Bullheaded

After seeing the awesome pics of the big DM800 by 45LMSWM, it has me wondering......the RD800 being the newer of Mack's heavy haulers.....did it have a bigger stronger frame, or is the DM 800 even or better as far as chassis strength?

Agreed. They are better than porn.

Thanks John, keep the pics coming as you get her finished up. I think that might be my new favourite truck.

That's a really nice truck John. Do you have any interior pics?

Ya, that's why I thought, the only way to do it without spending a fortune would be to just put a stick controlling an air valve for your splitter like they do with the 18 speeds the show truck crowd is doing.

So when I was at Macungie last year I bought a pair of Mack work boots at the factory store for a mere 20 bucks. I thought I got a good deal, turns out I was wrong. Aside from the nice box (picture of an RD logger, RW, MH R, CH) the boots are junk. I should have posted this months ago but I never got around to it. My friend also bought a pair and his pair was garbage as well.

What happened to them? My friends pair lasted all of five days before the rubber sole completely ripped off when he took a step. On my pair they lasted slightly longer about two weeks before the sole on the left boot began to separate from the boot and then cracked.

Its a shame Mack had their name put on garbage and marketed as foot wear.I had a pair of CAT boots that lasted me years.

Maybe they were made by the same company that made the ASSET cams, turbos and electronics.

I hear you Rowdy. If I won the lottery I'd have the nicest Mack dump truck...slash flower pot parked on my front lawn. I'd fill the box with loam, plant it, then sit on my couch and admire it.

Central Tire Inflation

Just don't price it! Unless they've come down....I looked into it in 2005 and it was scary. They work awesome off road though. Will put you in where a 6x6 will go.

One of the big lumber mills up north of here won't even hire your truck to pull logs from the bush if you don't have it. It really saves the roads.

There's got to be a way to do it. Just look on some of the "largecar" sites. All the show truck guys are doing it with 18 speeds, to make them look like two-sticks.

Gambi80 I had a 2002 9900i, highrise, Cat powered. It was a beautiful truck but you are right about the ride. It had 14000 front/46000 rears same as the 2000 CH before it. But with the CH I could drive down a logging road with an open cup of coffee in the cupholders, when I got the binder, I pulled out of the yard on paved highway and the coffee was blowing out the breather hole in my travel mug lid like a giser! But today at 1.4 million km's that binder/cat is still running up and down the highway with nothing but a water pump. Motor has never been opened up except valve sets.

That lightning bolt (electronic malfunction) light might be a tough one to find. I had a new 2000 CH with the 460 in it and I used to get them all the time. But mine would actually shut off for a split second while driving down the highway (just the same as if you turned the key off and back on). Engine and all electronics would shut down. Brought it to dealer many times, no codes. They went through all the wiring, even changed all the little pins in the ecm plug. Even had the service manager come on a trip with me to catch it in the act. Had his computer plugged in and the darn truck ran perfect that day.

Last year I came across the new owner of this truck and asked him how it's been. Said he loves the truck, but asked me "has it ever shut off on you before? It does it all the time."

I pulled 5 axle walking floors with that truck, grossing over 140,000 pounds all the time. As far as the truck it was perfect. Ride, handling, off road traction was great. Fuel mileage beat all the Detroits in the fleet I ran for and didn't matter if you did 55 or 85 m.p.h. But it was one of the lucky dogs that came with casting sand in the block. It went through five compressors, five air dryers, camshaft, dropped valves, injectors and the starter caught fire. And it was like a light switch. One hill it wouldn't pull, then the next 12%'er you thought the clutch was slipping because the rpm's would start climbing, then suddenly it would be pulling like a train.

That was the the truck that scared me into buying an International.

Thanks MackCL96. If Pitts. new box works as good as their Cat box that would be good news. I also just found another site. www.nwtruck.com They're in Alberta Canada. They show injectors and turbo that claim to dyno 563h.p./2000lb./ft. for Mack E-tech.

What's the details on the Steinberg box? Never heard of them.

Good to hear CXN613. Hopefully we hear more good news. There are two big outfits here in my area that are running Granites with MP8's with DPF's (tri-axle dump trucks) and I never see them stopped on the road doing regens and I never see them at the dealership, so there must be some good ones out there.

I'm just really suprised (especially with the poor performance of a lot of late model Macks)that nobody has broke into their ecm's yet. There's all kinds of aftermarket ecm's and programmers for Cat, Cummins and Detroit, like the Pittsburgh Power box. That's why I went with a Binder and a Cat. Unlimited power and a fuel mileage increase when driven easy on the lower settings. It would be nice to see a tuner for Mack, as the Blixxton's only worked on the older models.

I don't know much about them but a contractor I had my dump truck hired on with leased a couple of them for themselves. I don't think you need anything too special to run them because their tractors only pulled end dumps. And when one was down for service they just stuck any highway tractor with a wetline they could find under them. Maybe some side dumps are different though because I don't believe theirs were powered down.

Be carefull if you do pull one though. I have pics of a brand new Paystar like mine laying on it's side with one. We were hauling blasted rock and they put a big nugget in it and over she went when he dumped.

Wow, thanks Daveigou. That's interesting.

What's everyones oppinion on the new Mack rear ends? Can the interwheel power dividers work as effectively as the Merritor/Eaton with 4 way locks in a vocational application? I ran many years with the R Model in my avatar and never had a problem with traction or reliability, but can't figure out why most Mack dealers try to steer me clear of Mack transmissions and rears?

Well the new year is here, so how about some good news. We all know of ALL the problems with the previous E7 and ASSET's, but is there anyone of this forum with some good news of how the new MP's are performing?

It's good to voice our problems, hopefully Mack pays attention to this site, but man, it sure would be nice to read about a glimmer of hope in our future. I hate this emmissions crap as much as the rest of you, but you know sooner or later the government will probably put an end to us building glider kits which seem to be the only way to get a good running "new" truck nowadays. They are already talking about making us retrofit older trucks with DPF's. Imagine how they will run seeing as how they weren't even designed for it.

So anybody have an MP that works?

Interesting. Not throwing any codes? Hopefully it works out and stays reliable. That would be on an AC ASSET I take it?

Yes, Mackpro68, I priced a Granite and was really suprised that the Guard Dog option was only like $250.00 Canadian. Same with the difference between rubber block and air ride rear susp. Only a couple hundred dollars.

You said they had problems on the early 2000 models blowing the Co-Pilot VIP screens when boosting......is there a fix for that, or how do you prevent it? I don't imagine those screens are cheap to replace eh?

I know I ordered the Cat I.D. display for my Paystar after I already took delivery of it and it too was $1000.00.

Thanks Mackpro68. I remember seeing the feature on the 2001 to 2004? models like you say, but I have a Co-Pilot features brochure I got from the dealer for the new MP equiped trucks which shows all the different display screens and I don't see it in there.

Just wondering.....on the new models with the Co-Pilot and Guard Dog display, can you set your own road speed limits, or does it have to be done with dealer equipment.

I know I can do my own with Cat and Cummins but not sure about Mack.

I seen some people do that with the 389's. Buy the glider kits and put in pre emission Cat and Cummins and sell them as 08-09 389's for the price of a new truck. Seems like you can only get glider kits in Pete and Freightliner anymore.

Western Star is big into gliders also. You can order them with every component installed as long as one piece is missing whether it be the motor, trans or diffs. If you order with the engine they come with a pre emmisions reman with warranty (Cat for sure I know). My friend just got one, a tri-axle dump with a 36"sleeper, 19.5 foot box and a mechanical 400 Cat that he did himself. You can only order the gliders set up for electronic, so he had to switch all the gauges in the dash to mechanicals. He's doing a Kenworth next.

Now I know what I want for Christmas!! Very nice.

Merry Christmas everyone. Have a great holiday.