been a rumor about it at MAP for the last 6-9 months. Nothing official yet. 

Ahhh, didn't realize the LCF went to class 7.

Chevrolet does, to a limited extent.  The Silverado goes to class 6 and the LCF's go to the Cummins/Allison powered 7500 series.  However, can't help but think GM has a better plan for class 6 and 7 than Ford does.  The 4500-6500 Silverado is a joint venture with International and the LCF's are rebadged Isuzu's.  Chevy commercial dealers have the trucks on the lot but GM doesn't have to commit the capital to design and manufacture the low-margin vehicles.  They do supply major components to both International and Isuzu but that's it.     Interesting to note, now with Toyota spinning Hino off to Daimler Truck, I don't think any major car/light truck manufacturer directly owns a medium/heavy truck manufacturer.  

Likely $100k+

Ford is currently the ONLY automaker to have offerings in class 1-7, so they are the only ones serving that entire market.   So, let's say it's a mistake to not prioritize classes 6 & 7.  Let's make an assumption that they could invest $100M into those classes and get a return of $150M.  Or, they could pick option 2 and invest $100M into classes 2-5 and get a return of $250M.  Which is the better option?  What would you choose?

I hope you are right. This sounds more promising to me than the direction the Ram 1500 REV (formerly called Ramcharger) has gone with a 3.6 Pentastar V6 and a large/heavy battery pack. The Ram 1500 REV will weigh 7500 pounds (2200 pounds heavier than the ICE Ram). To put that 2200 pounds in perspective, it would be like having 11 big guys riding in the ICE Ram.   https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/pickup-trucks/2026-ram-1500-review-a6774701775/

With all due respect, if that was the soul corporate objective, the only thing Ford would build would be F-150/250-for sure Lincoln would be gone.  As I look at it from the Ford Pro segment, we are led to believe that Ford Pro is a "winner".  And assuming "Pro" is defined as the commercial segment..be it a self employed handy man or a big corporate entity, a full slate of vehicles that support that business is critical.  This is opposed to the class 8 market, where the bulk of that market is for hire transportation, where moving commodities is the business.   Granted many "commercial" entities also have class 8 vehicles in support of their business -"Private Carriage"-a term you often don't hear used today.  The bulk of their needs however are in class 1-7.  Accordingly I  think Ford has to recognize that failing to serve all of that market, will in the long run prove to be a mistake.   And to those who say it would  take huge sums to expand the offerings in class 6/7 I say that is BS. IMO, it is just a matter of some selective changes.    

Matching the dealer spray in texture is possible, but it can be tough to do a diy match. Aerosol/roll-on products tend to look thinner and more uniform, while factor style often looks chunkier. If you want the best results, have a bedliner shop spray the tailgate and tell them you want the texture to match your bed liner (Rhino linings for example). If you want to DIY instead, use U-POL Raptor. You can adjust the texture with air pressure, gun choice, and spray distance.

I'd let a shop dig deeper if smoke returns from the tailpipe, and you see coolant level drops, rapid oil level drops, or rough running/misfiring. Otherwise, it sounds like you just had a fluid leak that was dripping onto hot exhaust or something else and burning off.

A couple of things to keep in mind / for the record facts for the thread... A lot has been said about how FoE and I agree with a lot of points but FoE is already a lost cause. Farley has mortally wounded the business so Ford needs to move on.   There are still markets/segments where Ford can compete with Toyota and Hyundai but Ford today has also some limitations. FoE is no longer capable of designing competitive small vehicles. I think there isn't much debate about this. I'd like to be proven wrong but Farley has hallowed out FoE with the intention to shut down all vehicle production there. Ford's plan to revive FoE consist of rebadged Renaults... There won't be a follow up to B2 and C2 from FoE because the engineering talent and resources that designed those platform are no longer there.  Ford China has emerged as the new center for vehicle engineering. Look at the products that were engineered there: Mondeo/Z, Edge/Nautilus, Bronco EV/EREV, Equator, Territory, Dadao...  If there is going to be a C3 platform, it will probably be fully engineered in China.  Ford US is the engineering center of fullsize truck, and the skunkworks UEV program. Fate of current C2 products (Bronco Sport and Maverick) is really unclear. Jury is still out on UEV and no one can really fault Ford's execution on F-Series... it pays for the whole company.  Ford Australia is the engineering center for T6 and these guys are wizards... they have done so much with so little. T6.2 is the kind of engineering that other car companies excel at but historically the rest of the Ford was totally unable to execute - keep what works and add incremental value to improve and modernize the platform. They demonstrated previously also how good they were by keeping the Falcon competitive for as long as they did and I'm really glad they got to work on a global vehicle platform like T6. Ford would be wise to add more products/volumes on T6... I think it will be great to add a Lincoln SUV. Ford Otosan is the engineering center for Transit. This is Ford's hidden cash cow. Ford has strong position in the van business in all three major markets it operates in: North America, Europe, and China. If I'm Farley, I would be pouring more resources into this business and build a stronger moat around it, and use it to expand/re-enter the markets that Ford has had trouble competing with passenger vehicles. Places like South America and Southeast Asia.