to give. flattened power curve and/or a 2 or 3 speed axles. I drove for Continental Baking from the late 70s to early 90s and we had Ford W, GMC Astro, IH 4070, and Freightliner cabovers with the same powertrains so it was easy to make comparisons- The W series had the best cab, the Astro the worst, with Freightliner and IH in between. The W series fatal fault was the standard steel cab, when they got "ventilated" by rust they got kinda chilly!

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On 11/22/2024 at 1:43 PM, Bob Rosadini said:

Of course-why didn't I think of that-or Jaguar might have an interest to somehow incorporate it into their latest marketing effort which is making the Bud Light fiasco look reasonable.  I saw some  Jaguar marketing "executive" making a speech about their new ad "blitz" and he bragged they had .."15 separate DEI organizations"..🤔

Oh so you've seen the latest Jaguar ad?!  Jaguar is all done! Elon Musk replied to it by asking, "Do you sell cars?"  LOLOL

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1 hour ago, Joe771476 said:

Oh so you've seen the latest Jaguar ad?!  Jaguar is all done! Elon Musk replied to it by asking, "Do you sell cars?"  LOLOL

Also, how do you edit in here? You use to be able to. And Bob, did you see my post about a company making new Broncos look like old ones? It's in the Bronco thread.

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11 hours ago, Joe771476 said:

Also, how do you edit in here? You use to be able to. And Bob, did you see my post about a company making new Broncos look like old ones? It's in the Bronco thread.

 

click on the three little dots on your post and the drop down will show "edit"

 

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Edited by twintornados
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On 11/30/2024 at 5:20 AM, twintornados said:

 

click on the three little dots on your post and the drop down will show "edit"

 

image.thumb.png.b686d1233e2100bbb18e502e0cc49430.png

I only see SHARE and REPORT, no EDIT. Tried it again and it showed.

Edited by Joe771476
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On 11/26/2024 at 5:44 AM, GearheadGrrrl said:

I saw that back wall cover with all the cites on day cabs too, may have been standard. With the 5 speed originally it may have been a fleet spec, probably had Detroit's attempt at a Maxidyne which cut back the fuel above 1600 or so RPM to give. flattened power curve and/or a 2 or 3 speed axles. I drove for Continental Baking from the late 70s to early 90s and we had Ford W, GMC Astro, IH 4070, and Freightliner cabovers with the same powertrains so it was easy to make comparisons- The W series had the best cab, the Astro the worst, with Freightliner and IH in between. The W series fatal fault was the standard steel cab, when they got "ventilated" by rust they got kinda chilly!

 

Have to disagree about the Astro 95, I thought it had a great cab.  Excellent visability, an HVAC system that worked, great dash/gauge placement.  Held up reasonably well too.  Inside door handles were a little strange being mounted on the door pillars, not the doors themselves.  After 1980 or so they went to a composite door (earlier years were steel!) that was a little wonky.  As for the W, well I guess it was better than the H!  The steel cab on the W did indeed rust, I heard stories of the floors falling out of them (the truck in the ad must have an aluminum cab).  One of our Astro 95's back in the day:

  

20230927_221920.jpg

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I thought the Astro was a very advanced design for it's time with some great features, but they screwed up on a lot of details. A lot of the little interior parts fell off or apart and the windshield was so tall it was hard to get warm air up to the top to defrost it. Most of the ones I drove were short wheelbase single axles so they rode terrible, the one at Continental Baking was equipped with power steering that had a mind of it's own, and the UPS Astros had solid cab rear mounts because UPS got tired of replacing the rubber ones. Drove a later UPS one with the wider grill and power steering, and a rental tandem sleeper with a 350 Cummins that was a pretty decent truck though.

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Most of ours were like the one in the picture, single drive day cab with a somewhat decent wheelbase.  Cummins NTC350/13 speed RR.  Here in So. Cal. the big windshield was nothing but a plus.  We had one Astro 95 tandem straight truck flatbed.  Never saw another one like it.

 

I think the 'W' was the first big Ford anyone took seriously, really not a bad truck in its day except for the rust-prone steel cab falling apart.  I wonder how many had the aluminum cab.  The CL9000 was a real turkey (we had ONE and that was quite enough, thank you).  

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  • 2 weeks later...
7 hours ago, 7Mary3 said:

Speaking of the W series, here is a link to an old 'Overdrive' magazine from 1974 with a road test of a WT-9000.  Keep in mind Overdrive had a strong bias against the big Fords:

 

https://public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/truck_magazines/truck-and-trucking-/1974-overdrive-magazine/07-overdrive-magazi/july-1974-front-cover.html#media

 

Gotta admit, that was a fun read...

image.thumb.png.a9e821e04edd508ae8d63069285f7fce.png

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5 hours ago, twintornados said:

 

Gotta admit, that was a fun read...

image.thumb.png.a9e821e04edd508ae8d63069285f7fce.png

Agree, 7m, thx for the post.  No doubt the late Mike Parkhurst was NOT a fan of Ford.  One of his reasons I believe was Ford's use of rail for transporting I guess much of its inbound freight as well as outbound finished vehicles. Had to laugh though when he talks about the flat faced W "pushing wind" and you go to the back cover of the issue in question and there is an equally flat faced Pete 362-although it did have a curved corner windshield.😎

 

But surprisingly, he did have a lot of positive things to say about the "W".

 

Now if you wanted to read a total hatchet job,  somewhere in my "archives" I have the issue when the Louisville was announced.  Absolutely nothing but negatives.  I'll see if I can find it. 

Rarely would he ever mention the price differential between a Ford and say a Pete or KW.

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