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Amen!

Probably want to remove the fan as well to keep any unplanned contact to a minimum. And while the radiator is out its a good time to redo the water pump as well since it is so much easier to access. You will also need to disconnect the cooling lines that run to the pump that are used to cool the radiator while pumping. If you are not planning on pumping it I'd disconnect them and leave them disconnected so you do not have a freezing problem with the lines as they contain raw water, not anti-freeze. I have the fan belt number if you want to replace that as well.

I'd have to see a power to weight ratio before I'd pass judgement, but it seems under powered for the application. In most fire service applications the key factor is the ability to accelerate rapidly with a still acceptable top end speed. Our overall response speed average was around 32 mph, with a lot of stop and start driving, but we also ran a bunch of interstate highways where you needed to at least be able to keep up with traffic. That made the option of just using a low rear end ratio to gain acceleration problematic, so we also used higher HP engines to overcome that. My bet is that Pierce, a division of Oshkosh, is concerned with Cummins being the last independent engine supplier and that it makes them dependent on them. Maybe they want to put them on notice that they are willing to go elsewhere if need be. Then again maybe Oshkosh is using the 6.7 in their military applications and want to apply the cost savings of large purchases to their fire apparatus. Either way I don't think they will sell many 6.7's in fire service applications.

Easy now. The statement was a rumor, not a fact. Mr. Montville is an absolute gentleman who has an encyclopedic knowledge about Mack Trucks and the Mack corporation.

Based on the numbers I have seen at shows I'm pretty sure he is a bit off on the number of survivors and I think he falls into the category of "It's rare, so it must be worth a fortune" while ignoring the reality that folks who are interested in buying it are also pretty rare. Stuck engine on a truck that he advertises as not a chance in the world to find a replacement. That's a pretty pricey wall hanger.

When I was in Japan I commented about how the passenger rail system was so superior to ours and the reply I got was "Of course, we bombed them back to oblivion, so they got to start fresh". And given the option I'd prefer not to trade lung disease for a faster train.

A good friend owns a small saw mill that sells a lot of ties. I'm sure he and a lot of other sawyers are smiling.

Congrats Ron. Great article. We missed you at Macungie this year.

Thanks; My friend could not ID the truck in the photo. Any chance you can find out from the event organizers who it belongs to? Love the 46 in the last pic. The Old man had a 46 suburban that he used as his service truck when he owned a Mobil station in Ashland. We would run it as a beach buggy on weekends to fish Nauset and Sandy Neck. 2wd with big 15" rubber dropped down to about 8 psi and it did pretty well. Hard to believe we ran that thing all the way from Ashland to the Cape almost every weekend all summer long without breaking down.

The price we all pay for being a Dad.

It does make you wonder since the big 3 figured it out about 40 years ago for their pick ups. I have owned three crew cabs and I could count on one hand the number of times folks have ridden in back, but the space is almost always full with coolers, tools, etc. for every trip.

My Red Sox decided that they would rather play golf than baseball this fall, so I'm rooting for the stro's. With all that happened in Houston this year karma says the Astros are the team to win it all.

Welcome aboard. I guarantee that no matter what question you have about your AC someone on this site will have the answer for you. You will not find a more knowledgeable, and friendly, bunch of folks anywhere else. One of the best things about owning an antique Mack is the Mack still has all of the records of the trucks they made and sold. Once you get the chassis number you can send it to the Mack Museum, with a suitable donation, and they will send you a package of information about your truck including when it was built and where it went for delivery. The museum also keeps shop drawings of almost every part Mack used in all of their trucks, so if you need to re-create a part you can get the drawing from the museum. The museum is a non-profit and depends on donations to help keep it going. https://www.macktruckshistoricalmuseum.org/

Thanks; A good friend is the Buffalo guru and keeps a data base of Buffalo's, so I'm always on the look out for any that he may not have.

Where is the Buffalo from?

It will encapsulate the rust and should prevent future rust by eliminating water and air intrusion. I don't think it would work on nested frame members unless they were pulled apart before they were coated since the flexing of the rails would break the film and allow water/air intrusion into the rails if just the seams between the rails were coated. The value of Por-15 type paints is they allow you to coat rust without having to clean the metal to a bare surface. The instructions tell you to remove loose scale, but to leave the tightly adhered rust as this allows the paint to adhere better. I have used Por-15 and Chassis Saver. I prefer Chassis Saver as it is a little less expensive and the last two cans of Por-15 I used came from the manufacturer with a small amount of paint in the can's lid seam that made them damn near impossible to open. The paint has a relatively short open time and the only way to store a partial can is to put a small amount of reducer on top of the paint and use a piece of plastic film between the lid and the can to isolate the lid. Even then it will not keep very long, so only buy what you will use in short order. If metal touches metal with paint between them they become basically inseparable.

Probably not. The dealership where I worked was small and we mostly sold small pleasure boats and ocean fishing boats with an occasional bass and jet boat thrown in. Our primary boat was Sea Bird, a very well made ocean fishing boat.

I wonder if it went back to when they designed and had built their delivery trucks, or "package cars" as UPS calls them. I assume the contract stated that the builders were not allowed to put their names on the finished product. The same contract language might have been used when they bought trucks on the open market.

I never had the chance to work on one of those when I was twisting wrenches at the boat shop, but I wish I had. Going that kind of speed on the water is unbelievable. I remember hanging off the back of bass boats doing 60+ mph while working on the outboards and feeling like we were going 100.

I believe there has been a change in corporate philosophy about badging. The KW's they bought over the past few years all have full badging as well.

Nice ride. It could be the fastest runner on Lake Anna. There's big money in moving product from louisa to Spotsylvania dont'cha know. Seriously, I bet you couldn't run more than a few miles anywhere on the coast without the Coast Guard taking an interest in you.

I think they are heading down the wrong road when their primary concern for retention is compensation. My belief is money will never make you happy at work, but it can make you unhappy. Basically, if you do not like your job or employer, paying you more will never keep you happy over the long run. A pay increase may temper your view for a short while, but it will never make you happy as all the reasons you don't like your situation at work keep flooding back. Money or the lack of it in comparison to fellow employees who are doing the same job will make you unhappy though. In other words we all expect to be treated equitably and if we are not than it will make us unhappy. This is especially true if compensation is not equitable. I think the answer is to look at those factors that make an employee want to stay. I'm not an over the road driver, so I don't know what is specific to the industry, but I do know everyone wants respect for what they do for the company, to be listened to, and to be treated fairly. If the companies don't do those things than increased driver compensation will not solve their problem.

When Herb Fleck shows his Mack Senior he has a board that tells how long it took to drive to MA from Allentown. It was weeks, not days as I recall.

More like 15 to 25 mph. I remember reading somewhere that the AB's were geared to around 16 mph top speed.

That is a pretty interesting, and expensive, piece of equipment. Bronto sold a few of those as fire equipment, but they were pretty rare. They are unique in that they have the ability to put the basket below the truck as well as up in the air. I have never been up in one, but one of the bases I taught at had one and the members told me that it was quite thrilling to be 100 plus feet in the air suspended by a single boom. Not for the faint of heart or the loose boweled.