Maxidyne

Awesome story that makes the current Ford management look like the losers they are!

Sounds like Volvo did a "work around" with the high co-efficient linings to avoid having to fit bigger brakes.

Drove a 325 HP V8 Maxidyne for a bit, that sleeper made many a Cat powered Paccar owner wondering what was wrong with their engine! When the 16 liter V8 came out in the 80s the shoe was on the other foot, got outdragged by a Superliner with a Mack V8 while I was driving a 6V-92TT powered International at barely half his weight.

730 Scania V8 horsepower would be just the ticket for 85 ton South Dakota 20 axle road trains, Michigan 11 axle "centipedes", and 63.5 ton B Doubles running in the Rocky Mountains. Would be a hassle to fit the wide V8 between the International's straight frame rails, and even more of a hassle to fit the current International cab onto a whole Scania chassis. But the "halo effect" would be worth it... Mack didn't sell many V8s, but the V8 sold a lot of Macks!

A missed opportunity for Mack...

Unprofitably low rates have been the bane of American trucking since deregulation in the late 70s- Used to be that everybody made good money in trucking, now it's a dogfight for every last bit of "backhaul" freight!

Just looked at some bids from our MN State buying pool and the Autocar ACX and MR with similar specs look pretty close. No bids from the Paccar dealers on their tandem cabover, but the KW dealer bid on the heavier conventionals was high.

Agreed on the instruments- One of the things I liked about driving trucks vs. cars was most of the trucks had a decent instrument panel with lotsa useful gauges and switches.

A lot of those Western Star sales are "low bid" sales to governments too. Also seeing a lot of Western Stars as well as Freightliner M2s at upfitters like TeleElect too, could be that they're low bidders there too. That said, being able to supply a fleet with everything from compact cars to Western Star heavy haul trucks is an advantage in the marketplace that Navistar, Volvo, and Paccar don't have.

The "Big Threes" history is full of abandoned markets and products because somebody though that big cars or little cars or big trucks or SUVs were dead and pulled out of that market, only to have to rush back in a few years later. Ford had a front wheel drive compact, the Taunus, in the 60s and killed it, and two decades later probably spent a billion in 21st century dollars to bring the Escort to world markets. Ford killed the original Bronco and now they're spending hundreds of millions to reinvent it. Ford killed the GT40 twice, had to reinvent it, and now they're letting it die again. Ford killed their heavy trucks 20 years ago, and now the company they sold their trucks to has full order books for the rest of the year... When you're a company that builds over a million motor vehicles a year you have to be active in every segment of the market, because the market can change it's mind a lot quicker than the years it takes to design and tool up a new product.

From what I've heard Daimler even has the Ford heavy truck parts inventory... Need a Ford produced part for your old Louisville, you go to a Freightliner dealer.

I've been hearing of deleted Volvo engines having the same problems. Seems a lot of the hackers modifying the software to delete emissions are mucking about with code they really don't understand and making things worse.

I wouldn't be so sure of that...

I suspect the competition soon will...

Autocar isn't dumb, now that they've done the hard work to bring this truck to market, no doubt they're working on a long hood version and maybe set forward axle versions too. Meanwhile at Mack they had a big block CL with Cummins power and even Mack V8 power before that, but since 2006 all they've had is the overpriced Titan with too few options for a couple years. After a construction company has to go to Daimler, Navistar, or Paccar for a lowboy tractor they're unlikely to go back to Mack for their straight trucks and under 80k GCW tractors.

From reading the article, sounds like Bendix doesn't make the bare cabs, but they assemble and dress them. That article's 11 years old, so that arrangement may have changed.

International crew cabs are pretty common, and a lot of them already come with Allisons...

Grand Vehicle Works bought the White designed low cabovers from Volvo after they bough Mack, Volvo had to sell because between the White/Volvo and Mack low cabovers they had a monopoly position in that market. I suspect Volvo included a non compete agreement for several years that barred GVW from building conventionals.

I think everyone's scared their own 11-13 liter engines will lose sales to Cummins X12 if they offer it. I suspect Daimler only offered it because they're vulnerable to antitrust lawsuits, and they're only offering it in vocational chassis.

IIRC USPS is replacing straight trucks- the Navistar conventionals and the few Cargo cabovers bought back around '04 with new Pete conventionals and cabovers. The horde of '06 Mack tractors are still around, though USPS has been leasing some new trucks from Ryder to run in areas of California where emissions regulations are pushing the old Macks aside.

We're overdue, mean time between recessions is 8 years...

Downspeeding works- There's a guy hauling milk in the midwest with a new 6x2 Anthem with the 455 HP turbocompounded engine that's getting around 9 MPG. Joel Morrow with Ploger Trucking is running a similar spec anthem with a van trailer and is often getting 10 MPG or better. Both are geared to cruise at around 1000-1100 RPM.

After being forgotten for decades, the Bronco is developing a following- Heck, even my 23 year old nephew who still hasn't gotten his license knows the whole Bronco and Ranger history. Ford's been feeding this with product placements of classic Broncos, but I think there's more to this Bronco enthusiasm than that. Question is, is the market for a performance off road 4x4 truck big enough to keep FCA's Toledo plant and Ford's Michigan Assembly busy?

My suspicions are that they're not so much shakedowns as attempts to favor "American" manufacturers. The effect of VW Group's cheating was so small that statisticians have difficulty measuring it, But they literally "threw the book" at VW with billions in penalties as well as requiring buy backs and rewards for owners submitting their vehicles for modifications. FCA did a similar cheat, but paid much smaller fines and just had to do recalls. Those were on Ram branded vehicles, had the been on FIATs or other Italian branded vehicles I suspect the penalties would have been higher. Then look how easy HOG(NYSE) got off- 200,000 "tuner" chips that pushed the bikes out of emissions compliance, and all they got was fines of something like $40 a vehicle. Combine this with the U.S.'s now oddball emissions requirements and loophole filled Fuel Economy standards and it looks like the EPA is clearly trying to move the goalpost's to help the "home team". That said, the EU and China are using plenty of non-tariff restrictions like heavy fuel taxes, oddball tax thresholds that favor small vehicles, and domestic company ownership requirements to move the goalposts in their favor.

Heard rumor of a conventional a couple years ago, then nothing happened. Perhaps they had to wait for a noncompete agreement to run out?