RoadwayR

Yellow had a lot of 8500 single axle city tractors, but all the ones I ever saw were short nose with the sloped hood.

Interesting. Freightliner was using Powertrain Integration's 8.0L propane engine. PSI took Powertrain Integration over sometime ago, perhaps they are streamlining their engine offerings. In any event, both the PSI 8.8L and the P.I. 8.0L are based on the old 'Big Block' Chevy V-8. The PSI 8.8L is also available in CNG and gasoline fueled versions.

It sounds like they put bigger tires on the F-550 and called it a day. GVW is about 2K#'s under the GM/NAV. But, that's the move I would have made. I have a feeling the F-600 will be a hit, and will eat F-650 sales.

That is about the truck Isuzu was contemplating bringing to the U.S., wasn't it? Maybe Isuzu will reconsider.

There are discussions of these photos on some Ford enthusiast websites, and the consensus is that the vehicle is a chassis development mule, and the modified Ranger body components are just used to make it drive-able. The Bronco will look nothing like that.

Didn't Wabco just buy G.E.'s locomotive operation?

Back to Brazil, things are going great for Traton: https://www.reuters.com/article/volkswagen-traton-results/vws-traton-gets-2018-profit-boost-from-brazil-higher-sales-idUSL5N20K3VC Probably be even better with Ford out of the picture.

Story was the Bighorn was his doing. Maybe the Diamond Reo Raider too! I think his son runs Spartan now.

Stab in the dark time: I seem to remember that Dodge had a resident heavy truck genius engineer and I think his last name was Sztykiel. If so, wasn't he one of the guys that started Spartan in the 70's?

Dealers? Mack has dealers?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-southamerica-heavytruck/ford-exiting-heavy-truck-business-in-south-america-idUSKCN1Q82EB That's a disappointment. While I don't believe there is any chance we will ever see the Ford-Otosan commercial trucks in the U.S., I thought the Brazilian-built medium duty Cargo would have been a great addition to Ford's North American commercial truck line-up. A Cargo with the new 7.3L gas engine would have been competitive with GM and Isuzu LCF's. In any event, Ford pulling out of Brazil is hardly a surprise.

We were told the 'excuse' for dropping the medium duty D series trucks was to make more motorhome chassis, but it probably had more to do with Chrysler's financial health and the fact they were dropping the B/RB V-8's in 1978. The D series mediums continued in Mexico as we have discussed here before. Heavy truck production for domestic sales ended in March of 1975. The excuse for that move was Chrysler didn't want to spend the money to meet FMVSS 121 (truck anti-lock brake standards), but I was told the Bighorn 900 did in fact have Bendix ABS. Another reason could have been cabs. Chrysler was having a hard time building enough truck cabs in the mid-70's after the 'Club Cab' Dodge pickup became such a success. Chrysler farmed out production of the old 'C' series cab to Checker Motors (taxi cab builder), but Checker had trouble keeping up with demand and quality wasn't too good (funny because Checker had been making pickup truck beds for GM for years). Couple this all with the weak dealer network and the result was no surprise. But what if Chrysler had bought Mack back in '64............

That's a CNT-800.

I think Dodge intended the 3208 to be an option in the 1978 D-800. My company was buying a lot of D-600's in '76 and '77. When Dodge dropped them, they told us it was so they could make more motorhome chassis. The 1974-1977 D series mediums were built in Windsor Ontario at the van plant, not Sherwood or Warren were the heavy and light trucks were built.

No Bighorn 900. Instead they came up with real winners like the Plymouth Volare and Dodge Aspen. I thought they could have gone after all the Diamond Reo and Brockway dealers and given them medium-heavy Dodge franchises, phase out all domestic car production and replace them with Mitsubishi imports, kept the Ram pickup and van, and gone after Jeep. Dodge even had a great medium duty in the 1974-1977 D500-800. It was a tough good handling truck that had a big enough hood to take a Caterpillar 3208 (a few were actually built in 1977). I liked driving them. All they needed were dealers. In all of California I only remember 2 handling the big trucks, the Dodge Truck Center in Downey and Moss Brothers in Riverside.

This may be significant: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/12/ford-executive-raises-doubts-about-vw-deal-for-electric-vehicles.html Ford seems to be lagging in BEV's, and I thought their salvation could have been in partnering with VW. Ford could have benefited from VW's all-out drive for electric vehicle supremacy. It doesn't make sense, couldn't Ford and VW share BEV components if not vehicle platforms? Maybe VW just can't use that old train station or the ultra-hip Corktown facility. But VW sure-as-hell will use Ford's light commercial trucks...........

I liked them. Always wanted a Dodge C series or a Mack R-400 with the 'EN-414" Dodge 413 gas V-8.

Who knows, if it made it into production, Dodge might have sold a few. Personally, I think Chrysler should have given up on passenger cars in 1975, and concentrated on trucks. I remember hearing years ago that after Chrysler halted sales of heavy trucks in the U.S., they actually continued building small runs of long wheelbase CNT 800 diesel tandems until 1979 or 1980. Some may have been for export, but the story was Chrysler had a long running contract to supply tanker chassis to the Air Force.

It was a pretty serious effort, or at least as serious as Chrysler could do at the time. All the right hardware was there, just the old 50's era Dodge pickup truck cab was holding it back. And a weak dealer network. There was an even rarer '900' short nose Bighorn that was supposed to replace the CNT 900 in late 1975, but Chrysler bailed on the big truck business just as it was being introduced. I think only 4 or 5 were built.

Volvo Group, at least here in the U.S., has no concept of what a medium duty truck is.

Yeah, but Detroits are only offered in DTNA trucks (plus a few in Pierce fire apparatus). That's impressive. And, the mid-range DD5 and DD8 production is still ramping up.

I guess GM is going to keep the L96 6.0L in production even though it's about to be replaced in the Silverado and Sierra HD pickups. It is reported the Isuzu FTR/Chevy 6500 LCF will also get the 6.6L, I wonder if the NPR/Chevy 3500-4500 LCF will keep the L96.

Yet another LS derivative. Looks like not much more than a larger L96 6.0L with direct injection and a steel crankshaft. Decent output, should be completely reliable and durable. Probably not as powerful as Ford's new 7.3L, but better fuel economy. And, I'll bet GM spent next to nothing to develop the 6.6L..

Continuing the cab discussion as it applies to Ford. I don't see any chance at all of Ford developing a new medium duty cab considering their current economic state and CEO. The fact that the new 7.3L was made to fit in the ancient E series seems to support this notion. However, I think using the aluminum 250-550 cab on the 650/750 would at least be an improvement. It couldn't cost much to engineer, and one would think there would be savings through parts commonality.

I wonder how the Ford built HN80's compared to the Freightliner built versions.