Red Horse

Watching the "Five at Five" on Fox tonight. Dana Perino nailed it IMO when she said words to effect this is a situation that calls for governments and their military to take the action to correct the conditions that are causing these people to flee. Again, We and the EU can spend all kinds of money trying to accomodate resettle these people or the money can be spent to correct the conditions that are CAUSING the dislocations. Many would say-"none of our business" but we end up paying anyway-so what is the best option??? and by the way-looks to me like for every one that looks like a true "refugee" fleeing from some horror, I seem to see some young dude with nice clothes and a cell phone- like-"where's the free stuff"??

Guess Ford Otosan doesn't do "wrong side of the road" tractors?

With a fair amount of fire truck front endfailures in the news, I would say wise choice!

OD thx- to respond, I have to treat thisas a new message rather than clicking on the "quote" block. By the way, MacBook pro here-does the maleware site work on Macs? and to "send" this I have to click on "more reply options"

Late question- is the front suspension independent??? In any case, very nice looking piece and it soiunds like you guys put a lot of effort into its functionality..RotoRay excluded!

Well I just finished a 1100 mile RT out I-84/80 to western PA towing a tandem U haul 6 x 12 open top to pick up a 1500 pd. Land Pride power rake. The fools at Uhaul still have the ban on renting to Explorers so I could not use the wifes 2010 Explorer 4.6 3V/6 speed with 7300 lb factory tow package. instead I borrowed no 1 son's 2005 F-150 crew, 5.4, 167,000 miles. Old girl did great- over 14 mpg, AC never skipped a beat and if you had her up to say 2100 RPM when you hit the big grades, did a good job of holding OD before it would jump out of OD. Now may be my imagination, but it did seem, the truck most likely struggling on some of those long grades, just happened to be a Volvo. Must be most Volvo operators tend to load to a higher GCW than operators of other makes???

When I look at the money the EU is paying to deal with this situation the thought comes to mind what if those funds were directed at remedial efforts at the source countries? does this mean military action to protect these people in their homelands? Perhaps in some cases. But if some order were brought to bear, I'm sure the rebuilding efforts alone could offer these lost souls some opportunity thy likely will never receive across the new their new surroundings.

Well Maddog, no argument about the 7.3. As for 6.0, 6.4, another story-best way to describe those two is "designed by committee" and between Ford and Navistar they couldn't agree on too many critical issues. As for Ford diesels, don't think there were too many bad things about the Ford 6 cyl ag motors that replaced the 3208 in the mediums-their downfall was they were dirty I believe and it would have cost too much to clean them up. Regarding 6.7, as KSC has educated us, designed by AVL of Austria and built by Ford in Mexico. Been out what- 4 or 5 years now? Saw a post somewhere recently about Ford techs still having plenty of 6.0/6.4 work but the 6.7's are not to be seen in the service bays with any regularity. Hope its true. JerDan wrecker dealer in my area seems to move a ton of 450/550's with lifts and there is a local Altec operation and in their yard, Fords in the 19,000 lb and under class outnumber everything else by a huge margin-mostly 6.7's-awaiting buckets. Like I said, 6.7 at 33,000 to 37,000 gvw will be a make or break case and I can't believe they would be dumb enough to bet the farm on this motor as their sole diesel option if they had not tested to the max.

thx guys. further point-to do this response I had to select..."more options"- just response block doesn't work

So what gives? Is it my Mac Book or is there a system problem. I get a continual "message" indicator but it is always some ad gimmick. Also if I try to respond to a post, it will not bring up the response block. Is it me or a system problem?

Teamster Grrrl Thx for your post-interesting stats- hope you are right.

Well KSC, here is a question for you. I, like a lot of people, are skeptical about Ford's decision to use the 6.7 Power Stroke as the sole diesel option for the new 750. Keep in mind this thing can have a 37,000 lb GVW plate and a 55,000 pd GCW rating!. I'm sure Ford is banking on their 250,000 mile warranty as proof of their confidence in this motor's ability but if I was a fleet manager, I would not be jumping at the chance to prove they are right. So what option would they have for a 6 cylinder? - always Cummins. But thinking outside thebox, I know FPT has a sales office in Michigan. And as Ford is using the FPT engines in the Cargo, how viable would that be-for both companies. I can't imagine it would be that difficult to certify these motors for the US and as FPT is now spun off from FCA (true?) we should not have to worry about Sergio trying to block the deal should Ram decide at this point they want to expand into class 6/7. Your thoughts?

Wishful thinking guys- The new world Ranger is a great vehicle-as is its Everest SUV counterpart. My bet is we won't see either This quote says it all IMO: Ford’s truck group marketing manager, Doug Scott, told USA Today last year that Ford was considering bringing a smaller pickup back to the U.S. but that its price and size would need to be different enough from the F-150 to make it worthwhile. "We're looking at it,” Scott told the paper. “We think we could sell a compact truck that's more like the size of the old Ranger, that gets six or eight more miles per gallon [than a full-size truck], is $5,000 or $6,000 less, and that we could build in the U.S. to avoid the tariff on imported trucks.” the F-150 is a cash cow and they won't trade a 150 sale for a lesser cost Ranger. If they build anything it will NOT be a BOF truck but rather some cheesebox based on a Transit connect or some other econo box I'm afraid. Take goodcare of your old Rangers boys!

Interesting to see what the powertrain is. I believe I read the BAE entry was powered by the Ford 6.7. Can't believe they would use something as complex as that in such a vehicle.

Barry Help! What is this crap that is always on my message board..."Banner". I can't get rid of it!

Actually the new order guides list a GCW at 55,000 lbs. It also lists a 26,000 lb REAR axle rating. couple that with the 14,000 front that is listed and assuming the correct rubber/spring ratings you end up with a GVW of 40,000lbs! The max GVW however is listed at 37,000 lbs. That is class 8 territory. Talk about putting it on the line! the 6.7 Power Stroke and the 6 speed Torqueshift as used in say a "one ton" are going into a 37,000 lb truck! Granted they are supposedly significantly different in the HD versions but still ......I guess the 250,000 mile powertrain warranty is supposed to be testimony to their confidence. I certainly understand the desire to use the inhouse powertrain, but I hope in time we see the Cummins, Allison, Fuller options back in the option book.

KSC- thx for putting this together. Something for us guys who miss Ford's presence on the heavy truck scene.

Congratulations to Don. A guy always willing to help and one who never made anyone feel his question was "too dumb". As 41 Chev said,hopefully Don was involved in the interview process.

I believe you are correct-same Holden roots. You have to wonder if GM learned anything when they went broke almost 10 years ago.

So what do you do when you wreck your SS/Police pkg next year and the Holden is out of production?? I am correct right? Holden is a dead duck next year as GM pulls out of Aussie production.

Wow- where has this been hiding??

I believe they do both-some are built by others, while I believe others are 100% Cat. I know for a fact some of the real small machines (mini's) are Wacker-Neusum (sp?). Not sure about others. You are probably right on Hitachi as for sure some Deeres are built by Hitachi.

Agree on hearing KSC's view. Also agree with your last statement..."what a mess". And how about this statement..."“And it will be a lot easier for us to continue to fully integrate our trucks with our construction machinery if we take full control of the manufacturing process. It also better places us to serve our customers’ needs in a quicker and more satisfactory manner.”..Marketing 101 bullshit at its finest! Let's see, they are building it in a plant that "assembles" excavators built in Japan! Lot of commonality of manufacturing there right? And while I too like the idea of American labor, how can you argue with the synergisms of using the less than utilized resources of Navistar's Escobedo Mexico Plant. They lost the Ford 650/750 volume, this should have fit Navistar like a glove. I always say, you could paint a pile of dog poop "Cat Yellow" and guys would stand around and say.."isn't that the nicest pile of dog p[oop you have ever seen?" Plain and simple it seems to me that Cat thinks they are going to capitalize on that brand loyalty factor to carry the day for them as they get into the HD truck business. Even though I think it is safe to say after 3 years of trying to crack the market, the only thing it seems to me they have created is a bad taste for the Cat truck brand. And as far as the loyalty factor, do they think it is going to be easy to break the loyalty factor the industry has for Mack? KW? Pete? F'liner? and yes International-ok Navistar? Those boys will not roll over and play dead. Bottom line, discarding the marketing BS I can't really see any real strong business case for this being a success. IMO, three years from now we will be reading...."after much consideration, Cat has decided to exit the on highway truck business in order to focus its energies on its core business".

Amen. What possible defense can they mount? "Well we did it based on odds of our less popular cab option being involved in such a crash". Whoever participated in this decision will not have a good performance review this year. I wonder what those mods cost in the manufacturing process. GM will be all over this like a wet blanket as they continue their "steel is stronger campaign"-while at the same time rushing to get their aluminum truck ready for market!

All of which supports Cat's position that ..."You CAN make a silk purse out of a sow's ear"!