m16ty

I don’t know if that was one of the trucks or not. None of them were painted white originally. My truck was the only all Mack truck there, and only E9. Most had Mack 350 engines and Fuller 8LL trans. I’ve only seen 2 verified trucks that came from Desert Storm. Mine, and a black one sold government surplus out of CA a few years ago. The black one was Mack engine and 8LL trans. Those are the only 2 out of the 48 that I know of making it back to the States. It’s kind of surprising any of them made it back, and not just left over there. I know my truck was still over there as late as 2003. A that time it was in storage at a port in Saudi Arabia. A few ways to tell one of the trucks is most should be 1990-1991 models. In the door there was a decal that said “outfitted by Leigh Consolidated Industries”, and the 5th wheels were normally painted OD green (borrowed from military counterparts).

No, it wasn’t the M747 that they pulled during Desert Storm. It was a trailer built specifically for the mission and didn’t have a “M” number. It was similar to the M747, but these were built by Kalyn and Landoll, and had the standard 2” kingpin.

I've actually been looking for one of the trailers. There has been a few sell. On a side note, Sgt Titus also told me that they had lots of problems with the trailers. With a loaded M1A1 Tank (almost 140,000 lbs) the trailer would have quite a bit of bow in it. This badly loaded the front trailer axles, and they experienced several bent axles on the front trailer axle. I'd imagine the rush to design and build them had something to do with it, but you also have to consider that the military can be awfully hard on equipment, and they were traveling at relatively high speeds over less than ideal roads.

It was a rush order, because the military didn’t have enough current inventory to move the tanks quickly across the desert. Mack just pulled what they had out of current inventory, often taking trucks from people that had them on order. The trailers were made by Kalyn and Landoll. Sgt Titus told me that they even had to finish the assembly on some of the trailers after they arrived in Saudi Arabia, because they didn’t have enough time to complete them at the factory.

Yep, can permit 40k per axle line. There are 8 tires per axle. I can scale 269,000 lb as it sits, depending on where you are going.

As some of you may know, I have one of the 48 RD800 Macks that was used to haul tanks across the desert in Operation Desert Storm. Just by accident, I stumbled across the guy that actually drove my truck during the war on facebook. Sgt Robin Titus was the main driver of my truck. The truck was originally blue from the factory, as evidence of the build sheet I have for the truck, the firewall is still blue, and there is blue paint under the white where it is chipped. Sgt Titus said that truck was the only blue one there and the only one that was all Mack. 471st Transportation Company, truck #104. He sent me some pictures of the truck in country. He said I was lucky that I got the one he drove, because most of the other drivers didn't know how to drive. He already knew how to drive and was tasked with teaching the others how to drive, he said that was the reason he got to pick whichever truck he wanted. The first picture is how the truck looks currently, the other pictures are of the Macks over in the desert, the blue one in a couple of the pics is mine.

Finally got some paint on it. We've got a project to haul a 150,000 lb transformer in the next month or so.

The RD is just a heavier duty R, but these are just base truck designations. Each truck can still have different frames and suspensions, depending on how they are ordered.

What would be the designation for a R model 6x6?

I agree, somebody's eyes must be better than mine, I can't see the frame break from the pics. Not saying it isn't broke, just saying I can't see it.

I've got a set of 65K rears under my truck. Never really have paid much attention to the details of it. The axles are physically bigger than the smaller ones, the trunnion mount is massive with lots of bracing, and it's on walking beams.

Bed width is 10' overall width is 12' Tires are 215/75/17.5 Deck low height is around 33", raised height around 53", with a ride height of 43". Trailer tare 50,000 lb, combined tare around 75,000 lb.

I've got around 100K worth, but need 100k more.

I’d like to load test it at around 200,000 lb, but I haven’t came up with enough weights to do that yet.

I just pulled it out of our warehouse and around the building. There is a learning curve to pulling it. It doesn’t track like a regular trailer at all. If you swing wide for a turn, you’ll likely end up in the far side ditch. To get it backed out of the building, it was kind of tight, so I had to put Dad to driving the truck, and I had to walk beside the trailer and manually steer it. Once in the clear, you put the trailer in automatic mode and it will steer with the truck.

In that second video, was that a cold start? Looks cold outside, if it started that well cold, I'd say it's a good one. Haven't seen one of those manual backup alarms in years.

The hard part will be getting them to feed. Leaves are slick and I know from experience that the pickup and feed rolls don't like slick stuff that isn't weaved together like a hay windrow. That being said, if you go slow enough and have a tight enough windrow, it may work without you having to stand in front of the pickup and force feed it with a rake. A hay roller will roll just about anything, if you can get it stuffed in the throat. You can watch youtube vids of people rolling all kinds of stuff besides hay.

Finally got all the tires, hyd hoses, and air lines fixed. Got the big 5th wheel mounted and decided to take the trailer on it's maiden voyage around the block.

I've never seen one like that either. On one hand, that's a lot of cylinders to do lifting, on the other, they are mounted at a real disadvantage that far back. Any tri-axle dumps I've ever seen had one big telescopic cylinder mounted at the front of the bed. I've seen 2 cylinder setups like the one pictured on tandem grain trucks, but never up that high on the frame . Starting out, those cylinders are going to almost be pointed straight back.

When presented with the s/n off of my RD822sx, my local Mack dealer says my truck doesn’t exist. I’ve ordered from Watts several times, and they don’t have a problem with the s/n. I don’t think it’s so much of a problem with the corporate parts database, as it is just some awful dealers. How is it that Watts can look my s/n up but my local dealer (McMahon) can’t?

Well the saga continues. Took my driveshafts to the driveshaft shop to get them fixed for the auxiliary. Driveshaft guy says he can't build my front shaft (too short at 19"). Says he will have to order a "yoke shaft", that is basically a really short slip joint/yoke combo. Since my truck originally has 1880 joints, and the biggest I can get for the auxiliary is 1810, I'm also going to have to have a shaft with 1880 on one end and 1810 on the other. Bottom line is, since we've got to order a bunch of new driveline parts and custom work to make it all fit, it's going to wind up costing me over $2,000 just to get the driveshafts fixed. I love this truck but everything on it is so darned expensive, because lots of parts are bigger than average, and hard to come by. Besides $2,000 driveshafts, I just got done doing all the wheel bearings and seals on the rears for around $2,000, and that is doing all the labor myself.

Now I just need to find a econodyne emblem.

On my RD822SX, under the Mack hood emblem, there are 2 holes. They are only on the driver’s side. I was wondering what was supposed to go there.

99 times out of 100, you'll twist the screws off. Every once in a while though, you'll be able to get them out. I'll always try the screws before I pull the whole cap. If you do manage to get the screws out, add a healthy dose of anti-seize, and they will be easier to get out next time. Seems you have to change these quite often, as the plastic window gets brittle with age and cracks.

In my opinion, either keep what you have or go with a glider. I don’t care for all the crap they put on these new diesels. like one of the earlier people said, who wants to sit through a 45 min parked regen? That’s not counting all the other mess they put on the engine that is going to cause you problems sooner or later.