Dodge Bighorn

[TS7]

Roadway I never could never under stand why they dropped the medium duty trucks. The Sherwood plant stayed open building some CNT-800 trucks ( Air Force tanker) and kits for South America. Maybe it was to small? Recall seeing a D-700 dump with a diesel, never knew that they built any diesel medium trucks. Chrysler started having a lot of issues in the mid 1970's.   

[kscarbel2]

[kscarbel2]

[kscarbel2]

The W600 all-wheel-drive models were rugged, with two cast iron levers protruding through the floorboard, alike a WM300. Many were exported.

.

[RoadwayR]

10 hours ago, JoeH said:

http://www.truckpaper.com/ListingsDetail/Detail.aspx?lp=TRK&OHID=4705479

 

D800 tandem axle with a cat 3208 for sale, $4,500 in Tennessee

That's a CNT-800.

 

[RoadwayR]

We were told the 'excuse' for dropping the medium duty D series trucks was to make more motorhome chassis, but it probably had more to do with Chrysler's financial health and the fact they were dropping the B/RB V-8's in 1978.  The D series mediums continued in Mexico as we have discussed here before.

Heavy truck production for domestic sales ended in March of 1975.  The excuse for that move was Chrysler didn't want to spend the money to meet FMVSS 121 (truck anti-lock brake standards), but I was told the Bighorn 900 did in fact have Bendix ABS.  Another reason could have been cabs.  Chrysler was having a hard time building enough truck cabs in the mid-70's after the 'Club Cab' Dodge pickup became such a success.  Chrysler farmed out production of the old 'C' series cab to Checker Motors (taxi cab builder), but Checker had trouble keeping up with demand and quality wasn't too good (funny because Checker had been making pickup truck beds for GM for years).  Couple this all with the weak dealer network and the result was no surprise.

But what if Chrysler had bought Mack back in '64............    

[TS7]

Kscarbel and Roadway both of you have posted a lot of good information on Dodge Trucks from long time ago. Chrysler had a lot of issues then. Maybe if they had bought Mack, they would have dropped the heavy Dodge trucks? But may be Mack might not lasted under Chrysler? It would seem that Dodge pickups, vans, Dodge medium duty trucks and Mack heavy trucks would have been a good line of trucks. I will say this I had a new 1974 D-100 pickup, first new truck I owned, after that all Ford pickups.   

[JoeH]

48 minutes ago, TS7 said:

Kscarbel and Roadway both of you have posted a lot of good information on Dodge Trucks from long time ago. Chrysler had a lot of issues then. Maybe if they had bought Mack, they would have dropped the heavy Dodge trucks? But may be Mack might not lasted under Chrysler? It would seem that Dodge pickups, vans, Dodge medium duty trucks and Mack heavy trucks would have been a good line of trucks. I will say this I had a new 1974 D-100 pickup, first new truck I owned, after that all Ford pickups.   

My 97 ram 2500 Cummins has 217k+ on the original transmission. I plow snow with it here in Pennsylvania with a 900 lbs plow on the front and 2-3000 lbs of salt in the back. I couldn't ask for a tougher truck, rides like a Cadillac at  over 10k lbs on an 8800 lbs chassis. First truck I had was an 89 POS F250. 

[TS7]

Everyone has good and bad luck with pickups. I had a 1988 F-250 7.3. I drove it when new, was in my business ( highway construction) use till last year, 350,000 mi, all original. Cab rusted out, it was still running. These posts were about Dodge heavy trucks, I think Dodge built a ok truck, but they did not seem to last like old Mack's.  

[tjc transport]

1 hour ago, TS7 said:

Everyone has good and bad luck with pickups. I had a 1988 F-250 7.3. I drove it when new, was in my business ( highway construction) use till last year, 350,000 mi, all original. Cab rusted out, it was still running. These posts were about Dodge heavy trucks, I think Dodge built a ok truck, but they did not seem to last like old Mack's.  

my 88 is sitting at 495,000.  same way too. the 7.3 still purrs like a swiss army knife. but the driver side rocker and 6 inches of the floor rotted out and fell off. 

i have a new cab to drop on it in once it warms up. 

the farm i grew up on still runs a mid 70's dodge grain body with a 190 cummins and 10 speed trans. 

not sure what it is, but it has the side folding hoods and wing fenders to access the engine. looks like the Air Force tanker. 

[TS7]

The Dodge heavy trucks were C model gas, CN diesel, T tandem as I recall. 

[Brocky]

I think the story on the short nosed 900 Longhorn is that it was a prototype that ended up doing service at the proving grounds for many years. Chrysler sent it to Tony Youngblood in Augusta GA to be restored as Tony had several NOS cabs. When Fiat took over the project was sh**t canned and Tony was able to purchase the truck and finished the restoration.  Did not know until now he had it up for sale??

[Red Horse]

3 hours ago, Brocky said:

I think the story on the short nosed 900 Longhorn is that it was a prototype that ended up doing service at the proving grounds for many years. Chrysler sent it to Tony Youngblood in Augusta GA to be restored as Tony had several NOS cabs. When Fiat took over the project was sh**t canned and Tony was able to purchase the truck and finished the restoration.  Did not know until now he had it up for sale??

Brocky-right church, wrong pew-you mean when Daimler took over😎

[kscarbel2]

On 2/11/2019 at 7:31 PM, TS7 said:

C and L models were built at Sherwood truck plant in Warren, MI. It was a very small plant, still there, it is a orange juice plant now. Warren Truck ( pickups and vans ), Warren Stamping, Sherwood Truck, Mound Road Engine ( 318 V8 ) and a large parts warehouse were in a very large complex there. Dallas and Mavis had a large yard there. I rode my bike there (1969-72) I could see any kind of Dodge Truck built then, even saw some new Power Wagons, real ones (WM-300) for export. C models,  C-800 and CNT-900 were all over SE MI back then. Chrysler made a big push with trucks starting with the 1971 B model van back then I think. You have to wonder if Chrysler could have gained Mack (1964?) back then what would things be like now?  

For those unaware of what he's speaking of.

https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/46119-chrysler-to-acquire-mack-trucks/?tab=comments#comment-339793

 

[TS7]

Kscarbel not to change topic, but in 1964 Ford was #4 in class 7-8 trucks from above? Ford did not have any real class 8 truck line till about 1959? I remember seeing a lot Ford T and N models. Redhorse I think maybe you know lot about this? Kscarbel when you have time could you start something on Ford heavy trucks back in 1960 or so.  

[Red Horse]

4 hours ago, TS7 said:

Kscarbel not to change topic, but in 1964 Ford was #4 in class 7-8 trucks from above? Ford did not have any real class 8 truck line till about 1959? I remember seeing a lot Ford T and N models. Redhorse I think maybe you know lot about this? Kscarbel when you have time could you start something on Ford heavy trucks back in 1960 or so.  

Well I'm only as good as my memory from hanging out in an uncles heavy truck garage as well as my Wagner book but I would say 54 was when they first offered a factory tandem and that put them in class 8.  !958 was probably the first big year as that was the year the Super Duty V-8's went into production.  

[TS7]

I guess that I do not look at a 1954 F-800 or T-800 as a class 8 truck, but they were.

[RoadwayR]

Stab in the dark time:  I seem to remember that Dodge had a resident heavy truck genius engineer and I think his last name was Sztykiel.  If so, wasn't he one of the guys that started Spartan in the 70's?   

[kscarbel2]

On 2/26/2019 at 3:31 AM, RoadwayR said:

Stab in the dark time:  I seem to remember that Dodge had a resident heavy truck genius engineer and I think his last name was Sztykiel.  If so, wasn't he one of the guys that started Spartan in the 70's?   

From 1955 to 1973, Mr. Sztykiel held several engineering positions from Project Engineer of Dodge Truck Operations, Chrysler Corporation, to Assistant Chief Engineer Heavy Trucks, Chrysler Corporation.

From 1973 to 1975, he served at Diamond Reo Trucks, Inc., where he first held the position of Vice-President of Engineering and subsequently, Vice-President of Sales. 

Mr. George Sztykiel was Spartan’s founder, becoming CEO in December 1992.  He served as President and Director of Spartan from its incorporation in September 1975. He retired from Spartan in 2014. 

Born in 1929 in Poland, Mr. Sztykiel holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of London, England.

 

[Red Horse]

On 2/26/2019 at 6:43 AM, kscarbel2 said:

From 1955 to 1973, Mr. Sztykiel held several engineering positions from Project Engineer of Dodge Truck Operations, Chrysler Corporation, to Assistant Chief Engineer Heavy Trucks, Chrysler Corporation.

From 1973 to 1975, he served at Diamond Reo Trucks, Inc., where he first held the position of Vice-President of Engineering and subsequently, Vice-President of Sales. 

Mr. George Sztykiel was Spartan’s founder, becoming CEO in December 1992.  He served as President and Director of Spartan from its incorporation in September 1975. He retired from Spartan in 2014. 

Born in 1929 in Poland, Mr. Sztykiel holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of London, England.

Wow- Long career-could probably teach some of the new guys a thing or two!

[RoadwayR]

Story was the Bighorn was his doing.  Maybe the Diamond Reo Raider too!  I think his son runs Spartan now.

Edited February 26, 2019 by RoadwayR