Bullheaded

I had a chuckle over all the talk of investments to the factory to build it. Why was it that hard to bolt a bulldog on the hood of the new Volvo? LOL I guess it could have been worse, but it sure looks like a Cascadia with a Volvo cab and sleeper. And the part of it having 24 volt electrical and 30-some onboard modules, described as a computer on wheels.......that's enough to scare me, LOL

That's good to hear. Kind of amazing actually in this day and age.

You know, that's too bad. It's ashamed Volvo Mack abandoned most of their customers by not offering the specs their long time customers were begging for. There are now ZERO Mack's in logging and heavy haul in my area. But at least for dump truck applications, the Granite is as good or better than any other new truck out there. Problem with that though is pricing and lack of dealer presence.

Awesome truck! Hope you can find air filters and keep it original. A lots of Autocars around here used to use those Farr air cleaners. So are you going to be working it?

Yes, same with the MD....I'd rather have old school turn signals on top of fenders. Biggest thing I hate about the Anthem is those air intake vents on the sides of the hood. Could they not have designed something a little more eye appealing?

Yep, you are going to see the Anthem take the place of the Pinnacle now for regional and vocational tractor.

And once again, I'd be scared to buy a new one because think of how the build quality will be now.

With some of the drivers they have had, yes, LOL I think if I had to, I'd probably go Allison.

Sad truth is you can't manufacture anything in the US (or Canada for that matter) for as cheap as the Chinese can. Their wages are lower, and their manufacturers are subsidized by the government. I just recently at my Polaris/CF Moto atv dealership. One of the owners is on some board with Polaris. He said Polaris currently has a couple Chinese CF Moto atv's at their factory trying to break them and they can't. And they are getting very afraid because they said there is no way they can ever build anything with all the features and quality at CF's prices.

I didn't even know this was possible, but I big local fleet here has been putting pre-emissions C15 cats into their 2016 KW's and apparently it is legal and they pass annual inspections, at least here in Ontario Canada. Apparently if the truck is 2016 (maybe even 2018 I can't remember) you can put an old engine in it and the only requirement is that engine has to be equipped as it came from factory for it's year of build date. So in other words you can't use an engine that came with a DPF and delete it.

Last week I got bored one day at the mine and parked my loader and jumped in a new Granite dump truck because I wanted to try one with the M-Drive auto. Lets start with the truck. We had some rental Peterbilts and T880's and they started falling apart so we brought these Mack's in and they have been taking the punishment. They are running 30 KM round trip loaded with 25 to 30 tonne of ore on horrible pot holed washboard. I can say, they ride incredibly good, especially considering these ones have rubber block rear suspension. They ride every bit as good as last truck I used to run, a loaded air ride 2020 4900 Western Star. And no squeaks or rattles. Pretty impressed with the truck itself. Now the M-Drive auto. They might be good on road, but not my thing off road on hills that are shown as 15% on the dash displays in our Cat rock trucks. Actually panicked me a few times because they feel like they go in to neutral between shifts there is such a long pause. And I spun out on one hill because it decided to shift (and pause) right at the peak of the hill. Yes I know I could have used manual mode, but wanted to see how they did in auto. I did not like at all. But then I tried performance mode and performance plus and they performed a lot better. But in this application of big hills and having to slow constantly to almost a stop for giant potholes, they seem to get confused and shift way more than necessary. The MP8 505 has plenty of power to pull a gear but they would still shift down. Not my cup of tea, I'll take a manual any day. But they might be nice for use in town or for idling along with a roto-mill. Engine brake was pretty strong too, compared to Mack's of old.

Kinda funny, I used to think the Anthem was the ugliest Mack ever created, actually second ugliest truck after the W990, but now I'd take that any day over a Pioneer.

Love it! That was always my favorite scheme on the Superliner.

I looked at all the news on the Mack web site and there is no mention of it at all, so hopefully just more FB BS. But I did see the spy photos of the new model and I'm not impressed at all. But sadly I'd never buy a new Mack anyway. Too much electronic safety crap in them now that can't be turned off.

There's a company I used to drive for in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario that has a grave yard of all the old Mack's we ran. Everything from R Models, to E9 powered Superliners and Ultraliners and CL's. All heavy spec. But they never ever wanted to part with anything. They're still all sitting there rotting away, as they hauled salt their whole life.