Licensed to kill

Pretty sure that, in hindsight, the driver in question would hold a similar opinion as would anyone that saw the video.

There certainly was no time to do much. The woman in the car videoing said that the truck got stuck just moments before the train showed up. Having never hauled a drop deck before, I probably would have made the same mistake as the hump in the crossing does not look like much. Your observation about the size of the load vs axles is a good one. However, with most stuff being air ride these days I would THINK that the levelling valve would have ensure that ride height would be maintained regardless of the load. Then again, lowboys like that are MADE to flex under load and if overloaded might flex TOO much putting the belly that much closer to the ground (which is probably what you were suggesting).

I am curious why you want to convert to 12V neg ground?. This is a common practice with Model A guys as well. For wiring, you can get the cloth covered wire from most model A supply houses so you don't have to hide your wires. Of course if you are going to 12V you don't need as skookum of a wire as you do with 12V (the reason that auto manufacturers switched from 6V to 12V in the first place.). As mentioned, you CAN run your 6V starter on 12V and the polarity should not matter. If was me I would look into having the starter rewound for 12V, sand blast and paint the housing while apart. I know some guys with 6V vehicle running 8V battery for easier starting. Apparently does not blow the lights. One buddy of mine has a 1950 Ford truck that won't always start with the starter but starts right uo when you push start it. The starter draws too much power leaving the spark weak. He added a switch to supply full power to the starter when cranking but an 8V battery would have sufficed.

Where did you find the wheel cylinders?. My '44 KB needs them and I was told that no cylinders or kits are available so I was just planing on modifying mine to accept the cups etc from a newer available cylinder (if I ever get around to it).

How long does it take to make such adjustments?? The driver did go to the trailer neck but quickly had to abandon whatever it was he was intending as the train was right there.

Bummer. I bet that drivers heart was racing and his brain was going a million miles an hour with "WHAT DO I DO???????. "

As far as I know the mounting bolt pattern is the same for the cold weather intake and the warm weather intake. The cold weather one is the one with the angled pipe coming out of the cab and the summer one has the straight pipe. Either should bolt right on as long as the pipe matches the can. At least this is my observation based on the trucks that I have, one with warm weather and two with cold weather. There could be a whole array of variables out their that I am not aware of, this is just based on what I have.

There are at least two different ones. One comes out of the cab at an angle to the air cleaner and the other comes out straight. I might have an angled one and am looking for a straight one my self. The ones that I have seen have all been plastic/fiberglass or some such, not aluminum.

I feel your pain....sort of. About 3 weeks before I slashed my wrist with the zip cut, I was working on the fifth wheel n my sprayer trailer. One I was done I gathered up my tools and went to step down off the trailer frame and somehow tripped. I did a header off the trailer straight into the travel face first. Heard my glass "clack: against the gravel and first thought was "Crap, I just broke my glasses". Then I felt the blood start to run down my face. I walked to the house bent over so the blood would just grip off rather than run dow my face. Got to the house and called wife (standing on the grass as I did not want to bleed on the walk). She came to the door and I said I needed a bandaid. She said "what did you do??". I told her what happened and she said I needed stitches. I said not but she insisted (I was under the impression that is was just a 1/2" cut . Went to the hospital and there, I found out the the cut was more like 2" long. Took 8 stitches. On the way h9me I said to the wife "I'm actually pretty impressed, did a header into the gravel off of the trailer and I didn't even get hurt". She asked what I meant by that since we were on the way home from the hospital and 8 stitches. I said, "yes but other than a cut, I dod not get hurt, no broken bones, no sprained muscles or torn tendons or anything like that. Other than a scratch on the hear I am fine. On a side note, the doc than sewed me up was the` same one` that did the preliminary sewing on my slashed wrist about 3 weeks later, After sewing me up (again) he took the wife aside and told her, "He needs to learn his limitations at his age". This is the trailer that I did the swan dive off of. Was stating up by the fifth wheel on the trailer frame/fender. Was probably more on the fender as I cleared the outriggers. OD's injuries are much worse.

To be fair, if you have to hire all the Machine work the conversion would get quite pricey. As far as wear goes, even if I was a kid still I don’t think I would live long enough to wear out a set of brake shoes and if I did I would just have them relined and same with the drums. Zero chance I could ever wear them out but if I did just do the same as I did the first time.

I swapped out the rear axle to one from a freight liner and for the front I got the hubs from a newer Mack (but any truck should work) and modified them to accept the bearings on the B-61 axle. I also had to put thicker lining on the brake shoes and turn down the new brake drums a bit.

You may assume too much. The 2 B-61's that I bought from a guy a couple years ago were in his shed and to get TO his shed you would have to walk right past the house and there was NO indication that he even had those trucks in there. In fact, there was so much junk piled in the shed and on and around the trucks that cursory glance and they would net even been seen. However, I went and knocked on the door and asked about them. Of course I started the conversation with "I am told that you have a couple B-61 Macks . I understand that they re not for sale but thought you might know of someone else with one that might be". Maybe the guy that stopped and asked was TOLD by someone else that you had it there and came to check if it was for sale. At any rate, this thread I find disturbing on a few levels. One being that I am a STAUNCH supporter of gun ownership rights but when I hear someone state that they would threaten someone with a gun just for stopping and asking a question, well it gets difficult to argue with the anti gun crowd when you hear of things like that.

Buffalo.

We were in the -30's most of last week with over night lows in the -40 range and daytime highs in the -35 range. My brother hit -43 but a neighbour of his hit -48. These are ambient temps, no wind chill factored in. Fortunately, when it is that cold we rarely have any wind. Unfortunately, when it is that cold the slightest breeze is significant. I LOVE to go for walks when it gets cold and or snows hard. This was last New Years day, -35 when for a walk. First and only "selfy" I have ever taken.

Brackets should be easy to make if you have a reference to follow.

I guess I am stupid and don’t know what I’m doing because I struggle with the cap for the chain oil with my Stihl chain saw. The gas one isn’t quite as bad but the bar oil I seem to fight with a LOT. Did you ever get smarter with yours ? (Not to high jack the thread but……)

Shortly after joining, while I was still in the investigation stage of my project I asked a few questions to help me decide which way ti go with my project. I received one reply that I read as saying that I was wasting everyones time with my questions and that I have no business working on a Mack and that I should stick to small Block Chevys. It posed me off and I found it offensive but every forum has a douche nozzle on it. However, in this case, his post garnered 3 likes in pretty short order so I took that as more of a consensus. I replied to the offending post, then promptly deleted almost all of my previous posts (including a half dozen or more vintage truck photos) and left the forum. As far as I was concerned, this forum was dead to me. Not that it really mattered as, unlike some being discussed here, I had not contributed anything as I was/am a newby with little to share. That would have been the end of it except that doublrclutchenweasel reached out to me and, while he understood my position asked me to reconsider. After several back and forth messages, I did start to slowly post but it took a good year to get somewhat comfortable here. point is, sometimes it only takes one douche nozzle (and a few supporting "likes" ) to chase someone away but also, sometimes it only takes one supportive member to bring that person back. Moral of the story, if anyone finds my post annoying or a "waste of everyones time", blame doubleclutchinweasel. 😊

I rode with my Dad many times in the 60's and 70's in old KW's and Pacifics that had separate wipers that were air actuated. A knob for each one and, yes it was annoying that they move at different times and different speeds from one another.

Like Matt suggested, easy-off works well. I have never painted an engine in the chassis before and, like Matt, I like my stuff disassembled to some degree so as not to get paint on bolt heads, hose clamps, hoses etc.

I suppose that dusty conditions could be hard on the fan bearings. I was not thinking of the fan but, rather, the heat exchanger. As far as "air out", I am not following where there could be an issue or what specifically one should be considering. To my way of thinking, the air can just "exhaust" under the hood. I doubt that the air would be hot enough to cause any issues when it exits the heat exchanger. I don't know, hadn't given that any thought.

I am going to be running an E-6 350 with tip turbine in my B-61. My plan WAS to run twin air cleaners and use the left one to feed the tip turbine and the right one for the engine as usual. However, I have been thinking that maybe I should make a Y pipe and feed the engine from both air cleaners instead for more air flow. Also, drawing air through a B61 air cleaner would be somewhat restrictive as the piping from the air cleaner is a LOT smaller than that going into the tip turbine. If I do this, then I have to figure where to draw air for the CAC. The easiest would be a small hood scoop like is found on some R models but fear that might look goofy on a B 61. I could just let it draw from under the hood but, of course it would lose efficiency drawing warm, under hood air. There is limited room for much in the way of piping to the turbine. Perhaps best to just stay with plan A and pull the air for the CAC through the left air cleaner. Don't understand why I would need to filter the air going through the tip turbine but it is my understanding that the trucks that came With this DID pull the air through a filter. How have others pulled air through the tip turbine when installed in a B model?

I appreciate the offer but I have two water pumps. I do not know the condition of them other than they spin free and smooth, just thought I would replace bearings and seal while it is on the bench.

I bought an engine for my B-61 that was sold to me as a 283. After clean up and painting, I had removed the pump to fix an oil leak behind it and paint the block so, while there I used steel wool to clean up the ID plate. Turns out it is a 1980, E6-350 (2 valve). I know I looked it up and found a spec of 1250 ft torque @ 1250 RPM. I may have got that right off the ID plate or somewhere else, I do not recall but that is what I found.

Wing is doing well. Can move my fingers now. Should have the splint off in a week then 6 weeks of rehab for strength and mobility. Bored as hell though.

Has anyone rebuilt the water pump from a 673?. While I doubt that there is. specific "kit" available for this, it should be just a seal and a bearing or two. While it is possible that one or both of these items are no longer available, bearings an d seals are so common that I would be surprised if the ones in this water pump are "special". For all I know this pump could be fine but thought for what it would take, t would be prudent to just refresh it now while it is off. Thoughts?