RoadwayR

Neat truck, I always thought the R-410's were a preview of what Mack would have been like under Chrysler ownership! The 413's were among the best truck gas V-8's. Very much different than the passenger car-light truck 383's, 400's, and 440's. Wasn't there a R-400 very early on that had a Magnadyne flathead 6 in it?

Making room for VW's successful China operation.

1962 would still have torsion bar front suspension.

The 292 is a great engine, but that's not a 292! Looks like the older 261 to me. 292 didn't come out until 1963. The 261 was a good engine too, basically a larger heavy duty 235.

That certainly seems to be a growing market! I think that growth drove NAV and GM to partner. It's very price sensitive and high volume, so it's a natural for a traditional auto/light truck manufacturer. Not to mention components sharing with light trucks. Harder for NAV and DTNA to compete there without a partner. Ford and FCA cover it well, and I think Ford's new F-600 will be a great product in there.

Not too sure International or Freightliner for that matter are all too concerned about Ford. Only the lighter MV's an M2's compete with the F-650/750, and I think both of the truck manufacturers figure they can't compete with Ford on price in that weight class. So, let Ford have those low margin fleet sales like U-Haul. Now that International has a class 4/5 (that didn't cost them much!), they will earn conquest sales from Ford. Nowhere to go but up, right? As for Ford-Otosan, it seems like the only thing you can say with any certainty in the truck industry today is that we will never see a Ford-Otosan truck in North America. As VW digs their fangs deeper into Ford's rear end, I figure soon the VW overlords will convince Ford management how much better off they would be if they gave their share of Otosan's truck business to Traton to form a 'strategic alliance'. I say this in sarcasm, but..........

Some, but many are going straight into storage while older Tier 3 units are being rebuilt. The Tier 4's are getting poor fuel economy and both EMD and (former) G.E. units are proving more troublesome. Storing new units means their warranties do not begin until the locomotive is put into service. EMD was at a disadvantage because they had to come up with a new 4 cycle prime mover to meet Tier 4. They are catching up, I have heard crews like the SD70ACe-T4's. U.P. ordered 100, but I think some are going straight into storage. It's going to be a horse race, now that G.E. Locomotives are not part of G.E., their pockets are not as deep. Cat seems pretty serious. In any event this is all against a backdrop of slowing locomotive sales. Rebuilding Tier 3's makes more economic sense than buying Tier 4's. Funny Siemens didn't make a move for G.E.'s locomotive business.

G.E.'s Tier 4's don't seem to be any better.

Like when Fiat/Chrysler conned all their dealers to pick up Fiat franchises. Of course, they had to build separate facilities....... They pay day was supposed to come when Alfa knocked Audi out. Wonder how that's working out.

I don't know, I think Ford is doing as well as they want to with the Ford powertrain. The 650 and 750 sell on price, adding a Cummins/Allison drivetrain might increase the price of the trucks considerably. If the Ford was within a few dollars of a Freightliner M2 or a International MV, the Ford with it's old pickup truck cab and car dealer service network might be a tough sell against 'real' medium duty trucks. But, as it is, Ford can undercut their competitors and distribute the truck through their existing dealer network due to in large part to the 650/750 drivetrain. And, they have their own gasoline engine which gives them a unique product in class 6 and 7. Ford is in a great position right now, but Chevy is looming large in their rearview mirror. GM is going with the same philosophy with their new Silverado medium duty trucks, but leveraged their development and manufacturing with Navistar. More joint venture trucks are reported to be on the way and on top of that they have a great LCF line. At last count Chevy had better than 400 medium duty dealers. If I were Ford I would be more concerned with Chevy right now than International or Freightliner.

Seriously, why should they? They get all the advantages with NAV as a strategic partner and it doesn't cost them any more. Got a good thing going just the way it is now. Besides, I am starting to think VW wants to slim down so they can swallow Ford. I figure VW will sell more of Traton off in coming years, and they are about to sell MAN's large engine unit off as you have reported.

Some of those truck 366's and 427's had stainless steel 'header' type exhaust manifolds from the factory: https://www.mylittlesalesman.com/1987-gmc-366-engine-egr-manifold-1140702

Saw a few of those over the years in California. Rumor was the conventional cab was wide and the doors had bulges in them so the driver could sleep across the seats!

What did they have for power, 6V-92 Silver?

Isuzu dealers here in California seem to be doing well with the FTR, I wonder if Isuzu is considering a more powerful higher GVW version.

That's just it: A twin-steer cab-over mixer might be just the ticket for transit-mix (maneuverable, can be heavy on the front, not too long), but good luck getting anyone here to try it! BTW- that GXD is awfully close to the Giga CY series.

Nice. No real market for either one here, maybe the GXD as a city tractor.

I'll buy that. What did it have for power, a 3208? There were a few gas Brigadiers built with Chevy 427's, all before 1981. I think they used the old steel butterfly hood.

The Brigadier was an inexpensive truck, mainly because it had been in production a long time and many units had been sold. Started off as the H/J series in 1966. The WG was a cheap truck because Volvo cut a lot of corners on it. Big difference.

That orange dump is another set back axle prototype. I don't think any Brig's were sold so equipped, even under the WhiteGMC name. The Brigadier was replaced in 1990 by the White WG, probably not a move in the right direction......

To a certain extent as a follow on, GMC introduced a General conventional with a more aerodynamic hood/fender and a set-back front axle. Not sure how many were built, seems they were all built in 1987, last year of General production. I remember seeing a new one in Southern California in late 1987, belonged to a United Van Lines agent.

Going back to the original post, the list of available engines includes the 245 'Hemi' 6 cylinder. The 245 was a Chrysler designed and manufactured in Australia only engine that earned quite a reputation for performance in Australian Chargers and Valiants. There were rumors the 245 had it's origins in a U.S. project to develop a 6 cylinder truck engine larger than the 225 Slant Six to be competitive with the Ford 300 and Chevy 292, but was shelved when it appeared it was going to be more expensive to produce than the 318 V-8. Project went to Chrysler Australia were it came to fruition and became quite successful. Speaking of Australian Dodge trucks using International cabs, I believe some earlier Internationals assembled in Australia used Dodge cabs!

I saw that truck at the SoCal ATHS show a few years ago. Very impressive, it was built by one of the movie studios.

The 1980's was a time of constant reorganization and last minute changes at GM. Groundwork was being laid for eventual bankruptcy, but GM still had so much money it was well into the future. Too many executives primarily concerned about their own careers above all else. Detroit Diesel was suffering from near total neglect, what had been another GM license to print money by the early 80's was producing outdated product with no future. I knew they were in deep trouble when all the General, Astro 95, and Brigadier sales literature were showing Cummins and Cat powered trucks! The 60 Series was a big surprise because it was looking like GM was going to let Detroit Diesel go out of business. Maybe that is where the Deere rumors came from, no one could believe GM was capable of designing a diesel like that. A great engine, I believe it was getting close to 50% or the class 8 diesel market by the mid-90's. The announcement of the formation of what was then the Volvo-GM Heavy Truck Corp. was not a surprise. The Astro 95 (and cabovers in general) were fading from the scene, the General was still a contemporary truck but the Brigadier was getting old. Believe it or not the Brig was outselling all the Louisville LN's at the time (because of Yellow?), maybe that's why it continued as a WhiteGMC for a few more years. Some Generals and Brigs had 60's in them starting in mid-1986. GM intended to stay in the medium duty business. While all this was going on the '530' series 1990 TopKick/Kodiak was under development. Some of the work on that truck was done by Bedford in England, and it used the new GM light duty cab. Was supposed to have a 5.9L Deere diesel in addition to the usual GM gassers, but as explained above that didn't happen. Cat was working on a new family of turbo/aftercooled 6 cylinder diesels to replace the 3208, and GM was able to secure an exclusive on that engine for a few years. Pretty good truck, the new Cat had a few issues but the rest of the truck was pretty good. Very solid chassis, cab was small but had good visibility. Welded-on door hinges were a problem, had to keep them lubed and replace the pins and little bronze bushings when they wore out. The doors were unbelievably heavy on those trucks. Funny, I had a little insider information around 2004 that GM was looking to reenter class 8. They had even gone so far as to renew the trademarks on 'Brigadier' and 'Bison'. Not sure what the product would have been, maybe a later TopKick/Kodiak with a longer hood and a 10+L diesel? They may have an idea for a 'baby 8' Chevy again, but I think if they do it would be with a certain partner.......

Very interesting, clears up a few things. I wonder if Deere's involvement with the 60 Series really wasn't any more than casting some components for it. I think it is likely that had the joint venture progressed Deere would have make some variant 60 Series available in their larger tractors.