RowdyRebel

Hi everyone,Could you pls explain the difference between E7 & EM7 engine types to me? Also what are the advantages of Engine Brakes and double frames? we have a rough terrain here in Nigeria.Thanks and really appreciates replies

This is just a shot in the dark guess, but I'd say the Em7 is probably a mechanical engine, where the E7 is electronic. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Engine brakes help keep your speed in check coming down a hill without relying upon your foot brake as much.

Double frame refers to the frame rail having an insert, so it's stronger than just a single frame.

It's amazing how aerodynamics and fuel savings were being promoted long before fuel mileage was really ever an issue. I'm kind of curious how well those "differential duals" worked...and why they haven't made a comeback with the high cost of fuel. I'm surprised that there's as much difference between the inner and outer wheel in a corner as what they claim. Left side vs. right side, sure...but two feet of difference on the same side of the truck? I also thought it was interesting the weight limits on the carryall were given for 10 mph and 20 mph...not much gets hauled at those speeds these days I wish the pics were better on the dump, too...curious to see how the power 5th wheel operated, or where the hydraulic hoist is in the picture with the raised dump bed.

Interesting read for sure

I have been owner/operator for 15 years. Looking to buy my first Mack Version CX613 460E 13spd, 3.73 Merritor rears,

L.P. 24.5 Can I get input on what to look out for in the way of problems and is what will I be seeing in fuel mileage driving 65 to 70 mph. Pulling grain trailer 80-85500 one way empty back. 150 mile rad of home.

Guess since nobody else has replied, I'll give you my #'s...

Mine is a 2001 CH613...E7-460, 2180B (Mack 18 speed), 4.17 Mack rears with 11R24.5's. I pull both pneumatic tanks and frameless end dumps, and typically see around 5.75 to 6 mpg running mostly local. The vision is a little more aerodynamic, and my 240" wheelbase leaves a LOT of room between the back of the day cab and the front of the trailer, which they say isn't real great if you are chasing fuel economy. My loads are as close to 80K as I can get them...and if I'm a little heavy, I roll with it as long as the shipper lets me out the gate with it. I bought it last May with 260K miles on it, and it's sitting just a hair over 340K right now.

I'm not sure what all is typical...but so far:

I've replaced 2 airbags (dry-rotted, rubber cracked, started leaking) which are easy enough to check for.

Also, I had to replace the kingpins...front left was wearing out (with the tire jacked up, there was noticeable play) which lead to a wicked wobble & bounce going down the road and the steers were wearing on the inside edge.

In the transmission, there's an air cylinder...not sure what all exactly happened, but I guess my truck had an older 2-piece cylinder and the nut backed itself off, bent the shift fork, and the truck no longer would go into the low range. New part was installed...a one piece upgrade...and it's been fine ever since.

On the frame, check the cross members. Mack had a service bulletin about them cracking....the one right behind the 5th wheel (not the rear tail section...the next one forward) is the one that broke on my truck. The way they were talking, I guess people have had problems with the one right behind the cab too...but that one seems OK so far on my truck.

I also had to replace the air compressor...getting a lot of oil in the air tank and it was getting slow to build pressure.

That's the major stuff. Everything else has either been my choice to do (i.e. fenders, new 5th wheel, etc.) or the typical used-vehicle type stuff...hoses, belts, air leaks, etc...

Like I said...not sure how much of that is typical and how much is just a fluke that I got to deal with...hope it helps

I would be cautious about using a receiver type hitch with any more of a drop than what you have in that photo!

What you could have done to eliminate the need for a severely dropped receiver hitch is to custom cut a steel plate and fit it into the rear of the frame, like this one in the photo:

Instead of mounting a pintle hitch to the plate, you would cut a square out of the plate near the bottom and weld in the female section of your hitch receiver.

The one pictured is 1" steel plate, but for what you're towing 3/4" would be plenty, just put an angle gusset on each side from the bottom of the frame to the hitch plate, allowing enough clearance next to your air bags of course).

I could have welded the receiver tube to the bottom of the rear section, too...and was going to originally until I got to looking at it....but to go lower than I did would have involved replacing the tail light assembly...finding new mounting points for the tail lights, back-up light, and back-up alarm....and the wiring for those would no longer be neatly tucked into a housing.

...so what would the big difference be between a 3/4" piece of flat steel dropping down 15" and a 15" drop-hitch built from square tube that's 3/8" thick? Seems to me the square tube route would be stronger....as long as the removable drop hitch part is sufficiently reinforced, I doubt the hitch is going to break free from the rear section.

Besides, it isn't pulling much...just a '92 Ranger...3000# max. Worst case scenario, I'll put a 5" lift on the Ranger and upgrade the 215/75/15's to 235/75/15's....that oughtta help take away the need for such a large drop hitch

yup...and cheap!

Dozer likes it, too He's not allowed on people seats, and was just getting too big for that small space between the seats (being a daycab and all...).

Heck, the crazy dog will even SLEEP on his new seat

pulled the rear section out to build a trailer hitch....also put a new airbag on the left rear:

cut a hole in the rear section and welded in a piece of 2" receiver tube:

welded some angle iron to the inside to reinforce and help strengthen the hitch:

some D-rings bolted...then welded...so safety chains can be used with any trailer:

looks good...just gotta bolt it in:

all done:

I have the pin on the inside of the rear section...keeps the hitch closer to the truck and gave me more to weld on the inside...figure it'd be stronger this way:

Now I either have to get a bigger drop on the hitch or lift my little beater truck:

Been spending the winter trying to get stuff done while work is slow...and while I had the rear section out building a hitch (to drag my pickup behind me when I need to drop the Mack off somewhere for service) I found a hairline crack in a cross member. In less than 2 days, the hairline crack broke completely in two.

it was easy to remove....being broken completely in two and all.

...but at 1:00 AM working outside in the cold, I wasn't in the mood to fight the new piece to get it in...so I rednecked something together that would get me to a shop in the morning

I figured the flat steel would be stronger than the broken piece anyway...a pair of vice grips to hold a bracket with some air lines attached.

new piece in:

SB121023 08/19/05 called for some extra reinforcement

Study: Traffic tickets go up when government revenues go down

BY TODD C. FRANKEL, The Southern Wire Services

Monday, January 5, 2009 10:08 PM CST

ST. LOUIS (LEE) -- The economist got a speeding ticket, and it got him thinking about why.

Thomas A. Garrett, an assistant vice president at the St. Louis Federal Reserve, knew he deserved to be ticketed while on vacation in Pennsylvania a few years ago. But, he wondered, are traffic tickets purely about public safety? Or are other factors at play? Many motorists probably have wondered the same thing sitting on a highway shoulder waiting for a citation. But Garrett turned it into a scholarly pursuit. He decided to conduct a study.

What Garrett and a co-author discovered provides yet another reason to hate a recession.

Traffic tickets go up significantly when local government revenue falls, they found. Their study showed for the first time evidence of how ''local governments behave, in part, as though traffic tickets are a revenue tool to help offset periods of fiscal distress.''

No surprise, some ticketed motorists might say. But Garrett and co-author Gary A. Wagner, an economist at the University of Arkansas Little Rock, say they confirmed a connection that seemed to exist only in isolated anecdotes. And they put a number on it: Controlling for other factors, a 1 percentage point drop in local government revenue leads to a roughly .32 percentage point increase in the number of traffic tickets in the following year, a statistically significant connection.

So in the middle of a recession, with almost all cities and counties facing falling sales and property taxes, ''you would expect more traffic tickets,'' Garrett said from his office in downtown St. Louis.

''When things are bad,'' Garrett explained, ''traffic tickets go up.''

The study, entitled ''Red Ink in the Rearview Mirror,'' will be published next month in the Journal of Law and Economics. It examined 14 years of data from 96 North Carolina counties. (Garrett's co-author was living in North Carolina at the time.) In North Carolina, as in many states, ticket fines are retained at the local level. The study authors looked to exclude the distorting effects of traffic enforcement campaigns and county population differences. They tried to take into consideration the effects of police per capita, population density, tourism and median family income.

In fact, they uncovered even more connections between ticket-writing and local economic conditions. If the county unemployment rate went up, so did the number of tickets. ''This suggests that ... the timing of traffic tickets tends to mimic changes in county-wide economic conditions,'' the authors wrote.

Garrett said the study does not dispute that public safety remains at the heart of ticket-writing. But, he said, the study shows that political and economic interests affect how much emphasis is placed on writing tickets. ''It seems quite reasonable to me that city officials communicate to police departments'' the need for more ticket revenue, Garrett said.

The Missouri Police Chiefs Association took issue with the study's findings. Sheldon Lineback, the group's executive director, said examining the connection between government revenues and traffic tickets ''is a very narrow tunnel to look through'' that does not take into account other factors that might lead to more traffic tickets.

''I don't know of any chief that goes out and mandates more tickets,'' Lineback said.

But such incidents do occasionally gain attention. In 2004, the Post-Dispatch uncovered memos written by top police officials in the town of Bel-Ridge threatening officers if they didn't write more tickets. That same year, a Wellston police chief told city leaders that his officers would focus on writing tickets to boost city revenue.

And Garrett's study includes incidents from around the country where city officials made the explicit connection between revenue and traffic tickets.

At the Missouri Municipal League, legislative staff associate Patrick Bonnot said cities suffering from declining revenue would not necessarily look to traffic tickets as ''a way to ease their pain.'' But, Bonnot said, ''the temptation may be there.''

Garrett's ticket study found support from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which frequently complains about ticketing campaigns.

''It's no surprise to a trucker that local governments are using (traffic) violations as fundraisers,'' said Norita Taylor, a spokeswoman for the national truckers group, based outside Kansas City.

The National Motorists Association, a drivers' rights group in Wisconsin, also has seen anecdotal evidence that local governments ''have their fingers in that ticket pie,'' said group President Jim Baxter.

In the world of economists, the relationship between traffic tickets and local government budgets is expected - rational, even. It has to do with incentives. Researchers previously have found police make many more drug-related arrests when they are able to retain seized assets.

Also, Garrett said, local governments squeezed for money are under pressure to find new ways of raising new revenue. They cannot raise taxes in a recession. So they look to things such as lottery sales, casino gambling and hotel occupancy taxes. These are ''hidden taxes'' - revenues generated mostly by nonvoters and nonresidents. Traffic tickets fit the bill.

''It is a politically appealing way of generating revenue,'' Garrett said.

And there is no shortage of traffic tickets being handed out. In 2006, 55.6 million traffic and ordinance violation cases were filed across the country, according to the National Center for State Courts. That is an increase of 9 percent from 1997.

But don't expect an economic recovery to slow the traffic stops.

According to Garrett's study, the number of tickets does not go back down when good times return.

Wow, you got the goody out of them,you would of had to put chains on around here awhile back, the new ones look good, where did you get them crossovers at ?

I don't run chains. We got that freezing rain crap around here a few times a year...and I pull an end dump in and out of some pretty sloppy places. My Mack hasn't had any trouble dealing with any of it...even with the bald, dry rotted tires I was getting in and out of places the company Peterbuilts and Freightshakers were getting stuck in. Now that these new ones are on, I'm waiting on another sloppy day....them's my favorite....but just my luck, nothing but clear blue skies since I got 'em on the truck.

Anyway, I got the Crossfires at...dangit...can't remember if it's a Truckomat or an Iowa 80.....it's in Effingham, IL across from the Petro...they were on sale and I picked up all 4 for $230. I had looked at the Catseyes too, but they were $230 per pair, so it would have been twice as much.

The old tires....

...all dry rotted and cracked....

...with chunks of tread missing

The new tires....

Michelin XDE M/S* 11R24.5 LRH

Even went and put them "Crossfire" thingamabobbers on...s'posed ta keep the pressure the same on the inside and outside tire...also makes it quick & easy to check the pressure and add air when needed.

Had them put them ceramic beads in to balance them too...

Got 8 new drive tires, 10 new valve stems, 10 tires balanced with them beads, and the crossfires installed. February is going to see new kingpins, an alignment, and new steers....or at least that's the plan

I run whatever the station has when I pull in. Sometimes its 100% dino, other times its a bio blend of some sort. If a station (such as flying j) has both, I buy whichever is cheaper...usually that's the bio. I figure if peanut oil was good enough for Rudy D. 110+ years ago, I'm not going to worry about using a bio diesel blend today.

I broke down about a month ago and a Peterbilt wrecker towed me I asked the driver why do they put a pusher axle on the truck instead of making it a regular ten wheeler. The driver couldn't give me a straight answer. Keep in mind the truck was NOT a tri-axle, that I understand. The truck was a six wheeler with a pusher. Can anybody tell me the purpose of the puser axle on a heavy duty wrecker?

Depending on where that wrecker operates, it could be like that for any number of reasons. If near a tollway, by lifting that axle and running as a 2-axle truck, it saves money over time. Also, all of the empty miles the truck runs there are 4 tires that aren't on the ground wearing out...unless you've got a vehicle on the hook that makes the drive axle weigh more than 20K, the tag ain't gotta be on the ground wearin' out them tires. Also, less parts to fail...no need for a power divider or short driveshaft between the drive axles. Better traction too in adverse weather with all of the weight on the back of the truck concentrated on 4 tires instead of 8. Plus the whole tax thing being only a 2-axle truck...

I'm sure I missed more than a few others...

shop manual says 30 pints

30 pints....that's what, 3-3/4 gallons? I feel a little better....tranny was actin' up on me...wasn't wanting to stay in the low range when working my way up through the lower gears....turned out to be a little low...I'm guessing it took 2 gallons out of the 5 gallon bucket to top off. Good news is that it quit acting up on me about 1/2 mile into my day today, so I'm hoping I dodged an expensive bullet.

Had been putting off checking it for a while because I didn't have any oil at the house to add if it had been low.... ...started acting up on me though this Monday...got home Tuesday early enough to go to town and buy a 5 gallon bucket...and had enough daylight left yesterday to check it...really glad I didn't put it off 'till Saturday. Hadn't been leaking, so it's probably been low for a while...

...at least now I got the oil, so I got no excuse not to check it when I'm under there greasing it from now on

Anyone know how much oil its s'posed ta have in it?

Yikes...I don't think I'd be taking a long dump out on the back 40 like that. What were you guys doing?

Why not? Ain't no thing....I ain't skeerd

...but long ain't the half of it I got a 240" wheelbase on my daycab

We were hauling sludge (the stuff that comes up out of the ground with the water they pump...the soil, etc. that they have to remove before they can pipe it to your house) from one of the water treatment plants out to the back of a closed up coal mine...felt like I was pulling a liquid tank, too. When you got out to where we were dumping at, you had to make sure you were backed up to where you wanted it dumped BEFORE you hit the switch to unlatch the tailgate....because as soon as you did, all that sloppy mud would flow right out. The trailer was 3/4 empty before you'd even start raising the bed, and completely empty before it got past the second stage.

...sometimes paved....

...sometimes not....

...sometimes it's tight....

...and sometimes it's just sloppy!

I wish EVERY day could be this much fun.

Yeah...got slow on tanks, so I got 'em to give me a dump trailer to pull....now I got more work than I can get done...

This truck never ceases to amaze me though...especially now that I'm pulling dumps. I'm going in and out of places under my own power that are leaving the company drivers in their petercars & freightshakers with their full lockers struggling or stuck...and most of the time I haven't even engaged the power divider

I'll be getting 8 new drives early next month...ought to make it even more capable. Leaning hard towards Michelin's XDE M/S...75 mph rated with deep, aggressive lugs. These chinacrap tires still got some meat on 'em, but the treads are dry-rotted and cracking, and one tire chunked off some tread bobtailing home after buying it...who knows how long they sat on or off the truck before I bought it. Drive tires are long overdue.

So last month I made the switch from tanks to dumps...not sure if its temporary or permanent yet, my truck is set up for both.

The only problem was that the 5th wheel that was on the truck had to be slid all of the way back in order to pin it. This only let me get 9,500 on my steers, even when the drives were approaching 38,000.

Unfortunately, that also moved the front of the trailer behind the front drive axle, so the 1/4 fender wasn't really doing much to protect the back of the cab.

So, I bought some take-off fenders from the company I'm leased to...when they sell trailers, they pull the fenders off if they are dinged up and replace 'em with new ones...that way they can sell that trailer for more, I guess. Anyway, picked up a pair of fenders from them for $57.50...scrap price. Then I stopped by the local Mack dealer to order up a new 5th wheel...and while I was at it, I also ordered up one of those bars that mount on the back of the cab to hang my air & electric...wanted to be able to remove the pogo stick from the catwalk that I keep tripping over. I was HOPING for full fenders, but there was a SLIGHT problem...the new fenders wouldn't clear the 5th wheel pin, so they had to be cut down. We slid the 5th wheel all of the way back, then trimmed the fenders to be as long as possible and still be able to remove the pin...so instead of full fenders, I got 1/2 fenders. Once the 5th wheel pin is in/out, it can be slid to where it needs to be to axle out.

It all works great, too....kept my cab clean on a pretty sloppy day.

They did right by me as far as I'm concerned...no arguing necessary...didn't even TRY to charge me for parts or labor to re-fix the rear end...even knocked a bit off the price of the compressor too.

Ahhhh, taking the "stripped splines approach" I see. Is this the rear axle they pulled apart to reseal? Did "they" have that yoke off to do the repair and reuse the same nut? Big No No if they did.

Rob

Not sure what happened. I had dropped the truck off Labor Day weekend when I went out of town for a friend's wedding, and it was supposedly fixed when I got back. I'm just glad it held together until I got home....could have happened JUUUUUUUUST over the top of a narrow 2-lane road with no shoulder when I was fully loaded, in which case I would have been up a creek w/o a paddle. As it was, I was finished running for the day and was home...so I could put on some grungy clothes before I got down 'n dirty pulling the shaft. Also, I was idling in reverse...so when the short shaft dropped, it didn't tweak or break the yolk on the rear axle...all I had to do was pull the 4 bolts holding the u-joint and pull the shaft out....and I was home to clean the grease off my hands and clothes before I climbed back into the truck to move it again. ...and like I said, I was already scheduled to have the truck in the shop today.

Supposedly, they had to remove both drive shafts and both axle shafts...along with the 5th wheel...in order to lift the carrier off of the axle housing to clean and reseal it....so I would imagine they had that shaft out....but not sure to what extent, or whether they re-used parts they shouldn't have. I plan to argue a little about any labor/repair costs associated with the drive shaft repair.....they were the last ones to work on it...last to touch it...all I did was grease it when it came due. If they are unwilling to stand behind the work they do, I'll be looking for another shop to use.

So I've been chasing air leaks for the past 3 weeks...changed several leaky lines, and no sooner do I get one replaced, 2 more start leaking Just about the time I get the last major leak fixed, I notice that the air compressor, which has been dumping a little oil into the air tank since I bought the truck, is starting to get reeeeeal slow building pressure. It still builds good pressure, it just takes a long time to get there...longer than usual. I made an appointment last week to get it in to the Mack dealer for a new air compressor today....first available time they could get me in. Yeah, it's a job I probably COULD have done myself, but I've helped change one before on a nearly identical Mack CH, and I would rather not try wrastlin' with that thing by myself....easier to just have the shop take care of it.

At any rate, I am backing into the driveway last night preparing to drop the trailer and get the truck ready to roll to the shop in the morning, when I hear a "thud" and the truck stops moving. I check...still in gear. Look out the rear window, and the drive shaft is spinning....but none of the tires. I'm thinking I either just busted an axle (but how? I'm empty, and was idling backwards on relatively smooth...but solid...ground) or the rear end that Mack just pulled all apart and re-sealed for me 3 weeks ago had let loose. I put the truck in neutral and got out to investigate...(sorry, pics are all after I pulled the shaft the rest of the way out....sun was going down)

These are the rear of the front drive axle...where the shaft comes out to go to the rear axle...

Disconnected the shaft at the rear axle so I could finish getting parked...

Strapped it to the catwalk...

And got the truck ready to limp down to the Mack dealer to be fixed in the morning....

....good thing I already had shop time scheduled. Like I said, my truck must love me because if it was going to break, it couldn't have picked a better time. I had JUST got home and was in the process of parking it, so I was able to go inside and get some work clothes on before I got all covered in grease...and I was able to get myself cleaned up when I got done too. Couldn't have picked a better day either, because I was heading to Mack for the new air compressor this morning anyway....so they are fixing both.

I'm just not too sure I want to see the repair bill

it ain't got a gold bulldog on the hood

There are fleets here in NC that at one time were 100% Mack and now are Pete and KW.

The company I'm leased to was 100% Mack up until 2003. They started having problems with some of the '03 and ESPECIALLY the '04 trucks, so in '04 they started buying '05 Freightshakers (Mercedes engines) and Petercars (CAT C13). The Freightshakers weren't working out for them either, but the Petercars were acceptable (still not great, but would get the job done). Once they get rid of the few remaining Freightshakers, they will be 100% Petercar. Guys in the shop aren't too thrilled....they liked the ease of which they could keep the Mack's on the road and a few are always asking me if there's anything they can help me with on mine

I'm glad I bought a low-mileage '01 Mack....Mack drivetrain, gold Bulldog on the hood.....built before all of this V*lv* BS. I ought to be able to drive this truck for the rest of my driving career, barring any unforeseen incidents of course. Heck, I just turned 290K on it this week.

I don't move my vehicles without at LEAST one hood latch secured...even short distances (like to move the truck in the driveway onto the asphalt to be able to roll under it on a creeper). Same with the pickups...I've seen people roll cars around inside a shop with the hood propped up...not me....always put it down and at least the safety latch (released through the grill) is holding the hood.

Damage caused by being lazy is too easy to cause and too expensive to fix....don't add but 2 seconds to make sure that hood ain't goin' nowhere...

The other day after pre-tripping my truck, I closed the hood and it caught me by surprise when it slammed shut. It NEVER felt that heavy before....so I opened it back up and one of the hood springs that run from the top of the radiator mount to the hood had broken.

I finally made it by the Mack dealer today, and when I found out the price of the springs, I just bought one to replace the one that had broken. After I put it on, I noticed the considerable difference in tension between the new spring and old...but I closed the hood anyway. It felt lighter than it had ever felt before....WOW that new spring made a HUGE difference. So, i went back inside and paid some more money and got the other spring too. When I closed the hood with both new springs, I couldn't believe how little effort it took to control the hood.

Now all I need is one finger on the back of the Bulldog's head to open and close the hood of my CH

I've NEVER had a hood that was that easy to open or close on any truck I've ever driven....'bout the only thing that would make it any easier would be one of them fancy push button electronic thingamajiggers that opens and closes the hood for you