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Hello Forum members! I have some updates on the B-Model restoration today. I have new steer tires and rims. My wife did not want me to try and use the old rims, (hazard) so I went to Schierl tire and purchased new rims and tires. I also did not like the stained boards; I painted them white while the tires and rims were being mounted. The brakes are now working! It had a leak that I fixed, turn signals and brake lights are installed and working. It's starting to look like a truck again! Best Regards.....Frank

Ever heard of two sisters or brothers that grew up together than went separate ways, one settling down and starting a family and the other taking off to seek fame and fortune? ,, this story takes a lot of twists and turns. About the same time I talked to Wayne Hyatt about his Father’s truck and the missing picture, I remembered reading the great article in Wheels of Time magazine about the LTH log truck that Dan Thomas had purchased from the original owner’s family in Oregon ,I still knew very little about a LTH ( a guy about 20 miles away bought 2 LTLs from out west and would bring one to our show, but I never talked to him about it very much) . I remembered the build sheet showing the next truck after mine was sent to Medford OR. I didn’t know Dan but found a number for his company on the internet, I called and asked to speak with him, the lady asked me what the call was concerning,, I told her “ A Old Mack “ if I remember correctly he called me within a hour, I told him about the truck and was wondering about the truck after it on the build sheet, I gave him my vin number and immediately he said that’s the sister truck to his! I told him about talking to the original owners son , he said he would call me back, I think less than a hour he sent me a picture of my truck ( left ) when it was about a year old and the new 56 that Kay Hyatt had bought,, it was the picture at the Booneville fair in 1956 ! “ MACK DADDY “ is the Perfect nickname for him! So his unmolested LTH spent its whole life in the same area,,, the older sister is just getting started!

I’ve always appreciated old semis all the way back to my dad taking me to car shows. I never thought there would be a day that I’d find a unique truck for myself but after some unfortunate events, I stumbled across an old Mack and fell in love with it. I talked with the old man who owned it previously and offered to exchange tractor work on his property for the truck and he agreed. 4 months later and the title is in my hand! From my research and experience working on it so far, it has the END 864(I know it has issues, don’t be a stinker) and a quadruplex transmission. I’ve already done some work inside the cab to make preparations to drive it off the guys property and back to my house 5 miles away. I may be 19, but I’ve worked on engines since I could walk and have found a good connection to this truck already. Good thing I have the land to restore it. To my knowledge, there was 456 of these made, but that could just be a bunch of bull. Anybody have any fun facts a first time Mack owner should know about his truck?

Well guys,Work continues on the Cruiseliner but slower than we'd like.The good news is the guy who owns the farm we are on has told us he will NOT be putting us out of the shed untill shes finnished as he wants to see her done....Apart from some re assembly all mechanical work is done.When we removed the roof trim we discovered a 3in hole that was cut in the roof and then patched.Why it was cut we dont know but the centre rib was cut right through.We rebuilt the rib and patched the hole with fiberglass but it caused a big delay in the work.....Shes back on her wheels and starting to look good...we think so anyway....... Paul

Busy, busy with the B73 this weekend!! Spent Saturday morning cleaning it up from Lititz for an event Sunday. Then Saturday evening my wife and I were in our Tahoe enroute to a family event, when a brake issue left us stranded. Rescued it with the B73. Then out all day Sunday at the “Back the Blue” motorcycle ride and car show, hauling vehicles for the State Police Museum. Another great event and weekend with the truck!!

Haven’t posted in a while.Here’s a update.Just picked up the cab.Mickey Delia did a fantastic job.Thank you.

I’ll start with a picture of the first time I saw this truck, and is probably good that I start a topic on it so later on I can read it and remember some of the things I have learned about it, and some of the interesting people I have talked to concerning it, and hopefully someone will have some more information on it. It may take me several days to remember and post what I have learned so far. I saw it parked on the side of the road leading to a truck show we were having in Waynesville NC in May 2022 , it wasn’t up where all the trucks were, just setting with no one around it . My Grandson and Me walked down to see it ,, it’s very rare for a LT of any kind to be seen here in the mountains of NC , we stayed till the show was over and never saw anyone, no one knew who brought it but I did look under it and saw it had a V8 Detroit,, so I took a couple pictures and left scratching my head! With no clue who brought it or what the meaning of the odd name “ 10 Tucky “ was all about.

My lovely wife and I went out to eat in Lynchburg yesterday for our third anniversary. Went to Texas Roadhouse, first time I'd been there in several years, since well before I retired anyway. It has to be good when the only thing I had to complain about was too much food! Most of this is at home in the refrigerator now. I ate the small ribeye and skrimps, and a salad, Zina only had a couple of bites of her prime rib. She had a couple of sips of this margarita, and I finished the rest, along with 2 of those large beers. I hate to waste stuff. And we went to Elba Butcher Shoppe in Altavista Wednesday because they have a lot of gallon size cans of vegetables. We got everything we needed to make our annual stew, except the potatoes, onions, and the meat. We always get that fresh. We're going to make that Nov. 15th, so y'all drop by and get you some if you're in the area. I know Brocky would love to have a bowl of real Brunswick stew. Here's some stew from years past - Looks delicious! And, to keep things truck related in case gear head grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl is out there, a lot of truck drivers have had this stew, and liked it. And here's a big Mack truck-

no money for snap because demonrats refuse to vote yes on the bill 13 times so far unless it contains full funding for free health insurance for illegals. as for the 200million for the ballroom, not 1 dime for that is coming from the government. it is fully privately funded.

We got the truck home! 2 tires went flat on the drive home, and we lost all brakes. The foot pedal is rusted stuck and gave out, and the parking brake knob isn’t up to snuff like it should be, but luckily we didn’t make a 755 sized hole in anyone’s house! I’m gonna need to find some tires and some brake equipment for this old truck. Motor runs like it shut off last week, no hesitation on startup what so ever. Does anybody have any questions about this truck? I’m new to Mack’s in general and understand that I struck gold with this clean machine sitting in my driveway, I’d love to share with y’all’s community any important info.

Well, I just got the truck to start today for the first time since 1985! Shifters were both rusted solid but some CRC penetrant free’d em up. I saw two six volt batteries per side so I swapped them out with one 12v per box. Bypass line from the pump to the top of the can filter was roached so had to swap it out. Little bit of ether and rebuilding the solenoid got it started. Whole lotta rat crap and nests under the seats. Realized that’s where the solenoid was by following the smoke cloud. The guy before me parked the truck infront of his barn in 1985 because the insurance back then was too expensive for him. Sadly, he made a custom shag carpet floor mat and left the drivers smoker window open, the floors gone. Good thing they were ment to be removable! Just gotta get some 14 gauge steel and fab up a new floor and some runners for the bottom. Looks like 4 years of metal shop paid off. The bellcranks were rusted solid for the splitter transmission, the hole in the floor was a big help to access them and free them up. Now I just need to get the air horn valve to close (it’s froze open and honks anytime the engines running) and I can start building air pressure. Time to play Mack roulette with air lines😂

NYC's future! .....Hippy

I need to interject this story before I get ahead of myself, it’s one of the most coincidental stories that I’ve ever heard ( I couldn’t even make this one up) . Finding out that My LTH and Dan Thomas’s was consecutive numbers were 200 to 1 , because that’s how many LTHs were built. This Coincidence is 18 Million to 1 ,, the population of North Carolina and Tennessee ! Here we go, My best friend in High School, Brian has been a manager of a hydraulic hose business for 35 years and knows NOTHING about a truck. He stopped by my shop about a week after I brought the LTH , I was showing him the engine change, we talked a bit and he left. About a week later he stopped at a older fellows shop near Hickory NC that had been a customer of his ( about a mile off I40 ) years ago, the shop was locked up, he saw a man across the road working on a truck, he walked over and asked if he had seen the older gentleman lately and was told he had retired but came by from time to time. Brain said the guy was setting on the tire and the hood was up on the truck, he noticed it was a Mack Superliner with a Detroit,( RW770 8v92 ) He told the guy that his friend (me) had purchased a old Mack with a Detroit a few weeks ago,, the guy asked him what color it was, Brian told him faded Yellow with 10Tucky on the door, He said the fellow looked at him as he had seen a ghost, and about fell off the truck! He said he had ridden in that truck when he was a kid his Dad drove it some for the Millers , His Dad also was the Blacksmith for 10Tucky Stables !! Brain had me on the phone with him ( Alan Abee ) within 10 minutes, I talked to Alan for about a hour. He has given me a lot of information, some pictures from his old magazines, I stay in touch with him often, him and his brother use the Superliner hauling their equipment, he also is a Blacksmith for the Tennessee Walking Horses. I had a better chance winning a lottery than meeting Alan this way! It’s over 400 miles from Hickory NC to Lewisburg , TN !

At this point after talking with Dan Thomas and having the picture I called Joe for more information, he told me that Mr Miller had a lot of equipment, Along with swapping the Cummins out for a Brand New 318 Detroit ( By the way, the younger sister was built pretty much identical when they left the factory) Then they reinforced the frame, you can see where they shortened the frame when it was converted from a log truck to a 5th wheel, the frame reinforcement is very precise for a shop in Alaska in the early 60s . It’s still unclear how it got to Alaska but it was a fairly short period of time between Kay Hyatts trade to Peterbilt and when the Engine was switched and frame modifications,, according to Joe , Millers nephew he thought it was in Alaska for about 8 or 9 years. John C Miller , the guy who hobobed a train with no money, no education,,, but according to his nephew had brilliant mind when it came to road building and moving any kind of equipment had amassed a huge fortune by the 70s .

That part is original, the fellow ( Johnny ) I got in from took me inside before I left and gave me some information on the truck, he had a magazine, the information from the Mack Museum with all the information and gave me the name and number of the fellow ( Joe) he had gotten the truck from near Kingsport TN a few years before whom was a family member of the fellow that had it in Alaska , John C “ Tennessee “ Miller . So here is where several questions were answered, I called Joe ,here’s his story of the truck, His Uncle John C Miller had hoboed a train near Newport TN in the 50s and worked his way to California , there he started in the construction business until he started his own, then moved up to Alaska, continuing to build a bigger company in Anchorage, he had a lot of equipment and most of the trucks he brought up there he would change the engines out to 2 cycle Detroit Diesel, because they would start better in the colder climate . He had a top notch shop in Anchorage, and you can tell it by the craftsmanship of the engine swap. He did a lot of road building, and in 1964 he put together a caravan of D7 Cats to take equipment to Prudhoe Bay for Richfield Oil , Joe said he has the missing fingers to prove it from frostbite! They had to go from Fairbanks north in the middle of winter so they could cross the Yukon River when it was frozen, This was not the way the Dalton Hwy runs today, they basically went around the mountains , I have a good article about it from the Anchorage Museum. He said the LTH was used to haul equipment with lowboys to Fairbanks .

I was drinking this, but then one day I just decided that I should switch to Jim Beam. No particular reason.

We got the last truck show of the year in today,, great weather and show in Cherokee NC , good to talk to everyone. Its going to be time to put them away for the winter,, My Grandson and Me have had fun with the LJ this summer, hopefully we can do some next year, we took the LTH along today , it was a all day trip,, Rolling in at Sunset.

Wow, a V12 Detroit powered R model!

I have learned to like my steaks closer to medium than medium well.. A lot more tender!! I Had a friend who like very rare beef.. We were in a group at a fairly fancy restaurant, well on the way of being very tipsy, when the waitress asked how he wanted his steak he said " trim its horns, wipe its a$$, and walk it in" She never batted an eye.. As she was serving us our dinners, the chef walked in with a totally RAW steak on the plate and asked him if he "would like it warmed up?" As the rest of us were laughing our a$$ off his wife was ready to kill him!!!!

as some of you may know, i had a few issues over the past two years. as a result of those issues, i determined it was damn well past time to address the biggest elephant in the room which was my size. well, i am proud to announce i am now under 200 pounds for the first time on over 30 years. a few years ago at 335 pounds. and as of 4:30 pm yesterday, the new skinny me, at 199.5 pounds. i plan on holding this weight until i see the doctor beginning of January to see if she feels i should stay here, or drop another 20 pounds. as for now i feel great and am no longer taking blood pressure meds. in fact i am adding a pinch of salt to water bottles to raise the blood pressure, the first time i have used salt in over 25 years. the only real issues i have no are the arthritis that kicks my butt especially withing 12-18 ours of it raining, and no more "built in" insulation keeping me warm. i had to turn the home temperature up from 65 to 72.

Looks like big Mike's doing a package check 🤣

I’m about halfway through this story so I will continue before I forget something, The last time I talked with Joe Janes , John C Millers nephew he told me all he knew about the truck and some of the details. John & Mary Miller were big into Tennessee Walking Horses, sometime around 1970 he sent the LTH back down to middle Tennessee where he had a farm, Joe said he was unsure who did the restoration & custom painting and chrome work . He said there were once some pictures of it when it was finished but he had no clue where they ended up. The old Mack had helped make John C Miller millions of dollars , and for a truck in the early 70s he wanted it to look like a million bucks. It was painted yellow, added roof a/c , lots of Chrome! Axles , glove box, heater cover, dash, twin exhaust and aluminum tanks ( personally i like the box/steps on a LTH , but this is the way he did it ) . It has a clock in the glove box cover, and a 8 track tape player ( I found a Jonny Horton “ North to Alaska “ tape that I keep in it ) . All the tires were branded with their names on them. A long way from working hard logging in Northern California & hauling equipment in Alaska. This Sister started wearing a lot of “ BLING” !

That’s a great explanation of the LT Models ! The summer went by and I really didn’t think much more about the truck, I was busy with the LJ , Grandsons baseball and was trucking a lot more than. So October rolled around and we went to the truck show in Cherokee NC I think I took my Dad’s C Model. When I pulled in the LTH was there! A friend of mine said a fellow dropped it off early and left because he had a business about 10 miles away. Well we walked around it all day, he had raised the hood, he had not returned when the show was over, so I left a note in the seat to call me about the truck thinking I would probably never hear from him. About 9pm that Saturday night he called me and said I found your note,, we talked about the truck a bit and I asked him if it was for sale, It belonged to him and his Dad and they had talked about selling it because they didn’t have a good shed for it . I asked him about the price and we agreed on it . I had to haul a big forklift down to the outer banks of NC Sunday and would not be back till Monday evening, he said that was fine. As it turned out my Son was trucking out that way Monday so he stopped and left a deposit with his Dad and actually brought a older bulldozer from him also. So Tuesday afternoon we went back with a Superliner and lowboy and got it and the dozer. This is where I started asking questions and after about a hour I knew some of the history,,, but the interesting part had just begun!

Here’s mine,not for sale,it’s from late 40’s early 50’s.

I found it and took a screenshot,,, I love that look!

Slow trucking day,,, made some progress on the Superliner

Since we didn't have any pictures taken at our wedding, my wife wanted to have some buffessional type pictures taken of us. We went to this farm just a couple of miles from here and had some taken Sunday afternoon. The pictures came out good, but I'm a bit peed off- I don't understand why she cropped me out of the pictures and put this old fat guy in them- all of them! I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind when it's time to pay her for them! That doesn't make any sense, i'm just gonna- oh,..wait a second...I figured it out...never mind.

I found out a few more things about the Millers , mostly from his nephew and some from the Abees that worked for them. Evidently 10Tucky Stables & Farms was one of the most successful in the Walking Horse community in the 70s and early 80s . John C “ Tennessee “ Miller passed away in 1984 , His wife in the early 90s , they had no children. They left most of their fortune to Middle Tennessee University, Over 20 Million Dollars. The 154 acre complex was built with the money . They had an auction at 10Tucky Stables, Joe Jaines said he didn’t inherit the LTH , he was the highest bidder ( he never told me what he paid) . He brought it to White Pine , Tennessee . A few pictures, some staff at 10Tucky in 1978, The John C “ Tennessee “ Miller Colosseum. And a write up on his induction into the Walking Horse Hall of Fame.And 10Tucky as it looks today, privately owned.

I went to assemble the clutch housing and realized the gasket has to be behind the halo. Hmmm??? I googled some and found a video on YouTube that showed that halo just pops off and you can install the gasket and slide halo back on. It has O rings that seal it into case. Simple enough. I got the housing torqued on and cross shafts in it. All ready to go. It will sit on the back of the truck until spring.