B43kid

There we go - a Husky site ! Like this site as I like the Huskies

Talking muttley talk, I am told (never held a husky) that my Bluey (Aussie blue healer dog)has twice the pull of a Husky, then again he a big boy for a Bluey. What dog represents an Isuzu I wonder, if I had one I'd call it Rusty.

Now can I guess where the MIR Mack cabin came from ???

Hi Joe,

Have moved out to Watta near Cowra. Pity to be the one to miss the Dubbo truck show. I hope to catch up when I get back from contract in ACT end or 2010.

Been looking for an 8x4 and am offered a MIR-MSR600 but don't know much about them, hopefully somebody can shed some light on their spec.

regards, Huey

ThermodyneHuey,

G'Day from Dubbo - I haven't been on in some time so I am catching up!

You are correct regarding the cabs from Melbourne - the company Cyril approached was Reinforced Plastics, the same company who did the cabs for the International-based Atkinsons! There is a photo of a RP cabbed Atki in the book!

I wonder if RP is still in business???? Thanks be to Google for the ability to find out!

Joe

G'day Barry,

Just keeping in touch from Canberra in Oz. I have been offered a MIR - MSR600 = an 8x4 steel COE Mack cab chassis with Allison auto. I do not know much about them and am looking about for some advice/info reference the model designations i.e MIR and MSR.

There is a new book just released about the LEADER trucks which were built in Australia during the 70's and 80's. Most of them had a fibreglass cab very similar to the Mack F and FR model day cab. Very strong rumours are that the first Leader was built in the Mack workshop beside the Mack Factory at Brisbane. The book also covers the early days of Mack Trucks in Australia with a lot of great pictures of the early trucks. Check the website below for a preview. Best regards to everybody - Kav from Oz.

www.blueflyer.com.au/leader_trucks.htm

I agree with you, that story is a MUST READ for Aussies !!!!

You are correct, Cyril Anderson was sharp enough to see the diesel age coming in the very early fifties. (As a kid in 1956 I hung out in a yard with four B43's that came from Toowoomba assembly) He put knock-down kit B models together originally at Toowoomba and then down in Brisbane. The Leader truck came out of Cyril's inability to get Mack to agree to produce a "mid range" truck for Aussie conditions and he was losing sales to lighter rigs in the construction and earth-moving arenas. Paradoxically he ended up also building those great big WB (Wde bonnet) models to go up above 130 tonnes.

As I understand it, you are correct, the first Leader was mostly put together in the Brissie factory but was finished off at Toowoomba. The cab was originally a phantom of the F model cab with a bit deeper space. Again it was Cyril's original resistance to fibreglass that shows his flexible mindset when he decided to beat the Fraser Island "rust bug" by going plastic. I believe he went to Melbourne for the early cabs and had some kind of proprietorship over them.

Old Bill sent me this story he posted the other day.

http://www.timegoesby.net/elderstorytellin...ers-then-a.html

It's all true, but there are other differences in then and now besides the trucks themselves. Drivers are different now than when I first started, not nearly as long ago as when Bill started driving. Drivers used to cut the headlights off to signal it was clear to come back over, now they do nothing or hit you with the high-beams and blind you, which is worse than the doing nothing.They used to even back it down it down a little to help you pass, now they "hammer down"if you try to pass, just like 4-wheelers do. If I pass another truck I always blink my marker lights to say "thank you". More often than not if someone passes me they'll have the right turn signal on before they're halfway by then cut back in before you even have a chance to give them the lights, and if you do give them the lights they don't respond. A lot of times if you move over on the interstate to let a truck off a ramp they won't even let you back over and they'll pass on the right, just like a 4-wheeler does. I passed a truck on the West Virginia turnpike one night then ran up behind another slow truck climbing a hill and there was a long line of cars in the left lane,so I couldn't get out to pass. The truck i'd passed before fell in behind them, but didn't offer to let me out. The next truck behind him did, and I thanked him, and the first truck. He got on the radio and told me "eff you,I don't owe you any favors,it's every man for himself". That pretty much sums up the whole attitude of today's truck driver. And a lot of times ,especially when you go by a truckstop, you'll hear drivers cussing each other and arguing on the CB radio. New drivers might not know what to do in a given situation, or ask a question about something, and instead of trying to help them other drivers will get on the radio and ridicule them for not knowing. We all had to start somewhere, right? And nobody started out knowing it all, just a lot of "truck drivers" do after their 2 weeks of training.

Just my rant for the day.

Well Mate we see so much of this F... U.. attitude in open society now, here down-under we tend to have still kept pretty much to the "stick by your mates" ( even when you don't know him) philosophy, but as you (or was it Bill) said, there is a tendency for the four wheeler behaviour (Aussie English spelling !) to seep in out here on "Sesame Street" (Hume Hwy Melbourne to Sydney) but generally we have the pressures of not so good roads and plenty of respect for and between truckies so consideration is still around. Almost universally we give the high beam flash for clear to move back (to the left !!!--- we go on the LEFT lanes here) and often car drivers will too. Since the slickest things on our roads are the 500HP and above B-doubles, it is often the car that gets overtaken. "Thanks Mate" LRL blinker is almost obligatory here, makes everyone feel more part of the same community, as we all are. Maybe we are half a decade behind the U.S. so perhaps we will be saying what you said today in five years time. BTW my only rig has four wheels and it eats rice! CAN'T AFFORD A MACK !!!!!!!!! --YET !!