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What happened to Fords Heavy Duty Truck Division?

MikeJ

MikeJ

TB Veteran
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Hi guys,

I read it on Wikipedia, but I figure maybe you guys have a better understanding?
What happened to Fords heavy duty truck division I know it became Sterling in like what 1998 or something like that, but why?
Also wasn't Sterling part of Freightliner and isn't Freightliner the parent company of Chrysler or vice versa?

Like Ford used to make tractors and semi trucks and front end loaders and back ho tractors.
Any how the first truck I ever backed up was an old exR&L carriers Ford L9000 I don't think it had the Aeromax badge, but it was a L9000.
 
Ford built trucks in Louisville Kentucky which is how the L series was known as Louisville Fords. Ford decided to convert the plant to building Expeditions because the profit margin was much greater due to stiff competition in the heavy truck market. Freightliner (owned by Daimler Benz) bought the line from Ford & moved manufacturing to Canada. The name was changed to Sterling. The first units to come off the line (in 1999) was an order from ABF. The plant had frequent & lengthy strikes. Freightliner shut down the plant in 2009 & the ABF order was the last units built there. Daimler Chrysler is the parent company of Freightliner, Western Star & Detroit Diesel. Daimler bought Detroit from Penske in the late 80's about the time the Series 60 engine was being developed to replace the two stroke 92 series engines.
 
Man, I hated those L Fords!! You had to lift your leg to hit the brakes cause it was so much closer than the fuel pedal. The Sterlings aren't so bad, I actually drive 1 occasionally, ours have Cats in them but, the ceramic clutches suck
 
SuperCourse said:
What about the Dodge Bighorn?
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sissy boy trucks....


back in my day....this is what we REAL truckers drove......

0003026W.jpg



then when these new fangled things came along, we drove these.....


OriginalMackTruck.JPG
 
I went to the truck show in Springfield Mo. this year. That was quite a display & yes there were Dodge Bighorns there. I wish the show could have lasted a week so I could have looked at every truck from top to bottom & talked to every owner there. A lot of the trucks were working trucks & pulled loads onto the fairgrounds.
 
Ford was making the wrong tractors for what the market demanded short answer..The company I worked for used Fords/Sterling's almost exclusively from the late 80's through the mid 00's when OD bought the company. They were a maintenance nightmare, the electrical system was outmoded (we always carried extra fuses) the HVAC system was constantly breaking , and the overall build quality was poor.Sterling got a handle on many of these problems which would suggest that poor management, outmoded engineering doomed Ford as a class 7&8 truck supplier.
 
DayliteDean said:
Ford was making the wrong tractors for what the market demanded short answer..The company I worked for used Fords/Sterling's almost exclusively from the late 80's through the mid 00's when OD bought the company. They were a maintenance nightmare, the electrical system was outmoded (we always carried extra fuses) the HVAC system was constantly breaking , and the overall build quality was poor.Sterling got a handle on many of these problems which would suggest that poor management, outmoded engineering doomed Ford as a class 7&8 truck supplier.
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We had a good Ford factory representative spend a lot of time in the shop I worked in. When Ford was designing the model to replace the L series this rep asked a lot of questions about what & what not to do with the new model. He listened & sent good suggestions but Ford engineers either disagreed or ignored many of the suggestions.
 
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