coloradogreen

Playing in the mud!

Troy.

County truck? What sort of mileage?

Troy.

16-feet wide and 90-feet from the front to the back...

Troy.

There are a lot of trucks I like, but, as far as something that I've driven, this one...

Troy.

Slpwlkr-

I see, I misread your post. 57k sounds about right with a 28k bobtail. A buddy of mine runs a Pete, double frame, 50k rears, 20k steer and pusher, he's 28000 bobtail and 57k with a 3-1. Sounds like you and he run very similar rigs. Do you have photo of your truck?

I ran a Hydraulic. Still have a TH55 Fontaine. Mechanicals. Those are for people that like to fight with there trailer. Your alittle heavy bobtail. my bobtail is 28 almost 29k.

You're pulling some amazingly light trailers then if you're 28,000 bobtail and coming in at 45k hooked to a trailer. Hell, I'm 38,000 empty pulling our extendable double-drop, and still about 32k (I think, been awhile since I pulled it) with the Kaelyn 35-ton double-drop.

Troy.

Slpwlkr-

My truck is about 20,000lbs. bobtail, so, a little heavier than most road-tractors.

Was/ is your 7-axle a mechanical or a hydraulic neck? The construction-series Trail King hydraulic neck 55-ton lowboys are fairly heavy trailers. Add that the JD had a thumb attachment on the bucket and it was getting up to the limit on 6-axles for my neck of the woods.

Bob- I won't go into a whole lot of details or where/ when/ who, as it was purchased privately. It will be restored, however.

Glad everyone likes the photos!

Troy.

Hard to imagine your that heavy with that 350 on. only on 6 axles. should of been around 120. Cool pics. That tunnel is that on 25 going towards the old truckstop that is closed?

With the thumb on the JD was about 85,000lbs. My truck is about 45,000lbs. empty hooked to a 3-axle Trail King 55-ton.

With an annual permit we can run pretty heavy on the axles, as well. Up to 55,000 on tandem drivers, and 65,000 on the 3-axle trailer grouping.

Troy.

Another coal-hopper, same derailment, about 15ft.-9in. tall. The coal-hoppers with good side-walls were 11-feet wide.

Another coal-hopper!

John Deere 350D, about 130,000lbs. gross weight...

Sorry of the shoddy pics, just camera-phone pictures...

Troy.

Hey there, BigMackTrucks forum! It's been ages since I posted, I kind-of got distracted, but, I've been wanting to get back on the forum. A lot has changed since I last posted. Then I was still swamping and learning the ropes, since then I've been doing some actual driving. I thought I'd create a thread for my truck, "War Horse" (more on the name later). It's a '99 Peterbilt 379 with a 475 6NZ Cat, and 18-speed Eaton (yeah, yeah, I know it's not a Mack!). Here's some photos of the loads I've hauled...

9040 Case excavator, 110,000lb. gross.

14-ft. wide storage shed. No weight, but, was my first pilot-car load.

Banged-up coal-hopper from a derailment...

One of my favorite photos... 15ft. 6in. going underneath a 16-foot bridge.

I like this one simply because the trip went so well, nice, easy load!

Liebherr claw, about 107,000lbs. This was my first time running in the mountains over 100,000-pounds.

Yes, that is a caboose! About 15ft. 6-in. tall. Took this one up a narrow, windy mountain road.

Troy.

$280,000 and the pump isn't even hooked up?!?

Still, an impressive build.

Its not my style, but, I do think its well built. Regardless of whether something like that should have gotten cut-up for a toy, it was his sheet-metal, it was his decision.

Troy.

EM6285-

Around the yard I shot the Brundage-Bone pumpers, only about 3 of them actually had automatics , them, the rest (about 50 trucks total at that yard) had either 9 or 18-speed manuals in them. They have a fair number of "TOR" trucks, as well (off-brand that utilizes Mack MR components)

Troy.

We took a 2100 Wirtgen down to a regional airport when they were ripping up and re-paving the runways. Operator used near a full can of ether to get it to start up. Same block as the C16, just a bigger bore from what I understand.

Lucerne - supposedly one of the diesel tuners had a 3000hp C18 at one of the truck shows (Louisville, I think) a few years back. Apparently some bullhauler out of Montana bought it for his rig. From what I've heard, some of the guys running the ultra high-horsepower engines have had to go to hydrostatic transmissions to handle the power.

Troy.

Gonna' leave this here...

Troy.

When I first started on the path to get my CDL the heavy haul company I work for had a little Louisville Ford single-axle with a 6-71 Detroit and a 10-speed Roadranger and 4.11 gears. The truck became mine, basically, to shunt the trailers around the yard backing them in and what not. Our big trailer, a 2-3-2 Trail King had that little Ford around 60,000lbs. moving it without the jeep. That was about all that little Ford wanted to do, she'd torque up and twist moving it. It was loud, dusty, dirty, noisy, and you felt every bump, but, I miss that truck. I'd zip around grabbing gears just for the hell of it, wrapping the little Detroit up with both windows down just to hear it. We also had a GMC Brigadier with a water tank for a short while, had a 6v92 and a 7LL. Its the best obnoxious noise you'll ever hear.

Troy.

Brundage Bone's 7-axle, 115,000lb. flagship pumper.

Troy.

Not from a photoshoot for the magazine, but, I like this shot. Bossman's 900B Kenworth. Warmed up 444 Cummins, 6x4, 4.56 rears...

And the big 379 with two fairly impressive loads...

Troy.

Your background choices are good! They don't detract - they add to the photo

Thanks. Background/ setting has always been an important consideration for me. Some trucks its pretty easy to choose where to shoot them, such as Howard Elliot's trucks. The color went perfectly with Red Rocks Ampitheatre. Other trucks required a little more consideration, or simply experimenting to see what worked. We discussed probably 30 different locations for Spike's 379 before we went with the underpass (one of this locations for the shoot). The color of his truck was incredibly unusual to work with, as the light utterly changes the look of his truck. The "Lime Gold" will vary from a yellow-gold all the way to a near neon-green depending on the light.

I'd love to get out East and do some photography of older Mack's (R and B models) in and around the big cities. The main drag of old town Annapolis would do fantastic for a night shoot (non-flash, extended exposure) shoot of a B-model Mack.

Troy.

Good lookin Pete, but they better hot wrench a hole in the fancy front bumper to slide in some tow hooks so they can pull it with a Mack wrecker ?

The more impressive thing about the truck's building is a lot of that rig was built by Robert Manley, himself, including the sleeper. It certainly was not a shop-built custom.

Funny the bumper is mentioned, as well. The photos we took next to the creek (where that rock is jutting out) required backing down over a fairly steep break-over, and bumper cleared it by less than a half-inch.

Troy.

Great pictures. Keep them coming. Do you have any of old trucks? Welcome to the site.

Mike

A few...

Mike Sulley's '67 narrownose Peterbilt. Originally built by Rob Manley.

Troy.

Out here I'd say the most common application to see would actually be as concrete pumpers. Also seen as roll-offs, tractors (USPS), as well as some various, specialized vocational rigs like super-vac rigs.

Troy.

There are a few around here with septic pumpers and septic tank setters. They work great in that application. I don't think they ride that good but I've never seen one on air ride; all spring, and heavy spec.

Rob

You'd be right about rough-riding. Between sitting ahead/ over the steer axle and a short wheelbase, no room for an air-ride seat, and airbags nowhere on the truck it could slap pretty hard going over the bumps and potholes.

USPS has a fair number, at least around here, operating as tractors, mostly single-drive tractors, but a number of tandems, as well.

Troy.

Chris-

Nikon D7000 with a Sigma 10-20mm Ultra Wide Angle, 18-55mm Nikor, and a 55-200mm Nikor. Some of the older photos were taken with either a D3000 or D100.

Troy.

Slpwlkr-

I hear it. Coming up on that milestone, myself, so hoping things may change a bit. The real bugger to me is when these six-week wonders are coming out of the mills and "training" at the big fleets and let loose on a slick, windy I-80 and end-up in the ditch. Makes you wonder why the young guys can't get insured, eh? Like I said, I never cared to go to any of the trucking schools, when I set out to learn to drive a truck I wanted to do it right, by getting your ass chewed out by 30, 40, and 50 year veterans of driving.

Troy.