1961H67

Had a great time at the Dacusville ,SC Show yesterday! Thanks Brocky for all your hard work!

I got my helper doing some tape removal, making some progress.

A little bit of progress on the RW 753 , I’m multitasking it seems lately, I’ve went to a few truck shows, hauling equipment, and trying to get this one back on the road, I got some time today to shoot the cab , hopefully I can get the hood painted next week, i don’t have a good place to paint, and I’m not a professional painter , So I kinda do it in steps, this is a work truck so I didn’t strip it down.

Thank You,, I’ll try to convince my body that when I’m trying to get out of the bed after a long day of trucking or sanding and working on these old Mack’s!

I’m unsure how many Cruiseliners Ryder had , They would by a fleet if a customer wanted them. Then some times they would just buy a bunch for the rental fleet. A lot of there trucks had no power steering when I started. And they were Big on Cummins. That’s actually how I got started with Ryder, I was working in the truck shop at our local Caterpillar dealer, Wilsonart moved some trucks here from there Texas fleet ( 1983 359 Pete’s , 3406As ) there were 12 , Leased through Ryder, they had no one or tools to work on them,so they brought them to Cat , after a year they offered me a job, I left Cat making $7.25 , went to Ryder for $7.35 ! Wilsonart ( kitchen counter tops ) increased their fleet, built a plant , warehouse. I stayed with Ryder 32 more years managing that fleet of trucks. Ryder and Wilsonart were good people. When I retired and decided to start hauling heavy equipment with my Son and a friend of his I had 2 retirement party’s , one at Ryder and one at Wilsonart. My son a few days old, 1990 , My wife and Me, Last Day 2017 . From a 1983 to a 2017 I saw a LOT of changes with those Red & White trucks!

Thank You,, I’ll do my best to keep him heading in the right direction.

That’s coming along nicely! Good pictures thanks for sharing

Congratulations on your Son’s success! Yes hopefully I’ll keep him interested in these older trucks, and hopefully he will get some experience with the newer vehicles. I retired from Ryder Transportation in 2017 after 32 years, When I started with them we had some Cruiseliners and a lot of changes in 32 years, the trucking industry went through drastic changes between 1984 and 2017 , from E6 Mack’s , Big Cam Cummins, 3406A Cats , 92 Detroits was the Top of the Line in 84 , I saw the very first 60 Series Detroit test engine, Ryder was always the first to get the latest technology, When I retired in 17 My last fleet of 16 trucks were DD15 with automatic transmissions and some D13 Volvos. There were days and days where you would not get a tool out of your box ,, it was all troubleshooting with a laptop. I tell my Grandson to learn both,, even if he runs his own trucks he will know how to work on them,,

Thank You, He should have some good memories helping me rebuild the LJ , it’s hard to believe it’s been 5 years since we pulled it out of the shed in pieces. He should be able to write a book when he’s older on the restoration of a LJ Mack . This was the first picture I took when we uncovered it and pushed it into the shop. March 2020 . 5 years old.

That’s been a while! Hang on to those Smudge Pots ,,,

Yep , I grew up around that same stuff, My Dad would always tell me the story of back when they hauled can vegetables from Bush brothers over near Newport TN ,, they ran H Models , his friends H Model froze up and quit, Dad went on and after a mechanic got the other one running a few hours later, Dad said he pulled in with his face all black where he had lite the smudge pots to stay warm… Yes they are period correct,, I have a picture standing on the fender of his truck,, I was 2 , 1961 ! Great find!

Mack’s had their own photographer at the 125th Celebration, They sent me these . 75 years from the LJ to the Pioneer , and Dawson with his photo album.

Yes ! It’s only 25 years, it will go by fast! I already told Dawson that’s his Responsibility, he’ll be 35 !

Thank you, yes my Grandson told a lot of people about it surviving the flood and showed them all the pictures in his album. Hopefully he will stay interested with it to take it to shows when Mack turns 150 !

My Grandson and Me had a great time at Mack Trucks 125 celebration at Truist Point Stadium in High Point,NC last night, Many Thanks for all the people who put it together, and all the employees of Mack who showed up with their families .It was a honor to bring the LJ and be a part of it. I think my Grandson or Me must have talked to about all the 5,000 people that showed up, and the hundreds of kids that had their picture taken behind the wheel of the LJ ,, Hopefully great memories! Here are some pictures of the journey and the fun event. Great talking with Stephen Roy , Mack Truck President,Global ( Pictured with us ) And Jonathan Randall ,President of Mack North America and Many more Mack Engineers and employees about some of the years of change between the LJ and the Pioneer.

I’ll PM you. Thank you

That all depends on how much money they want to spend, and how “ Nice “ they want the end result. It’s very labor intensive and a lot different restoring a 56 Mack vs a 56 Chevy. But it can be done, and there are shops out there that can provide that service.

It’s back on the ground! I drove it a little ( I only had 2 gallons of fuel) too see how deep it turned, everything seems fine for now. I really don’t have time but since I have this thing down this much I’m going to paint it, it’s never been painted, it still has the warning decals on the cab over the battery box . Is faded pretty much.

I had the steering gear rebuilt, put it back on this evening, I turned the drag link over , I think it will be level when the axle has weight on it, so far it’s going smooth.

Yes I had a 35 Diesel,, you are correct! Poor start below 30,. I sold it. Hopefully they took it South!

I looked it up they made about 500, it’s early,I might have Freedom Superliner on the mind! I sent a video, hopefully it will load IMG_6387.mov

We have a 98 Massey Ferguson, I think they only built 200 ( I looked all this up when I bought it,, but forgot some details) A friend of mine bought one in the late 90s in Iowa and brought it back to WNC , I always liked it, a few years ago A fellow we know came across one in the mid west and gave my son a call so that is how we got it, they were pretty rare, story goes 1959/60 They had a fire at the Massey plant, they contracted Oliver to build a 100HP tractor, They used a 99GM ,, Massey supplied the sheet metal. Ours still has some green showing through the MF metallic gray ; they merely painted the entire chassis, painted the fenders red, put MF hood and grill on it and called it “98” , Moline did the same for Massey until they got their plant repaired , called it “97 “ it was a big 6 cylinder gas . Keystone is the BEST Museum ! There’s are perfect! Ours came straight out of the field .

That’s a pretty good Dream,, It would be different that’s for sure! I’ll probably leave it like Dad used it, Then the next generation can drive it and know What the GREATEST GENERATION went through.

I think so, but I can’t remember seeing him in a long time, There was also a fellow from North Georgia , his last name was Turpin,he had some older Mack’s , I called him about some parts years ago.

Brocky , Thanks for sending me this old picture from 2011 in Cherokee NC , I think we were getting ready for a parade. I figured I’d share your picture of Dads C Model,, Every time I go up I75 I think about Dad Running Cincinnati from Spartanburg in this truck, I won’t even drive it to Cherokee, I haul it!!! It rides Terrible! He was A Old School Trucker for Sure.