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Mack trucks

Yesterday's Tractor Forums
S

SVcummins

Well-known Member
I would have liked to been on this job
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Back when Mack was a truck worth having. Since then they have gone down hill terribly. The CH series weren't worth pushing to the junkyard. To many poor design features in them. Alternator down behind the frame rail. Wiper plastic tank over the turbo to melt in hot weather Poor wiring /grounding in wiring. Just a poor truck from the get go.
 
(quoted from post at 02:39:12 02/05/19) Back when Mack was a truck worth having. Since then they have gone down hill terribly. The CH series weren't worth pushing to the junkyard. To many poor design features in them. Alternator down behind the frame rail. Wiper plastic tank over the turbo to melt in hot weather Poor wiring /grounding in wiring. Just a poor truck from the get go.
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Just a rebadged Volvo now. I drive a 2013 Granite now and then. Some days I spend more time working on it than driving it.
 
Hat's off to restores that can do that quality of restoration. Absolutely marvelous. The dedication and perseverance is mindboggling.

Logging industry in E. Texas, years ago used mainly Macks, silver dogs, Mackadyne I think they were called. I had access to a '90ish tandem dump and pup for awhile and one tough truck.

I read an article once about a guy whose job for the past 35 years was to polish the dogs......35 years of doing the same thing........not for me. anyway, the news caster interviewing him asked him some questions and one of them got this reply: One of these days I'm going to retire and I think I will have enough money saved to get me one of my own......the tractor, not just the dog.
 
wow. exhaust stack straight out of the center of the hood.

must have been pretty cold to have the vapor plumes like that.

vintage Ice road???
 

Our fire dept. used to have a B-61 gas. It was ten years old when we got it. They say that the Thermodyne was originally designed for the fire service. Many old trucks like that one are retired fire trucks which of course make good candidates for restoration.
 
(quoted from post at 08:46:04 02/05/19) found this old girl not far from me pretty bad shape otherwise I might have recued her
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That doesn't look much like a Mack.
 
(quoted from post at 11:11:46 02/05/19) were these good?
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I don't know if they were good or not, I'm not a truckdriver but I do know that they were the best looking truck ever made.

That's a beauty.
 
Out of curiosity I did a quick search to find out about the trucks in the photos you posted.

Found the following on Truckersnews;


Eleven monster Macks equipped with 600 hp diesel engines, 5-foot-tall tires and 5,500-gallon fuel tanks carried the personnel and equipment to inside the Arctic Circle to construct the DEW Line defense project in 1956.

The beastly bulldogs were shipped by rail from Allentown, Pennsylvania to Seattle. From there they were loaded on barges and taken to Valdez, Alaska. They had conventional highway travel and then 500 miles over wilderness trails cut by bulldozers. Then came 500 miles over the frozen Arctic Ocean.

Temperatures were as low as -65 degrees as truckers drove in 12-hour shifts and then slept, ate and relaxed in 65-foot-long trailers.

The Dew Line was a series of radar stations meant to warn North America of potential attack from bombers of the former U.S.S.R. during the Cold War.

There is also a video showing these trucks in action, yes they get stuck too.
 
they are all mack, these units were specially designed and built for arctic exploration, i think there were 12 of them they were pre alcan hiway rigs,
 
(quoted from post at 08:05:04 02/05/19) Out of curiosity I did a quick search to find out about the trucks in the photos you posted.

Found the following on Truckersnews;


Eleven monster Macks equipped with 600 hp diesel engines, 5-foot-tall tires and 5,500-gallon fuel tanks carried the personnel and equipment to inside the Arctic Circle to construct the DEW Line defense project in 1956.

The beastly bulldogs were shipped by rail from Allentown, Pennsylvania to Seattle. From there they were loaded on barges and taken to Valdez, Alaska. They had conventional highway travel and then 500 miles over wilderness trails cut by bulldozers. Then came 500 miles over the frozen Arctic Ocean.

Temperatures were as low as -65 degrees as truckers drove in 12-hour shifts and then slept, ate and relaxed in 65-foot-long trailers.

The Dew Line was a series of radar stations meant to warn North America of potential attack from bombers of the former U.S.S.R. during the Cold War.

There is also a video showing these trucks in action, yes they get stuck too.
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[b:42b2c8f28c]D[/b:42b2c8f28c]istant [b:42b2c8f28c]E[/b:42b2c8f28c]arly [b:42b2c8f28c]W[/b:42b2c8f28c]arning


While working on the North Slope in the 80's I had use of a helicopter to scout a site and we got done early. Pilot said you have twenty minutes left on lease what do you want to do. I said go see a DEW Line station, so we did. Pretty cool...
 
(quoted from post at 13:05:24 02/05/19)
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That doesn't look much like a Mack.[/quote]

Looks like a Kenworth badge at the top of the grille.

A quick Google search turned up this picture. Pretty much the same truck isn't it?


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(quoted from post at 13:14:03 02/05/19) they are all mack, these units were specially designed and built for arctic exploration, i think there were 12 of them they were pre alcan hiway rigs,
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The only one I'm questioning is the blue truck posted by grizz02.
 
Thermodyne was the terminology for non-turbocharged Mack diesel engines. Maxidyne was the turbocharged engines. I learned to drive truck on a B-61. The cab was small, so the visibility was not very good. The worst part about the '61's was the transmission. Trplex or Quadraplex twin stick jobs. I did not like those. The B-75 introduced the 250 horsepower turbocharged 6-cylinder Maxidyne diesel with the Maxitorque five-speed gearbox, in 1966. Lots easier to drive, but still a pretty slow truck. I personally preferred the R models. Lots bigger cab with more glass and better visibility. They also had a tilt hood, making it easier to work on the engine. The engine in a B-model laid at a slant with the stuff you worked on most on the bottom. The B-models were easier to make look really sharp than the R-model. The B-75 is the nicest looking Mack ever built, in my opinion. You were either a Mack driver or you hated them. If you drove a Detroit or a Cummins with a 13-speed gearbox, you probably did not want to drive a five-or-six-speed Mack. I had a '78 R-model with the 375 V-8 that would pull like a bull to 74 mph. The limit to that truck was the pyrometer. I had a trucking buddy who put a Cummins 335 into an old B-61. That was quite the truck.
 
(quoted from post at 08:54:26 02/05/19)
(quoted from post at 13:14:03 02/05/19) they are all mack, these units were specially designed and built for arctic exploration, i think there were 12 of them they were pre alcan hiway rigs,
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The only one I'm questioning is the blue truck posted by grizz02.
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Fortunately for Grizz, he never said that was a Mack. In any case, it IS an older truck! *lol*
 
The blue one Grizz posted and the green one Clarence put up with the person standing on the right running board are W900 Kenworths. The B model was the last of the real, and good Macks.
 
Here is a picture of a friends Bulldog Mac. It was originally owned by his dad and they used it to haul lumber at Penticton Sawmill
Dave
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(quoted from post at 15:06:23 02/05/19)
(quoted from post at 08:54:26 02/05/19)
(quoted from post at 13:14:03 02/05/19) they are all mack, these units were specially designed and built for arctic exploration, i think there were 12 of them they were pre alcan hiway rigs,
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The only one I'm questioning is the blue truck posted by grizz02.
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Fortunately for Grizz, he never said that was a Mack. In any case, it IS an older truck! *lol*
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The topic was and is Mack trucks. Splitting hairs maybe but he said: "found this old girl not far from me pretty bad shape otherwise I might have recued her" which sounds like he thought it was a Mack.

Clarity is important.
 
(quoted from post at 10:01:30 02/05/19) Thermodyne was the terminology for non-turbocharged Mack diesel engines. Maxidyne was the turbocharged engines. I learned to drive truck on a B-61. The cab was small, so the visibility was not very good. The worst part about the '61's was the transmission. Trplex or Quadraplex twin stick jobs. I did not like those. The B-75 introduced the 250 horsepower turbocharged 6-cylinder Maxidyne diesel with the Maxitorque five-speed gearbox, in 1966. Lots easier to drive, but still a pretty slow truck. I personally preferred the R models. Lots bigger cab with more glass and better visibility. They also had a tilt hood, making it easier to work on the engine. The engine in a B-model laid at a slant with the stuff you worked on most on the bottom. The B-models were easier to make look really sharp than the R-model. The B-75 is the nicest looking Mack ever built, in my opinion. You were either a Mack driver or you hated them. If you drove a Detroit or a Cummins with a 13-speed gearbox, you probably did not want to drive a five-or-six-speed Mack. I had a '78 R-model with the 375 V-8 that would pull like a bull to 74 mph. The limit to that truck was the pyrometer. I had a trucking buddy who put a Cummins 335 into an old B-61. That was quite the truck.
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Did cat, did you start and stop without the clutch when driving as duplex or only float your shifts between gears?
 
Picture is of a load of Oliver Super 55 tractors on a trailer pulled by a B-61 Mack road tractor with the 673 ci Mack engine, 175 hp with pneumatic starter; air brakes on the 34' single axle trailer. The load was hauled from the Charles City, IA factory to Leinbach Machinery Co in Winston-Salem, NC in the winter of 1957 by my brother.
Brother was sent to a local blacksmith for a 5/8? rod bent to make an off-center ?V? to clamp the Regis (Stay) and Steering Tie Rods so front wheels were locked from turning which would have resulted in damage on the oil pan on one tractor and steering shaft on other; steering wheels were removed on all but first and last tractor for this method of transport.
Factory staff brought running tractors off the assembly/testing line to my brother who drove them on the trailer with use of two short boards to ?piggy-back? the front wheels over the rear wheels.
Front wheels of first tractor are resting on thick oak boards hanging over the front of the trailer.
He had to sign waiver in case of damage or if anyone was hurt, that he would have been responsible.





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Factory staff brought running tractors off the assembly/testing line to my brother who drove them on the trailer with use of two short boards to ?piggy-back? the front wheels over the rear wheels.
Front wheels of first tractor are resting on thick oak boards hanging over the front of the trailer.

Great photo, impressive job of loading tractors. Not sure how your brother managed that--even with the boards.

The B-model Mack is also my favorite. Just like the style. Had a chance to buy a single axle dump back long ago. Kinda sorry I let that one slip through my fingers. They wanted $800.
 
He said he had picked up a load of MM tractors prior to that and learned the technique. Still had to be scary! He'll be 84 in a few weeks and
still goes to work every day at his shop. Partly due to the fact that his sons work with him too!
 
There are 3 of the B series Macks behind the shop of DTS Trucking service located on Ga.Highway 15 South between Tennille and Wrightsville, Georgia. One is red, one is blue and the other one is white. They have been just sitting there for several years now.
 
One is red, one is blue and the other one is white. They have been just sitting there for several years now.[/quote]

Red, white and blue? Think maybe they were going for a patriotic display?
 
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