User:Trimetwes fan1003/sandbox/Grumman P800
| P800 | |
|---|---|
 Late model P800 | |
| Overview | |
| Type | Step van |
| Manufacturer | Grumman Olson |
| Production | 1965-2001 |
| Body and chassis | |
| Chassis | GMC, International, Ford, Freightliner |
| Related | P600, P500 |
| Chronology | |
| Successor | Freightliner M Line |
The Grumman P800 is a series of step vans produced by Grumman Olson. The P800 design is exclusive to the package delivery service UPS. Variants with similar designs were also produced, those being the P600 and P500. It has become the most iconic vehicle design for UPS and at one time was to dominant fleet vehicle on UPS.
History And Design
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In the 1960s, UPS requested that Grumman Olson produce a new design of step van that would become the trademark step van design for UPS. The result was a design featuring the iconic sloped roof and "bubble nose". The 1st units were built and delivered in 1965. Since then, the P800 had been produced in mass throughout the rest of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and very early 2000s. Throughout its production run, the P800 has undergone various design changes while still keeping the basic design mostly the same. In the 1970s, the height of the roof was lowered slightly and 2 ridges were added to the roof slope. This design prevailed until the early 1990s, when several cosmetic changes were made. At first the closed oval design where the headlights were placed was opened up and made a slight bend upward before blending into the rest of the truck body. The hood itself was redesigned to look fuller and less "bubbly" in appearance, this included a bigger bumper. After 1995, the roof slope ridges were removed, giving it a smoother appearance. By 1998, the upper side ridge had been removed from the design to create the final design for the P800 until the end of its production run. In Europe, P800s of very similar design was also being produced. However, these units had square headlights compared to the round headlights of the American p800s. While all P800 bodies were built by grumman, their Chasseys were built by different companies, with GMC, Ford, International, and Freightliner providing most of the Chasseys for P800s.
By the late 1990s, the P800 design began to slowly be replaced by newer designs. The primary replacement design was the M Line design by Freightliner, which got rid of the sloped roof and bubble nose design completely. By 2001, the very last P800s had been built and the design was discontinued completely. Since then, more new designed trucks have been introduced to slowly replace the older P800s to the point that by 2024, very few P800s were still running. Some units have been converted to alternate energy power for continued service. Also, due to the design being trademarked by UPS, after service sales of P800s are forbidden and all retired units are immediately scrapped, even further limiting the amount of surviving P800s in America. However, European P800s have been sold off the secondary owners and used for various jobs.
Variants
editThe Standard P800 has many length variants that range from long 24 footers to shorter 15 footers.
P600
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The P600 is similar to the P800 in design. The primary differences being that the P600 lacks the sloped roof and angled windshield windows of the P800. Older units had a less bubble designed hood and a wider grill. 1990s P600s used a very similar hood to the 1990s P800s but still had the non sloped roof and flat windshield.
P500
editThe P500 is a smaller version of the P800 with several differences including a shorter roof, resulted in a slightly less sloped appearance, and single rear wheel sets instead on 2 on the P800s.