ppsyclone

I drove DM mixers, mostly 6x6s, for 7 years. I know the shortcomings and strong points. I have never thought the left side visibility was worth sacrificing interior room and right side visibility. I spent a lot of time in city traffic with them an d the lack of right side visibility was a real problem. Came up with a partial solution. I had the company mount a 10" convex school bus mirror on the right front fender. This gave me the right side visibility I was missing. But I have done a lot of thinking over the years. Here is what I propose. First, develop a V-6 version of the engine. Mount the cab a little higher than normal. The V-6 would allow a shorter hood. Combined with the higher cab, this would allow a shorter m ore steeply sloping hood. I could be sculpted on the right side for more visibility. Front and right side vision would be vastly improved. The right side door could have a full length plexiglass insert for even more visibilty.

Well I have driven Mack mixers with the offset and center mount cab. The offset cabs were for DM and DMM600s. Truck was pretty capable off road. Rode like hell. Liked the off set cab off road, as long as the obstacle wasn't on my right. Road vision was very problematic. Had a wreck one time. I changed lanes to the right and ran over a small car that was not visible in my mirror. Solved that problem with a convex school bus mirror mounted on the right front fender. I have had a strong preference for the center mounted cab since then. Also DMM was very short on leg room and headroom.

Did Mack ever make the DM-800 available with all wheel drive?

Why did Mack not offer AWD on DM800? They offered it on the RDs. And its predecessor model, the B8136 offered it.

Is the Granite or any other Mack available with a steel front end?

This truck uses the EZ Track hydraulic system to achieve all wheel drive. There are hydraulic hub motors in each wheel driven by a hydraulic pump off the PTO.

I noticed in the DM 800 production listing several models with 4 digit model #'s ending in 6 or 8. This usually indicated all wheel drive in a Mack. Were there AWD DM800's? I have never seen on or a picture of one. What front axle did they use? Was it the triple reduction one that drove thru the kingpins?

Truck books for sale. many rare/out of print, I.I Relics of the Road - all 3. Many others. Email me at ppsyclone@aol.com and I will send you a spreadsheet in Excel format, or other format as you request.

Brian Kelly ppsyclone@aol.com

Don't think Freightliner actually owned or was buying Oshkosh. I think is was more like a cooperative agreement. All the HD all wheel drive Freightliners had Oshkosh designed drive trains at the time. The big military Freightliners were all Oshkosh underneath. But at the same time Oshkosh also had a working agreement with Mack on front discharge mixers. The Oshkosh was available with a Mack engine and the Mack FDM was Oshkosh based with Mack underneath. I think Oshkosh may have terminated the deal because, as we all know, Freightliner cannot be a partner, instead they must dominate. Oshkosh is a very independent company

In the early 80's Mack stopped making its own front driving axles. Since then they have used Fabco axles. The DMM was offered until about 2001 or so. Then the Granite was phased in. The Granite can be ordered with all wheel drive, but it is a part time system. Also, Macks can be ordered with the Marmon Herrington package. The MH and Fabco packages are very good, so much so that other makes have stopped making a factory AWD package

That Freightliner has an Oshkosh engineered drivetrain. Freightliner and Oshkosh worked toh=gether in the mid to late 90's. There was even an Oshkosh FF model with a Freightliner cab and front end. Oshkosh severed the relationship in the late 90's, probably because Freightliner was trying to take them over just like they do everything else.

Brian