Maxidyne

Does Eaton sell many transmissions in Europe anymore? Seemed like a lot of Eaton transmissions got installed in the British trucks, but now that they're gone...

IIRC the transmission is a rebranded Eaton, but the drive axles look like they might be DAF or something Euro sourced. BTW, I just saw where DAF is now the #2 seliing heavy truck in Europe.

Wonder what CNH thinks of that, given that they're selling a side by side ATV called the "Scout"... https://www.caseih.com/northamerica/en-us/products/utv/case-ih-utility-vehicles

Fontaine Modification, same company that makes 5th wheels and trailers and is part of the Marmon group which is part of Berkshire-Hathaway does them. FFI: https://www.fontainemodification.com/

First off, at 84,000 pounds even the lower rated MP8s should give you at least 10HP/Ton so adding power isn't going to get you there any faster. As far as engine swaps, anything is possible but your going to spend months and maybe years making something bigger fit and making the electronics work (your 2008 doesn't even have a mechanical throttle linkage, it's all electronic.), better to spend that time out earning money with the truck. And you want a "pre-emmission engine"? Your talking early 80s or older, the emission regs go back that far and it was the 98, 01, 04, 07, and 10 regs that got tougher to meet and had more problems. Top power in a Mack back then was 500 HP from the V8, it won't fit under your 2012's short hood, and the MP8 can be turned up to 505 HP assuming your truck has a compatible drive train.

Nice restorable 544, would make a decent daily driver too.

Sounds like you have a Maxidyne high torque rise engine with the proper wide ratio transmission, and yes, it's supposed to work that way. If your right arm is bored and you like your engines screaming, at great expense you can swap in a transmission with more ratios. Bit it won't go any faster. Just drive it like Mack and god intended, if the revs are at 2100 and you're going up hill and the truck isn't gaining speed, hold on to that gear until the road flattens out. Same with down shifts- Hold on to the gear unless the revs are dropping to 1200 and you're losing speed.

Would fill a big whole in the North American Ford lineup.

IIRC the 2060 is a 5 speed with a low hole for use with Maxidyne engines. The T306 doesn't have the low hole but the ratios are closer is the top splits, Mack recommended it be matched with the "Maxicruise" engines which had almost as wide a powerband. For on highway use at 80k pounds or less the T306 would probably work fine.

The downside of relying on engineers to make important decisions is that they come from a narrow slice of society and are trained to become members of a narrow profession. For example, I live in a rural area and few of our kids around here will ever become engineers because there are no programs accessible to us, so we end up with a lot of overskilled mechanics. I'm plotting the rebuilding of our local water system and by federal law, we're required to have licensed engineers do the design- Turns out that of the 3 engineering firms that bid on the project, all of their engineers went to the same engineering school, and they all apply the same narrow engineering focus to the project. No wonder many of the great inventors were not formally trained as engineers...

That's a wide ratio transmission that won't work with the narrower powerband of a 350.

Besides the high profit margins on heavy haul trucks (with factories booked out darn near a year, wouldn't you love to be a truck dealer with some well spec'd heavy haul tractors in stock!) they tend to be the flagships of the fleet and set the pattern for more orders. Plus fleets nowadays tend to prefer to deal with a single source for their fleets rather than a half dozen and dozens of dealers. Even if Mack never made a cent on the DM800s and RD800s, every one was a testimony to the capabilities of Mack and a great ad for the whole line!

That's potentially an award winning video, and Volvo owes the creators a wider audience for their work. But like Ford with their award winning F-Max, Volvo has another agenda- Keeping us Americans and especially shareholders from seeing the great trucks they're trying to kill so we'll be impressed with their more mediocre products.

Mack has been out of the heavy haul market for over a decade now, the Titan made no inroads because it was overpriced and lacked many options heavy haulers need. Cummins power? Maybe UPS has the buying power to force Volvo to fit Cummins natural gas engines in Macks, but Volvo is vertically integrated and not about to allow competition for their engines even if they don't have a competing engine.

Didn't get quite so hot and rainy here in southwest MN but stuff I left in the yard last fall is starting to reappear. Before the rain started I opened up the culverts and punched some troughs through the snow piles so the rain and melt water would run away from the house and roads. Seems to have worked, basement is dry and my sheltered road and driveway didn't become a skating rink. The state highway wasn't so fortunate, the open area 200 yards from me got flash frozen when the rain changed to snow and winds came up this afternoon- The sane drivers have been keeping their speed down to 30 MPH or less.

What transmission does it have?

In a way Ford and VW Group's difficulty getting hitched may be the similarity of the two companies, both controlled by powerful extended families. Old time capitalists used to do these touchy mergers via arranged marriages. Those are kind of unfashionable now, but perhaps the Fords and Porsches could have some social events for the singles in the family and hopefully some romance happens...

The 2007 sounds like a good deal, but most 2007's had the pre-DEF emissions system that is even worse than the 2010 and later systems. The 2nd truck sounds pretty heavy, probably built for the old weight limits that allowed 73,280# on just 3 axles.

Here in Minnesota the Granite MHD hasn't sold well, probably due to Daimler's willingness to downspec to a B series Cummins in a tandem even and undercut everyone on price. Our DOT's bids are public and Mack seems to be pricing their own components competitively, but when the bid simply calls for say a 300 HP diesel engine a 10+ liter premium engine can't compete. As for the Class 5 4x4s, this winter even the tandem dumps are needing help from the loaders and snowblowers in spots, so even that new F600 is gonna be too little truck for plowing.

Yup, much of FCA's gains in market share are due to their willingness to undercut everyone on price and finance anyone.

The only way Ford can compete with these tilt hood mediums is on price... Ford, say goodbye to those profitable margins!

All the bits Ford needs to build competitive trucks up to Class 8 for any market in the world they already have- The F-Max cab, diesel engines up to 500 HP, automated manual and fully automated transmissions, etc.. Wouldn't even have to ship an F-Max cab to Dearborn to prototype it, the whole design can be prototyped and test fitted on a laptop from anywhere in the world. The only thing holding Ford back is the (lack of) leadership at the "glass house" HQ in Dearborn.

Yup, after all the talk about cutting redundant models and platforms they're announcing 2021 editions of the two decade old steel Super Duty cab and even older Econoline.

After all the money they wasted on a prime time presser and feeding the media at the Work Truck Show, you'd think Ford would show something new...

Just about every driving function can be remoted on today's trucks and controlled from anywhere with internet access... This has already been demonstrated by "white hack" hackers on some late model FCA vehicles...