Dale Lakin

I am still of the opinion that FOMOCO and Navistar are going their seperate ways. I know there was discussion of a joint venture class 8 truck but I understood that was all scraped when the whole pissing match over the 6.ONO came about.

I highly doubt that Ford is going to venture back into the class 8 market considering the current state of affairs there. Not only that it is my understanding this is the last model year for any of the joint venture trucks aka F650-750 and LCF.

Started thinking some of the dealers this will affect and there are some big players out there. Midway in KC, Broadway in St Louis, Wabash in Indy, Boyer in Minneapolis, Peach State in Atlanta and on and on. I am very curious why the decision to eliminate the Sterling name when it carried 12-15% market share vs Western Star that only carries 2-5%?? Would seem to me the Star name would have pissed less people off but then again most of the Star dealers are dual with Freightliner so I guess DTNA didn't want to piss off the people they were going to continue to be in bed with...

It is no rumor I just got sat in on a listen only conference call with the President of Daimler Truck North America it is reality. They are ending production of the Sterling branded trucks 3/26/2009. There is an offer on the table to be a parts and service only dealer with Sterling. Be interesting to see where this takes us in the near future. Motor City I am sure is just like us in that they offered F250-up on the FOMOCO side and Sterling trucks. Just makes for some new challenges on how we can continue to do this and do it well enough to make some money in the end...

St. Thomas, Ont., truck plant a victim as Daimler kills Sterling brand, cuts jobs 1 hour ago ST. THOMAS, Ont. — Daimler AG is ending truck production at plants in southwestern Ontario and Oregon and cutting 2,300 jobs as the German automaker tries to cope with depressed demand for its heavy vehicles. The closure of the St. Thomas assembly plant, announced Tuesday, will see the loss of another 700 jobs and is another blow to hit Canada's manufacturing sector, centred in Ontario and Quebec. A local business leader in St. Thomas said people are "just reeling" from the planned shutdown in the community, which has already seen cuts at a local Ford Canada auto plant and parts suppliers. "It spins through the entire region," said Bob Hammersley, general manager of the St. Thomas and District Chamber of Commerce. "About 700 workers are directly affected," but a "lot of suppliers will be affected by the news. The jobs that are going to be lost are not just jobs that are in the city of St. Thomas, but they extend through the entire region." Blue-collar industries in Canada have seen thousands of jobs wiped out because of the restructuring auto industry, the high value of the loonie in the last two years and the slump in the United States economy, which has cut demand for Canadian-built cars and trucks. In recent months, General Motors, Deere & Co., Volvo and other industrial companies have cut jobs and announced plans to shut down plants in southern Ontario. Earlier Tuesday, Daimler announced in Germany that its North American truck division will drop its Sterling brand and end truck production in St. Thomas next March, when the company's current agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union expires. However, the German company said it will make additions to its Freightliner and Western Star truck operations to cover the markets for those brands. Daimler Trucks North America will also close its Portland, Ore. truck plant in June 2010, when current contracts there expire. The company said Western Star production will shift to a plant in Santiago, Mexico, while Freightliner-brand military vehicles will be produced at one of its factories in the Carolinas by mid-2010. Daimler said about 2,300 workers at St. Thomas and Portland will be affected by mid-2010. That includes previously announced layoffs of 720 workers at the Ontario plant, whose jobs will go next month. The company also plans to cut its administrative workforce by about 1,200 - with more than half of those directly related to the Sterling brand. A voluntary separation program will be offered. Daimler said in a statement that the truck restructuring plans were drawn up "in response to continuing depressed demand across the industry and structural changes in the company's core markets." "We are confident that this forward-looking strategy for (Daimler Trucks North America) is the right measure to address the challenges in the North American market," said Andreas Renschler, the Daimler board member responsible for the truck operation. During a telephone conference call, Renschler stressed that "we can't wait for a government bailout with taxpayer money." "We have to act now," he said. "And that's exactly what we're doing." The St. Thomas cuts are in addition to the 720 workers already scheduled to be laid off next month with the elimination of one of the plant's last two shifts. Daimler laid off 600 people at the St. Thomas plant last year when the first of three shifts was cut. The plant produces a range of medium-and heavy-duty trucks and once employed more than 2,000 people. With the U.S. economy headed towards recession, demand for heavy trucks used for shipping and other purposes has dropped sharply. Hammersley said despite the bad layoff news, there are "other dimensions of transportation employment" that St. Thomas could pursue. "We could look at aerospace, we could look at aircraft manufacturing, rail car manufacturing - not just things that are on rubber tires." Daimler said the truck unit expects to strengthen its position on the North American commercial vehicle market by "concentrating the company's considerable technical and marketing resources on a more focused model lineup." The company said it expects the changes to improve the truck unit's earnings by US$900 million a year by 2011. Daimler shares rose 4.9 per cent at 27.49 euros, or US$37.33, in trading on the Frankfurt stock market.

Any progress to report?

My understanding this is the last model year for the joint venture trucks aka F650-750 and LCF. Take that into consideration with the fact that NEX21 the company "behind" Blue Diamond is very partial to Navistar vs FOMOCO and their contract with FOMOCO is up I believe end of 09 it appears to me the writing is on the wall. Also has anyone heard any news on what diesel FOMOCO will be using in 2010? Will FOMOCO be out of the Medium duty business after this model year?

http://www.donaldson.com/en/exhaust/support/datalibrary/042723.pdf We are considering purchasing this setup but can't seem to decide if it will be worth our while yet?

Why is there no TSB or technical reference for this at all? The only way anyone knew anything of this was a parts bulletin last week that says radiator replacement now requires one of these kits be installed. Really poor way of communicating this IMO.

No clue on the price difference but yours calls for the $6500 one.

Depends on the build date. One is $4200 and the other is $6500. What is your VIN or do you know the engine serial #??

Is there a Navistar tag on the one you want??

You did http://www.forddoctorsdts.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=5571&page=2#Post5571 This is going to cost Ford mucho. I would however warn you warranty admins to read the reimbursement attachment VERY CLOSELY. It calls for original reciepts not photo copies and not duplicates that will be Ford's out on several people IMO and could potentially hurt several dealers if an audit were to come.

No idea on the failure. Part of the reason IMO they are so bad is in this part of the country just to get to the closest town in some cases it is an hour plus drive. So people drive them further than they normally would with a problem or until it just gives up the ghost and dies on them (which is the case in both of ours that scattered they drove em till they died out on them). We are now on our 4th engine replacement. 2 were like the pictures above and 2 were the end result of a leaky radiators that blew the tanks off at 70 MPH and lost all coolant and "burnt" the motors up. The 2 that were scattered have both been 700 tags the leaky rads were both cored out.

Oh boy another one just got hooked in here with a hole in the pan looks to be the same cylinders.

I emailed the rest to Keith hopefully he will have time to upload the rest

It isn't pretty. I have some pictures how do I upload them or who can host them they are on my work computer and I can't get to a hosting site with our net nanny...

Anyone? If it produces soot is the DPF the most likely cause? We have a KR F450 that is worse than the above picture and getting no where with FOMOCO so far??

So Jay is it safe to say any truck that is producing soot at the tailpipe is more than likely a bad DPF? My understanding has been there should be NO SOOT as in zero at the tail pipe tip??

Came in on the hook yesterday. According to hotline this isn't the first. Instructed to pull the pan and report back. Will share the findings once we get the motor out.

I will assume that he is refering to the IMA (Inventory Management Allowance) Off-the-Shelf Fill Rate that Ford measures dealers on. This is a worthless system and EASILY manipulated as stated earlier. It is the percentage that a normal stocking part is sold off the shelf from a stock order vs an emergency order. Easy way around it is to receipt everything as a stock order.

I would suggest this for stock before you need one. Each of our five stores have experienced the need for this already. It is a PLASTIC (who designs this shit /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/whistle.gif) coolant tube that goes to the water pump. 3 have came in cracked and we have broken a few. Just heads up because they keep going D99 and then only in Portland HVC???

Post the part # I might be interested there are ALOT of 6.6/7.8's running around in the oil fields down here...

Anyone have detailed instructions on how to make this work? I have read this thread and follwoed what I thought were the correct steps but still not able to make it work.

They were here in January at the AQHA nationals and brought one by when we had our Powerstroke training...super nice guys. They had just picked them up in Indianapolis and came down. Had one that would not start the day after and our SA was stupid enough to tell them we had no one trained on them and didn't take the job. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/hammer2.gif If you have had the Powerstroke display trailer at your store in the past it is the same guys.