long hood trucks obsolete in 5 yrs or less?

Right, that's why they don't make corvettes any more. Or Bugatti Veyrons (how many of those do they make a year, four??) Hell, Morgan still makes a car out of wood. And I think Scania and Mercedes might have something to say about your cabover argument, along with several other manufacturers.

 

Yes and how many of those sans the Corvette do you see lines of at the dealership?Yeah wheel base in Europe lends them to COE's. I believe you can still custom order a Freightliner COE here.We are discussing here in America. I bet in Australia they will have big large cars long after they are extinct here. Those road trains probably are not real concerned with mileage and the extended wheel bases probably deal with some of what I have seen in pictures passes for roads in some areas over (under?) there.

I conceded customs and restomods will still be around. Hell maybe they will still mass produce them. But I doubt it and trends show that they are declining. Look at a picture of truck stops in the 80's. Then stroll around one now. Sure are a lot less grills huh?

 

Yeah, cause the hoods are out earning. Trust me, I've been way off the beaten path lately and hoods dominate the landscape out there, in and out of the truck stop. Keep seeing more and more old cabovers refitted and back on the road too.

I don't think the decline in sales has much to do with the shape of the truck. The new stuff is cheesy plastic crap with too much junk on it. Fleets don't care, they'll swallow whatever they're fed but if they do stop making hoods, we'll just drag as many old ones as we can find out of the junkyards and put them back on the road.

 

Pulling them out of wherever isn't going to help sales for Pete or KW.

And yes that was one of my ealier posts, as fleets move towards the Cascadia's, 780's, T700's, and 587's instead of the 359,379,W9's now..........

Producers will move where the market is.


I do know a few that are just reworking their fleets to avoid the 07 EGR stuff. One set down IN Fl gets them completely redone to like 04 spec including new carpet seats. ......for like $30,000 less than a brand new one

 

And you cannot arbitrarily decide that the market is limited to the US. Those companies sell worldwide and will continue to do so. They will not stop making hoods if the rest of the world keeps buying them, even if the idiots in government outlaw them here in the US. That's been tried with other vehicles and engines for decades. It never works.

 

You guys will never get though to him. Just his argument that KW will stop making their flagship model because of the tooling costs to make a hood proves his ignorance. I was just reminded in another thread that you could still order a W9 with the 2 piece flat glass cab like the old ones. Hell they still offer the 42" modular sleeper, in fact one dealer had 2 new ones on the lot as stock. He's down to one left. They haven't needed the modular sleeper since they came out with the extended daycab conversion, guess the tooling hasn't put them out of business yet!

When I ordered my last truck in '06 the salesman said he thought you could still order a K100 but they were not built on the line. They were built in a separate bay, you had to order at least 2 and they had to be paid for in full. Now that's probably changed since not even a seasoned veteran such as Tazz would want a COE.

Oh and Tazz, call your dispatcher.

 

Got the first W900 in 1980 (had fords previously)......had several T8's in between also......got a T600 in 1990........back to W9's in 1997,1999,2001,2002,2003,2006 and probably get another in the spring. (been avoiding buying trucks, been buying trailers instead at least the EPA hasn't ruined those yet) Notice a trend? To be honest Tazz the reason I didn't buy another aero truck is I HATED keeping multiple bank accounts to store the extra cash those rounded fenders saved me.

 

I don't think they will ever leave heavy haul. Maybe vans and reefers but out here, it's a rarity to see a heavy haul truck that isn't a hood. It's all my company owns.

 

you can buy a rice burner too but you can beat the ride of a 280"wheel base or a hog

 

Last post from me on this are the hot rods out of the 60s & 70s built better than the plastic cars of to day? No how many 80,90 model Volvo s do you see not many. Why? They are junk. Not designed to run 2 million miles. It was built cheep for fleets. Do you as a ceo pay big bucks for 2 thousand trucks that a bunch of dirt bags are gonna drive into the ground or do you buy a truck that you can get 500k miles out of and sell to some schlep that can't afford a real truck. Not that all company drivers are dirt bags but I do ride around and see and smell some of you at the feed troth. Going down the back row in the high side of 10the speed jake shifting the hole way.