JohnTN
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Posts posted by JohnTN
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Greetings all!
First, a word of introduction. I grew up as a farm boy in southern middle Tennessee in the early 80's. During that time, a lot of phosphate mining was going on in that area. About 90% of the tri-axle dumps hauling phosphate were Macks. I spent many an evening in Spring Hill sitting on my pickup tailgate enjoying the show as steady stream of bulldogs pulled the grade through town.
To this day, I still remember the unmistakeable sound of the 285s and 315s. The errie pitch of the turbo spooling up with the high-pitched whine of the tip-turbine slightly lagging behind it was music to my ears. When the drivers let off the throttle, you could hear the pitch of the turbo fall, while the tip-turbine seemed to stay high, I suppose, propelled by the boost pressure backed up in the intake plenum as the engine RPM dropped.
I've even had the pleasure of piloting what I believe was a late-seventies RS700L tractor with a 285 on a 30 mile bobtail run.
All of which brings me to the point of my post. I'm looking for a project truck to re-create and re-enjoy these memories. I'd like to find the smallest and most maneuverable platform that was equipped with a tip-turbine aftercooled engine. Perhaps a single-axle dump or a single-axle tractor. It would basically be a toy, but I operate and develop a number of pieces of rental property, so I could probably find some limited work for it, hauling a bit of topsoil, or pulling a small lowboy to haul equipment.
I'd sure love to hear any suggestions that you veterans might have on an appropriate platform for this project.
John
[Edit] I also remember that some of the larger Ford ag tractors were equipped with the same Garrett tip-turbine aftercooler setup. I remember being at a tractor pull with a Ford TW-30 pulling the sled back and hearing that unmistakeable sound. Is anyone aware of any other engine applications that used this unique setup?
Reccomend Me A Project Truck
in Antique and Classic Mack Trucks General Discussion
Posted
Trent,
Thanks for the welcome!
This is sort of what I had in mind:
http://www.truckpaper.com/listings/forsale...C3C5441069A6AB3
I expect most of these little s/a tractors will have 675/237 power. Would an engine swap be required to get to a 285, or would it be possible to turn a 237 into a 285 by swapping out turbo/injectors/pump/aftercooler, etc?
John