Thor Forums

[The Gritz Carlton]

The E550 in 2002 was a butt ugly truck, uncomfortable for a commercial user to get in and out multiple times over a day's work (doors were narrow and tall vs. the F Series cab) and it didn't offer a bench seat for 3 workers, among many other reasons. Buyers would buy the beefed up F Series instead. It only lasted two years before they discontinued it. Ford is trying to reinvent themselves with commercial trucks. A few years they got out of the commercial business all together except offering commercial versions of the F series. Termite trucks gave them tons of pickup business and motorhomes gave them plenty of stripped chassis business. The new F550 will make an excellent coach. The reason it didn't make a good coach chassis before was height. They had to raise the cab (thus the big bumper) to get the heavy suspension under it and it made it to high for a motorhome. Now that Dodge/Ram has entered the MH chassis market, Ford is trying to do what they can to keep market share. Converting the E Series to a 550 makes sense as it's already in place. Ford's biggest mistake was getting out of the commercial truck business a few years ago. They've now reinvented the F650 and 750 chassis but nothing heavier than that. Ford dominated with the L Series and HD tandem work trucks years ago.