TeamsterGrrrl

That's gonna take a whole lotta KWH of battery capacity... The first million dollar garbage truck?

That the traditional way american auto and motorcycle manufacturers do business- Minimal effort and maximum profit!

I've also heard of M-Drives needing rebuilds at only 400-500k miles, we've come to expect twice that from Maxitorques and even Eaton twin countershaft transmissions. There is also the price of a rebuild to consider- $15k for the M-Drive as Volvo is the only source. You might get lucky and find a new take out for $3k or so, as a lot of new Mack buyers are pulling out the M-Drives before they put their new Macks in service.

Sure the Volvo automated manual can handle 100+ tons, but for how long?

The wide cab will definitely fill a gap and make the Cargo an option for medium and long haul operations in Europe and other more sophisticated problems. But for North America and Australia, they still need a conventional, and the F series can won't do.

This is a problem in all developed countries- Birth rates have fallen to below replacement and elders are retiring, so the labor shortage is just beginning. Add to that low wages that make trucking unattractive, and trucking now has a permanent driver shortage.

So how do the drivers in europe make more money that we do, with even tighter hours of service requirements?

What I'm saying is that many of the non-union cutthroat carriers are not taking advantage of the opportunities to run heavier and longer trucks where legal because they'd have to pay and teach their drivers better. Same with the "condo" sleepers- they're wasting cargo space to keep a low paid and low skill driver rather than pay for professional drivers slipseating. This is the problem in much of american businesses- Instead of developing increased productivity that benefits everyone, they're gouging the worker in hopes of increasing profits.

Take a look at trucking- We've been stuck with the same dinky 53 foot trailers and 80,000 pound weight limits since the 80s. Driver skill levels are dropping, and adding emissions equipment and condo sleepers to trucks has resulting in trucking productivity dropping. You see this all over the economy- For example fast food restaurants are trying to make more money by driving wages down instead of saving money by refining their processes so they can make more money with fewer and better paid workers.

M16TY, it's also a scientific fact that ethanol's higher octane means that engines that can adapt for it can run more ignition advance and regain some of the efficiency lost to ethanol's lower energy density. The "sweet spot" seems to be around E30, especially with high compression and turbocharged engines like the Ford Ecoboosts. And even if they're not officially "E85" rated, most of the spark ignition vehicles sold in the U.S. are made to run on Brazil's high % ethanol mixes. I looked up the numbers of the fuel system parts on my newer spark ignition vehicles and see if they're the same as the ones sold in Brazil- My BMW F800's fuel system is the same here as the fuel system in Brazil, so I run E20 in that bike all the time. My Yamaha Super Tenere has a different fuel pump part number than the one used in Brazil, so I don't feed it anything stronger than E10. As for energy use in making ethanol, do you really believe they're going to spend more on energy to make ethanol than they can sell the ethanol for?

mrsmackpaul, I agree- I've got a few motorcycles that demand high octane fuel and out here on the prairies the only options are usually 87 octane E10 or Diesel #2. But at many of the CO-OPs they have blender pumps offering anything from E10 to E85, and these modern bikes are built to run on Brazil's weakest ethanol mixture, E25. The octane rating rises about 3 for every 10% of ethanol in the fuel, so E20 brings the octane up to 90 which exceeds the bikes 89 octane requirement. The E20 is a hair cheaper and mileage is about the same, so I'm saving a bit while insuring that my bike's engine won't get ruined by detonation.

Nice Macks you've been drivin' there, mate! Here in the USA Maxidyne engine ratings are still available, but the wide ratio transmissions to match them pretty much ain't. However, Mack's website says something similar to the old Maxidyne/5 speed Maxitorque is still available, in the form of the 395 HP MP7 Econodyne with the T306 gathered ratio transmission. IMHO this would make a cool old school powertrain for on highway use at our low (36 ton) U.S. weight limits- You'd need only 5 gears to go from a stop to freeway cruise speed, yet with the 40% split between the top two gears you wouldn't have the engine screaming and wasting fuel before you could upshift like the old 5 speeds did. Pair that with the current Mack air lift pusher for a 6 by 2 bogie and you'd have a heck of a lightweight, high efficiency combination... But of course, they'll only let you have the factory air lift pusher setup with the fragile Volvo automated manual transmission. 'Spose you could just buy the tractor as a 4 by 2 and DIY the pusher axle, but then you may as well buy a glider from Daimler or Paccar and really do it up right!

First, good luck "rationalizing" MAN and Scania- They both have tremendous local support and being highly unionized, there's little chance of closing any plants. Second, I'm surprised that VW isn't proposing buying NAV and doing a retrofit or buyback of the emissions non-compliant International trucks as part of a global settlement of the VW emissions debacle. Wouldn't be that expensive- an International dealer in Minneapolis is trying to move a small fleet of 2012 Prostar day cab tandems with 300k miles for $19k! With NAV and it's products that devalued, it'd make sense for VW to buy NAV and the EPA to cut VW some slack on the TDI emissions fix in return for VW bring the International trucks into compliance.

Pretty gutsy of them given that Mack and Autocar pretty much own the market here. Wonder what they'll use for a U.S. emissions legal engine? Or maybe natural gas?

So in other words... Us bloggers, company drivers, owner-operators, and just plain truck nuts ain't welcome!

No point in trying to argue with people that create their own "facts"...

And she probably speaks perfect english, and can drive a stick shift too!

This ain't just SOP at Volvo, it's how most big businesses are run today. They don't build brands anymore, they milk them for all their worth by sticking their brand on cheap junk, when they've finally ruined the brand's image they just dump the brand.

Wind now beats coal and natural gas for cost, we only need natural gas for baseload backup. Coal will never make a comeback- It costs more to build a new coal plant than a natural gas plant, and wind is even cheaper. Coal fueled locomotives were scrapped over a half century ago because they couldn't respond quickly to load demands and needed too much maintenance. Coal fired power plants have the same problems and I'm surprised they've lasted as long as they have.

Heck, we swap implements on our tractors for different jobs instead of owning a half dozen tractors... Why not swap truck bodies for different tasks? Been doin' it in Europe for years, will work here too.

True, but buying used you're often buying somebody else's screw ups. For example, I regularly drive a 19 year old Ford Ranger and ride a 32 year old BMW motorcycle... But I bought them both new, maintained them religiously, and know their entire history.

Common problems with couple decade old vehicles, especially when bought used with no history. Vehicles pretty much fully depreciate by the time they're ten years old, so buying older ones is seldom worth it. If you're looking for a daily driver and not a restoration project, best to buy something less than a decade old and don't put more $$$ into it than it's worth.

Kinda short on facts there... What's really killing coal is cheap natural gas and wind.

OK, sounds like a previous owner already screwed it up by swapping in a 250 Econodyne which needs at least a 9 speed transmission... Sounds like a parts truck!

A Maxidyne doesn't need 10, 13 or more gears- The engine has a power band from 1200 to 2100 RPM or 1000 to 1800 RPM. Within that powerband the engine will put out over 90% of rated power, even lugged down or revved up against the governor. So swapping in a gearbox with more gears is just wasting your time and money>