Got my build date 8/24/26, lets see if that holds true Al Packer Ford West  

It's possible, but whatever this is looks way too low to be a crossover imo. Those woman are pretty short, and it's noticable than them. Not much to go on, but here's a very small portion of it peaking through this gap.    That could be an escape replacement and it's just an optical illusion that makes it seem lower than it is based on how far away it is, but that doesn't appear to be the case. 

I think it's perhaps important to also note, with how low the skunktruck seems to be, it's possible the crossover could wind up looking like a hatch (presumably design wise, it's the skunk trunk with the bed filled in as a cab).

We don't have inside access like we used to so hard to say.

Right....it wasn't necessarily that Mulally was against RWD or BOF construction, more that those were the "low hanging fruit" options to go with while the company was struggling vs. some new RWD/BOF platform.

I had tried that back when we were discussing the aero (picture) and while there are of course similarities because they’re both aero-focused designs, the skunk truck appears a lot more muscular. It also probably has much more conventional styling.

With borgs recent comments over on GMI, I’m starting to think this will look a lot like the Aeros with a truck bed.  It has a very similar slope to the windshield. The hood appears to be similar length but maybe a tad more sloped than what the truck will be. Pretty plain sides like Borg said it had. Remove the rear cargo area and replace it with a truck bed and give it some different lights and I bet it’s pretty close.

Is there a projected release date for the '27 order guide?

Ford currently does not have a powertrain, chassis, or dealer network for a class 8 truck.  Nor to they seem to have any desire to enter that market, which is probably wise.   I would be willing to wager Ford's excellent heavy truck joint venture in Turkey will eventually join IVECO.  Regradless it's not coming here.   You may recall Freightliner briefly entered the class 3-5 market with such products as the Ram-based Sterling Bullet, a few re-branded Mitsubishi Fuso's, and of course the Sprinter van and its derivatives back in the mid-2000's.  From what I understand most of their dealers, both Freightliner and Sterling, didn't want any part of it.  The Sprinter would up with it's own light commercial dealer network. 

That was exactly the reason-the reason why the NA platforms went away for the C and CD series from the EU, which brought their own set of issues that Ford is dealing with today.    The only BOF platform that completely went away was the Ranger platform, which was going on almost 25 years without any major updates-I think the last platform update was like in 1989 and it was just sheetmetal and engine changes since then. The Crown Vic was replaced by the D3 and the Explorer (which was a close cousin to the Ranger in the early 2000s) moved to the D3 in 2010 then CD6.