TeamsterGrrrl

Unrusted cab and a hopefully unmolested aluminum frame might make it worthwhile.

IIRC, heaviest front axle offered on a CH was 14k or so. You could hang on a heavier axle, but the CH frame was never designed for higher weights.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bridge_Gross_Weight_Formula Not as big an issue as it used to be, but back when we had tight overall length limits it was often necessary to have axles as close to the end of the vehicle as possible to run legal at the weight limits.

I suspect the locally built fiberglass cab was done to increase the local content and avoid import tariffs. BMC did something similar with fiberglass Mini shells in Chili.

Good points, especially given the limited capacity of the rural water system that supplies us. We have no hydrant, so once the FD's 4000 gallon or so tanker is emptied, I suspect the strategy is to draw from the lake a half mile away. To do that they'd need to call a couple other departments for mutual aid to bring their tankers over and set up a tanker "bucket brigade".

Makes sense, given their History... IIRC SEAT was Spain's "copycat" builders of VWs before Spain joined the EU and the tariff walls fell, while Skoda was an automaker in their own right.

The 'Merican big truck market is maybe 300k to 400k vehicles a year split between 4 manufacturers... Nobody can turn a profit on that small market alone. That's why International hasn't had a new cab in over a decade and they had to go to MAN for an engine design. VW Group still builds a bunch of legacy brands like SEAT and Skoda, they know better than to kill off International.

Was my friends daily driver back in the 70s, engine and transmission came from a low mileage wreck and was installed by a bored mechanic at the Mercury dealer I worked at. He was always building something then got bored and sold them cheap to his friends, he sold me a '66 Cortinna GT he'd rebuilt from a wreck for $250!

The Ford 302/5 Liter is a more compact and lighter engine than the small block Chevy and can put out just as much power. Friend of mine had a '48 Ford pickup with a 302 and Cruisomatic, plant of power and got 20 MPG highway.

I like sprinklers, but good luck getting all the owners of hundred year old houses to install them. Our town is too small to justify our own FD, works better for us to contract with a slightly larger city FD 7 miles away, they provide protection for their city and several surrounding townships and cities. No state grants for FD operations in Minnesota, but the state gives us about $400 a year per person in "Local Government Aid" that we use for a variety of expenses.

How soon may we expect a Scania V8 in an International conventional?

It's the distance from the axle centerline to front bumper that's critical- many states allowed a straight truck to be 40' long and for bridge formula purposes rounded fractions of a foot up or down. So a 3 axle mixer with a boost-a-load would have both the front steering and rear boost-a-load axle as close to the ends of the truck as possible, allowing an outer axle bridge dimension of just a hair over 35'6" which was rounded up to 36' in a 40 foot overall length. Thus the 28" bumper to front axle center dimension on a RD Western Contractor Special got the buyer an extra 500 to 1000 pounds of payload.

You have to work the grants, and maybe increase taxes a bit too. For example, I'm trying to get our water system rebuilt, will cost about $150k and at peak we have only 20 customers. USDA Rural Development has been very helpful, sounds like they'll cover a third of the cost with a grant. We've been running a surplus in the city budget for several years now, so we're ending this year with about $35k in the bank. That means the citizens will have to pay about half the cost of the system, several thousand apiece is a lot, but we're spending as much or more now on repairs to our 50 year old pipes. Financed out over 20-30 years $75k spread over even 15 users is acceptable, it's an investment we have to make and it costs even more if we wait until the whole system fails. Same with fire protection. We've got volunteer fire departments competing with each other to offer the lowest price for annual contracts with the smaller cities and townships. All the departments are very resourceful and get a lot of bang for the buck, but they really need to charge us more than $250 a year for service. Would help too if we had funding from the hazmat haulers like the railroad and truckers running through our city, but that would probably require legislative if not congressional action.

When low skill jobs are taken by robots, you'll need a college education to get a job fixing robots... Think about it for a minute, there are millions of low skill jobs like truck driving, fast food, nursing assistant, etc. that will be automated out of existence in a decade or two. We'll need reduced work hours, early retirement, and a whole lot of similar social programs to keep all those unemployed low skill workers from revolting.

I largely agree, we may be on the verge of another industrial revolution with millions of routine jobs disappearing. Some folks may try to fight back with even lower wages, but I think we're going to have to accept education into the mid twenties, 30 hour workweeks, and retirement at 50 to survive...

Minneapolis Public Works is union through and through, and they do construction as well as repairs. Over a couple decades they graded and repaved almost every street in the city. That project ended about 15 years ago when a dumb mayor shut down the concrete plant, sold off the mixer trucks and quit replacing drivers and skilled construction workers when they retired. Despite that neglect, the streets they built are still holding up very well, though the short staffed department can't plow snow like they used to. BTW, the only union rebuilt streets that are showing significant wear are the truck routes...

The market is already speaking... KW reports that over half their orders are for the new cab, and they don't even have the full range of models released yet. Even if Trump dumps the EPA big truck fuel economy standards, the customers still demand better fuel economy.

The lousy roads are more a function of cheap construction to start with, followed by underfunded maintenance. American trucks got away with lousy "suspension" for years because we had new roads that were billiard table smooth, even rubber block works on smooth roads! But worn roads demand good suspension design, and the Europeans were way ahead of us in that department.

No.

First off, unions don't have much to do with it. The legislature and governor decide how much to spend on road maintainence. Second, suspension function is a whole 'nother largely unrelated issue.

Why is it that despite antilock brakes, stability control, airbags, etc.... The accident and fatality rates aren't dropping?

The counselors are just fulfilling the dreams of the parents, tell kids the truth and advise them to go into the crafts or tech and you'll find your position eliminated. I got a BA and some graduate credits while driving truck, but every job I've had didn't even require a high school diploma or GED. Had friends in social services try to talk me into getting licensed as a social worker, I had the prerequisites but said no thanks. Biggest mistake I made was letting a counselor talk me out of getting an engineering degree, now that I'm a senior and can get damn near free tuition I may fix that mistake...

I've been assuming for some time that the next Mack conventional would be based on the new Volvo cabovers, with a bulldog on the hood and maybe an M shaped grill to distinguish it from Volvo brand conventionals. If they're just doing a refresh of the old cab, that suggests that Volvo is thinking of killing off or selling off Mack and doesn't want to invest much in a new conventional...

The worst aspect is that "connected" cars are too easily hacked, which is why I won't buy one. Given that a handful of manufacturers produce most of the vehicles on the road, a hacker could shut the country down just by shutting down a few maker's cars and the ensuing traffic jams would make every vehicle useless.

A lot of the buying decisions are driven by access to capital- The big companies can get financing and take a tax write off on depreciation, so they buy new and trade before the warranty expires. Us ordinary folks buy used and pay for the truck and big repairs with savings, loans from friends and family, and borrowing on our credit cards.