Vladislav

I also noted Mike's inactiveness. Hope everything is Ok and he's just busy with rutine affairs.

Looks like the road was slippery a bit closer to the end of the ride. Don't know how it was easy for you but seeing the smiles on your faces I suppose it was Ok.

When the very first McDonald's was opened in Moscow in 1989, a hamburger and cheeseburger cost 3 Roubles apiece. And bigmac was 5. I suppose the government rated Rouble officially as 0.96R to 1 Dollar those days. Sure nobody could change them that way. People would pay 30 Roubles per one American Dollar and there probably still jail was for such a business. Anyway one trip to Mc with a girlfriend worth nearly 25 Roubles to spend (for me). And it was far ways off nice with an avarage income of 250 Roubles a month in the city. I was a schoolboy those days, was modelbuilding "commercially" and dreaming for a Mack.

You ain't right on that. The rear tyres are new. And it has loudspeakers.

B87 75 units made??? Never thought they are that rare.

Don't try to wirebrish and scratch you chassis all over. If you haven't found the numbers on the right frame rail (outside) above the front axle you will find nothing else. Just a case the new rails installed in the past you got. The same with me. One of my R688's has neither of stamped on the frame and almost nothing else excepting the tag on the cab. So if you're hoping to track down the truck's specifications the tag you have might not be a real hard source. Just because nobody is 100% sure that's from the factory. This way you should rely on just the physical objectives of your rig. Measuring the frame rail thickness and heigth you can determine its rating. The front axle could be identified by the marks on it as said above. The same with the rears with additional factors that you can determine their ratings (and the ratio's) by observing their look. The site is helpful with all that. Just don't feel wrong asking and supply requests with pics for easier recognizing. It's not a new truck so not much of real help from dealership folks. But on the other hand you didn't spend $100,000 purchasing it and aren't going to mess much with modern electronic "highly efficient nightmare".

This too makes sence. Not nice to hear though. At least now I know the matter of the fact. There is another interesting point in that story. Although Watts Mack couldn't track down my VIN's, one of the members on here once helped me locating some parts. He made it through another dealer and informed me they could see the truck in the system. Unfortunately I couldn't contact that dealer to get the production info. So my question is - if anybody on here has access to Mack programm, I would be too likely to get the factory specifications on my trucks. The VIN's are 2M2N187y8KC026171 and 2M2N187Y8KC026172.

Good step in the impressive work Are you going to use Raptor to coat the underbody areas?

By some way you have it done indeed. But that's a quite useful can of worms. If you google "Mack FAW537" Mack axle you will surprize of just a few sources to get info about. And mostly from this forum. I myself lifted up this question a couple month ago and didn't get much of knowledge at that time. The good thing posts on here stay for a while on the net (as long as forum exists). And I'm pretty sure they become useful for many folks. Kscarbel, thanks the great for the info!

Impressive... Just wonder how many such "secret" projects were initiated by THE administration of THE other country.

Hmm, never got my mind about that. Sadly or happily nobody knows how old or young those cows were. Interesting that the fact of the Big Mac creator's death was shared on local news. Big Mac itself is a tasty thing on my mind. I always have troubles putting it in the mouth to bite off a bit though. So it's not my cup of tea in general.

Wonder was the rodent put in the street when the strike beginns? Neat rocky scenaries, the crane, and Chicago skyscrapers. And the lot of laps tooooo.

That's what I thought of.

Let me toss a question in the ring. Does a axle model determine the springs capacity? Or more closer to the matter of my interest - does FAW537 have spring packs (3 taper leaf) lighter (and the leaves thinner) than FAW538? Or 2QK3345 springs were used with FAW537 and than the same pack but with newer #2QK3378P6 was fitted with FAW538?

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.