getting impossible to repair
Posting Guru
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,714
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From: Canton, IL
Ford, (or any other manufacturer), could make the front end with a tilt hood, if thats what the majority of the buying public wanted..... But the majority doesn't. If i told you that your new 2011 F250 had all plastic fenders and hood, would you still buy it?
The other thing about a 'road tractor' is that everything is inside the frame rails (so is most running components in a corvette, frame horns on each side of the rad) , and the rails are above most car and trucks bumpers. Any normal passenger car or light truck (mods excluded, not everyone has a lifted truck) that hits a road tractor is going underneath the frame rails....
If you want commercial grade, buy a F800 or a GM topkick, but for goodness sake quit complaining that your light duty pickup wasn't designed to be worked on by shade tree mechanics, Neither are ROAD tractors!
Planned obsolesence is real, but it is primarily used to prevent over-engineering (therefore, keeping costs down). Any manufacturer could design in 30 years of normal life to a vehicle. There are many problems to that strategy though. Think about all the OLD WWII transport trucks that are still in use in the military. The things were designed for upkeep and one time investment for decades of use. COST EFFECTIVE is the name of the game.
The other thing about a 'road tractor' is that everything is inside the frame rails (so is most running components in a corvette, frame horns on each side of the rad) , and the rails are above most car and trucks bumpers. Any normal passenger car or light truck (mods excluded, not everyone has a lifted truck) that hits a road tractor is going underneath the frame rails....
If you want commercial grade, buy a F800 or a GM topkick, but for goodness sake quit complaining that your light duty pickup wasn't designed to be worked on by shade tree mechanics, Neither are ROAD tractors!
Planned obsolesence is real, but it is primarily used to prevent over-engineering (therefore, keeping costs down). Any manufacturer could design in 30 years of normal life to a vehicle. There are many problems to that strategy though. Think about all the OLD WWII transport trucks that are still in use in the military. The things were designed for upkeep and one time investment for decades of use. COST EFFECTIVE is the name of the game.
Senior User
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 187
Likes: 0
From: Preston co. WV
LOL
I wasn't the OP that was complaining. I just threw out an Idea and a couple of comments to support it. just for the sake of BSing.
Didn't mean to ruffle any feathers.
Oh yeah,on a lighter note if it would bring down the price on a 2011 about 20,000 less, without changing the looks any and improving the milage heck yeah I'de buy one.
I wasn't the OP that was complaining. I just threw out an Idea and a couple of comments to support it. just for the sake of BSing.
Didn't mean to ruffle any feathers.
Oh yeah,on a lighter note if it would bring down the price on a 2011 about 20,000 less, without changing the looks any and improving the milage heck yeah I'de buy one.
Hotshot
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 11,591
Likes: 14
From: Pflugerville, tx
[quote=Rick03F250;9541709]
yep, welcome to the engineers nightmare.. you cannot believe the list of conflicting requirements that they have to solve for. lightweight, strong, heavy, powerful, inexpensive, low repair costs, fewer parts, emissions, manufacturability, reuse, new items, center of gravity, offroad, onroad, noise, silence.. and it goes on an on..
how many road tractors did they make this year? 250,000? I doubt it.
who does the service? how many road miles per accident, per service.
our trucks are in a completely different class, volume, service, miles/accident/service... skill of the service labor pool, etc..
they've looked at reverse tilt fiberglass hoods, and they fix one tiny problem and cause 20 others.
I spent 10 years on the Ford account when I was at IBM, helping design & install computer systems to help the engineers (and everybody else) do their jobs.
Sam
Have you seen what the hood cowl is made of on a road tractor? They're all fiberglass and can't stand up to a collision. You would have no way of passing any kind of crash test with a structure like that up front. They couldn't do this and still make it legal.
With that said, How is it that there are so many road tractors out there?
They pull bigger payloads than any pickup can handle, more miles than any pickup would dream of, and pass crash tests too.
Like I said...corvette has a similar setup and it too passes crash tests.
You would still have a bumper and frame out in front of you to absorb most of the impact. I'm not saying that they should duplicate the design, but work from it.
Also with a fiberglass front end it would cut down on the overall weight of the truck therefore gaining better peformance and fuel milage.
not arguing : just tinking out loud 
With that said, How is it that there are so many road tractors out there?
They pull bigger payloads than any pickup can handle, more miles than any pickup would dream of, and pass crash tests too.
Like I said...corvette has a similar setup and it too passes crash tests.
You would still have a bumper and frame out in front of you to absorb most of the impact. I'm not saying that they should duplicate the design, but work from it.
Also with a fiberglass front end it would cut down on the overall weight of the truck therefore gaining better peformance and fuel milage.
not arguing : just tinking out loud how many road tractors did they make this year? 250,000? I doubt it.
who does the service? how many road miles per accident, per service.
our trucks are in a completely different class, volume, service, miles/accident/service... skill of the service labor pool, etc..
they've looked at reverse tilt fiberglass hoods, and they fix one tiny problem and cause 20 others.
I spent 10 years on the Ford account when I was at IBM, helping design & install computer systems to help the engineers (and everybody else) do their jobs.
Sam
Senior User
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 336
Likes: 1
Yeah, cause Hitler had something to do with the 411.
Volkswagen Type 4 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Volkswagen Type 4 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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