Lmackattack

Interesting....That leaves me to wonder where a true Mack Dealer is in Chicagoland....I cant think of one. We were once a city that was filled with Macks and dealerships that knew us by name.... Sad days within Mack...

I had made comment a few years back about all the Chicagoland mack dealers being sold off to no name truck centers. I think Chicago Mack is the only "Mack" Dealer left that is not owned by a truck center group. It seams that Volvo is just letting everything fail from Trucks to dealerships.

I forgot about the "Big 6" That could have done wonders if it was as good as it looked.

I have had constant issues after the last major change. I stopped visiting because I found it hard to stay logged in and follow threads I was interested in. I liked the old format much better. Trent

My opinion was that the old E6 / E7 Mechanical 300s were just a very solid engine used for the job they did. they were not a powerhouse for over the road use but the little 676 cube 6cyl would hold its own against engines of 855 cube inch. A 300 mack would run with a 350 cummins. A 350 mack would run with a 400 cummins. The macks had slight torque advantage even with a smaller bore/cube engine. Gearing also has alot to do with it as Mack had widely used double reduction diffs and direct final drive transmissions. Macks could put more HP/TQ to the wheels with their common gearing in use with Macks own drive train. That being said the old saying "There is no replacement for displacement" still holds true. In my opinion the cummins would pull long hills better. They had the displacement advantage to hold the Hp where the Macks would start to struggle and louse speed faster. I feel Mack lost the edge in the HP wars when they did not advance 6cyl engine engine options by raising their HP and Displacemet. Mack continued to push their 300 or 350HP small bore 6cyl diesel when all others 6cyl engine mfg were pushing their 400+ HP big bores... just my .02

not sure if you hard but Emil Passed away a few weeks back.

LOL I would have lasted about a whole week with some of the crap modern day management thinks is normal. C&NW was a colorful railroad to bad all the little lines keep getting bought out by the big class 1s

What railroad did you work for? Always wanted to work for a railroad but I would never fit with all the current day union politics, safety this, cant do that kind of stuff.

I always thought the view out of a standard B model was not all that great. It makes the hood look longer than it is. My B75 sits on a R model frame and its even worse. Looks cool but not great for tight spots

Were you a RR Engineer? I visited this site 4years ago. I took the road the winds around the south side of the loop. I was heading East If you have ever driven that road you know its winds around pretty good. I did the drive in a semi truck with 53' race car hauler. axles all the way at the back.. It started out fine but I was getting a little worried about a mile into it.

Yes the CL had engine options early on but I recall them very limited after just a few years? they also had sleeper options. 1/2 the CL's I saw had big bunks yet the titan had no provisions for a sleeper. when Mack years later did put out a Titan bunk option it was a very sad attempt to think OTR heavy haul drivers only wanted to live out of a flat top small 36"? bunk ... Back to the CL, Seams most were delivered with a E9 but not uncommon to find other power options. Then when the E9 went away I think you could only get a cummins for power. the point im trying to make is when the CL was released it had decent engine power and cab options. The Titan did not. I saw far more CL's out on the road than I did Titans. However when the CL slowly went to limited engine options they failed to attract much attention. Fast forward to the Titan , it was released on the same platform as how the CL died off. I just do not understand that concept

Again this all comes down to options... Mack historically was built and sold on the fact that they built the whole truck. "Mack Western" opened up non mack component options that at the time seamed very popular. I think Mack could have kept better pace if they would have grown on the Mack Western idea. The 70s ad 80s must have been a great time for Truck MFG just based on the classy photos I see of trucks of that day... I think the downfall for mack was in the 90s, they did not stay on the cutting edge with style or drive train options. Seams thru the 90s all they had were R models and the CH. The CH is a rugged truck but it parted ways from American styling and was only sold with Mack power. The CL was a good idea but again limited engine options if I recall. fast forward to today Mack again has their premier Truck (Titan) with lack of options. It does not have sleeper options or off breed engine options . It is just amazing to me they basically continued on their same sales platform of the last 2 decades. What Truck MFG in this day thinks their premier Truck will only sell with limited Engine and Cab options. They really missed the boat on the titan. not sure what they can do now to fix this

Do the L model cabs have more room in them? they look taller than a standard B Cab?

I see the problem..... no grease on the Frame rail ramps.

I was at the Las Vegas con expo when the Titan was released. I was not all that impressed with the options. it was a overpriced truck that sat up to high and had bolt ons that made it look a little more flashy. The HP ratings were promising with the big maxidyne but they soon lowered them. It lacked sleeper options. you could get a Paccar with a sleeper with the same specs but at less cost. IMO The only thing you got with the Titan was the Mack name and bragging rights to the biggest Mack of the day. If Mack/Volvo do not introduce a larger competitive priced truck with a known mack name such as superliner or Magnum etc....this will be the end for their severely limited heavy haul market. There are very few old school mack fleets left. most Dump truck fleets I drove for had a bunch of Little R models and 1 or 2 superliners for heavy lowboy work. Today I dont see any fleets using Titans or even Granite's for lowboy work. Seams mack is being regulated into fleet spec city trucks.

was he backed up on the other load of gravel?

3 years ago. I was moving a grinder from job to job for a crew.. on the last job they were grinding up against the curb when the machine fell thru the pavement into a washed out sewer pipe. it almost went over. we had t tie it off to a loaded dump truck and wait for the wrecker to get there.

Likely home made. Just buy a sheet of stainless and round of the corners and give it a bend if its needed. one thing I would do if you install them is to add some sealant to them where they bolt to the hood as that will prevent water from leaking between the hood and SS plate.

The early US version of the RS700L was basicly a R700 Hood but with a larger grill that stuck down lower into the front bumper and the rear of the fenders were mated to frame mount splash gards. This hood may work on a Aussi R700 with some front bumper and battery box / fuel tank modifications. The cab may also need to be raised up a little? The later US (1973-1978) version of the RS700L had a taller hood and the grill fit into it without any lower protrusion. there are other little diffrences but thats the basics. See the pics below of the diffrent (Mack Western) hoods the yellow hood is closer to a R700...

My RS700L with the 285..... when I bought it I found out the first time I pulled a trailer that it did not make more than 14psi. No air leaks in the intake system. did not have bad blowby. had new filters etc... I put in new remain injectors. still was weak pulling and EGT was going up into danger zone. I thought the engine was tired and needed a rebuild. For shits and grins I took off the turbo to inspect it and found this... hard to tell in the pic but it was letting exhaust by pass the blades without spinning them. just a thought

I must have just missed you at the Flying J. I rolled in there around 9 A.M. Wed morning and both sets of piggybacked R models were still parked over by the truck wash. they did not look all that bad but I did notice a huge oil leak on one.

Very correct. I measured a superliner air bag when inflated and it was about 6" top of frame to bottom of cab. My RS700L cab sits about 5" off the frame rails. The air bag set up I used from a superliner II bolted right up to my cab. However the lower part of the bag mount I had to make work as I did not have a frame cross member to mount it to. When I installed it I had to get the lower bag mount as low as possible to gain that extra inch. I think these bags have a internal bump stop so getting the right bag height is important. anyone looking to convert their R models to air cab... dont forget you have to make new radiator supports so you can remove the X brace from the firewall...

I agree that air ride cab was a add on option. I know most of the early-mid 80's R models I drove were fleet spec with solid cab mount. Seams the R models of the late 80s early 90s it was more common to see air ride and less common to see rubber mount.

I replaced my RS700L's rubber mount cab set up with a superliner air bag set up. The difference was huge. It took all the bad bucking out of the truck. My truck is camelback and with the rubber mount cab if I was bob tailing the cab would get in a shaking rhythm that drove me nuts. The air cab set up removed that issue and when I hit a bump the rear of the cab just absorbs it. That being said I think when a truck is loaded some of the air ride rear suspensions ride worse than a camelback. I drive a pete right now on air and that truck bucks worse than a camelback

Your pic of the Blue RS700 is what looks like a 1972" or early western. These hoods were basically a Eastern R700 hood with a Western grill. You can see below the hood the grill extends to take up the gap between the hood and bumper. Also the there is openings in the bumper for more air flow to the larger radiators. Now, look at the gold RS600. This truck is a later western R model as you will see that that the body line on the side of the hood is about 4" above the top of fender. The later Western R models had taller hoods and in my opinion looked better without a gap between hood and bumper. You can also tell what era Western Mack you are looking at by looking at the gap between the top of tires and fender to see of its a early or later Western. The cabs of Mack Western R models sat up higher on the frame allowing for a taller radiator options and thus higher HP with Mack and off breed engine options. The western grill opening is about as wide as the frame rails and thus as wide as common radiators of that era. That being said, you could spec a Mack Western with a standard 6 cyl Mack and the standard radiator was plenty large for what we would consider a small bore diesel. There are a lot of little differences in early and later Mack Westerns you just need to look close and you will see them.