bbigrig

Soooooooo..... Would you believe I found a brand new never sold CM422 fully dressed service replacement cab in Ohio.... It was built up for UPS and was stored in a Mack/Volvo parts warehouse since 1989. Talk about horseshoes up my butt.... It's getting painted Mack White to be installed. And for some reason, I can no longer upload photos from my phone.

Hood scoops cut into CL hoods is very common in Western Canada. They use to do it to E9 powered units first, then carried onto E tech powered units. Macks engineering dept. Already figured out they could get enough air with what was provided from factory. These guys out west just "knew better".

The BC Mack/Volvo dealer brought him out one of the first Anthems in Canada. Jaime is also a Volvo customer. He has a 780 tractor. The Anthem is almost $10k cheaper then the closest comparable Volvo product.

The Anthem is going to have a small wrecker on it no rotator. He is going to use it on fleet customers recovery and switch outs in the US and Canada.

They are Renaults shipped to Canada and being completed for delivery at the Prevost bus plant in Quebec, Canada. The trucks don't even have Mack names on them until they hit Canada.

Another common issue is wicking from the oil level sender. There is an anti wicking jumper harness but some are too far gone for that. Replaced many harnesses for that problem.

The Granite frame could never be ordered on a Pinnacle as far as I knew. They are 2 different ratings and have different frame cross members etc. There were different sizes of rails available on the Pinnacle but the Granites offerings were much heavier. That is also the reason why to this day you can get heavier the a 16,000lb front axle on a Granite but can't order the same on a Pinnacle or Anthem. Up to last year you couls only order up to 14.6 front on Pinnacle. Please post up some proof that the rails are the same. Not just RBM ratings either. Many a customer here in Canada have been upset that they were forced to buy more expensive Granite tractors because the frame ratings and available axles on Pinnacles were to low.

Those big steers are just show. You can get up to s 16f axle on an Anthem.

Hard start is only one symptom of injector cup failure. Some will only fail once hot and under load.

Titans died a quick death in Canada. There was a race to show how much money tou had to buy one. Shortly after most fell to buyers remorse and couldn't sell them quick enough to huge depreciated losses. They were no less reliable then any other MP8 powered Pinnacle. Just more expensive to buy and hard to justify comparing to the competition. Even Canadian salesman knew the price would kill the truck before the first ones hit the dealers. They couldn't even go out and sell it to customers.

No side stacks available with the new bunk. It hangs out over the top of the cab. Even the Rawhide package is on hold. I was told by a project head that the mid-rise may return for 2019 woth new interior upgrades from grey plastic. Some customers want the mid-rise back. Was told due to budget restraints on the Anthem roll out the mid-rise, fuel tank skirt extensions to the rear wheels and interior upgrades had to wait till 2019.

This truck is owned by a gentleman who owns a fleet of Petes and KWs. Don't get to excited about Mack getting into this Paccar fleet. The son of the owner is an apprentice at a Mack dealer and convinced Dad to buy it. They still have Paccar products ordered and on the way. It's only a 14.6 and 46 spec. Mdrive blah blah. Lots of elecectrical issues with that one already. The owner of the fleet drives it.

It's injector cups most likely. Takes less then an hour to confirm in most cases.

Just found out yesterday the grill on an Anthem will only fit an Anthem. The Anthem hood doesn't have a lower fiberglass section below the grill that goes from right fender to left fender like CH,CX etc hoods do. The shell is wide open below the grill. It's the grill and supporting brackets that bridge the gap below the grill between fenders. The newer set forward pinnacles I've seen seem the same as old stuff.

24 volt starters are all over the place here in Ontario (just a couple of doors down from you eh) 24v is quite common for city transit buses. Lots of places in Ontario that would ship out west worst case.

Up to this week, all of the Pinnacles with set forward axle have been coming with the old grill style used since the CH days. Funny thing I have noticed is that the screw pattern for the grill is the same as old grill on the Pinnacle set forward. I will have a look to see if the screw pattern for Anthem is the same. Would be interesting to see what a CH grille would look on an Anthem.

The MP8 and MP7 powered Granites of todayvthat are Allison equipped work together with the converter lock up and engine brakes to really slow the trucks down much better then the Etech engine days. The programed downshifting while braking with engine brakes on is surprisingly powerful. Our current customers are impressed with the setup.

If your e tech is in the early CH/CX rail the 12.7L won't fit from what I recall( to long and wide). It will fit in a set of CL rails as that beautiful 60 series engine was available feom 1993 up until 1995 as an option. Too bad they made the option super expensive and the chassis was already too heavy for 80,000lb gross highway applications.

Most up here are ordering Granites with 445hp and Allison Autos. With dumps that haul small dump trailers behind you will see 18speed Fullers. No one up here orders standard Mack transmissions any more. Most go with heavy Neway air and 46 Meritor rears with 4 way locks. Some order Hendickson HMX all the cement guys order Chalmers. No more Camel back springs or Mack axles here either. Only seen a handful of the M drive 14speeds. Not enough to give a good read on. Allison seems to be doing fine. Most here in Ontario are now running the Simard twin steer front axle.

For fitting a D16/MP10 The CX rails are too narrow and it won't fit in the space between the cab firewall and the radiator. The CX also doesn't have enough space up front to fit a rad that can cool a working MP10. Shit out of luck We use MP7s and MP8s to haul 90,000lbs gross up here. MP8s up to 135,000lbs gross. Thats why very few MP10s ever got sold, not worth the huge price tag as the MP8s are doing the job.

Our newer Allison 4000 and 5000 series on Bus application (2015 and up) have the stack plate type trans coolers under the drive shaft. Plate type coolers always seem to have a higher failure rate. The old standard pressure testing both sides may not show signs of leakage. Your test won't produce heat which is a large cause of plate type cooler failure. It's the only spot your coolant and auto trans fluid mix. Change it and flush both systems real good.

All Renault engines cylinder numberings are backwards. Worked on lots of Mack/Renault products in my day. Pretty reliable trucks.

Had a bunch of Visions even a Rawhide CHN...we were quick to purge anything from 2003 to 2007 thinking They were nothing but problems.... then we bought Pinnacles....they were good for a while but as they got older they started having the same kind of miles between breakdowns the 03-07 trucks did. Just can't win anymore.

Your comments would have more gravity to them if you owned or worked on trucks with newer, more expensive and less reliable technology. I've followed your comments on Hanks for years. I have always found you perceptive and articulate from a certain point of view, but miss the view from many other sides. Holding the bag on costly technology has cut into profits and customer satisfaction for truck owners and shops alike. I've seen lots of tech come and go on trucks in the last 30 years. This HE engine setup will be more expensive to repair on the passenger side of the engine. Anyone who knows these engines is aware of the amount of work that gets done there for both Volvo and Mack on that side. Heat rejection has always been an issue on these engines. With this design, heat will be held longer, have more parts to fail and for a small gain in HP and TQ. These systems were also designed to be mounted on European COE trucks. The entire set up is under the cab and very hard to get at. Both Volvo and Mack had to augment the cab structure and cab mounts to fit it in. Thankfully at our dealer, only one customer has been ordering them on their new VNLs. None on Anthems. There is such a thing as reaching the pinnacle of efficiency and cost effectiveness within a product offering. Our South American friends with brand new Anthems and zero Emission MP engines are much better off in all segments of efficiency and cost effectiveness. Those engines will last longer due to no EGR and far more miles between breakdowns. It's not about advancements for you to read about in Truck news next week.... It's about building a product that manufacturers can be proud of, fleet owners can rely on and people like you can have jobs turning out miles making money for everyone. Rather then being high tech, stuck in the shop for weeks costing the owners their house and livelihood. I have personally seen a small fleet in which 2 of his 2016 trucks are sitting in the back yard of the shop because the customer can't afford the $16k worth of technology advanced repair bills for the 2 rigs. They have been sitting there for 3 months now. None of the repairs are covered by warranty and are after treatment related. Not main powertrain. Turns out unicorn dust and rainbows come off the same assembly line. As an example whats available to the export market versus what we can order here in N.A. Problem is, it's out of reach for people/customers/mechanics like us that want a more reliable product to produce profits for all.

Did you know there were 5 CHs put into the C.F. fleet with factory L10 Cummins engines. They were Mack test trucks and the only CHs to ever be powered with a vendor diesel engine.