USPS Chooses Oshkosh Defense to replace Grumman mail-delivery trucks...

Is this the ugliest vehicle ever produced?


  • Total voters
    16
  • Poll closed .
I would expect them to buy BEVs because that is the perfect use case :|
I believe that was always the plan and the ICE version was more or less a stopgap. If nothing else, the vehicle was designed with BEV capability from the start. The EPA seems to be displeased with this arrangement. And to be fair to them, running the test with the A/C off would be just as misleading, as it is unlikely drivers would run it with the A/C off in daily use.

Oh, BTW, going back a little bit. here's some more non-dedicated vehicles used by USPS

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My brother has one of the previous generation Caravans that he bought from the Post Office. Only had something like 50k miles, but was pretty beat inside. Not sure if that's from use or just typical Mopar wear and tear.
 
I'm actually shocked the AC has that big of an impact. In recent years, I've understood that AC units have gotten so efficient that it's a negligible effect on performance such that some auto media outlets don't bother to turn it off when doing some performance testing...but I suppose the effect on the car's overall performance doesn't necessarily mean a similar effect on fuel economy...but I wouldn't have guessed 14.7mpg dropping to 8.6
 
Heat pumps are really efficient, but I doubt it has them.
 
I’m just glad they’re finally replacing the old mail trucks.

Which is so incredibly frustrating. It took how long? waaaaay past the planned useful life of those grumman things. fucks sake.
 
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I’m just glad they’re finally replacing the old mail trucks.

Which is so incredibly frustrating. It took how long? waaaaay past the planned useful life of those grumman things. fucks sake.


It is. We have our normal mail van that comes through and you only hear it when it pulls up next door. But when that one is down for maintenance, the ratty one comes in to replace it temporarily. You can hear it for half the block, and I half expect it will fail to stop when asked. It has been partially repainted and shows it. The process to replace them should have started more than a decade ago.
 
They should have been replaced when Bush was still president.
 
I'm actually shocked the AC has that big of an impact. In recent years, I've understood that AC units have gotten so efficient that it's a negligible effect on performance such that some auto media outlets don't bother to turn it off when doing some performance testing...but I suppose the effect on the car's overall performance doesn't necessarily mean a similar effect on fuel economy...but I wouldn't have guessed 14.7mpg dropping to 8.6
One key here is the unit: miles per gallon.
If you're doing 70mph then AC use is fairly low in mpg, but how fast is a mailbox-to-mailbox delivery truck going? 2mph? 5mph? 10mph if it's got large gaps between mailboxes?

Second key, the delivery truck has a permanently open window - extra work for the AC.
 
The Finnish Post bought a fleet of these some 20 years ago. They were decommissioned a long time ago and snapped up by private companies that still run them to this day. They are rolling piles of heap at this point, but the car industry still hasn't produced anything better for the use case so the operators keep patching them up year after year. They are damn near impossible to kill thanks to a 1990's Toyota engine and a basic four-speed slushmatic that doesn't care that you're creeping from mailbox to mailbox all day long.

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Nowadays mail carriers that aren't on the electric trikes are in Citroëns... at least I think that's what they are. Could also be Opel, Toyota or Peugeot. They're the same basic van but I think they have the Citroën variety. The Citroens replaced VW Caddies which I can't imagine didn't have DSG issues from all the mailbox creeping. The Stellantis van has a modern slushmatic.

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Define modern heat pump.


Older AC units used high pressure differential refrigerant circuits. Modern, energy efficient systems tend to use a much lower pressure system.
 
Older AC units used high pressure differential refrigerant circuits. Modern, energy efficient systems tend to use a much lower pressure system.
Both pump heat :dunno:
As for modernity, I'm sure they took some common currently existing AC unit from some automotive supplier.
 
The truck is also bigger I believe. Do we know how much these weigh?
Wikipedia's article for the LLV mentions curb weight (2,700 lb/1,200 kg), whereas the (stub-ish) article for the new model mentions a "combined vehicle weight including payload" of 8,501 pounds, "just one pound over the EPA's threshold to be considered a heavy-duty truck, allowing it to avoid pollution emissions standards for light trucks."
 
I like the "TOTAL RECALL" movie vehicle look of it. I get its not everyone's cup of tea. I would also say they should paint the entire thing dark blue with white eagle but i still think it looks interesting.
 
Oh it is interesting for sure - just look at the way this thread keeps going, would never have happened with a run of the mill average vehicle! In that regard I think we can all agree it’s gold mine 🤣 but to me at least it’s the same sort of interesting as the university hospital in my home town… that’s also interesting
 
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