RoadwayR

I would love to see one with the LeRoi gas V-8 in it.

As I said in the post, I think Ford should have let the old Louisville run it's course until switching KTP over to Super Duty production and not bothered with HN80 at all. Sure, hindsight's 20/20 but I believe if Ford had to do it all over again, that's what they would have done. Regarding Ford's analysis of the decision to go ahead with HN80, remember at the time Ford's management was anything but rational. The power structure at the Glass House was one of fiefdoms bent on destroying each other, Ford Motor and the customer be damned. I was told by Ford insiders back in the day that the light truck group was always out to screw the heavy truck group, and had wanted KTP for years. Supposedly the decision to use the International 6.9L diesel for the F series back in 1982 was partially done as a slap in the face for the heavy trucks guys as International was Ford's biggest competitor at the time. It seemed to me that HN80 happened while Bill Ford Jr. was running the heavy truck division, and after he left it heavy truck had no champion and fell victim to a rational profitability argument from the light duty guys. I wish I could go back to those days and ask better questions! To be a fly on the wall during some of those meetings.......

No way, the numbers were not there for Ford in heavy trucks since the mid-80's. What really killed Ford's heavy truck business was the boundless increase in light truck popularity that really took off in the 1980's. The Louisville plant is FAR more profitable building high volume high margin light trucks than it was building low volume labor intensive low margin (because most all of Ford's large truck sales were low bid fleet) heavy trucks. The mystery was why did Ford bother with the HN80 program in the first place? They dropped the C series in 1990, the CL in 1991, should have let the old L's go until they had to retool the plant for the 1999 Super Duty pickups. Of course they wouldn't have had anything to sell Freightliner, but they lost a lot of money on that deal anyway. I have never heard that Ford still had their heavy truck tooling nor any rumor that they had any intention of re-entering the heavy truck market in the U.S.. Freightliner did buy all the old L series tooling along with that for the HN80, it was all auctioned off in St. Thomas late 2009. Possibly Ford bought the tooling? That would be interesting!

Well, I certainly hope the Autocar hyperbole lasts longer than the 18-odd months the HN80 party lasted. But, everything I have seen of the Autocar conventional so far leeds me to believe this is a very serious effort. Not to change the subject, but to this day Ford's abrupt exit of the heavy truck market after designing a whole new series of vehicles for it has to be the most bizarre thing I have ever seen a major manufacturer ever do. Did someone not get the memo? Wonder if there wasn't more to the story.

Looks good for a rear loader or roll-off. International used to have a pretty good LCF chassis for front loaders. Don't remember the model number, but it was a sort of a hybrid. Basically a widened Cargostar cab with a big doghouse on a Fleetstar chassis, Cummins or Detroit power.

What was Dodge's market share of class 7 and 8 in 1975 when they decided to exit the market? Seems to me it was around 5%. Scary. Like Dodge back then, I think it would help if Mack had more dealers. Or dealers period. I live in Los Angeles and I don't even know where the nearest Mack dealer is. Maybe somewhere in Long Beach?

In the classes Ford currently competes in.

Nice, but I think Ford is loosing their once-dominant position in U.S. government/municipal/utility sales. I don't think it's their current product so much as the competition has gotten better.

Who makes the cab on the Autocar Xpert? Looks Asian.

Do it!

As I remember the 8V-71 and 6V-95 Brigadier's had a pretty big doghouse to clear the air compressor which was off the back if the engine driven by the timing gears. I am thinking all the 9500 series cabs are pretty much the same, you might just need the doghouse and the cab floor over the transmission, which I think was bolted in anyway. I don't think the 8000 series Brigadiers with gas or 3208 power had a doghouse.

When Fred Diaz was running Ram Truck around the time of the creation of FCA, it was reported that he was interested in bringing Iveco to North America. No question it would have been quite an undertaking to establish a new line of commercial trucks in the U.S., but with Navistar on the ropes and Ford and GM essentially out of the market at the time, they might have had a chance. Just think what a competitor they would be today if it had worked out.

Looks like one of those Transtar 4090's with the 12V-71.

More likely these would end up at International dealers than Ford dealers. The new VW's are Cummins powered, so they would fit will in International's current line up. I think Traton will eventually be spun off of VW, so Ford may not have access to them anyway.

Early Astro 95 for sure. Coach mirrors, probably a Cummins judging by the single stack and air cleaner on the right. Heavy front axle with 6 spoke wheels. Nice tractor, but what a mess behind it. Never saw anything like that in California!