[tim60]

It is ugly, I grant you that, but it is essentially a box on wheels and a box carries the most cargo in a closed truck body.

In Canada we have a number of purpose designed, large Grumman vans used as postal vans, that I believe use proprietary engines/transmissions like the old Chevy 4.3 V6 or Ford 4.9 liter, inline six. These mechanicals are tough as nails, provide good torque to move the truck in stop and go in urban areas.

Pretty sure that was the current large mail van also used in the USA. They were made to last 24 years of day in, day out hard use in weather extremes of North America.

Think they came out in the '90's and up here I still see them doing the job, no rust, still running.

In the past few years the Canuck mail got some new Econolines and I thought why on earth for...the bodies/chassis will not have the durability...or the capacity of the larger Grumman vans, in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong , I put on many 100's of thousands of miles driving delivery on both Ford Econoline (E300/E 350) and Chevy full size, 1 tonner vans and while they (bodies, chassis) are tough, I do not believe they are as tough as these purpose made vans....when it comes to 25 years of daily delivery.

BTW, two best Ford, or any engines in my book are the 460 cube -385 series V8 and 300 inline six, both no longer made, but boy were they tough, durable engines. But to return to the subject .

In the end, it's all guess work, except when I look at these 25 year old Grummans and 25 year vs Ford/GM full size commercial vans...the Grumman bodies (all aluminum, I believe) show no sign of rust, while the Ford/GM commercial vans at that age do have rust.

Talking about rust, the most rust prone commercial vans for rust I've seen, are the older Mercedes and Dodge Sprinter vans.

Rust will kill a commercial vehicle, that is why I think real long term, needs aluminum, rather than steel.

On the other hand, maybe the key is to buy a cheaper regular production van, like a Ford or GM, run it for 15 years, then replace it with the same. Because although a body maybe durable and work for 25 years...what about the heating/air conditioning/ seats, etc...will they be still working well at a quarter of a century or just blowing warm, rather than hot air into the cab at -30. So, from that standpoint, maybe replace every 15 years, to ensure better driver comfort, working conditions.

Anyways, just my opinion and as we all know on this forum...what the heck do I know .

If they buy regular showroom models they can keep them for 6 or 7 years, and then sell them to the second hand market for tradies who cannot afford new, before the repair bills begin to mount. Still a good resale value and still very few unscheduled days off the road.

[tim60]

Don't know why I said Econolines, guess I'm living in the past. What I meant to say is that Canada Post have been using some Ford Transits (large version) alongside the old Grumman vans.

I don't think the Transit...or the Mercedes, or the Ram, which are based on Fiat vans, and are the regular production vans on offer in North America, from manufacturers, have the durability to last a quarter of a century or more of hard service, as did the Grumman, in climates that uses lot of salt, extreme cold, extreme heat, etc. The Oshkosh new postal van is to replace the old Grumman .

To really tell for sure, one, say an engineer would have to look at the complete specs of the regular production vs the purpose designed vans, such as the new postal vans from Oshkosh.

Oshkosh specializes in the manufacture of purpose built, severe service vehicles.

Oshkosh Beats Workhorse For Postal Service Delivery Vehicle Contract

Is that the Oshkosh of McComb County, Detroit, just near Tank Ave?

[savoche]

Ran across this old sardine label, made me think of our @CharLac.

They did make them with English speaking sardines as well. The factory was closed sometime in the 60ies, though.



And kippers, too.

Don't know how to reduce the size.

You can replace the IMG tags with IMGFIXEDWIDTH tags to set whatever width you want: PentaxForums.com - BB Code List

[savoche]

Okay, so we have:
Head achy
General crappyocity
Lethargy

Medically, for me anyway, that's known as status quo.

That's me.

Things usually start to clear up by the fourth mug of coffee, though.

[savoche]

That picture likely is from a recent incident near the Dutch town of Maastricht where a Boeing 747-400 had trouble with one of it's engines. A report in Dutch:
Vliegtuig verliest motoronderdelen bij Maastricht, vrouw en auto's geraakt | NU - Het laatste nieuws het eerst op NU.nl

Written Dutch is pretty straight forward to understand, I think, at least as long as it's kept simple like in the above article. Spoken Dutch is a tad more challenging

Learning Dutch (informally) in the Netherlands is quite hard, btw. People will switch to English the moment they realise suspect you're a foreigner. I've had people come up to me on the train station to translate the announcements just because they saw me concentrate to catch what was being said. A friendly bunch, but they won't let you learn their language

[MarkJerling]

Don't know why I said Econolines, guess I'm living in the past. What I meant to say is that Canada Post have been using some Ford Transits (large version) alongside the old Grumman vans.

I don't think the Transit...or the Mercedes, or the Ram, which are based on Fiat vans, and are the regular production vans on offer in North America, from manufacturers, have the durability to last a quarter of a century or more of hard service, as did the Grumman, in climates that uses lot of salt, extreme cold, extreme heat, etc. The Oshkosh new postal van is to replace the old Grumman .

To really tell for sure, one, say an engineer would have to look at the complete specs of the regular production vs the purpose designed vans, such as the new postal vans from Oshkosh.

Oshkosh specializes in the manufacture of purpose built, severe service vehicles.

Oshkosh Beats Workhorse For Postal Service Delivery Vehicle Contract

It's a peculiar business model, for any business to run a vehicle fleet for 25 years. The more normal course of action (read the route that will make you waste the least amount of your shareholders money) would be to buy vehicles to use for three years tops with all regular scheduled maintenance thrown into the deal. After three years, trade in at a pre-agreed fleet trade rate and buy new. Of course, you'd not want RHD vehicles sold for use on the roads there, so shipping them to us or any of the other RHD markets would make the most sense. But, then I guess they're not trying to make a profit!

[MarkJerling]

Written Dutch is pretty straight forward to understand, I think, at least as long as it's kept simple like in the above article. Spoken Dutch is a tad more challenging

Learning Dutch (informally) in the Netherlands is quite hard, btw. People will switch to English the moment they realise suspect you're a foreigner. I've had people come up to me on the train station to translate the announcements just because they saw me concentrate to catch what was being said. A friendly bunch, but they won't let you learn their language

Luckily we had Dutch at school. Afrikaans is, after all, just kitchen Dutch so Afrikaans Higher Grade at school used to include a fair bit of proper Dutch, including Dutch prescribed reading books.
I read it as easily as I read Afrikaans or English. I do find it harder to speak it and mix up some words, mainly due to lack of use. A week in the Netherlands, and I sound almost like a local! (If a bit like a poorly educated country bumpkin, which is not necessarily a bad thing.)

[Racer X 69]

It is ugly, I grant you that, but it is essentially a box on wheels and a box carries the most cargo in a closed truck body.

In Canada we have a number of purpose designed, large Grumman vans used as postal vans, that I believe use proprietary engines/transmissions like the old Chevy 4.3 V6 or Ford 4.9 liter, inline six. These mechanicals are tough as nails, provide good torque to move the truck in stop and go in urban areas.

Pretty sure that was the current large mail van also used in the USA. They were made to last 24 years of day in, day out hard use in weather extremes of North America.

Think they came out in the '90's and up here I still see them doing the job, no rust, still running.

In the past few years the Canuck mail got some new Econolines and I thought why on earth for...the bodies/chassis will not have the durability...or the capacity of the larger Grumman vans, in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong , I put on many 100's of thousands of miles driving delivery on both Ford Econoline (E300/E 350) and Chevy full size, 1 tonner vans and while they (bodies, chassis) are tough, I do not believe they are as tough as these purpose made vans....when it comes to 25 years of daily delivery.

BTW, two best Ford, or any engines in my book are the 460 cube -385 series V8 and 300 inline six, both no longer made, but boy were they tough, durable engines. But to return to the subject .

In the end, it's all guess work, except when I look at these 25 year old Grummans and 25 year vs Ford/GM full size commercial vans...the Grumman bodies (all aluminum, I believe) show no sign of rust, while the Ford/GM commercial vans at that age do have rust.

Talking about rust, the most rust prone commercial vans for rust I've seen, are the older Mercedes and Dodge Sprinter vans.

Rust will kill a commercial vehicle, that is why I think real long term, needs aluminum, rather than steel.

On the other hand, maybe the key is to buy a cheaper regular production van, like a Ford or GM, run it for 15 years, then replace it with the same. Because although a body maybe durable and work for 25 years...what about the heating/air conditioning/ seats, etc...will they be still working well at a quarter of a century or just blowing warm, rather than hot air into the cab at -30. So, from that standpoint, maybe replace every 15 years, to ensure better driver comfort, working conditions.

Anyways, just my opinion and as we all know on this forum...what the heck do I know .

Aluminum “rusts” Les.

This was caused by corrosion, and poor maintenance and inspection practices allowed it to get so bad that the skin separated in flight.

[Racer X 69]

It's a peculiar business model, for any business to run a vehicle fleet for 25 years. The more normal course of action (read the route that will make you waste the least amount of your shareholders money) would be to buy vehicles to use for three years tops with all regular scheduled maintenance thrown into the deal. After three years, trade in at a pre-agreed fleet trade rate and buy new. Of course, you'd not want RHD vehicles sold for use on the roads there, so shipping them to us or any of the other RHD markets would make the most sense. But, then I guess they're not trying to make a profit!

The US Postal Service is a government agency, not a business with “shareholders”.

[MarkJerling]

The US Postal Service is a government agency, not a business with “shareholders”.

Exactly my point. I can smell the dollars going up in smoke from here.

[Racer X 69]

Exactly my point. I can smell the dollars going up in smoke from here.

Hey, it's winter up here. They gotta burn something to keep warm, and burning the letters isn't an option, as they are all in the lost mail bin.

[robtcorl]

Otis for Postmaster General!
He, and his minions, will work for beer.

[StiffLegged]

Otis for Postmaster General!
He, and his minions, will work for beer.

Save the beer for Otis, minions work for bananas.

[Parallax]

The US Postal Service is a government agency, not a business with “shareholders”.

Exactly my point. I can smell the dollars going up in smoke from here.

Well, at least they aren't tax dollars.
The USPS is a government agency (part of the Executive Branch) but it doesn't receive tax dollars for operating expenses. It operates solely from its generated revenue.
That doesn't mean, necessarily, that the new vehicles are cost effective though. Remember, the definition of a whale is "a minnow designed to government specs".

[robtcorl]

I know Sav showed me how to downsize a photo, maybe I'll try it.....next time.