Whiskymack

I still think there is no difference and that all the plus 3 back panels were the same excepting the addition of the vertical body crease some time in the late 70's.

The top corners of the roof panel were substantially radiused so the bulge appears more prominent when the cab is viewed from the front corner but less when the cab is viewed side on. Follow this link to see this.

https://www.purplewave.com/auction/120228/item/A6751

I'd also argue that, after the plus 3 cab was introduced, the long grab handle was standard on all the R,U,DM cabs including the flat back cab which was retained as standard on the U. It looks like the panel was modified to eliminate the mounting bump for the old short handle.

The U could be ordered with a plus 3 cab. There was one for sale on here a few years ago.

I think the U model came with the flat backed cab as standard to preserve the 90 inch BBC but could be specd. with a plus 3 cab if BBC wasn't critical.

I think the body line crease behind the grab handle appeared in the late 70's but wasn't present on the earlier plus 3 cabs. Apart from that I can't see any difference in the curvature of the plus 3 back panel.

Depends on how much scratch building you want to do. Vlad is spot on as usual. The US spec MH had an entirely new frame which was also used on the Super-liner 2. 

Here's a link to a series of articles on upgrading the old Italeri Superliner including scratch building the correct frame. I'd have thought you could pretty much follow this but using the MH Cab.

https://public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/model_magazine_articles/scale_auto_enthousiast/sae_2000-2004/sae_2001_02__februari/saefeb01p1.html

On 1/5/2019 at 5:40 AM, Quickfarms said:

Now to add to the confusion

 

The hood on my 1975 RS685LT and my 1985 RS688LST both measure 54.25" and the distance from the grill to back if can on both trucks is 105"

 

The 1975 hood is a flat top

 

The 1985 hood has the raised center

 

The 1985 RS688LST has the air to air after cooler mounted in front of the radiator

 

The 1975 was built in Hayward

 

The 1975 was built in Allentown

 

 

 

That does add to the confusion!

But there may still be an explanation......

I think your last line was meant to be 'The 1985 was built in Allentown'.

This would make sense because I believe Hayward closed in the early 1980's and all production of Hayward models was transferred east.

The hood ridge appeared roughly about the time the RS600L got the Value-liner moniker but can also be found on some very late model RS700's.

I have also seen it on a few metal dash RS700's so I imagine that replacement hoods from about 1978 also had this ridge. I think the ridge may had served as a strengthening rib but I'm not sure.

As regards the fact that the hoods and BBC seem to be the same on both your trucks despite the spec sheet dimensions saying otherwise, this is my best guess:

On RS700's, pre Value-Liner RS600's and first Generation Super-Liners the back edge of the hood comes right up to the outer edge of the cowl and you often see paint/hood chips on older trucks. On later 1980's models there is often a gap between the back end of the hood and the outer edge of the cowl. I would say this gap is about an inch but I don't know if it is as much as 1.75. I always imagined this gap was to stop the hood and cowl bashing together on trucks with air ride cabs but maybe it killed two birds with one stone by moving the hood forward a bit to make space for the rad mounted intercooler. Just a guess though.

You could try measuring from the bumper to the back of the cab as I think hoods tend to move around a bit as well. 

Just stumbled across this. Might be helpful as it looks pretty much identical to the AMT R685ST.

https://www.purplewave.com/auction/151118A/item/L5144

Hello Steven,

Always good to see a fellow model maker here.

I'm assuming you have the AMT R685ST kit which, as Vladislav says, is 1:25. It's a pretty good kit which dates back to the 1970's so I think it fairly accurately represents an R685 from about 1976 or 77.

The front end is a taperleaf spring set up and is well detailed on the kit so I wouldn't have thought you'd have any problems with it. The rear is a tandem Camelback spring set up. There's no airbag. Again, it's pretty well represented on the kit.

If you want more detail then googling is a good bet but it's also worth visiting truck sales sites such as truckpaper or even ebay as sellers often post close up shots of less accessible areas. Naturally the guys on this site are incredibly knowledgeable and have helped me a lot with my models. I also have a few brochures so I'll have a look through them and see if I can find anything. I know there is a good image of a camelback somewhere.

As for kits, the ones mentioned in other posts are all available if you look. AMT did the Cruiseliner as well as the R685 in 1:25 and a Superliner in 1:32 as both a tractor or a wrecker. ERTL did the DM600 and DM800 which date back to MPC kits from the early 1970's and all of these kits apart from the 1:32 ones seem to get reissued regularly so you can get them from online model shops and ebay for a reasonable price. Some of the original releases are also sold by private sellers on ebay but the prices can be silly.

In 1:24, Italeri did a Superliner which was never branded as a Mack. This kit has been reissued by Italeri, Revell and Heller over the years but the frame/chassis is from Italeri's Freightliner kit and bears little resemblance to a Superliner frame and the cab is not a great copy either. There's not much Mack in his kit so you need to do a lot of work to get it up to standard but you can see that Pawel did a pretty good job if you follow the link in J Hancock's post. 

I hope this helps. I'll have a rummage through my literature and see if I can't find some images for you.

Alastair

On ‎7‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 4:25 AM, glenbjackson said:

just seen Truckin Buddy McCoy. he had a superliner??? maybe not sure

I saw that recently. It is a superliner.

Also check out the German TV movie 'Fleisch' released in English as 'Spare Parts'. One of the main characters drives a great looking RS700L.

That looks like a Western R. Are there any more pictures?

Thank you. A few years on and off but, short of too many, I've no idea in hours

On ‎03‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 6:09 PM, BillyT said:

Whisky what is the brand name of your model kit? It looks great! I've only built one truck model was a peterbilt! Was many years ago,but I was an adult, I think it was a Revell kit.

Started out as AMT and ERTL with lots of modifications. Back in the 70's and 80's AMT covered all the major US truck brands and some of the lesser ones as well. ERTL did a couple of Macks and a few Internationals.

Thankyou  1958 F.W.D. Here are some links to my previous model posts. Lmackattack, all's well with me thanks. I'll post some more pictures of the one above soon when I've got it finished. All the best.

Thanks for the pictures and the link.

I think I have it covered now. I guess the oil filter is the white one on the right side.

By far the best book on Mack that I have come across. There are already two editions, one with a stars and stripes jacket from the early 70's and a later edition with a superliner on the Jacket which includes the later 70's output. An update would be welcome. It's been nearly 40 years since the last one.

I'm making a scale model of a Cummins powered RS700. I've noticed that a lot of Cummins powered R models have a lubefiner mounted to the pass side cowl but some don't. I don't want to have a lubefiner on the cowl but I don't know what the oil filter would look like or where it goes on a Cummins. Please forgive my mechanical ignorance! I just tend to copy photos online for this kind of thing but I don't always know what I'm copying or what it does.

Pictures of model attached. The Cummins is meant to be a 270.  Any help appreciated.

On ‎23‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 2:32 AM, 57 bcr said:

Duel!!!!!   Al. 

Convoy! The one without the skirt looks pretty much like the Rubber Duck Trailmobiles.

20 hours ago, sodly said:

Wow!  That looks like a unicorn, right there!  Do you have any more pics of that cool, early western R?  Looks like a fire truck of some sort.  I hope that's a recent pic and it still exists in that condition.  I've never seen one of those in person.  Would love to see more of it.... or ones like it.  Cool stuff!  

Only one other picture of that one. I've had the pics for a few years now. I think it was for sale somewhere or other back then. No idea where it is now.

8 hours ago, Lmackattack said:

The truck John posted of the logging RS700...that grill is one piece . I agree a HD bumper may have allowed them to omit the lower part of the grill but I have never seen one like that before. I cant see if it has panels behind it but It does not look like it? Im glad they went with the later style as it adds to the truck much better.

Maybe that's why they switched to the later 1 piece grill and straight bumper. That two piece grill would only fit the bumper with a cut out. I've seen a few with only the top part of the grill but that's because the lower bit has gone missing. That's the first one I've seen that looks like it came out of the factory that way.

Came across this on Gumtree:

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/wedgefield/trucks/1985-mack-r600/1103285549

Looks like a jacked up R600. Is this a home conversion or would it have been factory?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1973-Mack-RS700L-Rollback-Truck-Riggers-Special-/142249011816?forcerrptr=true&hash=item211eb3aa68:g:fRcAAOSwUKxYfkKg&item=142249011816

Looks like it needs saving!

12 hours ago, Doug Maney said:

I had trouble with the computer.  I'll have to load it from work.

 

Is this it?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Mexican+mack&safe=active&bih=855&biw=1280&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwillfjO8JPPAhXMKsAKHX1BCeIQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=CEHOE08f7S1lYM%3A

It's my understanding that these were basically R Models with a Superliner hood that were assembled in Mexico, possibly by Transomex?

You can see it's got R model style tanks with the integral step as well. A bit like the Australian Superliner.

13 hours ago, TeamsterGrrrl said:

As long as the thread has drifted off to include the MH, I seem to remember a picture in Truck magazine of an MH prototype with a setback front axle, story said it was intended for Australia. Did the set back front axle MH ever make it into production?

Here's one. I guess it did make it into production. Mack Trucks Australia generally did things their own way.

Perhaps the US experience with the shortcomings of the early Cruise-Liners and Super-Liner led them to adopt the tried and tested R model frame for their Cruise Liner, Superliner 1 and 2 and later, the MH Ultraliner. The Australian Value-Liner was also a completely different beast from the US one, again being based on the R model frame. Perhaps the set back axle MH is a kind of COE equivalent of the Aussie Value-Liner which also had a set back front axle.