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Red Horse

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Posts posted by Red Horse

  1. Well guys after many years of holding our show at the Hudson Elks field, we are moving to a new location and date. Mark your calendars for Sunday July 13, 2014. We will be at the Lancaster Fairgrounds, Home of the Bolton Fair and the Ty-Rods car show. The Fairgrounds are located on Rt 117, 4.4miles west of Exit 27 on I-495.

    As many of you who attended last year's event at Hudson can attest, the Elks lost a lot of their field as the town fenced off a significant piece of property that abutted the Hudson High School and had been used by the Elks. this made for very crowded conditions.

    This will not be the case at the spacious Lancaster Fairgrounds so mark your Calendars accordingly.

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  2. I am sure Capello's is proud of their CAT tractor and have displayed the truck at various shows. To me CAT trucks win the prize for ugly design.

    Jim

    How did I miss this post-my guess is Capello got the message from Milton Cat..."Want to make deliveries for us??" Well you know the rest of the story.

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  3. Mack purchased Savage Manufacturing Corporation in 1989, making it a Mack subsidiary, Mack Trucks of Utah. The resulting Mack FDM-700 model was available in both mid-engined (behind the cab) and rear-engined versions (replacing the camshaft on a mid-engined model was a hassle).

    Faced with a variety of challenges, the FDM did not become popular.

    Shifting gears in 1998, Mack decided to cooperate with Oshkosh and offer a Mack-powered version of the Oshkosh S Series front-discharge mixer (with a McNeilus drum - Oshkosh owns McNeilus). Oshkosh would assemble the trucks utilizing Mack powertrains.

    The new Oshkosh-based Mack-badged truck was called the FCM (Front-discharge-Concrete- Mixer) The original FDM name more logically stood for Front-Discharge-Mixer)

    As a result of the Mack-Oshkosh agreement, Mack discontinued production of the FDM in Utah and closed that plant, with production ending in September 1998.

    Thx-so my memory ISN't that bad! Is the FCM still offered?

  4. I tried reading it in a mirror but gave that up like it was some sort of code. I saw the note about the translate button and that helped but the translator is marginal at best...Oh well. They look kind of cool but at the end of the day a Ford is well....a Ford. I'm all set. I'll stick with Cummins and Mack stuff...

    Well having bought my share of Macks (R's and DM's, CH's) and while I love my B-61X, I have to say, the Louisville was a good value. Arm rests fall off? Yep-Ever break a frame?-never .

    As for these Cargos. I have to say they are sold in some of the toughest areas of the world. If you go to Ford's web site and work your way to Ford Turkey, you can see some big Cargos- dual front axles, heavy rock bodies etc. And they don't look like they spend too much time in nice urban settings!

    If Ford ever gets back into class 8, I would hope these trucks provide some good engineering feedback

  5. They get $180-$200 per load for the belt conveyor - much less expensive than a pump. Harrison/Old Castle Materials are really in the road building business along with aggregate production, asphalt production and ready mix concrete - front discharge trucks don't seem to do as well for pouring curbs and roads. Front Discharge trucks cost 2-3 times as much in maintenance costs versus rear discharge trucks plus higher initial purchase costs. Still for smaller pours especially around houses and foundations contractors will usually pay more for the front discharge truck.

    200 buck premium per load for this thing sounds like a bargain. Kind of surprised the maintenance cost for a front discharge would be twice to three times a conventional. In any case as always, nothing like the right tool for the job. I'm sure there are plenty of jobs were a belt mixer is the most cost effective answer. If had a redi-mix business of size I would think a good mix of rear/front/belts would cover all the bases. Not exactly good from a parts/maintenance perspective but in a competitive business, the customer rules-unless you are the only game in town.

    Again here in this neck of the woods (Mass) I would bet front discharge is 3 to 1 on replacements.

    "

    PS Wheeled my share of concrete off the ass end of B-81's, LJ's, A-cars using a "Jackson prime mover" in my youth (EJ- Foxon, Velardi etc)-but in my old age can appreciate the new technology

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  6. Looks like tha same old F750 hood with some extra stuff screwed on the front to make it look different to me, I don't see that its any longer, that's the std bumper and its in the std spot, I would guess that is more for underhood testing equipment or room for larger cooling until they get the new hood ready, that wont be how it looks for good.

    Actually I saw another picture-on same Blueovalnews thread -of a white 650 with the same hood treatment. Except this picture showed truck from rear and you could see exhaust. Small muffler and pipe-so this said to me this truck was probably a gas job. Also someone suggested this might be some sort of hybrid. Seeing that little exhaust, makes me think that might be a possibility.

    Think of it-if we are thinking this was to accomodate a larger radiator-because say there was an 8.3 Cummins or something bigger than a 6.7 Cummins under the hood would you not think it would have a significantlybigger exhaust system?? Not the case.

    I'm thinking the new truck will use the Euro Transit glass house (doors, windshield etc) so maybe it has something to do with that.

  7. The leaked word is Econoline production will run thru June 2014 and medium production will ramp up in late 2014 or early 2015.

    But, not yet having spent any money on a move to Avon Lake, I believe Ford is deliberating on whether or not to exit the medium duty truck segment (in the U.S. market) as margins are simply too slim.

    Every country market has its own unique metrics. In Brazil and Turkey, Ford makes money with medium and heavy trucks. But in the US market, Ford has been dragging its feet with just one toe in the water since around the time Louisville (the former Ford truck capital of the world) stopped commercial truck production. Without a concerted effort on Ford's part in the medium segment, the downward spiral in sales should be no surprise to anyone.

    Well this would appear to be the first sign that they ARE going to do something. I don't think they will ever be in the "large car" business to compete with Paccar etc, but what does it take to go from class 7 into 8 vocational? Not that much

  8. How about it KSC. Any word on the pix of the Ford 750 Mule that was posted on the Blue Oval New Forums yesterday. It came from a SEMA posting . It is a current 750 Crew Cab with a "toy hauler" box. Looks like it has a much bigger radiator as the hood is wider, higher and looks like it sets a bit forward. Some have suggested its an early mule for the Avon Lake mediums but I wonder if it isn't just something they are working on in short term to put say an 8.3 cummins or some Westport CNG motor in the current truck.

    Any thoughts? :idunno: :idunno:

  9. Matt where do you find this stuff? That one at the top is a TK 6 Michigan. We (Carafa Builders) had one in North Haven except it was a back hoe They had big tubular sticks. The "6" I believe was the smallest Michigan and did not have an engine in the "house"-it was powered by the prime mover-ours was a Waukesha or Continental gas job- 5 speed with a two speed aux. 12 x 20 military type rubber. I was the "kid"- drove machine from job to job

  10. Wonder what kind of premium they get per yard for this service? Has to be a very high maintenance cost unit. then again cheaper than bringing in a pump. In any case I think the days of rear discharge mixers are numbered except for certain applications- like big volume jobs feeding a pump.

    But for the average delivery, a front discharge is placing concrete literally the minute the truck hits the jobsite. Once contractors get used to that, they don't want to screw around with some guy backing up to forms, wrestling chutes etc.

  11. They purchased quite a few between roughly '06-'09 but I believe most of the straight trucks were Freightliner M2's. The Ford cabs were too small and it took a few years to find an air seat that one could actually air up without being too close to the ceiling. There may have been other issues but the decision to stop buying them was heavily influenced by the drivers. This year we had at least 50 new M2's pass through my terminal to be prepped by our shop before being distributed to other terminals.

    I can believe the space issue-then again, its a Super Duty Cab. Is an F-250/350 uncomfortable? I don't think so. Then again, maybe P & D drivers don't ride around with their asses on the floor like a lot of idiots you see today just barely peering over the wheel of their "large cars"! :whistling: In any case, Ford is supposed to be moving medium s back to this country (Avon Lake Ohio plant)from the Navistar JV in Mexico and the truck will be all new-we shall see.

  12. Transport Topics / October 8, 2013

    Navistar received almost 5,900 orders for Classes 6 through 8 trucks in September, the highest monthly number since 2011.

    Over 2,100 of the orders were for Class 6 or 7 DuraStar trucks with Cummins ISB 6.7-liter engines.

    “September orders marked Navistar’s highest monthly order intake for Class 6/7 vehicles in almost two years, which strengthens our belief that the ISB will be the catalyst for improving our medium-duty business,” Bill Kozek, president of North America truck and parts for Navistar, said in the statement.

    Navistar estimated its Class 8 order share to have risen to 17.4% in September, up from 16.6% in August.

    Industry wide, new Class 8 orders rose 27.4 percent in September over the previous year, the eighth straight month of year-over-year growth. North American truck makers received almost 20,100 orders in September, the strongest total since May and up from 15,780 in the same month a year ago. On a sequential basis, September’s order intake rose 2.3% from August’s total of 19,649. Through three quarters, cumulative 2013 orders stand at 189,505, a 15.3% gain compared with 164,401 in the first nine months of 2012.

    2100 CLASS 6 AND 7's with the 6.7. Wow- that is about a third of Ford's yearly volume and a huge percentage over Paccar's vol. I would almost have to say that a big chunk of that number must be a fleet account that was behind the push to get the 6.7 as an RPO? Like maybe Ryder?? Penske?

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