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I have been seeing more and more of the Cat CT660 vocational class 8 truck running around....This thing has a BIG 12.4L six cylinder diesel with SCR exhaust treatment and upwards of 1700 ft lbs of torque...she is a beast and I think Cat is taking Voc 8 by storm with this one...

 

Drive Cat

 

PS: From what I have read, these trucks are made in a joint venture with none other than Navistar...

l

Right-Navistar cab and Cat engine block-after Cat abandoned on road engines! I have seen ONE of these on the road and it was purchased by a local heavy haul outfit that guess what-moves a lot of equipment for the local Cat dealer!

 

I myself don't see them being a significnt player.

 

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I just saw a Ford ad in Tow Times magazine and they show a Transit Connect, an F450 with a utility body and an E-series van! Do you think they should have had an ad with an F650/750 medium duty instead? What kind of nonsense is this? And if Ford doesn't go into vocational 8's soon before Ram does, they will see their medium AND light duty sales plummet! The first one to plunge into class 8 VOCATIONAL between Ram and Ford will automatically keep the other from entering it.

Joe. IMO they turn their advertising budget over to some clueless agency with very little oversight. How else do you explain your post? A magazine dedicated to the towing industry and they are pushing vans!

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From what I read in Ward's today, looks like class 5 & 6 are the hot segments now. Class 4, 7 & 8 are down with Ford class 7 sales dropping over 30% in July. This has been a strange sales year, with sales jumping all over the place from month to month.

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Yes, the gasoline engine option is doing well for Ford, as gasoline is again a viable option especially for class 5 & 6. I still say that if they offered a turnkey CNG option (a drive off the lot package, not just a prep package) that would get notice and increase sales in class 6.

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According to HDT, Ford will skip model year 2014 for 650/750 and start producing 2015's in January. I can't believe we will see anything radical in January given lack of info on changes at Avon Lake so anyone have an opinion on just what that is about?

 

So does that mean Avon Lake will start production of the 650 and 750 in January 2015?

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So does that mean Avon Lake will start production of the 650 and 750 in January 2015?

Check out the article-not specific as to "where"-just says no 2014 models and right into 2015 model year Jan 2014. Either a typo on HDT's part or the Escobedo truck carries on as a 2015.

 

How about your shop-getting any 550's.? they seem to be gaining in popularity. The Altec yard near me is full of them with a few Ram's thrown in. 6 mos ago it was almost 50-50.

 

Perhaps the PStroke rep is growing in a positive way.

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How about your shop-getting any 550's.? they seem to be gaining in popularity. The Altec yard near me is full of them with a few Ram's thrown in. 6 mos ago it was almost 50-50.

 

 

Just picked a F-550 1.5 yd. dump. Very quiet, plenty of power, and a pleasure to drive. Not so nice under the hood. Anything goes wrong and back to the dealer it will go. 2 water pumps, 2 radiators, hoses and wiring harnesses everywhere, all the coolers are water. Probably be one of the last diesels we will ever buy.

 

BTW- Ram was having a lot of problems getting the 2013 HD's into production, and I think they have only been building them in any numbers since the end of May.

Edited by 7Mary3
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How about your shop-getting any 550's.? they seem to be gaining in popularity. The Altec yard near me is full of them with a few Ram's thrown in. 6 mos ago it was almost 50-50.

 

 

Just picked a F-550 1.5 yd. dump. Very quiet, plenty of power, and a pleasure to drive. Not so nice under the hood. Anything goes wrong and back to the dealer it will go. 2 water pumps, 2 radiators, hoses and wiring harnesses everywhere, all the coolers are water. Probably be one of the last diesels we will ever buy.

 

BTW- Ram was having a lot of problems getting the 2013 HD's into production, and I think they have only been building them in any numbers since the end of May.

Yes, the current diesels are very good. The problem is packaging all of the emissions and electronic equipment required to keep them EPA compliant. It is just about at the point where a tilt front clip is required for adequet service access, especially with a V block engine.

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Yes, the current diesels are very good. The problem is packaging all of the emissions and electronic equipment required to keep them EPA compliant. It is just about at the point where a tilt front clip is required for adequet service access, especially with a V block engine.

Good point. As a 550 starts taking on heavier tasks in the commercial world, they have to keep pace with the serviceability issue. I look under the hood of one of these things and scratch my head. How do they build it and how do you service it. I would have to imagine that more and more thought is going into a "modular concept"- cost of a bigger component replacement gets weighed against the cost of getting individual components out and back in.

 

Either tilt nose or swing out fender assemblies???

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How about your shop-getting any 550's.? they seem to be gaining in popularity. The Altec yard near me is full of them with a few Ram's thrown in. 6 mos ago it was almost 50-50.

 

 

Just picked a F-550 1.5 yd. dump. Very quiet, plenty of power, and a pleasure to drive. Not so nice under the hood. Anything goes wrong and back to the dealer it will go. 2 water pumps, 2 radiators, hoses and wiring harnesses everywhere, all the coolers are water. Probably be one of the last diesels we will ever buy.

 

BTW- Ram was having a lot of problems getting the 2013 HD's into production, and I think they have only been building them in any numbers since the end of May.

7m-comment on..." last diesel we will ever buy". I assume because of the first cost vs the mpg/price per gallon?

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Serviceability can be a big issue. A good friend is a heavy truck and diesel (mainly Cummins, Mack, and Cat) mechanic for an outfit with a fleet of class 8 refuse trucks and heavy tractors. His biggest problem is keeping the newer trucks uptime to the same standard as the previous generation. One of the new problems is that all of the heat generated in the exhaust aftertreatment system is shortening life of other components. And routine maintenance takes longer due to poorer access (more stuff in the same space). Brakes are still the biggest headache by far, but engine issues are getting more prominent.

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Yes, the current diesels are very good. The problem is packaging all of the emissions and electronic equipment required to keep them EPA compliant. It is just about at the point where a tilt front clip is required for adequet service access, especially with a V block engine.

 

A couple of the Ford techs on the board have said that Ford re-engineered the SD cab/frame connectors so that it's not only easy to remove the cab, it's also recommended for certain repairs.

Edited by RichardJensen
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7m-comment on..." last diesel we will ever buy". I assume because of the first cost vs the mpg/price per gallon?

Yup, you got it. Overall cost of ownership.

 

Of course, being a natural gas utility might be a factor as well...........

Edited by 7Mary3
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A couple of the Ford techs on the board have said that Ford re-engineered the SD cab/frame connectors so that it's not only easy to remove the cab, it's also recommended for certain repairs.

 

I would certainly say easier compared to previous models, but not easy! The truck is never the same after that kind of work. The cab removal idea came out of the shops back when the 6.0L first came out. The techs found out it took less time to remove the cylinder heads (all too common on 6.0L's) if you removed the cab vs. trying to get them off with the cab on the truck (you were supposed to pull the engine, but there were tricks). Ford wisely adopted the cab removal procedure as the recommended method.

 

Just be happy the 6.7L is proving to be a much better engine than the 6.0L and 6.4L.

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AFAIK, the new 'quick release' setup means it's pretty easy to reverse the cab removal process without permanent damage to the truck. Again, AFAIK, they simply set up the assembly process so that body/frame marriage is reversible.

 

Yes, I was referring to the older models. I have not seen a 6.7L yet that needed major work.

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One problem with the cab removal process is where do you set the cab when you work on the engine? Ends up taking up another service bay. Many shops that I am familiar with are already space constrained. And it adds time to the repair. Fleet maintenance people that I know want to get under the hood repairs in and out without disassembling the truck. That is one advantage they see with Ram and even Ford gas engines over a Ford diesel. With class 5 getting more popular, maybe the next generation of the F550 should get a fully tilting front clip that can be removed easily if need be.

Edited by lfeg
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I think the cab is suspended while they work on the vehicle.

Best way to do it is with a side-by-side hoist. Lift the cab, roll the chassis out from under it. You could leave the cab up in the air and work under it.

Edited by 7Mary3
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  • 3 weeks later...

Can't remember what mag it was, but apparently a lot of companies are downsizing from class 6 & 7 into class 5 which is seeing increased sales. Likewise, Class 8 customers are looking to go into class 7 whenever possible. Also, apparently someone at Ford might have read one of my posts and put an ad in American Towman showing an F550 hydraulic boom wrecker! But I had to laugh when I saw what it was hooking up to! A Ram truck with a utility body! In the background was an Explorer Interceptor! Good job whoever came up with that ad! I guess Ford realizes their main light duty competitor is Ram, not GM (Chevy/GMC). Who would have thought!? GM seems to be out of the commercial truck biz! They're even using Nissan's van (NV200?)for their own Sprinter and Transit fighter.

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Can't remember what mag it was, but apparently a lot of companies are downsizing from class 6 & 7 into class 5 which is seeing increased sales. Likewise, Class 8 customers are looking to go into class 7 whenever possible. Also, apparently someone at Ford might have read one of my posts and put an ad in American Towman showing an F550 hydraulic boom wrecker! But I had to laugh when I saw what it was hooking up to! A Ram truck with a utility body! In the background was an Explorer Interceptor! Good job whoever came up with that ad! I guess Ford realizes their main light duty competitor is Ram, not GM (Chevy/GMC). Who would have thought!? GM seems to be out of the commercial truck biz! They're even using Nissan's van (NV200?)for their own Sprinter and Transit fighter.

Joe,

What is the comment about the NV 200 all about? Haven't heard/read anything about that??

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