RoadwayR

On one hand they have some making up to do as they have been out of the medium duty picture for awhile, but a lot of former GM medium duty customers never stopped buying light duty from them. That will help. That 6500 needs a 22.5" wheel option to make it 'dock height'.

Hard to say what's going on, but I think that Automotive News article of 09/01/2018 may have some clues. I think that Ford is very concerned about their situation in Western Europe, and even though they may be the #1 producer of LCV's in that market there may be some serious questions as to how profitable that operation is or may become. Sending the big Transit to North America likely helped profitability of that vehicle line, but maybe it is not enough. VW is likely also under considerable pressure (I am told that they may be the least efficient major auto manufacturer in the world today) and looking at the LCV market in Europe jointly developing the next generation Transit and Crafter starts to make a lot of sense. This could be all well and good because LCV's in Europe are just about a commodity now with little real brand differentiation. I have heard the question raised that if VW comes to the North American market with their own version of a Transit/Crafter JV van, it could cause undo competition for Ford, possibly negating any advantage Ford might enjoy from reduced development expenses. That's certainly a possibility, but I don't think VW has any plans to enter the North American LCV market. Conversely there may be some LCV overlap in Europe, but perhaps VW is not concerned. After all, they had a JV with Mercedes Benz for a long time in the same market. And, if Ford is planning on leaving Europe, there would be no issues at all. It is very clear this is strictly LCV's. With VW is moving to spin off their heavy truck unit and Ford-Otosan a JV I don't see any reason they would factor in to these particular negotiations. However, one can't help but think VW's truck unit may look at Ford's share of Ford/Otosan as a nice acquisition.

I kind of like it. Maybe not quite as much as I like an old W-925, but I do like it. Going by looks alone I think the International HX is the best looking of the new trucks, but this KW don't look bad to me.

If GM got behind this a little bit, it might be something. I can see it for certain users. More range would broaden the appeal, naturally. Is Spartan building these with no powertrain for conversion?

You are right, I enlarged the picture. Neat truck.

Local school district is buying propane buses and delivery trucks. They are Freightliners with GM 8.0L Powertrain Integration engines. I have not heard anything bad about them yet.

It's definitely a White 3000. Could have a REO Gold Comet gas V-8 in it, a few 3000's were built with them. Maybe seller thinks it has a Dodge engine.

Why bother with an old engine that will be out of production soon? The upcoming Ford V-8 likely be a fine gaseous fueled engine.

It did indeed, but was sold off with Monaco motorhomes when cash got tight because of someone's bad idea about EGR. Why did they buy a motorhome manufacturer? International Harvester did that in the 70's with similar disastrous results. I always wondered about that plant fire.......... I was told the chassis under the new Chevy 4500/5500/6500 trucks evolved from a medium duty chassis that Workhorse was developing before NAV sold them off.

A little disappointed that the PSI 8.8L isn't in this truck. Not that the Ram 6.4L isn't a robust and powerful engine, but I have my doubts about the Ram automatic transmission. The 8.8L is still a larger and more heavy duty engine, and it teams well with the 2000 series Allison. Starting to wonder if Navistar is putting PSI under pressure not to sell to other OEM's.

They sure did get their money's worth with the LLV. And, it wasn't that special: Take a 4 cylinder Chevy S-10 chassis, throw a wide Silverado 1500 rear axle under it for stability, and get Grumman-Olsen to make an aluminum box body for the whole mess. Cheap, simple, reliable, useful, and lasted well past the expiration date!

I don't think Ford or GM see any real profit in this. Not going to be a lot of margin in these vehicles, I figure USPS will put them through the wringer with endless requirements, who knows how many will actually be purchased, and once the contract is fulfilled it will be adios for 25 years. Both Ford and GM probably figure every low margin PITA postal bucket built is one less high margin Explorer/Acadia/Traverse/Edge. Companies in trouble don't do things like this. USPS ought to buy something 'off the shelf' like a Transit Connect and stop trying to reinvent the wheel. The numbers ought to be good enough to get some special options like right hand drive, ect.. Agreed about Workhorse. Never got off the ground after being sold off by Navistar. And I am sure if NAV still owned it, it would be doing well right now. And Surefly would have never happened..........

I don't think their problem is North American product, current or future. They are on the right track in that regard. Their problems are Europe, South America, and China.

Couldn't sell trucks in North America, so they go to 'developing markets' in poor countries? In any event, I always thought UD should have been developed into a medium duty line for Volvo and Mack in North America. Volvo seems to think the road to success in the U.S. is through no medium duty product, significant overlap between their 2 North American brands, and most importantly, no dealers . Genius!

No joke, poor fitting doors are a major customer complaint on all the F series trucks now. Not sure why, are they dimensionally unstable coming out of the stamping dies or do they bend easily?

I used to think DVT-573 did a pretty good impression of a slow moving rocket propelled grenade!

Sure sounds like that, doesn't it? My question is does this policy include commercial vehicles as well? If so the E series and 650/750 are goners too. My guess is the Ranger, Bronco, and F-150 will be built off the one BOF platform, and they are not including commercial vehicles.

Interesting. Start of a trend?

Used to call those things 'Mansfield Bars', due to a very unfortunate accident involving a movie star.......

Speaking of U-Haul and the F-650, I expected to see 100's of 650's in U-Haul livery by now, but I have only seen a handful. It seems that all the U-Haul franchises near me no longer rent anything larger than a Ford E series or GMC Savanna cut-away van.

You know, that would be a great option for the new HX, wouldn't it?

Is Isuzu still thinking about an LCF tandem? If so, will Spartan build it?

The first Chevy diesels came out in 1962. At first, only the 4-53 and 6V-53 were offered (3-53 in Step-Van chassis). The Toroflow's came in 1964, and I think the Detroit 71's and Cummins N's came later around 1969.

Should have a 348. 409's and diesels were still a few years away.

Are these trucks going to be sold in western Europe?