Red Horse

Hah-was in Sears today picking up some stuff for my "kids" (not the "grandkids"-I'm probably a true senior citizen on this site). In any case, I refuse to buy China crap- so I'm looking for USA labels. Found a nice Craftsman nut driver set, A Swenson Speed Square, and a Craftsman 10" pipe wrench-painted Rigid orange- all made in USA. so there still is some Craftsman stuff US sourced. And I do believe most of the Kobalt sockets, wrenchs etc are China. Channel Lock USA! Crescent-mostly China-they are now part of Apex Group Irwin-China--They own Vise Grip-sucks when you look at a Vise Grip and it has the MIC on it.

Thx Matt- kept drawing a blank

Thx Matt- I was just about to send you an e-mail as I was drawing a blank and thought you guys had posted something about it before. What was the name of that garage? Hughes Bros comes to mind but I'm drawing a blank. They were Mobil for years and then in the end flew the Citgo flag. I do believe they had all the big wreck business on the upper end of 84. They had at least one R model too. No Mega buck Petes/KW's with hydraulic booms-just know how and cables!

Willington Conn. And I do believe that truck is still in Conn.

Hope you are right as it makes a lot of sense when you look at it from a "low hanging fruit" perspective. That is if Ford has the confidence in the 6.7 Power Stroke to get into GVW's above 33,000 lbs. Or if they don't will they do something with the 7.3 or 9L Duratorque or once again turn to cummins for the 8.3.

thx

By the looks of it, this thing has been under cover-no fade or rust streaks and the rubber looks great- same guy who has the Reo??

They announce the deal Dec 11 and say they will be in business at end of the month! That says they had this in the works for months or it is MUCH easier to do business in Russia than in the US. With the apparent eagerness of these guys to expand their business, I can't believe we are not seeing signs of them one way or another getting involved with Ford's renewed presence in class 7 (and maybe baby 8) when Avon Lake comes on line in few months. Not with those high cab versions but with the one that most closely resembles the old Ford Cargo. KSC- I know the no compete has expired but was there anything in the Daimler deal that specifically blocked Ford from ever bringing the Cargo back to the US?

Hah-for sure-wonder how his renewal rates will be.

?? you talking about missing ROP? Last job had a lot of low OH obstructions.

Okay-now on the other end of the spectrum, borrowed this Cat 300.9D micro to do a little stone wall work-also figured I would get rid of a few stumps-makes a good "hatchet " to chop routes and then the 4790 with the grapple pulls them out like carrots!

This is the one I'm talking about

Big 10-4 on that. I'm hopeful that the "One Ford" campaign will let them draw on that world wide engineering and perhaps bring back the LCF Cargo here when they start building the new 650/750 at the Avon Lake Ohio plant this spring. Can't say that there is that much of a market for that big Euro style cab over that they build in Brazil and Turkey, but there is a market for the LCF version

What Euro truck isn't ugly-or should I say what big Euro truck looks like it was built to work? And for that matter, I guess we shouldn't throw stones whjen we live in a glass house. Like a F'liner Cascadia is good looking? or the Navistar ProStar with the 1948 K series retro grill? Now IMO, both of those are "fugly". But I'm prejudiced based on:

Thx for the clarification- so at one time there were three plants cranking out Rangers. Which I think was one of the top 10 selling vehicles on an annual basis in US. I think Ford's position that the market has been taken up by small inexpensive vehicles is a self fulfilling prophecy on Ford's part. I say "what do you expect when you let the product die on the vine?" Had they continued to upgrade, offer new power trains like the Ecoboost engines it would have continued to have decent numbers-IMO

I don't think so. There are two Louisville plants Louisville Assembly Plant (LAP) and Kentucky Truck Plant (KTP). KTP was the heavy truck plant and now builds 250-550. LAP was building Explorers but they are all now built in Chicago along with Taurus. I think LAP builds Escapes now. I don't think Rangers were ever built at LAP and for sure they were never built at KTP. Back when Rangers were selling in big numbers I think the two plants building them were Twin cities and Edison NJ-both now history. I say this with 99% certainty-but as my wife will tell you-been wrong before

I'm sure they always want more business-but at what price? Two big issues to be addressed: 1. As Teamster Grrl mentions-we are told the big issue is T-6 would only erode sales of 150-so if you buy that, what is the point. 2. The other issue as I have mentioned, is the plant economics question. As T-6/Everest are BOF vehicles, what plant would be a good fit considering existing vehicles produced at that location. As I've said, Avon Lake looks like it is the only plant left that will be building BOF other than KC and Dearborn which are cranking out aluminum 150's- and KTP which supposedly will also be producing aluminum BOF Super Duties when the next generation comes out.

Agree with KSC's editorial comments on Ford's dumb ass position on this issue.-as well as all the other posters. No unibody "car/truck"for me. And B61VT brings up good points on the economics that certainly apply to a lot of people. biut I'm afraid the Ford boys are driven totally by the manufacturing economics- and I guess from a stockholder's perspective tough to argue. Bottom line, do they have ANY option that would let them build off a current US built BOF vehicle? I don't think so. Then again, I look at the engineering/development costs that are done with respect to the Ranger/Everest platform. Assuming these two are not that far off from meeting US crash standards, what would it take to tweak them to comply? But back to the US manufacturing issue, I think with 150 now based on aluminum and its unique manufacturing process, they don't have a plant that does conventional BOF construction with "old fashioned" steel/welded construction. Transit is unibody. The Super duty line, built at the huge Kentucky Truck Plant (originally built as the largest HD truck plant in the world in'69 when thje Louisville came out) is BOF but if you listen/read all the buzz on those, they will soon be aluminum. Maybe the Ohio plant that still builds the last of the E series Cut aways and will soon be building the 2016 F650/750 could be the plant that builds this BOF small truck? A complicated problem for Ford. We shall see just how successful the new GM's are. In the meantime, I'm taking good care of my '04 Ranger FX-4 that has been in the family since new. And as I've posted many times on the BON website, I can't see throwing a couple of calcium loaded "44s" in the back of a unibody tin can built on a Transit Connect platform

Any clue as to the premium for the P-H system over a conventional power train? If you use say 3.50 per gallon, that is $15,000 per year savings. As for operating cost, I would imagine you also have lower brake costs with these things. Any clue as to durability of this system? Is Parker Hannifin last one in the hydraulic hybrid business? I think Ford had done a lot of research on this mode but have not heard of any activity of late. Makes sense to me but I guess the cost/weight penalty of the "accumulator tank" or whatever you call it is a big negative.

Turnpike doubles I see? So you do NYS thruway and Mass Pike?

The Explorer PI is now outselling the Taurus PI almost 2 to 1. With all the stuff these guys carry today, not surprising. As for the Charger, unless they have made huge changes, everything I have read/heard says they have very high maintenance costs. BUT they are fast! Then again, how fast is fast enough. As someone said-nothing outruns a Motorola! Nothing will probably compare with Crown Vics in terms of durability and low operating costs. And nice thing about CV's, once they were turned in, a quick paint job and they were back on road as cabs for another 100,000 or so miles.

Agree on the Ranger-I have an 04 FX-4. The 4.0 V-6 is a bit of a gas hog but guess what- I like the size. When people say-"well a 150 gets better gas mileage", I say..."but I don't want a truck that size" . Then they talk about a new replacement built on a Transit Connect. And I say..."check out attached-am I going to put two calcium loaded "44's" in the back of a Transit Connect? Not with a sense of comfort. And the argument will always be that the small truck market is just too small to be profitable. I'm sure Toyota is thrilled that Ford has left the market to them. And the anti Ranger crowd will be watching the success/failure of the new GM small trucks to prove/disprove their point. Oh and as to the argument that a 150 gets better gas mileage, just think what Ranger mpg numbers would have been with a modern engine such as the 3.5 V-6 or a 2.0 Ecoboost.

Nice- oldie made in USA!

2010 was last year of BOF Explorers. I do believe you can now rent from U-haul with an Explorer and I think that entire issue was just related to the Firestone issue. My wife has had three Explorers and last year her last one (2004) was pushing 100,000. She does not like new ones as she claims she can't see out the back blah blah. She wanted a Pilot which I said was not going to happen so I went on Autotrader.com and found a 2010 Limited Ford Certified Pre Owned with 27,000 miles. 3V 4.6 v-8, 6 speed. Great vehicle Can't beat the CPO deal-100,000 mile power train warranty etc. As for the Everest, looks like a great vehicle with great power train options-but I bet we never see it here. Same deal as the Ranger-anything that will take away from existing Ford vehicle sales has a snow ball's chance in hell of getting here.