The Fireman

Ok so my b42 is in need of a new set of drives before I can put her on the road but the thought of having to cough up a couple grand for new tires isn't exactly that appealing. The fire department that I'm in is replacing the tires on one of our engines, it's got 11r22.5's on the drives my b has 1000x22's I don't know a whole lot about tire sizes so I'm hoping someone else out there smarter that me can tell me if these will fit my rims. Hopefully because I'd much rather give a couple hundred dollar donation for the old tires than buy new.

Im planning on buffing out the paint and repainting the areas that are bad, but thats a year or 2 down the road, For right now I'm going to replace the tail lights and marker lights on the box with new LED lights, I know not original but neither is the engine and I'm looking for reliability and LED's seem to hold up well. The cab markes will stay original, those are just to classic to mess with, I'm also going to add trailer wirring to the back and an electric brake contorller. Down the road I'll plum air to the back too but since I dont have a trailer with air brakes yet thats kinda low on the list. I'm a little sad about the A leaving, thats one of the trucks me and my grandpa draged home before he passed away but she was a long long way from being road worthy and I really hated to see it just sitting rotting away. It did make a nice site truck but I cant justify keeping it when I only run it once a year and I'll be able to actually drive this B down the road. The interior was also real clean, I dont think this truck saw a whole lot of salt in its day. Seems like everything close to me (upstate NY) is a rotted out flinstone special. I was figuring on ending up with a late 70's chevy or gmc but a C-50 would never hold a candle to a B mack One things for sure when I get this truck on the road it should really turn some heads, my only problem is going to be choosing whether to tak this truck to a truck show or my 56 ford fire engine.... might have to recruit dad to drive one and have us a convoy

I've been looking for a dump truck for a while now but nothing decent seemed to be showing up in my price range. About a week ago I was out tinkering on my A40, one thing kinda led to another and I ended up looking at the trucks on oldmacks. When I saw this B I thought about it for a couple days then decided I had to find out more about it. A couple emails later and I was in the car heading down to see it in person yesterday, once I heard her run I knew this was the truck for me. She's had a little work done under the hood, the gas job has been replaced with a end673p. She fired right up and ran like a champ. Has maxi brakes with close to new shoes on the rears and i didn't notice any substantial air leaks. After I replace a few lights she should be road worthy. Had a great time talking to Dennis and checking out his trucks. I also managed to sell my A, wasn't sure that I wanted to last week but the more I thought about it I would never be able to get the a road worthy so it was time to let her go and focus on one good truck. The B should be coming home next week some time, I can't wait to get her here and really take her out for a ride

I'll have to check with them, when I got the truck I was in a hurry to get it regestered because the previous owner had lung cancer and wasnt doing real well so I wanted everything in my name in case something happened to him. Unfortunatly he passed away last month but I did manage to get the truck all cleaned up and took it his family reunion last fall so he got to see it back on the road, sure made his day and mine to seeing the smile on his face when I pulled in with the old girl. The biggest problem I ran into was my age and the fact that it is a fire engine, very few comapanies wanted to talk to me at all being that I am only 26.

I've got historical plates on my 56 ford fire engine here in new york, hagerty charges me 150 a year for insurance (because its a fire engine with red lights and a sieren) I'm limited to 2500 mi a year with it and the way it was explained to me at the DMV was that the tags were good for show's parades and what not. They did say that it was not for daily transportation but driving it to work or taking it for a cruse once in a while wasnt going to be a problem either. I drive the old girl to work every once in a while and run it to the fire house for meetings from time to time. I've never had any problems with old johny law, I did put a set of mufflers on it to avoid atracting attention to myself. She sounded good with the striaght pipes but it was a little loud even by my standards, figured it was best to tone it back a little to avoid giving some cop a reason to pull me over.... although getting a ticket in a fire engine would sure make for a good story if it wasnt such a hassel. I say get the historical plates, keep the truck in top notch shape, get the appropriate inspection for the weight class (my truck weighs 15000 and has juce brakes so I'm good with a light truck inspection) and dont attract alot of attention when you are out driving and I think you'll be just fine.

Thats good to know, I wasnt sure just how much may have been missing. should make it a little easier if I ever manage to get it road worthy again, having the complete number for the DMV should be 1 less question.

Just got whats left of the number off my frame, 40T5312 stamped behind the rt side rear spring. The frame was cut jjust behind that at some point in its life so I'm not sure if any of the number is missing or not. Mine acts even worse than Bills Mack describes, once it warms up I can keep it running by playing with the choke but cant give it any gas unless I'm real steady on the throttle. Makes for some interesting shifting to say the least, warming up it up is a real treat as well. When I got the truck I had the carb off and cleaned it out, the acceleration pump was corroded in to the point that I couldnt get it out with out busting somthing. Being that I wanted to hear it run we put it back together and gave it a try. I think I'm going to pick up a rebuilt carb for it if I can find one, I dont use this truck much but I may use it a little more if I could keep it running with out hanging off the choke all the time. Once I've got a good carb on I'll tear into this carb again, I should beable to set it up in the mill and bore the old piston out then make up a new one. as long as I have the old girl running good I wouldnt be afraid to experment a little with this carb but being its the only one I have right now I really dont want to mess it up. Put a set of plug wires on yesterday afternoon, the originals were.... well almost 60 years old and had seen better days. The wires helped a little at least now it will run of all 6 but still not right with this carb.

Heres my 51 A40, I'm not sure on the number If I remember corectly the frame was cut and part of the number is gone but I'll check the next chance I get. when I removed the seat the cab had may 1951 stenciled on the cab behind gthe drivers seat, so I'm pretty sure that makes it a 51. Got the flat head magnadyne gas engine in it, (needs a carb kit or carberator) runs out pretty good for the shape the carb is in. 10 speed mono shift trans and a mack rear end. I got it for 550 from a fella in Port Lyden NY, 4 hrs after unloading it we had her running again, that was 5 years ago. I'm in the process of building a house all the lumber loaded on the back is red oak I cut off the proporty for flooring. Headed up to the basment for winter storage, the old Mack was just begging to earn her keep again. Sure beat loading it in my pickup and making several trips to go 100 yards, no idea how much this load weighs but she was down to the helpers. One day I'd like to restore the old girl, had hopes of making it back into a tractor but I think a 12' stake raack would better suit my needs seeings I have no real use for a tractor. In the mean time the old Mack will continue to run building materiales from the barn 100 yards up the hill to my house. I plan on cutting all the lumber to length marking where it goes then loading it onto the mack, once I've go it loaded run it all up the hill then assemble... I hope

Very nice, looks alot like my A-40T. Do you plan on restoring her? I'm on the fence with mine, on one hand I'd love to restore it and have a unique old mack. On the other hand I'd really like to find a 10 wheel B61 tractor with a good quad box in her. Just dont have the time or the money for either at the moment

Lmackattack The computers only help when they can be trusted. I work on heavy equipment and everytime I trust the foolish computers it comes back to bit me i the rear. IMO the new regs are going to drive up costs of everything and do more harm than good. Everything in America moves by truck and with the price of fuel and now the added cost of meeting these regs the costs will be passed on to the consumer. Its a wonder how we ever got along with old diesel that smoked and actully made power, never bothered any one in the 50's so whats the big deal now. The trouble is in 10 years when all the tree huger fools wake up and see that their bull is a joke it will be to late, once these systems are put on engines they cant be taken off and still made to run. I have no doubt that we wont see trucks manufactured today around and still running in 50 years

Thanks I got 6 decent tires and rims with the truck also, so this spring I'll get them changed then take her out for a short road test. I live out in the middle of no where so the law isnt around much so I should be alright. Once I know how shes going to drive then I'll make the decission on major rebuilds for the engine and tranny. The compressor and brake chambers will definatly get rebuilt, no point in putting alot of time into her to have the brakes go out and loose it all. How big of a job is it to add spring brakes to one of these old trucks? The tranny is a 10 speed duplex, I'm still learning to drive it but everytime I move it around I seem to get a little more comfortable wit the way she shifts. Its direct drive so I dont know how my road speed will be but if I can get 55 out of her I'll be happy. Has any one put an 18 speed quad box in an old gasser before? Just curious I'll probley leave well enough alone but if I ran across on cheep enough I might be tempted This truck is on my list for next winter if things go right this summer. at the very least I hope to get the fenders fixed upa and primed so they're protected, but first I need to do some research on finishes I want this to last a good long time so I'd better do it right

Thanks, now that someone pointed out a couple things I can see the differance. I havent been around the old Macks for very long so I dont know all the diferances between them either. One day mabey I'll be able to see all the little differances, but thats going to take some time wandering around truck shows (dosnt sound like a bad way to kill a day)

I just added a few pics to my alblum for everyone to enjoy. I'll post a few pics of where she is now when I get a chance. I got her parked inside of all places (never thought I'd see the day dad would let me keep a road tractor in the barn ) Over the fall I pulled the drivers side fender and patched the holes in it and got it ready for paint, a little more tweeking and sanding and she'll be good then I can start the right side. For those who are new I bought this truck back in september for 550 dollars. The owner thought he had it sold, so I went out and bought a tool box with the money I had for the truck. 2 weeks latter I got a call saying that he still had the mack I cashed my pay check and emptied what little I had left in my checking account and grandpa and I drove up to look at her. We cleaned the points poured a little gas down the carb and she tried to run for a few seconds. That was enough for me to take her home. On sunday of the same weekend a freind of mine went up with his dump truck and we hauled her home. In a few hours we had the carb cleaned out and lawn mower tank straped to the mirror for a gravity feed to the carb and she ran on her own with now problems. Went for a little ride got a quarter of a mile and ran out of gas but she built air 95 PSI and drove like a dream. Now she is in the long restoration process but in the end I hope to have a decent looking truck to haul my antique tractors, not to mention having a unique truck for the local cruse ins I am going to pull the cab and do a frame up restoration on her. The gaskets and seals will be replaced in the engine trany and probly the rear end, I'll definatly rebuild the brakes and compressor. The engine may not get a re-build, it all depends on how she sounds when I get her out on the road this summer and really get a chance to open her up. With any luck I wont run into ol johny law with an unlicenced truck driving out of my class

Dose any one on here know what modle this truck is? It looks alot like my A but being a 47 I dont think thats posible Or the owner got the year wrong. Sure is a nice looking Mack, once I get a few other projects done this sumer the cab will be coming off mine and getting rebuilt and painted. I'm still debating on the type of finish I want, I've been leaning towrad a candy apple red or posibly a metalic on the cab with black fenders and frame. Oh and did I mention LOTS of chrome

I'll have to check on the exaust manifold for the raised letters. Sure is conveniont that I have an A-50 somthing in the barn that just happens to have a magnadyne in it so later today I'll go take a look. Did the magnadynes have sleeves in the cylinders or do the pistons just ride in the block like many new engines? Mine smokes a bit, hopefully as I get to realy driving it she'll clear up. If not I'll pop the head off and do the rings. While we're on the subject, dose anyone know where I can find parts for the old A? The engine runs like a clock but leaks oil at just about every seam, so a gasket set is a must. I think that while I have the pan off I'll check a couple of the mains and rods, if they are to bad I'll roll a set of bearings in if I can find them. Grandpa tells me the old flat heads were real common in school buses so hopefully parts can be found reasonably.

LOL I figure I'll be doing great if I find one, but hey you never know right

Well at the moment I am single so I dont have to worry about anyone telling me to sell any of my toys. The way I see it the right womon for me will have just as many toys taht way there should be less complaining about how much time I spend in the shop.

Yeah it ought to be interesting, but I'm hopeing that if its all done up real nice and running good mabey they'll let me take the test. I'll have to get used to shifting the duplex, up-shifting is no problem, comeing back down is. I learned to drive standard on old farm tractors so dwn shifting a non syncro is still a new concept for me I'll get it eventully I am making some progress I have the drivers side fender off and about 75% done, a little more bondo and some primer then I'll set that one aside and do the right side. I have decided that I am going to take the cab off in the spring, that way I can rebuild the bottom and it should be easier to put seals and gaskets in the engine and tranny. I'm looking forward to the day when shes all done and headed for the truck shows, a year or two mabey

What I'm waiting for is th look on the instructors face when I pullup to take my road test in my A. No seat belts, straight pipes and wood floors, ought to be interesting to say the least. The way I see it they're trying to keep us to safe, if I want to drive a truck that has a few problems but is no danger to other people on the road I should be able to.