Maxidyne

$55/hour for a tandem dump & driver? I'd find something more profitable!

Usually a Mack tractor will have a 12,000 rated front axle and 40,000 pound rated rear axle, but the Texas weight limit on the tandem is 34,000. Texas will sell you a permit for 10% over on the axles which would allow you 37,400 on the tandem but the front axle is limited by it's 12,000 pound rating, so the heaviest you can run provided your within bridge formula is 49.400, so no point in licensing for over that. With that 12 yard box I hope your loads are light, wet soil car run 3000 pounds a yard and would probably push your load well over legal weight and invoke a liability for that HUT you're trying to avoid. You're doing it the hard way, easier to start with a real dump truck.

Are you adding a pusher axle on these trucks?

And the MC rode better, with no complaints from the drivers. The MR brought with it a 3/8" thick frame and that along with a stack of stiff springs which although rated at only 12,000 pounds seemed to have been designed for front loader refuse trucks made for a rough ride and documented back and neck injuries. There was a campaign that retrofitted the MRs with different springs, seats, and a smaller steering wheel but that thick MR frame remained. As anyone who has watched trucks on uneven off road surfaces has observed, the frame acts as a spring whether we like it or not, and even after the mods the MR still rode worse than the MCs.

Keep in mind that the typical road tractor has only a 1/4" single frame, a 12,000 pound rated front axle, 40,000 pound rear axles, and an optimistic 52,000 pound GVW rating, and an air ride rear suspension that doesn't provide enough articulation for off road use. It'll work as a dump truck if you stay well within those limitations, but to be competitive in most areas of the country a dump truck needs at least a 60,000 pound GVW.

Not bad for a quick "grab" photo. Looks like St.Louis still has those single axle 28 foot trailers, smallest we had in Minneapolis was 32 foot tandems. In good shape for a '98 model too.

Interesting that International bid the vocational HV series... Must be the only way to spec a tractor without all the aero tupperware? What's it got for powertrain?

Built for light weight with little regard for driver comfort, the Mack F and G models were much more driver friendly!

Even as recently as 1991 there were about twice as many truck makers so the market was much more competitive. Thus Mack and and the other makers had to build exactly what the customer wants to compete. Extended front frames were a common option than, even UPS and other fleets had the bumper set about 4" forward of the cab or hood rather than flush so they wouldn't get damaged in parking lot bumps.

No surprise, Ford has no clear plans for the future while hundreds of millions are thrown at Rivian, the train depot, electrification, "mobility", etc.. Ford has too many SUVs while commercial truck buyers are being driven away by limited options. Meanwhile, the couple hundred thousand customers who buy Fusions and Fiestas are being told to settle for an SUV or go away. And while Ford brags of having $20B in cash reserves, they've also typically got a million or so unsold vehicles in inventory and who knows how many billions more Ford is financing... So Ford has earned junk bond status.

I suspect that was an option on several models.

Are you thinking of converting a tractor to a straight dump truck?

The Pinnacle was never intended to be used as a heavy straight truck. If you're looking for a tractor it will work, though a Granite would be better if you go off paved roads much.

I'm sure the dealers will be none too happy hearing that 20% of them won't be dealers anymore. But as consolation, they get to be dealers for Nicola trucks if they ever appear out of the vaporware...

If you're looking at a used truck just buy one with an automatic, it'll cost more and be a bunch of headaches to convert one from a manual. The Allison is the best, especially if you're doing a lot of work on site or in the city.

If NEMF was still running R and U models that were last built 30 years ago, they've been in financial trouble for a long time. And union or not, regional carriers have had a tough time competing with the national and international mega carriers for the last few years, and many have gone under.

My feelings too- In trailers TIP is a class act, but servicing engines and transmissions?

I lived near some gravel pits in the 60s so remember seeing a lot of those gas powered tandem dumps. The V8s made some melodious music, but they weren't all that fast, as most has only mid 200s horsepower. Short lived too, as by the 70s they'd been mostly replaced by diesels which went faster with less drama.

That follows what I've been hearing, that a small engine working harder needs less regens.

I think round tanks were probably an option much earlier than that, but most R models came with square tanks in the 70s while round tanks were common on the Mack Western models. Like the switch from spoke to disc wheels, from conventional to taper leaf springs, etc.. there was no firm cutover date, just a gradual shift as the market's preferences changed. Mack was much more responsive to customer's needs then and would oftentimes still offer an old option even thought it was rarely ordered.

Not sure if he was well known in trucking around his adopted home of Australia or if he's ever been on this forum, he was quite active in the motorcycling world where I know him from. Here's the obit on the sidecar forum of advrider.com: Curmudgeon from Bulimba area passes after lengthy battle with cancer and life. Luke Winkler AKA FR700 passed away 8/25/19 at his dwelling in Bulimba among tools and machines his life long friends. Luke was known for his sometimes caustic cynicism but also his kindness to those in need of his help. He favored BMW k-bikes, unfiltered cigarettes, Bourbon and a certain anonymity in the best tradition of a Swagman he didn't favor allot of permanent anything. Admired by many, known by only a few !

Local Freightliner dealer took in a bunch of '15 Argosy cabovers set up as flatbed boat haulers with stinger 5th wheels with 60 series power and 3 pedal Fuller "autoshift" transmissions. The trailers which are pretty much matched to the tractors aren't even included, and they're asking over $70,000 for them. That's crazy money for a truck with at least a 12 year old engine and who knows where the transmission and rears came from... Should be interesting to see how far they have to drop the price to move them.

Which means it fits the same chassis Mack uses. But Volvo wants to funnel "their" customers into buying a Volvo with a Volvo engine and transmission, and if the customer insists on a Cummins engine Volvo will punish them with a Volvo cab. Volvo's business plan is to push the customer into buying a Volvo with Volvo powertrain, keep it on a short lease via online tracking and reprogramming, keep it coming back to the dealer for service with extended warranties, and make it so unreliable and expensive to repair that it's traded in on another one after only five years and scrapped before it's ten years old. Obviously letting the customer buy a Mack with a cab that will last at least two decades and Cummins engine and Eaton transmission that can be affordably serviced anywhere is a threat to Volvo's business plan.

It's already been done, the CL and Titan used the current Mack cab and the plans and probably tooling are still around. Problem is that Volvo doesn't want to offer their 16 liter engine in such low volumes and doesn't want Cummins competing with their own engines.

Agreed, but most of the clowns that drop the seat and hide behind a drop down visor can't get financing for a new truck anyways, so they'll have to wait for these Autocars to hit the used truck lots before they get a chance to pimp 'em out.