Chris Donegan

Thanks all. I will follow up as suggested and make contact with ATHS. I need a challenge like getting a Roosa Master pump timed and working as intended! Strange, for all of the negative things one hears about the old rotary pumps, we had no problems at all with the one on the V8 Mack. I hope the story is one day told of just how valuable were Mack trucks in opening up the north west region of Western Australia when iron ore was first seriously mined there. Up until then the only game in town was the old English trucks and the local Aussie companies use to pull off their horrible cabs and make their own as they would soon fall off on the badly dirt corrugated roads. When the B series Mack's came along they were an absolute salvation. Most had the 711 engine with 211 mighty horsepower and they often pulled two trailers with them. Slowly. And always very overloaded. Some of the B61 cattle trucks pulled three trailers. One of the 'roads' we regularly took had a hill so steep that there was a Cat D6 and driver stationed at the base to haul trucks and their loads to the top. The whole combination of great engine, a magnificent 18 speed transmission and ever - reliable bogie drive mack rear end was unmatched. It took the Kenworths with the breakthrough fiberglass cab and bonnets to challenge the Mack's in these horrific, hot and rough conditions. Oftentimes you would see B61 with a Cat D9 on the back slugging it out. So why do I want a B615 so bad? So I can finally treat it with respect and polish. Something we never seemed to do much of back then. Oh, and to wind down the windows and hear that unmistakeable Mack V8 take up the load. Might even put an air conditioner in it. Pure luxury.

Hi there. I have often looked in on BigMackTrucks and finally decided to join up. Like a few of you, I drove B and R Series Macks, but in Western Australia, in the 1970's. One was pretty special and I'm keen to find one if possible. it was a B615 with 18 speed quadbox and a single drive - what looked like an RAD 50x diff rated at 65000 lbs I recall. It was a lovely truck and was geared for speed and would hit 70 mph, something special when most of the contemporaries were geared for 48 mph. I'd really appreciate if anyone knows of any trucks such as this. I recall it was a 1963 model. This truck did a genuine 1 million miles, on mainly very rough north west Australian corrugated roads, with only a single engine rebuild. Quad box and diff' survived with just periodic maintenance. I'd sure love to have it now, rotary fuel pump and all! Thanks . Chris