GearheadGrrrl

"Actually, what sealed the deal against Harley-Davidson was the dealership itself and it's clientel. The sales person kept on about how important it was to have an authorized Harley-Davidson dealership perform the service at scheduled intervals, (I kept quiet about my background letting him dig his own hole). While this seems like the norm, I'm not about to pay exhorbitant routine service amounts at the given intervals to comply with the limited warranty available." Rob, you're not the first rider to be chased out the door by the Harley dealer's "attitude" problem. Just about any other brand's dealers, even BMW dealers, treat customers better. I bought a new BMW F800S last year and the dealer doesn't mind me doing the PM at all- they even burned me a copy of the factory manual CD.

The new tandem rear axle is encouraging though- besides the improvements it shows that Volvo is committing to keeping Mack components around for another decade or so. Maybe Volvo management is finally listening to us? As for the new Econodyne engine variant, hard to tell if it's anything significant or just a new rating. They've also packaged the exhaust more neatly on the Granite so there won't be a foot or two of embarassing exposed daylight between the cab and box. BTW, Mack's recent PR noted that Mack is now the largest truck exporter in North America- perhaps Volvo salespeople around the world have figured out that there's no point in trying to sell a Mack customer a Volvo!

The mDrive looks like a relabeled version of Volvo's iDrive automated manual transmission. An automated manual isn't all that bad an idea, provided the transmission being automated is something like the triple countershaft Maxitorque. But the mDrive is based on Volvo's single countershaft 12 speed. I've been around long enough to remember the bad old days of single countershaft transmissions that didn't make it half a million miles before needing rebuilding. These days it's routine for a Maxitorque to make it past a million miles before the case has to be opened up, and even Eaton's inferior product sometimes makes it to a million miles. Even with computers to protect it from the newby "steering wheel holders", I suspect the mDrive will have it's work cut out for it to make it to a half million miles. It's telling that Mack is only offering the mDrive in on highway Pinnacle models...

You can't go wrong with a CX... The last truck I drove on the day I retired was a CX, and it was the best truck I've ever driven; Better than any Mack or any other brand. Even in fleet spec with spring suspension it rode smooth and was as quier as a car inside. Excellent visibility with the sloping hood, and the controls all seemed to be in the right place.

The 355/380 rating gives 380 HP in top gear and 355 HP in the other gears. The idea is to encourage the driver to stay in top gear and save fuel rather than downshift. These engines pull a lot stronger than their rating would suggest- UPS has a lot of them and the drivers at out local UPS Center would write them up for low power if they wouldn't pull the local 3% upgrade (Napp Hill) in top gear. I've driven one at near 80K GCW and felt no need for more power. However, if you're running a lot of mountains or overweight loads a 427 HP or higher rated E7 might work better.

Doesn't affect Mack trucks at all. Volvo sold their car operations to Ford about a decade ago, and Ford is now selling the Volvo car operations to a chinese firm. Volvo is still headquartered in Sweden and still owns Mack. Mack trucks are still built in the truck capitol of the world- Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Looks like the dump truck has hub reduction rears, so it's probably going to be used off road.

Actually, there's not much to debate. Now that Harley has shut Buell down, if you want anything but a cruiser style motorcycle you're going to have to buy an import.

Yep, I heard of that kind of "insurance" before... It's called Insurance In Name Only!

A $1750 deductable? It's hard to even call that insurance! I'm at least twice your age and my government insurance is costing less than your private plan and my deductable is less than half yours. I have coverage for prescription drugs too- sounds like your private plan doesn't cover that. BTW, is your insurance plan through the college you're attending?

Thaddeus, you make some good points. Despite the fraud (which often gets caught) medicare is very cost effective. So cost effective that even if they had to pay the full cost for Medicare, many folks younger than 65 would pay less than they now do for private insurance. RR, how old did you say you are? Back when I was young and healthy I could buy health insurance for peanuts too. In fact, the insurance companies were making a killing on me because I never got sick. But today at age 59 no private insurer will insure me at any price. But for about the same amount you're paying for probably limited coverage I have a choice of a several policies. But I can only get these affordable insurance options through a federal government insurance plan- the federal employee health benefits plan (www.fehb.gov). I'm eligible because I'm a retired federal worker, but I think every american citizen should be allowed to buy the same great insurance I have.

Not quite true. Federal law requires that the hospital treat a patient until they are not in immediate risk of dying. Hospitals can and do discharge uninsured patients with broken and untreated limbs, etc.. I know a gentleman who was hit, no fault of his own, while riding his bicycle. The hospital checked him out and discharged him because he was uninsured. If he'd been insured they would have fully treated him and he'd be able to walk normally today.

The constitution does not absolutely guarentee you freedom of speech- it only guarentees that the government can not censor your speech. But the company providing web hosting to this forum and the sponsoring Mack dealer can censor it to their hearts content. And big companies get very concerned when customers feel that the company is denegrating groups of people- remember what happened to the NAPA "Parts Pups"? NAPA got a lot of customer complaints about the "parts pups", then customers started pulling their business from NAPA. NAPA then wisely retired the "Parts Pups". If you've looked at the recently posted sales stats, it's clear that Mack needs every customer they can get to survive this recession. As friends and supporters of Mack we need to avoid offending and welcome every potential Mack customer. If I were to send the carciture Rob posted to our city council I can guarantee you that our city would never buy another Mack again. So Rob, I'd suggest you pull that offensive carciture and apologize if you really love Mack trucks.

Rob, et al: You wanna get this website shut down? This website is sponsored by a Mack dealer and we've been graced with several participants who are employees of Mack, dealers, and suppliers. Mack and Volvo have a lot of minority customers. Mack and Volvo will not tolerate racism- read their corporate policies if you don't believe me. Posting racist carcitures, etc. will get Mack's ire and may have negative consequences for our sponsors. So if you want Mack and their dealerships to survive, don't post offensive stuff that will drive away ANY potential Mack customer that should happen upon your post.

The Post Office CH tandems weighed a hair over 16,000 with an overweight driver (me) in the cab. No lightweight options on them, but they only have one fuel tank and are day cabs. Even the MR tandems weighed in at around 17,000 with their heavier frame and front bumper.

That Mercedes is so expensive because it's spec'd as a heavy haulage truck. As for cabovers, if I needed a tractor with a sleeper I'd prefer a cabover.

I noted also on one of the Euro Volvo sites that they offer MP7s up to 450 horses and MP8s up to 540 horses.

Glad I dumped most of my Volvo stock over a year ago. Paccar is weathering the recession well, and they've had two brands with separate managements competing in the market place and even against each other for decades. In Europe and much of the world they've got a 3rd brand that we seldom hear about, DAF, that's giving Volvo a run for their money. Can you imagine the reaction here if KW and Pete were renamed "DAF"? Paccar knows better than to try anything so stupid, but apparently Volvo doesn't know any better.

The Postal Service's CXs came from the factory with steel bumpers.

Thanks Rowdy, and I'm aware that Mack offers what they call "axle forward" models. But by "axle forward" I mean the front axle pushed as far forward as possible, which means a 28" or less bumper to axle dimension. BTW, here in MN, as they say, "the plot thickens". I was at the Big Iron farm show in Fargo today and talked to a MN truck enforcement officer. He wasn't sure just exactly what the new law allows either, but his opinion was that added axles to the truck or tractor and trailer have to be factory installed to qualify for the new weight ratings. That's good news for Mack and the trailer builders if they can figure out the new weight law but bad news for the aftermarket shops that do tag axles, etc.. He also opined that the new weight limits are for ag products and sealed intermodal containers only, my read is that all comodities are eligible. I also talked to about a half dozen trailer dealers and manufacturers reps. They vary from moderately to totally confused about the new law. I heard one tale of woe of a trucker who bought a new trailer to take advantage of the new law, paid for and received the proper overweight permit, and then received $2000 in overweight fines when he crossed the scales with the load and truck that Minnesota said was legal and permitted! Suffice to say, truckers who could potentially take advantage of the weight increases are nervous and putting off buying new equipment until the state figures out what their weight limits are. I'll probably be seeing one of the legislators tomorrow and get her opinion of just what the "legislative intent" was in these new weight limits.

Amazing the resources Volvo has- Mack, Sisu, Terberg, etc.- Yet Volvo sees them as competitors rather than assets. BTW, note the transfer dump system...

Some while back I wrote about South Dakota's nearly wide open weight limits, and how I'd seen nary a Mack out there taking advantage of them. This spring Minnesota's legislature further increased Minnesota's weight limits up to as much as 108,000 pounds. This was the latest in a series of increases over the last few years as Minnesota has issued permits for loggers, ag haulers, etc. for increasing weights over the previous 80,000 pound limit. But the regulations are complex- I talked to some state troopers at the Farm Fest ag show in july and even they were confused about them. The weight statute is now a confusing jumble of limits, with increase piled upon increase, and damn complicated to figure out. For example, if you're a farmer, should you go for 90,000 pounds on 6 axles, 97,000 on 7 axles, or 108,000 on 8 with restrictions on what roads you can use? and just to complicate matters, they didn't increase length limits at all and these new combinations have to comply with bridge formula "B". That means you'd need a 74 foot outer axle spread to gross the maximum 108,000 pounds on 8 axles, while overall lengths over 75 foot aren't allowed off of the "National Network" and "Twin Trailer" network. Clearly there's a market opportunity here for Mack dealers from Minnesota and points west- MN is a common destination for ag shipments from the west that were previously held to MN's 80,000 pound limit despite the western states having higher weight limits. But to take advantage of this opportunity Mack needs to have axle forward versions of their applicable models available and wheelbases will have to be specced to the inch to take maximum advantages of the increased weight limits. But the response from Volvo/Mack? They're to busy trying to jam more Volvo parts into Macks to bother!

One of the things Volvo forgets is that Mack and Volvo owners need different features in a cab. Over half of North American market Volvos are sold with the integral sleeper cab. Those users need the widest possible cab and want all the road vibrations, etc. damped out. In short, they want a spacious, quiet, and smooth home for their life on the road. Most Macks are bought for vocational uses, in fact the Granite usually outsells the Pinnacle. Most Mack users want a narrower cab for easy entry, good feel of the road and where each wheel is planted, enough vibration and engine sound so they know when to shift gears without looking at the tach, and an interior they can hose out at the end of a muddy day. Thus Volvo and Mack need separate cabs, although they could share doors and such like the Mack MH and CH did.

Missing bulldog reported in Greensboro: http://greensboro.craigslist.org/laf/1360544160.html

I've seen air clutches on 70s vintage UPS GMCs, but never on the later models like the Ultraliners (I think). Most of the UPS Ultraliners I've driven were late 80s though. There's an '85 or so ex-UPS Ultraliner for sale at a Bobcat dealer in Dassel, Minnesota- I'll take a look at the clutch on it the next time I get by there.