Maxidyne

Put a hood on it and stretch the sleeper to make North America's truckers happy and it'd be a hit! Conventional wisdom is that small volume big trucks aren't worth the bother for big auto makers... But just as low volume high performance cars like the Ford GT have a "halo effect" that boosts sales of high volume cars, having a Class 8 and world class truck at the top of the lineup will boost sales of high volume trucks.

I wouldn't be surprised if some came from the factory with Allisons.

UPS had the biggest fleet of MHs, and I used to go by a big UPS hub several times a week and could see any wrecked trucks at the back of the lot... Never saw a wrecked MH.

Good to hear some refreshing honesty from Cummins in contrast to Tesla's BS.

"Total Performance"!

Introduced in 1978, the MR will next year tie the R model variants (1966-2006) as the longest lived Mack models. Though probably not the most comfortable cabover, none of the newer designs can match the MRs combination of ruggedness, visibility, and maneuverability. Wikipedia link here.

Hmmm... Wonder if those MAN chassis bits might soon appear under an International conventional cab?

Is that Mitsubishi Fuso cab with Freightliner badging? Now I've seen everything...

There's a reason they're pushing "connectedness"- The data they get about where your at and when allows them to target ads to you. GM's latest version of OnStar uses a cell modem on the Verizon network to "call home". Usually "unlimited" data service by cell networks costs around $70-$100 a month, but Verizon is offering similar service via OnStar for $20 a month. Why- So they can gather all that data about where and when you're at and market to you, and GM probably gets to snoop and get info to deny warranty claims.

I like the padded doghouse- Comes in handy when we day cab drivers get sleepy!

If you look at the public domain reliability studies like Consumer Reports, Fords are slightly more reliable than GM or FCA, but clearly less reliable than much of their foreign based competition. Ford needs to invest in improving reliability, not cutting costs. While Ford stock is currently highly rated because Wall Street loves cost cutting, I'm tempted to dump mine before the consequences of cost cutting drive Ford stock down.

In the truck world they are largely obsolete, 'cause by the time they're 25 years old most vehicles have been scrapped and become parts donors rather than recipients. Off road in the world of boats, gensets, and other uses due to low hours of usage or the boat being built around them, diesel engines have a much longer working life.

You're right on on the ridiculous parts and service profits- Was looking at Penske's financials the other day and their profit margin on new cars and trucks is less than 10%, but they make over 40% profit margin on parts and service!

Kind of a waste to tool up a conventional just for Australia and maybe New Zealand.

Unless you're willing to pay for an aluminum frame on that KW, there's no reason Mack can't get within 200 pounds of a comparably specced KW's weight.

The environmentalist's bad science is duly noted- NRDC is claiming the same "40 times higher" emissions as the environmentalists claimed the VW diesels emitted. The only way you could maybe make them crank out emissions like that would be to take off the turbo, half plug the air filter, disable all the other emissions gear, and crank the fuel flow to the max. The environmentalists are off topic too- The regulation in question concerns Green House Gasses, and the newer engines are no better with regards to those emissions and in some cases worse. And the environmentalists wonder why they have no credibility?

As far as acceleration and hill climbing go, even this derated 6.7 PowerStroke will have better than 20 HP/Ton in a 2 axle truck. Top speed will probably have to be governed down to the tire's ratings. Sure, they could put a 15 liter 600 HP engine in there, but it'll handle worse due to the couple thousand pounds additional weight and cost $20,000 more to boot!

UPS wants big vans, so while you might see them using a Transit or Sprinter in Europe, in the U.S. they want cube and thus buy things like 800 cubic foot capacity step vans.

One of the things I like about the older vehicles is that once you get familiar with them, you don't need to take your eyes off the road to work the controls.

The Chinese are already cranking out clone cylinder heads and such, from what I've heard they're junk. I wouldn't be surprised if tooling for many 20th century big diesels is in China and 3rd world countries, what's missing is the knowledge and skill to make durable parts with it.

The 5 speed Maxitorque was available and used with the V8 Maxidyne engines. IIRC the later 300 series Maxitorque wasn't built in a 5 speed version, but the 6, 7, 8, etc. speed wide ratio Maxitorques were used with Maxidyne versions of the Mack 12 liter and Volvo based 11 and 13 liter engines.

I'm sure they'd tie into the grid so they had access to a wider array of generation options- Wind, solar, natural gas, hydro, coal, etc..

2 hours ago, BillyT said:

Interesting subject! Isn't Norfolk Southern owned by Berkshire Hathaway? I wish Boatright a lot of luck! I sure wouldn't want to be sued by Warren Buffet! I don't know if our roadbeds are in better condition now than when I was a freight car repairman in the early eighties,but the crossties in our section of right of way used to jump up and down like the keys on a piano when a train went by!

Berkshire Hathaway owns BNSF. They also own more wind energy than anyone else in America... Will BNSF be electrified?