Red Horse

10-4- until arrival of Louisvilles at which time "T" was added to whichever Louisville series it was-like LNT, LT. LTS etc.

Shocker! always a F'liner fleet.

Hi-Ho D'Addario!

Belt drives. When the weight laws in early 60's-I assume to 73,280 for five axles??- My company had a lot of single axle tractors that were too new to get rid of without taking a big hit. So we went the "belt drive" route. I believe they were a Page and Page set up. By the time I started, most were gone, replaced by tandems. Might have worked in Fla. but not the best set up in Northeast-although they did provide the weight saving as well as the ability to hit the new max GCW. I guess were seeing that again with a lot of fleets going to a dead axle. Then again with the advances in materials, maybe the belt drive will make a comeback😉

I do believe that started with the '61 Super Duties-850 and up.

Amen! On the Op-Ed page of today's WSJ is an article by Holman Jenkins .."Self-Driving Car Returns to Earth. In summary, as I read it, he is saying the bubble and myth of "self driving" is about to burst. A key quote.."Lately with signals from its industry sources, the press has finally decided to acknowledge that the autonomous car isn't just around the corner. It can't handle inclement weather. It can't reliably tell a plastic bag blowing across the road from a child on a bicycle and won't be able to soon." Best quote..."Axios, that breathless compendium, now admits after launching its own autonomous vehicle newsletter that true self-driving cars are still "10,20,50 years" away." Unfortunately people like Hackett at Ford and Barra at GM are running like lemmings to the cliff because Silicon Valley says we must have autonomous vehicles. As I've said before, the only winners will be the lawyers. Amazing isn't it when for years we have been reading in Car and Driver, Road and Track, Autoweek etc, such phrases as..."The new XYZ represents the latest in driving dynamics that will make this car a best seller blah blah" Suddenly, we don't want to drive-or so we are being told.

Kevin- I would like to think "International" would include the USA but I just see no evidence that Hackett even knows what goes on in Turkey! I'm afraid "One Ford" is something that was Mulally's vision. Would love to see evidence that the Ford World Truck Engineering Center in Turkey is working on something other than a Transit Connect!

Rich- Shocking yes -because you can't buy a new R model or Super Liner with a Mack power train☹️

Ah -if you were a GMC dealer you would sing that same tune? I doubt it. No question they make a lot of money on high ATP pick ups-its but one phase of the business. Again...The Truck People from General Motors"..Not anymore IMO. I would be absolutely outraged over this if I was a long time GMC dealer, went through the bail out of class 4-8, yet stuck with them and now this. We have at least two in this area-did not sell B-O-P along with the trucks-just trucks. and now they are missing the boat. Again-my opinion.

Marriage made in hell-two companies that each had their own engine issues and pissed off a lot of customers. And they get in bed!

Excellent - wonder how many man hours go into the final assembly-looks like that thing has FOUR turbos!

No doubt with the new Ram and the GM/Navistar class 4,5 and 6 coming on stream Ford's market share can only go one way. The key is by how much. And what are they doing to keep as much as they can. As far as engine choices, the GM/Navistars are hurt by the lack of a gas option. Now I know your sources have said a gas option is right around the corner so Ford's gasoline advantage will be short lived?-Possibly. As for the diesel options, I think it is safe to say the 6.7 Power Stroke has proven it is a far cry from the 6.0/6.4 fiasco. So as I see that-its a draw with GM/Navistar-if someone does not like V-8 diesels, Ford-GM/Navistar are i n the same boat and Ram has one leg up. Regarding the tilt hood the GM/Navistar will have, no doubt it has to be better than the Ford/Ram Alligator hoods from a serviceability perspective. No clue what Ram will do but as for Ford, while I keep thinking IF they are going to stay in class 6,7 and as 450 and 550 chassis cabs are now built with the 650 and 750 at the Avon Lake plant perhaps there is a case that Ford will come out with a new cab to serve class 4-7. And by the way, as the 650 with its tilt hood is available in a low pro version with 19.5 wheels, what does it take to modify that hood for 450-550? In any case looks like a good horse race is shaping up. And the GM Isuzu cab overs will make the fight even tougher. One thing I don't understand, for years we heard..."GMC, the truck people from General Motors". And what does GM do? Kick the "truck people" in the ass and give the new trucks to the Chevy dealers. Yes I know there are more Chevy dealers, but it seems they are missing the boat on that one-internal politics is my bet.

I would like to see a picture of the "kit" that shows up at the mine where I assume they are then assembled???

Apparently Trump has not caught up with Hackett's proclamation. "Cars are dead"....Unless of course they are built by Kia, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, Subaru, BMW, Volvo, etc . Its only a matter of time before the management of these companies wake up to the fact they are losing their ass!

No doubt. And if not him, who? When I logged into AOL today the screen shot that comes up is this woman tugging two little kids along. The kids are wearing skimpy sandals-and their cloths looked relatively clean-considering these "refugees" marched how many thousand miles in the last month????

Waiting for the Hollywood crowd to jump all over this. Hollywood and the Soros crowd should become proactive in doing something about improving the conditions of these "refugees" in their own countries. What a practical solution-get them to stay put and clean up their own mess at home. The liberals could fund this-problem solved. The ones that really want to come here for all the right reasons, could then go about doing it in the proper and legal way.

Thx Kevin. I keep reading about some people downsizing their delivery fleets to avoid the CDL issue/driver shortage and it makes class 6 a lot more attractive if in fact this is true. With GM back in 6 as well as International, could be a very competitive market before long. Bill Ford should be talking to Hackett!

Where has he been??

Kevin-Any chance this 500 could end up in US. Same for that 4 banger!

The "BOX", not the contents😎 Black ones look nice. Paul how much??

Amen Kevin. Too bad we have loons that want to do this holiday in as well.

The "B-81" by the way started its life as a B-80 tractor purchased by the city of Worcester MA.

Well you are on the front line and deal with this BS. The way I look at it, Ford spends too much money employing customer service people who are taught to politely tell the customer to go to hell! Remember the Tacoma frame issue. One of my neighbors had one with 80,000 miles on it-This guy is a PHD and has no interest in vehicles-I don't think he ever washed this thing. He had it in to dealer for some reason and gets a call-he can't have his truck back! Frame gone and they gave him 13,000 for this plain jane beat to shit truck. Can you imagine Ford doing that?

Agree on leaving Mustang alone....Brainstorm! And this will sell for sure ..".The Ford Fit!" although Hackett hasn't used the word in the last week of so-maybe he is working up a new buzzword😎 I do think it is a looker and agree-should be an easy stretch of the Mustang-or is it more like putting Mustang front clip on a Fusion-although I would imagine North/South engine makes that a bit complicated. the good sign is perhaps Hatchett is rethinking his sedan decision