harrybarbon

Freightrain I notice you have a Neway air bag suspension, please can you tell me how is the ride, when bob tail do you drop the air bag pressure. to soften the ride And what is ride like when you have your trailer hooked up.

Maddog Please are you able to send me a private message so I can provide details to you

We also painted the white both sides with a flexible clear coat with same flex additive as used on curtain sides paint, works real good

Yes we could arrange to mail these to you in US of A, where are you located, we could ask the our Aussie mail cost, it can be slow sea mail or mail post, cheaper than DHL or the other couriers.

We got these locally 24 inch wide, with the doggie pointing in both directions, so when fitted his head could be inwards or outwards on both sides. We had to cut the inside top corner to clear the fenders. We used a s/s strap to bolt onto the fender. For a bit of extra support/stiffing of the fender and cab extension join, and to fill in the open gap we got 2 Peterbilt fender steps modified to fit the fender shape and slotted in a Mack emblem to make the steps look like Mack made steps and we painted same color as truck. Emblem is bit hard to see - sorry. As they are same color as tanks and rest of truck they are not noticed, but the white mudflaps catch the eye

Thank you, very helpful

Hi Thomas We are in the process of rebuilding a 1985 Neway ARD 238-6 suspension. We need to replace the all bushes and fittings, etc on all 3 sections, that is the frame hangers, equalizer beams and transverse beams and both sides of the suspension. Your pictures and information here is just in time for us. The maintenance manual is also very helpful. 2 questions please, 1/ The kit you paid $138 for the transverse beam, did this include the 4 split / beveled (wedge shaped) steel bushes and the 4 rubber bushes and other parts? If the beveled steel bushes are not in the kit, do you know if they are in stock/supply? Our transverse beams beveled steel bushes are history - rusted and we had to oxy/cut them to disconnect the transverse beam and equalizer beams. 2/ What was the supply time, from time of ordering the kit to receiving and did you buy direct from SAFHolland, the Neway manufacturer? Thank you again for the pictures etc Harry

I am going to have a go with the Cyclo buffer and the Nuvite compounds on my 2 storage box lids - maybe tomorrow, if not by next Tuesday, so will post my results with a picture, test will be how the cotton nappy sheets will perform on the alloy checkerplate, if a few are chewed but the result is good then worth the effort -

Have a look at this late Diamond T badged truck, made by White with same White 9000 cab, but it has the older style Diamond T fenders similar to the older White with the radiator shutters. Together with the Mack LTL this White/Diamond T combination has to be 1 of the smartest/classy trucks built - even today it looks like a modern truck

I worked on our aluminium storage boxes this weekend. 1 end side had a number of scratches and 3 long bumps maybe 3 inches where the internal support bracket was welded. Not happy with my previous poor result using the polishing wheel and bar polish, I decided to re-sand the end side with a Bosch circular sander that has the velcro sand paper, got nearly all the scratches and leveled the weld bumps. Using the cyclo double head polishing machine, separate double cotton nappies wrapped around the twin pads (to protect the pads) for each of the 4 Nuvite pastes, the final polish is mirror finish - so good I could shave with a razor. Plus a small amount of Nuvite goes a long way, expensive but damn good. Time permitting after work hours I hope to finish 1 box next week, then I will post pictures

Yes it has 3 gear sticks, total of 38 forward gears, I was told when in first the driver could walk beside the truck and maybe even faster, and it pulled like a train engine. Here is picture of rear of cab, see the extra gear box mounted high in the frame about 3 feet from rear of cab. If you look closely, you can see the gear selector arm going to under the cab. all original

Vlad We have been having same issues polishing our aluminium storage/step boxes. We have first sanded the rough metal and then used the wheels with the 4 grade polishing bars. The steps with the perforated plate and sides and edges came out with mirror like shine. However the flat plate no good, all looks like milky finish. we found out the wheels are not right for the flat or rounded plate like your tanks. wasted a lot of time and no result, awful actually. Fortunately a guy who makes and polishes old aircraft wings showed us the way. First you need a dual pad orbital polishing machine, baby nappies to wrap around the pads, the nappies are polishing not the pads and the nappies can be replaced and use different nappies for each compound grade. He has lent his polishing machine - cyclotoolmakers. Buy the 4 grades of NUVITE polishing paste/compound, not cheap but excellent product and works on stainless steel as well. We have started using the Nuvite and after 30 minutes with the polishing machine great result - we will get a mirror finish

Here are some pages from the 1995 Truckin Life article. A couple of points of interest are 1 - all of Eric Ballard's trucks had names because the drivers were illiterate 2 - the ledge over the top of the truck cab was the drivers sleeping bunk where they put their swag at night and they were off the ground and safe We bought MaryAnn and it's number plate was NES-260 same as in the pictures, this bent number plate was on the truck up to very recent, and the same plastic sun visor which is on the truck today. There are 2 pictures of MaryAnn on page 4. The bull bar was likely modified after Eric sold MaryAnn. MaryAnn was name of Eric's wife.

We bought the truck around 1997 from Jeff MeHarg, Big Orange at Gatton, the Cat motor was in pieces. We were told the truck had been sold some years earlier to a cattle station in outback Queensland, to work on the station pulling trailers around the station. During the drought there were problems with the CAT engine, the truck was taken to a mechanic's workshop some distance from the station, the motor was partly dismantled and work stopped because the farmer could not pay for the repairs. Then Jeff bought the Mack and it was in his Gatton yard. He advertised the Mack in a truck sales magazine which is where we found it. My partner went to see the truck and we decided to buy it. In between us buying and time it arrived in Melbourne the emblems were gone. We put the Mack into storage until we were ready to restore the truck. About 2002 vandals broke into our storage shed and poured the paint over the cab. We decided to not restore the truck and it passed to the guy you bought the Mack. The information we got came from a Ballard family member around 2003, we had no way to dispute the family member. We also got the truck build information from the Mack museum, built red colour and was ordered to be an oil rig in Northern Australia hence the joey gearbox - third gearstick, the sale did not proceed, Eric Ballard bought the Mack and Mack Australia dealer painted it yellow to match Eric's colours, the Trucking Life magazine lead article 1995 about Bush Ballards (Livestock Transport of Longreach), we cannot recall how we got this but have the copy and the number plate in the picture was same as the bent plate on the truck that we had when we bought it, hence it's name Maryanne. Also the sun visor on the Mack is the same as in the Trucking Life picture. You can see the original red paint on the back of the cab where the yellow paint has peeled off. We could only rely on the information given to us. We had the truck for approx 15 years. We are pleased the Mack is back with 1 of it's former owner operators and that it will be restored.

I guy who makes vintage aircraft wings put me onto Nuvite polishing products, not cheap. We have been trying to polish or alloy storage/step boxes with the polishing wheels/pads using the polishing bars - the steps with the button holes and the rounded ends come up good with the polish bar and the wheels. But the flat areas are awful, the wheels create a mess, shadows etc. and dull. This guy lent us his double head polishing machine and we started with some of his old Nuvite polish on our flat alloy sides and within 30 minutes the surface was starting to shine up and removed the scratches. You have to wrap a baby nappy over the 2 pad heads and put dabs of the polish onto the surface and the bay nappy does the surface contact. You have use separate nappies for each grade of Nuvite polish. We will post pictures of our storage boxes when we finish after new year.