Jamaican Bulldog

I guess they did not mind you walking around and taking pics

17 minutes ago, Red Horse said:

I'm sure Hackett is counting on this "bold move" to boost his standing with the financial press.  Manpower reductions are always greeted with praise.  The good news is sales and marketing appear to be no 1. on the list. Perhaps the genius that was writing the script for medium duty that featured ..."750 tractor package for towing" will be on the list.

Then again, as JB noted in a post- - high roof Transits sit for weeks because proper trailers aren't available?  Give me a break, you build the product, then it sits before your dealer and his customer gets it-and Ford?  When does dealer pay? when it hits his lot?- a simple problem.."Mr carrier-if you want our business you need to get some new drop frame 53' trailers-in a hurry if you want this business" 

Now in defense of Hackett, if he truly is flattening the org chart, and if he truly will empower people to act, good moves-if only he was someone who truly understands the business-as in automotive business. So far IMO he hasn't proven that-unless you believe we truly want to give up driving our own vehicles-in spite of what Silicon Valley says.

Rumor is that they went with low bid for transportation and it shows why those bids were low. Also they offered dealers the option to go pickup vans at the plant however they would not waive the often $1000 or more  per vehicle destination and delivery charge if we took that option. We think that if they offered to waive that charge or reimbursed  if dealers arranged pick up, many dealers would do so especially dealers close to plant. Even for us in NY we could probably arrange especially if we pooled with dealers in close proximities to have the vans trucked to us for cheaper than the destination charge on Ford's invoice.

Hackett seems to have a serious elitist ego problem. He insinuates that his plans are just so brilliant that people can't see it or figure it out. His 28 yr old staff member often conducts meetings with executives and have to explain with charts after to them what he meant to say. If a CEO vision is so vague and ambiquous that a staffer has to translate it, thats a problem.

28 minutes ago, other dog said:

It's a farm, and I think they still do some excavation work, these are just trucks they don't use any more. They had a lot of chip trailers parked in a field too that have been there for years. So i'm thinking they might have used the Cruiseliner and Peterbilt to haul chips, and instead of selling or getting rid of anything when they didn't need it any more they just parked it?..I don't know.

Wow thats alot of abandoned rigs. They must all have an interesting story. I googled to see where the company was and it came up that the name sake of the company passed in 2009 but retired form the company in 1991.

Is this junk yard or a company or farm which went our of business?

Always sad to see old Macks rusting away. Hope some gets rescued

Hope there will be alot of trucks like the last time I was there 10 yrs ago.

14 minutes ago, Maxidyne said:

http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2018/10/ford-redesigning-company-structure-salaried-job-cuts-coming-in-19/

So what did they need all that new office space in the railroad station for?

Exactly, $90 million  for what when they allegedly are trying to cut costs. If they want to cut costs, start with the high failure parts that cost a lot in warranty claims such as the trouble some double clutch they kept for years in the Focus and Fiesta and the PTU they still put in some SUVs. You would think if you keep having to replace a part it needs to be redesigned. Avoiding that is  poor quality control.

19 hours ago, Red Horse said:

So could the problem be unavailability of certain outsourced components?  Makes no sense when the dealer network is stretched out on lead times.

Personally I think it may have something to do with the longstanding problems they have had getting vans to us after production. These vans sit for weeks at a time at before they get to dealers. Because of their height they often  can only fit on  trucks that can only carry 2 or 3 at a time not a regular car carrier. Nearly 4 yrs after the van came out they still have logistically problems to ship them. Maybe  the backlog on storage means they want to cut production because they have not where to park them. If that is the case, that would be a better excuse than the publicity of cutting production and laying off people

Ford not only contradicts itself but also is a reflection of the BS at Ford. It says the that due to slump in demand they will idle output, however it also says the sales are up this year.

Where the bullshit comes in, like the Fusion they have not been scheduling Transits we have on order, so what slump in orders??? It is almost impossible to get built the biggest version, the high roof extended length especially with dual wheels. I ordered one for a customer in February and up till early July it was not delivered. The customer desperately needed it for an event, so we had to fly someone to VA from NY for one we bought from a dealer there. We hardly made any profit but wanted to supply the customer as promised.

We are having difficulty getting the popular medium roof model scheduled. Ford keeps straining relationships between dealers and customers because the factory often can't keep commitments and the dealers are put in the position of losing money to keep customers happy. Ford also makes us out to be liars because it will say ok if you order this you will have in 3 months which we tell the customer. 5 months later no vehicle. Who takes the heat?

Then the dealer loses money from Ford because the unhappy customer gave the dealer a bad survey for the late vehicle. If automakers really want to know the truth  so they can serve customers better and make more profits they would ask questions on the survey about the product and the company, but the truth hurts. Instead  screw the salesman and dealer by asking ridiculous  questions a only compensate if the customer is completely satisfied with dealer and salesman. Very satisfied does not count, you will lose money.

Meanwhile Sprinter is adjusting for more output and offering more options customer want.

For the first time since the 70s Ford will not have a small car to sell in NA. Meanwhile you can't turn around without seeing a Honda Civic or similar cars on the road which those manufacturers figured out some how to sell profitably even if they crossed the Pacific. 

Today it was announced to us  by  Ford that due to poor demand it will drop 8 more configurations of the Fusion that was available for the 2019 model year after already (wisely) reducing the number significantly. What is striking to us as dealers in the NE is that one of those configurations will be mid level leather equipped SEL model with AWD. Orders for that package before 9/28 will still be built but Ford didn't warn that they may drop it at all. The SEL replaced the SE luxury package which had leather and that model with AWD was one of our best selling models. To get leather and AWD now customers have to go up to the more expensive Titanium model.

What Ford did not explain is how they came to the 'poor take rate' reason to drop this model. For months Ford was not scheduling orders for AWD Fusions told dealers their was a shortage of the 2.0 ecoboost engine which is needed for the AWD models (except the high performance Sport model which uses the 2.7 ecoboost). Thus customers got pissed and bought something else.

Then they said for the 2019 models they would only schedule slow selling hybrids in August and would divert lease support to the same slow selling hybrids and plug ins away from the better selling gas models. Plus they would stop advertising sedans! Not to mention the bad publicity that they will drop sedans.

So they restricted the availability of the car, took away sales support and they blame it on slow demand?

This is why Ford is so screwed because they have people in charge including Bill Ford who should be doing something else. Like I have said before, if a car company of this size and resources can't figure out how to sell fine vehicles and make a profit while others can it says something about the people in charge and not he car or the market. 

Does that have a Detroit engine based on the height of the hood?

Is it just Friday or Saturday and Sunday too?

Cool! What powertrain did it have? Can you please the video here

Interesting. Did Mack ever venture into designing fully automated transmissions off their maxi torque types?

14 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

The NTCxxxE and NTE engines were EEC certified (European Economic Commission).

What did that mean especially in an era of mechanical engines?

I grew up around both American and European trucks that were from the 60s up to the 90s and I was very keen and fascinated by the powertrain of trucks. The British trucks in particular such as Leyland, Atkinson, Seddon Atkinson, and ERF when powered by Cummins wore a distinctive badge that said 'British Cummins' and came in either as the non turbo 250hp or the more common Turbo charged 290hp version. I don't remember any coming originally with higher out put Cummins than 290 hp but some were later upgraded with 350 Cummins engine sourced from the U.S. I hardly saw any non-British European Trucks till maybe late 90s. The few Scammells and Fodens  I saw had Gardner or Rolls Royce engines. 

The American trucks that were powered with Cummins that I came across hardly came with anything less than a 350hp but were just labeled 'Cummins'. Some later models had the L10 Cummins. I do not remember coming across  any American trucks with 290 Cummins but I know they were available in American Trucks.

I was always curious about the distinction of British Cummins badges on British Trucks and them having 290hp or less and wondered if they were any different from the Cummins in American trucks especially with similar power rating. Except for the L10, the engine blocks and valve covers looked the same to my juvenile eyes from 250 to 350hp no matter the county of origin if it was a Cummins. Even from I was a kid I was always peeking under the hood or fenders of a truck to figure out the engine, lol I still do.

Was the lower power rated and short lived Renault 250 meant to replace the 237? Not the midliner engine but an 11 liter Renault engine.

15 hours ago, ws721 said:

Wow. That's almost a 20 year run. Impressive

I think the 237 came out in 1966. Either way long run. What power rating replaced it as a maxidyne engine?

10 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

Not the main reason. The engine was a bonus. After decades of trying to sell Kenworth, and to a far more limited extent Peterbilt (South Africa) in global markets, Paccar decided the DAF opportunity......being able to buy a famous brand that was nearly bankrupt for a modest amount of money, was a solid strategy towards becoming a global player. They couldn't accomplish that with the Foden and Leyland brands, but the DAF brand had the potential to reach the goal.....and it did.

Very interesting. I wish Mack had maintained a strategy into more markets, especially since used ones are so sought after for export all over the world.

23 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

Some DAF trucks are produced in the UK at Paccar-owned Leyland. They are all branded DAF.

https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/53742-leyland-celebrates-20-years-with-paccar/?tab=comments#comment-401901

 

Sad that they didn't keep the Leyland brand name for some of the trucks especially since they still build them there. Leyland brand name is still revered in many countries. Not sure if the Indian Ashok Leyland has any affiliation. 

Are the PACCAR engines that are now in Kenworths and Peterbilts originally DAF designs or U.S designed?

Most of these cab overs are like modern airplanes, they all look alike.

Are there any Leyland branded DAF trucks still made? I think some DAF trucks are still built at the old Leyland factory.

I am familiar with the last Superliner which is owned by Dennis Yaworski, but I am curious if anyone knows the whereabouts or stories surrounding any other last of model line Macks. I am particularly interested in who has the last DM and R model Macks, especially the ones before the bigger radiators. 

On 12/14/2012 at 8:22 PM, rsb502 said:

The Army had a few CL heavy haul trucks, the NG had two here in Smyrna and Nashville TN they had 2 DM800's too the DM800s were white with black fenders and E9 500's the CL's are black have Cummins Signature 600's with 18spd underdrive trans and all were on 12R24 tires they pulled fontaine tri axle lowboys with tandem axle geeps front and rear they used them to move tanks, the DM800's got shipped off the CL's are still here. I found a pic of one of the DM800's but I cant find any of the Cl's I know I have em Ill keep looking I had one with an abrams behind the CL on the interstate



Did you mean black and white RD 800's? Because these look like RD800, not DM800's which instead would have been off set cab with set back axle.