I've landed - Page 2

Soloboss · #11 07-23-2014, 10:24 PM

TDTC - Truck design and technology center. When I was there is was simply Main Engineering. Back then it was a cool place to work. In fact, it was THE place to work in Ft Wayne. I seemed to work back and forth between IH and Magnavox back then.

Soloboss · #12 07-23-2014, 10:36 PM

Last time I was at the ACD museum they had a Scout III upstairs in a corner. I worked on that one too, but it died with the production Scout. The clay buck I saw in the styling department was actually the Cherokee. They had a body in clay and the dash on another buck in clay. No doubt in my mind where the design went when it was killed.
You're right about the bad blood. IH was notorious for bad decisions. They killed the pickup just as pickups became the huge profit leader for the big 3. They killed the Scout just as SUV's got HUGE. They had a deal with Renault for an economy utility vehicle and killed it just before Pres Carter took us through gas lines. They had a front wheel drive low entry service box vehicle. The cargo box was a quick change for freight delivery. Air freight the box and lock it onto a chassis and deliver. Fed Ex and UPS listening? It was killed. The missed opportunities were endless.

Soloboss · #13 07-23-2014, 10:42 PM

Ever see the Scout III pull a wheelie? Yep, with the 394 V-8 and manual transmission. In first gear, bang the throttle and to squat the thing, then back off, and do it again and the third time it would stand up on the rear wheels. And we had a Chrysler slant 6 in a Scout II that got 20mpg running between Ft Wayne and HQ in Chicago. So we had a Chrysler driveline in a scout and Chrysler ended up with Jeep. When I mentioned the coincidence to the boss I was told that I was totally wrong. Yeah. Right.

Soloboss · #14 07-23-2014, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbuck

From Ft. Wayne.

Thank you from Fort Wayne! It feels like home already. Have you seen the collection of Cubs at Sherer and Maxfield in Leo? Back in the used equipment room they have a wonderful collection.

Maxwelhse · #15 07-23-2014, 11:41 PM

Yeah, I think the "TDTC" thing happened when engine design ended up in Melrose (the beginning of screwing up IH engines as far as I'm concerned). All of the engine dyno bays became where the chassis shakers and stuff ended up. I often thought about guys like you as I walked the old asbestos tiled hallways down there. LOTS of very bright and talented people had roamed the halls of that place for decades. Nav/Mag/Tokhiem/ITT were pretty much always the premium employers in the area back in the day and most guys moved around like you did. Now we have NONE... Since it sounds like you're still local you know what I'm talking about.

I've never seen a Scout III move, let alone pull a wheelie! That would have been cool! I did hear about early COE efforts resulting in the first truck off the assembly line face planting itself from some bad calculations in brake proportioning!

I wouldn't doubt that IH sold the styling design to Jeep, but they would have had to have done it fast. The timing seems about right especially if IH was experimenting with Chrysler stuff at the time anyhow especially since AMC had been using Chrysler stuff for decades. As luck would have it I'm also an AMC guy so I'll have to sniff around the Kenosha folks and see if anyone knows more.

Nav actually did end up doing a lot of business with UPS later on, then screwed it up again. Yep, IH/Nav made boatloads of stupid business decisions and are still doing it today! The big thing when they shuttered the place was trying to make an EV delivery truck... What a POS that thing was. They bought the design from some English (I think?) company and tried to fix it... It had 1/4" of front suspension travel... If only they had a couple of football fields of good engineers, and 80 years of experience in the same facility, to design one for them... Oh, wait! grrr.. anyhow.

bocephus1991 · #16 07-24-2014, 01:38 AM

Yeah the made several bad decisions like sellng out before they introduced the New Farmall the Magnum. If they could have held on another year or two .

Maxwelhse · #17 07-24-2014, 03:10 AM

They have screwed up "by a year or two", literally dozens of times.

Your F-250 is a great example. Your 7.3L is a very solid engine, 1 year later, 6.0 is total crap (the 6.0 era also ended the production of the Nav V8 RE school bus, which was a very successful product), which led down the long road to Nav losing their 3 decade relationship with supplying Ford with diesels.

I'm just glad they did things mostly right once upon a time!

R Bedell · #18 07-24-2014, 07:49 AM

dbuck · #19 07-24-2014, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soloboss

Thank you from Fort Wayne! It feels like home already. Have you seen the collection of Cubs at Sherer and Maxfield in Leo? Back in the used equipment room they have a wonderful collection.

You are Welcome. Do you live in the Fort? The reason I am asking is, if you need parts check with Ken at S&M on Oxford St. If he does not have the parts and S&M in Leo does, he will pick them up and bring them to Oxford St. location, as he lives in the Leo area. He has done that for me several times. I have seen S&M collection. You ever been in the back yard at the Leo location? You would be surprised at what is back there.