Red Horse

Not yet-next week.

For sure -that is who I was going to say---unbelievable old inventory

EJ-But YOU have a brilliant governor

Ahh- Louisvilles! Great bang for the buck IMO. Did the arm rests fall off?- Yep. did the frames fail? Never-at least in my experience. Biggest problem was drivers who were prejudiced--"Its a Ford-they make pick ups!" Had one old boy tell me-"Hate this thing" -I said "WHy"? Answer.."That windshield is so big its like sitting in your living room window-everyone can see you"! Didn't bother telling him-"Yeah and you can see everything in front of you too"

Hope you have good front rubber-with that long wheelbase and those tandems at the ass end hopefully that old Ford has a big front end

Hmnn? Drug deal repo?

Tom Kloza is the "man" when it comes to a good analysis of what is happening in the oil patch. And what he is quoted in the Fleet Owner story is no exception. Key point as always, Saudi Arabia is at the pricing throttle. And they have always been smart enough to recognize that while high prices are to their (and Opec's) benefit, they have always understood that if they get too greedy they have a bad effect on the world economy and if they slow it down too much, it hurts them. Unfortunately not all OPEC members recognize that and many have built their economies around high prices and can't tolerate a lower price. Too bad for them as the Saudis are willing to accept less to keep income steady even at a reduced rate. Also no doubt they (Saudis) are sensitive to what Iran and Putin is doing and they can keep those bad boys in check to a degree. They recognize the importance of a stable world scene. And as to our great success with shale, fracking etc, they know that the economics that make certain production say with a price close to 100 bucks a barrel a winner, once the price gets closer to 50 all of a sudden the economics don't work. Best example. in modern times crude moved from the well to the refinery basically by the two cheapest modes of transportation-pipeline and marine. Granted some moved by truck when distances were very short, but very little crude moved by rail. All of a sudden today we found crude moving by rail in unit trains. Moves such as unit trains from the Dakotas to Albany NY on the Hudson made sense. The crude is then off loaded and shipped down the Hudson by barge to Jersey and even Philly refineries. At 50bucks, think those transportation economics are going to work? The Saudis understand this and already things in the Dakotas are cooling off. Last point as to where prices will go, enjoy the prices while we can, but the really knowledgeable people are being cautious. A week or so ago I mentioned on another site, things can change very quickly if say Putin or the Iranians some how or other end up causing a problem in the Strait of Hormuz blocking tanker traffic. New ball game. Well over the weekend, I read a news story that told of the Iranians deploying some sort of high powered "drone bomb" in the vacinity of Hormuz! Bottom line we will never be out of the woods when it comes to energy IMO.

"N"Series! You are dating yourself. I will say this-many years ago, I remember we had an NT-950D "canary" (as in Ryder) for a short term rental-nice driving truck back then! But you bring up another good point with the so called "cab lift" to do serious maintenance on a PS Super Duty. As the 650/750 will have a new tilting hood assembly, and as they will be installing a V-8 in a chassis that was designed initially to accomodate an in line 6, I would have to think the ease of maintenance will be another incentive for some to spend the incremental dollars for a 650 vs. a 550. And as most 550's dealers inventory seem to be 4WD, I would bet a 650 will not sell for that much more than a 4 WD 550. While some would say "apples and orange" comparison, I would say a properly loaded 650 will hold its own vs a 4 WD 550 in snow/off road conditions..

KSC, Well I hear you load and clear about Daimler's strong position in class 7 and 8. And while I have no personal experience I have heard of others who share 84Superdog's sentiments. The M2's are not without issues. I would say if there is a company that is truly focused on trucks, it is Daimler and I would have to imagine if there are issues they will address them As for the specifics of the rumor that GM will partner with Navistar to get back into medium trucks via a JV at Escobedo to take up Ford's slot, I understand your lack of confidence in GM's management ability at the highest level but I gather you have no specific info as to the truth of this move? And regarding Ford, I don't think Ford intends at this point to challenge Navistar or Daimler for leadership in class 6/7-at least with their announced powertrain options-which is basically Henry Ford's philosophy from Model T days..."any color as long as it's black". But I think their initial efforts will be to grab the low hanging fruit with a cost effective power train consisting of the V-10 gas and 6.7 Power Stroke and 6 speed in house auto trans. I think it is safe to say that the 6.7 has done much to dispel the bad rep earned by the prior 6.0/6.4 since its introduction in 2012 (?). Furthermore, I would also bet that we will see a lot of buyers who were formerly using class 5 equipment, bump up into 650/750 as for probably not a lot more money, they end up with more truck without the breaking into CDL territory. In fact, there is a dealer in my area who stocks 750's which are normally 33,000 lb trucks, plated for 26,000 lbs. My suspicion is these are heavier trucks with a "paper" GVW that avoids the CDL issue. Do I think it is a mistake to drop the Cummins/Allison combo? Yes I do, but I would have to believe Ford knows what they are doing at THIS POINT in their return to US production of these trucks. Or should I say as a stockholder,I sure as hell hope they have a plan

Heard a story that with the end of the Ford-Navistar JV BlueDiamond Trucks, Navistar is about to partner with GM to build class 4-7 trucks at the Escobedo plant. This would be similar to the Ford deal with Navistar chassis and GM cab structures. For sure the GMC/Chevy dealers can't be happy watching Ram and Ford fight over class 4 and 5 sales. Plus, can Navistar afford to lose ANY incremental production volume. Now if I were a Navistar dealer, would I want more competition for my Terrastar class 4-5 trucks? I don't think so. How about it KSC-any opinions?

Tim M Just to get your interest in the "off season" attached shots of Rick Lazaro's new Wirtgen Milling machine. Powered by a C-18 Cat.

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: