kscarbel2

That is a beast. Thanks for posting.

You're right.

Congratulations and appreciation to Jim Kirkwood and Statewide Concrete Pumping who just received their brand new dual-steer Autocar ACX84 with a mounted Schwing America 46M Concrete Pump in Columbus, Ohio. All Autocar products include factory-direct technical support from our Autocar Solutions Team for life. Always Up - Autocar Trucks .

Yes.

Ford plant worker tested positive for Coronavirus, sending thousands of factory workers home early after second day open CBS Chicago / May 20, 2020 Chicago’s Ford assembly plant sent thousands of workers home early on Wednesday only two days after reopening because an employee tested positive for the novel Coronavirus. The unexpected dismissal came after Ford reopened Monday. Production was set to resume Tuesday night. Ford had implemented temperature checks, installed social distancing reminders and redesigned work stations for safety. Ford said the company has been cleaning and disinfecting all areas that the ill employee might have touched. “I’m worried right now,” said employee Timothy Shy. “This is the second day, and we are already hearing about this. Production was temporarily halted at part of the facility and the main plant. “Social distancing doesn’t really work,” said employee Billy Cowart. There are changes from the social distancing reminders outside to temperature checks and re-configured work stations inside. Ford provided a video highlighting some of the updated health changes COVID has brought along to their plants “All these people are crowded and on top of each other,” said Michael Hopper while wearing his Ford issued face mask. “I lost a brother to Coronavirus May 6th,” Hopper said. Hopper along with others describes an experience inside the plant that doesn’t sound or look like the polished video. “I cleaned my own workstation myself,” said Hopper. “How our jobs are set-up, if one person gets in the hole that would affect the person behind him.”

"You can kick their balls, but you can't touch them." .

The second generation (RWI) Super-Liner entered production in 1985. (The MH Ultra-Liner entered limited production in 1984........there were quite a few last minute changes)

The 2nd gen RW with rectangular headlights was known internally as the RWI model. The RWI (on the Ultra-Liner chassis) replaced the Hayward, California-built RWS (steel frame) and RWL (aluminum frame).

The second generation Super-Liner, produced in Macungie, with the 4 rectangular headlights (H4651/H4656), built on the previously introduced MH Ultra-Liner chassis, was known internally as the RWI model. We didn't spend money to improve the Cruise-Liner chassis because the Ultra-Liner was in the development pipeline to replace it before the first Cruise-Liner rolled off the Macungie assembly line. While the Cruise-Liner's death was planned, we wanted to continue on with the Super-Liner product.

Ford Trucks Spain / May 18, 2020 They say good things are kept waiting, but the COVID-19 has made it longer than expected!! Happy to announce that our dealer Vehinva has delivered their first F-Max on Friday to Fernando Zapata. Fernando, we hope you enjoy your shiny new truck! Thank you for choosing us! #PoweredbyFordTrucks 😊 #SharingtheLoad

Spanish haulier San Jose used the Mack emblem Paul. We didn't care......free advertising. https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/30466-when-mack-roamed-europe-the-middle-east-africa-and-western-asia/?page=3&tab=comments#comment-180054

The way they're printing money scares the heck out of me.........a recipe for disaster.

Based on the news fed to us from the entire spectrum of media (I don't know anyone in government today personally), I can't argue with you.

I never mentioned Trump or Obama. Okay? I only said that all government, by design is corrupt (and has been for hundreds of years). In 1887, John Dalberg-Acton wrote: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.

All government, by design, is corrupt to varying degrees, and inefficient in functionality.

The RWL/RWS was produced at Hayward. The MH chassis-based RWI was produced at Macungie.

F-150, Bronco programs delayed 2 months Michael Martinez, Automotive News / May 15, 2020 DETROIT — Plant shutdowns due to the coronavirus will result in roughly two-month delays for several of Ford Motor Co.'s key vehicle programs, including the redesigned F-150 pickup and new Bronco SUV, but a top executive said the automaker doesn't envision additional postponements. "Given our inability to work in our assembly plants during the shelter-in-place restrictions, it will have an impact to program timing, in terms of the launches, but we expect the launch delays to be commensurate with the duration of the shutdown period," Hau Thai-Tang, Ford's chief product development and purchasing officer, said Friday in a Bank of America presentation. Ford on March 18 said it would shutter its North American facilities as the coronavirus spread across the globe. It plans to resume limited production at most plants Monday. Ford has already delayed public unveilings of the Bronco, Bronco Sport crossover and F-150 this spring. The Bronco Sport, F-150 and Mustang Mach-E electric crossover are due in showrooms in the second half of 2020. The Bronco is expected to go on sale in early 2021. Bronco Sport output was originally planned to start July 13 but then was pushed to Sept. 7 because of the coronavirus outbreak. Suppliers have been told production now will begin Aug. 31 at a plant in Mexico. The vehicles represent popular, high-margin nameplates that Ford hopes are key to a financial turnaround. Despite the delays, Thai-Tang said Ford planned no further postponements, even as money gets tight. "We're not going to do any additional delay to these launches beyond the impact of COVID-19 as a mechanism to conserve cash," he said. "I know that's something some of the other OEMs are doing." The virus has upended launch plans for a number of automakers. Ford has said it has enough cash to make it to the end of 2020, even if none of its assembly plants resumed production. In the case of the Bronco family of vehicles, Ford is betting not only on robust sales — it's targeting 200,000 in 2021 — but also revenue from a large number of accessories. Ford is hoping the Bronco subbrand can do for it what Jeep has done for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. "FCA has nine Jeep products; last time I counted, it accounts for at least half of their revenue and profit, all underpinned by the Wrangler," Thai-Tang said. "We think we have the same brand strength with Bronco and Mustang, and series like Raptor, that we need to really capitalize on. You're seeing the initial us dipping our toes in the water, but we think there's tremendous upside there."

Yes. If I recall correctly, Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based Kenan Transport ordered RD tractors when the R model was discontinued. In their spec, basically the same truck except with the stronger deeper rails. The weight difference was actually negligible. The ultimate money-making tractor for a tanker fleet.

Read of the week ------------------------------------------------------ In the early days of the pandemic, the US government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America Aaron David, Washington Post / May 9, 2020 It was Jan. 22, a day after the first case of covid-19 was detected in the United States, and orders were pouring into Michael Bowen’s company outside Fort Worth, some from as far away as Hong Kong. Bowen’s medical supply company, Prestige Ameritech, could ramp up production to make an additional 1.7 million N95 masks a week. He viewed the shrinking domestic production of medical masks as a national security issue, though, and he wanted to give the federal government first dibs. “We still have four like-new N95 manufacturing lines,” Bowen wrote that day in an email to top administrators in the Department of Health and Human Services. “Reactivating these machines would be very difficult and very expensive but could be achieved in a dire situation.” But communications over several days with senior agency officials — including Robert Kad­lec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and emergency response — left Bowen with the clear impression that there was little immediate interest in his offer. “I don’t believe we as a government are anywhere near answering those questions for you yet,” Laura Wolf, director of the agency’s Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection, responded that same day. Bowen persisted. “We are the last major domestic mask company,” he wrote on Jan. 23. “My phones are ringing now, so I don’t ‘need’ government business. I’m just letting you know that I can help you preserve our infrastructure if things ever get really bad. I’m a patriot first, businessman second.” In the end, the government did not take Bowen up on his offer. Even today, production lines that could be making more than 7 million masks a month sit dormant. Bowen’s overture was described briefly in an 89-page whistleblower complaint filed this week by Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Bright was retaliated against by Kadlec and other officials — including being reassigned to a lesser post — because he tried to “prioritize science and safety over political expediency.” Emails show Bright pressed Kadlec and other agency leaders on the issue of mask shortages — and Bowen’s proposal specifically — to no avail. On Jan. 26, Bright wrote to a deputy that Bowen’s warnings “seem to be falling on deaf ears.” That day, Bowen sent Bright a more direct warning. “U.S. mask supply is at imminent risk,” Bowen wrote. “Rick, I think we’re in deep shit,” he wrote a day later. The story of Bowen’s offer illustrates a missed opportunity in the early days of the pandemic, one laid out in Bright’s whistleblower complaint, interviews with Bowen and emails provided by both men. Within weeks, a shortage of masks was endangering health-care workers in hard-hit areas across the country, and the Trump administration was scrambling to buy more masks — sometimes placing bulk orders with third-party distributors for many times the standard price. President Trump came under pressure to use extraordinary government powers to force the private industry to ramp up production. In a statement, White House economic adviser and Coronavirus task force member Peter Navarro said: “The company was just extremely difficult to work and communicate with. This was in sharp contrast to groups like the National Council of Textile Organizations and companies like Honeywell and Parkdale Mills, which have helped America very rapidly build up cost effective domestic mask capacity measuring in the hundreds of millions.” Carol Danko, an HHS spokeswoman [and employee of the American people], refused to comment on the offer by Bowen and other allegations raised in the whistleblower complaint. Wolf also refused to comment on the whistleblower complaint. A senior U.S. government official with knowledge of the offer said Bowen, 62, has a “legitimate beef.” “He was prescient, really,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. “But the reality is [HHS] didn’t have the money to do it at that time.” Another HHS official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: “There is a process for putting out contracts. It wasn’t as fast as anyone wanted it to be.” A voice in the wilderness Two decades ago, the low-slung factory in Texas was part of a supply conglomerate that produced almost 9 in 10 medical and surgical masks used in the United States. Bowen was a new product specialist at the plant back then, and he watched as industry consolidations and outsourcing shifted control of the plant from Tecnol Medical Products to Kimberly-Clark and then shuttered it altogether. In less than a decade, almost 90 percent of all U.S. mask production had moved out of the country, according to government reports at the time. Bowen and Dan Reese, a former executive at Tecnol, went into business together in 2005 and eventually bought the plant, believing a market remained for a dedicated domestic manufacturer of protective gear. In the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress appropriated $6 billion to buy antidotes to bioweapons and the medical supplies the country would need in public health disasters. An obscure new government organization called the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or ­BARDA, was among the agencies purchasing material for what would become the Strategic National Stockpile. Bowen began studying ­BARDA, attending its industry conferences and searching for a way in to press his case. In the parlance of BARDA, Bowen was seeking a “warm base” contract. The government would pay a premium to have masks manufactured domestically, but his company would keep its extra factory lines in working order, meaning production could be ramped up in an emergency. Bowen said he soon concluded that BARDA’s focus was trained elsewhere, on billion-dollar deals to induce manufacturing of vaccines for the most exotic disasters, such as weaponized attacks with anthrax or smallpox. Still, as Bowen moved down the supply chain, appealing directly to hospitals to buy his domestic-made masks, his sales pitch often ended with a plea to call BARDA. Bowen often carried PowerPoint slides from a 2007 presentation by BARDA and its parent division at HHS, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. One had a table showing that, in the event of a pandemic, the country would need 5.3 billion N95 respirator masks, 50 times more than the number in the stockpile. The presentation concluded: “Industrial surge capacity of [respiratory protection devices] will not be able to meet need and supplies will be short during a pandemic.” Bowen said he felt like a voice in the wilderness. “The world just looked at me as a mask salesman who was saying the sky was falling,” he said, “and they would say, ‘Your competitors aren’t saying that in China.’ ” After Trump’s election, Bowen hoped the new president’s America-first mentality might trickle down to operations like his. He wrote a letter to Trump and addressed it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: “90% of the United States protective mask supply is currently FOREIGN MADE!” it began. “I didn’t think Trump would read it, but I thought someone would and take note,” Bowen said. He also called Bright, who had been appointed to lead BARDA just before Trump took office. “In 14 years of doing this, there have been maybe four people in government who I felt like really understood this issue,” Bowen said. “Rick was one of them.” In Trump’s first year, however, Bowen grew newly disillusioned. During a week when the White House touted its “Buy American, Hire American” initiative, Bowen lost a military contract worth up to $1 million to a supplier that would make many of the masks in Mexico, he said. "Shame on the Department of Defense! One of these days the Bowen wrote on Aug. 17, 2017, to Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Clark, a senior official with the Pentagon’s Defense Health Agency. The US military will need America’s manufacturers to help win another war or fight another pandemic — and they will not exist,” Proposal to produce goes nowhere For Bowen, the first signs of trouble came in mid-January. Online orders through his company’s website, typically totaling maybe $2,000 a year and accounting for only a fraction of his business, suddenly skyrocketed to almost $700,000 in a few days. On Jan. 20, Bowen also fielded a call from the Department of Homeland Security, urgently seeking masks for airport screeners. Bowen said he did not have masks in stock to fill the order, but the call led him to contact Bright to tell him about the surge in demand for masks. “Is this virus going to be problematic?” Bowen wrote. Inside HHS, Bright quickly passed Bowen’s on-the-ground observations to a group that included Wolf, the director of the agency’s Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection. “Can you please reach out to Mike Bowen below? He is a great partner and a really good source for helpful information,” Bright wrote on Jan. 21. “Thanks Rick,” she replied. “We are tracking and have begun to coordinate with fda, niosh, and manufacturers today. More to follow tomorrow. Thinking about masks, gowns (inc those in shortage), gloves, and eye protection.” Within a day, Bowen sent an email to Wolf laying out what Prestige could do. The company’s four mothballed manufacturing lines could be restarted with large noncancelable orders, he wrote. “This is NOT something we would ever wish to do and have NO plans to do it on our own,” he wrote. “I’m simply letting you know that in a dire situation, it could be done.” Over the next three days, Bowen kept HHS officials informed as orders for a million masks came in from intermediaries for buyers in China and Hong Kong. On Jan. 26, he sent the email warning that the U.S. mask supply was at “imminent risk.” Bright forwarded it that day to Kadlec and others, urging action: “We have been watching and receiving warnings on this for over a week,” he wrote. The next day, Bright wrote to his deputy asking him to explore whether BARDA could divert money earmarked for vaccines and other biodefense measures to instead buy masks. From his end, Bowen said his proposal seemed to be going nowhere. “No one at HHS ever did get back to me in a substantive way,” Bowen said. The senior U.S. official said Bowen’s idea was considered, but funding could not easily be obtained without diverting it from other projects. Bowen started talking to reporters about the mask shortage in general terms. He was soon invited to appear on former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon’spodcast: “War Room: Pandemic.” On the Feb. 12 podcast, the two commiserated over the beleaguered state of U.S. manufacturing. “What I’ve been saying since 2007 is, ‘Guys, I’m warning you, here’s what is going to happen, let’s prepare,’ ” Bowen said on the program. “Because if you call me after it starts, I can’t help everybody.” Bowen said Bannon put him in touch with Navarro, the White House economic adviser. Navarro was quick to see the problem, Bowen said. After talking with Navarro, Bowen wrote to Bright that he should soon expect a call from the White House. “I’m pretty sure that my mask supply message will be heard by President Trump this week,” Bowen wrote. “Trump insider reading yesterday’s Wired.com article, the ball is screaming toward your court.” According to Bright’s complaint, he soon began attending White House meetings and helping Navarro write memos describing the supply of masks as a top issue. Emails and memos attached to the complaint show Bright reporting back to Kadlec and others about his work with Navarro. None of it turned the tide for Bowen. Nearly a month after his emailed offer, Bowen received his first formal communication about possibly helping to bolster the U.S. supply. The five-page form letter from the Food and Drug Administration — one Bowen said he suspected was sent to many manufacturers — asked how his company could help with what was by then a “national emergency response” to the shortage of protective gear. Bowen responded on Feb. 16, by firing off a terse email to FDA and HHS officials. He directed the agencies to a U.S. government website listing approved foreign manufacturers of medical masks. “There you’ll find a long list of . . . approved Chinese respirator companies,” he wrote. “Please send your long list of questions to them.” In March, Bowen submitted a bid to supply masks to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which by then had taken over purchasing. The government soon spent over $600 million on contracts involving masks. Big companies like Honeywell and 3M were each awarded contracts totaling over $170 million for protective gear. One distributor of tactical gear — a company with no history of procuring medical equipment — was awarded a $55 million deal to provide masks for as much as $5.50 a piece, eight times what the government was paying months earlier. On April 7, FEMA awarded Prestige a $9.5 million contract to provide a million N95 masks a month for one year, an order the company could fulfill without activating its dormant manufacturing lines. For the masks, Prestige charged the government 79 cents a piece. .

You are bringing back memories today. That brochure has a Value-Liner you showed (incorrectly identified as RD), as well as a pre-facelift axle-forward RD with Value-Liner styling. Customers and dealers said it was too heavy, so we didn't sell many. We sold far more post-facelift Western Contractors. I'm going to say the last model year for Macungie Value-Liner production was 1987. .

With a set-forward front axle. No, the RD Western Contractor did not exist until after the Value-Liner was discontinued. The lack of a Value-Liner, or a replacement, angered the western dealer body, forcing the issue to be addressed.

I recall we discontinued the Value-Liner thinking the face-lift RD would be an acceptable replacement for both east and west. Our dealers didn't agree and complained. So we created the face-lift RD "Western Contractor" as a replacement for them, for the discontinued Value-Liner. Later, we made the Western Contractor specs optional on the standard RD and discontinued the Western Contractor as a stand alone model.

Peterbilt Motors Press Release / May 12, 2020 Peterbilt Motors Company is proud to announce the return of the Model 389 Pride & Class package due to popular demand. Introduced with a limited production run in 2014 and 2017, the Model 389 Pride & Class package’s unique styling and touches of understated elegance truly set this truck apart from all others. Key external features of the Model 389 Pride & Class package include a highly polished hood crown surrounding a classic style louvered grille sheet, a brightly polished hood spine, chrome hood side accents, and polished hood fenders. The side of the truck is accentuated with polished rocker panels, bright cowl skirts, battery box, fuel tanks, and trimmed mud flaps. The iconic exterior look is finished off with a polished exterior sun visor, bumper, exhaust stacks and an exclusive Pride & Class emblem on the sleeper. The distinctive features of the Model 389 Pride & Class package continue on the inside of the truck as well with a luxurious Platinum Arctic Gray interior, charcoal dash top and Blackwood-finish trim accents throughout the cab. Premium black leather seats are embroidered with the Pride & Class logo on the headrests and go nicely with the black, luxury carpet lines found in the spacious cab and sleeper. Bright gauge bezels, a special steering wheel and Pride & Class emblems on the dash and accent trim round out the interior experience. “The Model 389 Pride & Class package takes a place among Peterbilt’s most iconic trucks. With unparalleled performance and distinctive design, it furthers our proud tradition of providing trucks with industry-leading styling, quality and value,” said Robert Woodall, Assistant General Manager Sales and Marketing. .