RoadwayR

I am hearing the order bank for the 2022 F-650 and 750 opens early October, with production starting 01/04/2021. Only change I know for sure is air brakes will be available with the 7.3L gas engine (BTW, I have not seen one 7.3L powered 650 or 750 yet, FWIW). No idea why Ford keeps pulling the model years so far ahead on these trucks.

Won't get anything on the engine or electrical and the upfitter has no opportunity to screw it up!

Bought 3, more on order. Same cab as the 2015-2019 Silverado HD. Visibility so-so, seating position is O.K. but tall hood and raked windshield. Cab is mounted quite a bit higher than a 3500, but the seat looks the same. Other thing I noticed about these trucks is there is a lot of junk under the hood, but it is laid out well. Looks like you can get to anything that would need getting at.

Got to drive a Silverado 6500 quite a bit last week. They are pretty good! Of course visibility and cab room are not the greatest, but I think they are a step up from the Ram 5500 and F-550. Probably the F-600 too but I have not been around one of those yet. NAV and GM really need to make 22.5" wheels an option to make in 'dock height' and give enough room for side mounted fuel tanks. A gasoline engine would be a plus as well.

Works for me......

The new GM 2500 and 3500 HD's are all steel (I checked with magnets!) but you are right about the 1500's. Every panel that moves is aluminum. Funny I was at the local Line-X shop last week. They are located right across the street from a big Ford dealer. Guy was telling me that particular dealership actually didn't order the 'factory' spray-in bed liners on their new trucks but instead steered their customers to him. His Line-X jobs were much thicker and he did a better job prepping the surface of the bed for adhesion. He said he also took the time to fill in any gaps between the bed sides and floors you sometimes see on the aluminum beds.

Must have been a mistake. They took a chance loading the F-150 with gravel, remember what happened when those Chevy guys tried to load an F-150 with cinder blocks? This is all kind of weird, Ford's commercial truck ads feature dolled up F-150's and the new CEO is focusing on subscription telemetrics rather than real commercial product. I am not too sure how many fleets are going to be that interested. Our fleet already collects a lot of that information through our mobile data terminals and it's our own equipment.

But somehow Jeep has figured out a way to get the Hemi into a Wrangler......

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/navistar-rejects-tratons-buyout-offer-122638772.html

The GM deal with Nikola is interesting. Basically GM agrees to build Nikola's pickup truck and supply batteries and fuel cells for their semi in exchange for an 11% stake in Nikola (worth $2B at the moment) and a board seat. If Nikola fails GM isn't out anything, if they make it the deal could be worth billions going forward. Given the nature of Nikola up to this point, it was a deal they had to make. Gravity powered semi's can only roll so far......

Local dealer had a tandem tractor they couldn't get rid of.....

This comes at an awkward time: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vw-man-truckmaker-cut-many-063144346.html I wonder what IG Metall will have to say about this. Cutting jobs at home while buying a foreign manufacturer?

It would be back to the future!

Here we go: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vw-traton-boosts-bid-rest-142648352.html

LG will produce the cells until the joint venture LG/GM factory in Ohio comes on line. Somewhat strangely Ford is going to rely on vendors exclusively to supply their BEV batteries, Hackett does not see a need (or profit) for Ford to produce batteries. I have no doubt that's true in the short run, but could be a real problem as the bulk of vehicle sales become BEV's in the future. Then again, should Ford become part of VW at some point......

Part of the deal includes GM supplying batteries and fuel cells for Nikola's class 8 trucks.

Looks like it's actually not Icahn, it's Rachesky.

Wasn't the Condor James Hebe's baby? It sort of followed him around. I remember the COF-5370. Basically a wide Cargostar cab on a Paystar chassis.

Ford raised up the roof on those twice for more clearance. The truck in the first picture has the tallest roof. I helped a friend restore a 1965 F-100. Nice little truck, but that cab was small and tinny compared to GM and Dodge those years. Really rust-prone in the A pillars and step wells too.

Yes, it was done to clear the 8V-71 and fit a larger radiator. I think the high cab version could also take the NTC-335 and 903 Cummins.

"Win over management and the main shareholders". The previous offer was too low. Traton needs Navistar, but won't or can't pay for what it's worth. Icahn knows this.

What happened to these guys? Have not heard anything since last year, this is likely why: https://tlinetrucks.com/home/

That's a picture of the first one. From what I understand, it was sold to a Bekins mover on the west coast, repainted white and a sleeper was installed. I think the truck still exists someplace, there is/was a guy in Georgia that collected those things and I think he had it. Anyway, I only saw a couple of them and they were quite a bit different than the Dodge C series trucks. Cab was a bit similar but had a different dash and no doghouse. Heard it wasn't a bad truck.

So much for that. No problem, just buy the new Autocar conventional or the International HX

It probably is a mistake, but DTNA needs to convince Freightliner dealers to sell the things. Only 35 Freightliner dealers sell Sprinters? Yes, the Bullet should have continued as a Freightliner, but I think corporate politics got in the way of that. It was a messy divorce. Don't get me started on the whole DaimlerChrysler thing. Jurgen Schrempp was a genius and Daimler + Chrysler was a brilliant idea. The whole thing was sabotaged from inside Daimler and used in a coup to get rid of Schrempp. Daimler was also able to empty Chrysler's bank account in the process to bail out a failing Mercedes Benz. Supposedly Freightliner helped in the development of the Ram 4500/5500. There were also rumors that the 'Sterling' truck line was almost going to be named 'Ram'!