Vladislav

FAW 537 is a common Mack 12000lb front axle.

Damn, this above seems to be wrong. Right now I recieved 35RU223 and 35RU224 and they are pretty sure the inner wipers. If you look at Kscarbel's post higher above he stated that exactly that way. Sure not the end of the world, everybody makes blunders. I will re-order the parts. Just no way for me to get those I recieved back and no need in the inner ones. Along with a need of the outer's.

If your need concerned mostly the front axle, wirebrush the axle beam in the areas between the spring(s) and the steering knuckles. The marks you will find can explain things about your axle setup. Unfortunately I'm not a big master myself to decode them. But sure many others can. P.S. If you post some pictures on here it might be helpful. Vlad

Larry, It could be done. And should be if I would. But no space to make it long enough. Something like 30 cm or one foot long. Could be positioned between two crossmembers only since their flanges attached straight to the rails. I would prefere use longer ones and put them between the crossmember ends and the rails if any spacers in those spots originally used. But no spacers. And if I use them short inner rails only four bolts will attach them to every rail. Two bolts on each end. There's a tank mounting bracket on the outer side. Uses 4 bolts. On each side of the truck. A good thing to cover the seam from observation either. Actually this plan is just one of the possible options. The frame I plan to use have VIN stamped and I have this truck registered. The second truck has relatively solid frame and with no VIN marking. Although it could be used it also need some fixing of cracks in the airride brackets attaching areas. And another thing I really dislike is a need to completely part out the secong truck which runs now. The most reliable option is to order two brand new rails. Just have no idea of how it might be costy to purchase or fabricate. Shipping sure would be a story either. But I'd like to at least estimate that case. I have time to choose so far.

Who would have thunk... Thakns, Jim.

Is the engine positioned offset to the right or is it biased over the cranckshaft axle line?

Thank you for explaining the things. I suppose you will have no troubles with the stretch the way you have it done. Especially in case no trailer will be attached. I'm just tinkering with ideas on how to fix the frame of my R-model. The one I'd like to use has massive damage to the both reails because of the excident in the past. Poor shape with lots of weld and either cracks repaired. One of the options is to fabricate two pieces of new rail locally and weld them to the original front. Nobody can make totally new rails front to end but pieces of a straight channel are possible. This way I will need to put the halves together under the sleeper. Not sure it's a good idea, especially if I grind all excessive metal off the seams as I want to to get the look untouched.

Paul, Cool bar, and sure the truck it is on! As for factory options the same thing goes on overhere with Mercedes-G's I'm too familiar with. The bars they have were installed at the factory (local folks call them neither way but kango-roo-bumpers)). On the other hand local technical reglament (a kind of DOT) requires nothing off a front bumper to the outside. Many folks were fined recently being ordered to remove the bars in a month following an inspection pass to determine they really have it done. Otherwise they would get a ban for the vehicle's registry. Those Mercedes owners have to request an official dealer to get a paper their vehicles have the factory equipment. Some of them get luck in the end. Along with big headach during the deal. Many others rest with headach only. Just a kind of local BS. Plenty of such stuff overhere.

Who-hoo!!! I would be damn proud having that beast near my front door. Congrats!

Congratulations on the step made! Where did you do the stretch split? Did you weld two pieces of the rail together? Or put any reinforcement on the inner side?

I always thought those were designed specially for kango-roo's. Local authoritys went crazy about such stuff recently. Give fines left and right. Actually only rigs with special marks made in their papers in earlier years which indicate approved installation of such bumpers go easy. Everybody else are outlaws.

Sorry to see that mess. No, I don't mean I dislike the pictures. Just sorry for the loss. Good thing on the other hand you found out the fire just in time so you could prevent worse to be happen. One thing still rests having scratching my head - is the tarp a real one or photochopped??

I have an issue uploading either. And it seems like a trouble now. Some while back, nealry 6-7 month I had notification of something like Max upload size of say 3 Mb. Later I got it less. Than I once ran out of the size. I revised my old posts and re-sized big pics in them. Got a bit of space as a result. Than revised my PM's and deleted the most of pics larger than 500kb. Got a bit of space again. But after posting every new picture on the forum the amount of Mb's allowed went less and less. With no increase during the time. Now I'm already out of space, only 0.06Mb as I can see. Can't post pictures anymore. And I don't remember a moment when I uploaded damn many of them.

Wonder how does Australian R700 look?

I did the same with one of my aluminium ones on the R locally. Locally was 700 km from home though They made a new tube but couldn't offer the bottoms of the correct size. So my old ones came back together with the steps, filler neck and the drain pan.

I doubt on that. Keep in mind Western R700 (which were correctly called RS700 or RL700) were built on their own style frames. The rails were straight end to end, with no spread or section decrease in the front like Eastern R's had. On the other hand the most Australian Macks of thouse days (or all of them?) were built using Eastern style R-model chassis. So it seems to me like just no RS/RL model ever exist in Australia.

Wow! Plenty of interesting info on here, as usually. Thanks for posting. Snowdog - my R-model(s) has the manufacturing date as 09.1988 marked on at least two factory tags. One on the door and another on the door opening (paper print under plasitc lamination). Unfortunately I haven't got factory records for them. Once I contacted Watts (long ago) and a parts guy said me he couldn't identify the truck. I than sent him the second truck's VIN and he had no luck again. Then he said he contacted Mack museum and they didn't have the records either. They requested the tags and I sent pics of them back. No luck in the end. Since then I found two more VINs of the other SGT R's (a lot of 5 was imported to Russia). Should request the museum myself. But it's a trouble for me to make donation to them so I keep this deal for better times so far. Oo, seems like I have an idea on the year coding mistake. It might mean the letter in VIN indicates a MODEL year, not a calendar one. You know the most producents swap models in September after re-organize production lines in August when the most workers have a rest. So if my truck was made in September it might carry 1989 VIN. Just an idea though.

Upps... 2M2N187Y8KC026171 Seems like #10 digit is K... September 1988, marked on the same plate.

I was thinking that the same matter along my R-model hood. Resolved to use car underbody protection coat in spray. Had one more ultimate idea of applying body seam sealer fatt layer by brush and than put a piece of thin stainless steel net. Something like 2x2 or 3x3 mm cell. Or make two pieces of SS sheet and put them into the fender inside ups glued with a thick layer of construction foam. Haven't done anything so far excepting a couple of extra layers of glass mat with epoxy resin. The same as I used for the other cracks.

Candy! I'm afraid you didn't get it for free though.

Neat UPS picture, Ed. Hope the doctor knows what he does. Best wishes on a good turn out.

Tommy, your textoshopping skills aren't bad.

It might be VIN coding system was a bit different for the US and Canada Macks. My R's don't look like they ever were gliders. Cabs have VIN plates stating the trucks as R688ST what means six wheel tractor. Moreover, there are paper tags in the door openings with info typed onto. They also contein VIN, the manufacturing date, tyre sizes and weight raitings for both front and REAR axles. The vehicle type is typed as "tractor R688ST". Seems to me as too many characteristics to be applied to a glider. I still do not pretend on to be an expert though.

Not one nice thing to hear. If I were you I might order new round tanks from Cleveland and than order some alu weld shop (or tank repair shop?) to weld used B-model steps in them. As for DOT the way seems to me as to represent the tanks as old original ones. Braking the law, braking the law... Talking about Cleveland tanks I got a question in my mind for a while. Can they sell just round aluminium bottoms of 24.5" diameter separately? I would convert them into complete tanks locally.

Ufff... She doesn't seem too young to me.