Red Horse

Any clue as to what this is?? Never saw an Allison with a selector like this.

Well that is good news. If they are running at 33,000 you sure they are not 750's? Max plate on a 650 is 26,0000- Not to say you can't carry more-I would be surprised though if any propane tank outfit would mount a barrel big enough to exceed the chassis GVW rating. Last guy has to certify the truck. In any case good to hear that whatever they are-650 or 750 the trucks are working out well.

My point exactly. And I'm not talking about going crazy. The 750 can go up to 37,000 GVW. It has plenty of heavy frame options with high RBM numbers. 14,000 front axle and a 26,000 rear. Might need a bigger radiator. Other than that, what keeps them from upgrading?????? Case in point, there all all sorts of Bluediamond 750's around here in utility co. bucket trucks. Have any of these utilities bought OAP 750 buckets? If they have I haven't seen any. If the old 750 was good enough for that service, why aren't they buying the new truck. I say they are gunshy about the power train.

I would think it is more of financial decision that says they think they are making more on the in house power train. I'm sure they do well with that in house power train -but IMO it would make more sense to capture more sales even if the profit on those outsourced engines transmissions is less-at least you are getting incremental volume that has to contribute to overall profitability. OAP has to have significant fixed costs. Every additional truck that goes out the door, lowers those fixed costs. And by the way I don't think those workers in the Ford plant in Mexico that builds Power Strokes are paying UAW dues!

I guess they haven't figured out yet that one reason their class 7 sales are so low is not everyone wants a V-8 diesel-or a Ford Torqueshift transmission vs. an Allison. All kinds of rumors about a new 7 liter gas V-8 as a replacement for the 6.8 V-10 so that might help if and when that becomes a reality.

Thx-looking at it from a truly global perspective, I imagine then those numbers are realistic. I wonder how many US employees are employed there or even travel to Turkey on a regular basis. And as a followup to Roadway R's comments, seems like the full range of LCF's offered in Brazil and the increased emphasis GM is placing on LCF's for US market makes sense that Ford is working on a return of that class to US.

Kevin, "500 engineers of the 1500".... can this be? Or does "engineer" in Turkey mean anyone working on the line building trucks?? I find this hard to believe.

Dumb move on your part to post that fact-with the way things are going, you might have been in congress in a year or two as all the politicians "come clean"

Wow- I guess if I was faced with that bill I too would not be too happy. I'm not a fan of V-8 diesels but how many of these things are on the road now?? Many thousands I would think. And offering them in 750's up to 37,000 lb GVW with a 250,000 mile warranty is putting it on the line. What did your dealer tell you? By the way- buddy of mine has a new GMC 2500 on order after dealing with one thing after another on his 2014 and he told me GM has a hold on all duramaxes-no reason given.

And we had a lot of V-185 Cummins with Allisons -as well as a later version that I think were 220 horse. They were previous to the triple nickel. Between those engines and the early Allisons they were a nightmare.

I do believe light weight given high horsepower was a selling point for service in bulk transport (tankers). we never had any on east coast but they were used in Calif. And the experience was not good, although I have no specifics. Looking at all the comments on this thread however, that experience appears to be common.

Kevin- I hear you-but apparently Hackett thinks everything is cool as he proposes cutting engieering and parts procurement. How many of the recalls are the result of outside vendors? as always you get what you pay for.

Wow- a 6-71 and Maxi's to boot! someone spent some time on this over the years. Frame looks pretty good too!

Kevin, Hope you are right. Actually the fact that the 6.7 was included in BAE's unsuccessful bid for the Humvee replacement is also a positiver statement as to how others view this motor. And as you have previously pointed out, with AVL's fingerprints all over this motor's design there is good reason to be positive. as to Ford's miserable showing in class 7 sales, I still think Ford is suffering from a perception problem associated with the old 6.0 and 6.4 Power Strokes.

I find this a bit surprising; http://www.piercemfg...fordpowerstroke Ford was one of the gorillas in class 7 back in the old days before they sold out to Daimler. The new Ford 750? 3.32% of class 7 market share and I say the reason is no one has any confidence in the 6.7 Ford Power Stroke/Ford built Torqueshift trans. Might work well in an F-250, even a 550 at 19,500 pounds but in a 33,000 gvw dump truck?? If this goes anywhere this is a real positive statement on this engines capability.

Well guys, I am ancient I guess. My copy was given to me by Homer Milliken with his business card glued to the inside flap; "National Accounts Mack Trucks Inc 350 Fifth Ave. New York, New York 10001" How about it KSC- when was that office shut down? In any case, agree great book

Kevin, The countryside in this part of New England has plenty of concrete ties stacked up from a huge failed experiment from about 20 years ago. Don't know what the cause of the failure was but they did n ot stay in service long. Instead of being cast as a typical square/rectangular shape they had raised sections at the tie plates. They make great retaining walls if appearance doesn't count and when you go into ready mix plants, asphalt plants , sand and gravel screening operations you see them employed as walls or containment bins.

Amen- 04 Ranger Super Cab- FX-4 off road package. Youngest son bought it new then when he became a family guy he (or daughter in law) decided not a good second vehicle. So I bought it from him at an inflated price. Added a Back Rack, and the jump seats stay folded up. Great weather proof tool box!

Yes Rich-I saw it-I never would have guess the plastic discs are now bringing big money. By the way I was disappointed-all the hype about Mack and nothing-but that was a nice picture of a Big B single axle with the rock body.

Makes a whole lot of sense to me. My bet is this will be a copied option.

Ah memories! Attached two were delivered to my operation in like 85? sitting at delivering dealer. 350 Cummins- By today's standards totally "underpowered -Mass 99,000 lb permits.

Seems to me the "gas tax" is the fairest way to pay for this-assuming "transportation" expenditures are highways. A true progressive tax. What I always wondered was, why did the feds not key something to fuel prices when we were geared to paying outrageous fuel prices. That IMO would have been the time to gear any tax increase to any reduction from some benchmark energy cost. Let's say the weighted price of diesel /gas was for example $3.00. Bottom line, people might not have liked it, but they were used to living with it. So let's say for reduction in that fuel price a percentage of that decrease could have been applied to an increase in fed fuel tax. this adjustment could be made on a quarterly basis. Just a thought. All the politicians talk about the need for highway infrastructure improvements but they are always silent on how they are funded.

Well the preview clearly indicates trucks-and in particular Macks-are the attraction.

Is it my imagination or does this guy talk out of both sides of his mouth? They have recalls up the ass and he talks about "cutting engineering and material costs". Seems to me when you have recalls one after another you have to do a better job of engineering and perhaps look at your "low bid" parts cost.

What I don't understand about this deal is just what is Spartan doing? Looks like Pete cabovers and conventionals with conventional boxes? What is Spartan brining to the table? There are dozens of cargo van builders all over the US. Or is Spartan doing something to the chassis? Interesting in any case that the low cost builders of class 6, 7 (Ford? Navistar? Hino?) lose out to a premium chassis and a custom builder?