bbigrig

A little ironic...Sims opened Savage in Utah and later Mack would take them over and build the FDM.

7 hours ago, logtruckman said:

I think you can get a 16k steer axle on a Pinnacle as of last yr

You can now get a 16k fr. On an Anthem...

20 minutes ago, HeavyGunner said:

In all fairness MAck would have to have a product to offer before others could kick them to the curb. Have fear the Anthem will save Mack 😁

I was surprised when Simard built the Dramis on the Granite chassis instead of the heavier Titan. Titan was still available at the time of the test trucks being built. May have come down to chassis price. The Simard group did end up going with heavier chassis builds available from other manufacturers instead of the Granite.

City of Toronto ordered 2 of those team managers.  Never went into service. Sold them to somewhere in the Caribbean. 

Once loaded the trucks had issues stopping and the dept wasn't too happy with them. They were ordered for downtown first response. 

On 6/8/2018 at 9:56 AM, james j neiweem said:

Since the customer pays the bills. I still can't see why you can't order a Mack from the factory without a drive train. What is the big stumbling block. It would move right on down the line with the frame resting on dollies. No disruption in my way of thinking. Has anyone ever tried it.

I've thought about why they dont build a glider. One reason could be that because they build their own engines, trans, axles and emissions systems.

I could see A lot of customers rebuilding their current trucks with less emissions on them to save money and not have to worry about the next step of emissions on the newest models. 

Selling a customer a glider with no powertrain or emission system would seriously cut into Volvos potential profit margins. 

You could get the Titan from factory with planateries here when they still built the Titan. Some of the last for the Canadian Military had tri drive planetary rears. I'm not sure if those rears are optional on the granite chassis.

The Dramis Granite....

It has been replaced by either Kenworths, International or Western Star chassis

They still put Gold Bulldogs on Pedigree all Mack component ordered trucks.

In Canada, Mack rear axles are not as common any more. There were a fair number of issues with 200 series carriers in the 90s and 2000s that made customers turn to Rockwell/Meritor or Eaton for heavy and highway use. The Mack axles are also more expensive on the spec I believe.  Even in the last 10 years, the Mack axles have seen a high failure rate for how few are being ordered here. I see lots of Mack Axles in the States, just not up here so much.

We have had a truck in the truck for almost 4 weeks waiting for a ReMack Mack Diff all because of the special carrier housing required for the torque rod of the M ride suspension. Unlike other carrier housings, the casting is different for the upper torque rod mount.

The heaviest Macks up here hauling logs etc in the most severe conditions use planatery rear ends not available from Macks product line.

They have been trying out Granite Tri Drives for large stick loads in Western Canada. This one has the 14 spd M Drive.

On 6/21/2018 at 2:36 PM, james j neiweem said:

That's the one. Saw a dump set up on U tube like that. Would make a nice heavy haul tractor if  Volvo allowed Mack to have a big six or V8.

The Dump set up on you tube you may have seen was a deal between Mack and Simard to make large tonnage haul trucks in a smaller package....i think they were called Dramis...the first trucks built were on Granit chassis but Simard decided to go with Kenworth and Western Stat as the Chassis supplier.

The truck could haul 55 metric tonne if I remember correctly. 

Had an MP8 engine with Allison trans.

Nothing really Super about it. It would be best of they had a cooler model designation then just a Granite though.

 Fairly common up here. Most for the Canadian market are ordered and built as single steer with factory tridem drive and have the second steer strapped to the frame for delivery up to Simard suspension in Quebec. Trucks ordered south of the "great white north" have the twin steer factory installed at Macungie. Simard I believe holds the patent on the twin steer design and has a deal with Mack/ Simard for the shared installs.

It's a set up commonly ordered for maximum gross hauling ordered by a few cement companies here in Ontario.

The ones I've worked on are MP7 powered with Allison auto trans and tridem drive on air ride. 

Replaced an SCR can on a "Super Granite" last week. For as big a truck as it is with a mixer on its back, that MP7 and Allison go like heck. 

I wonder of a CXN could take an E9?

That Volvo frame may be wide enough.i think the engine compartment would be long enough?

The cooling system may not be a fit if you plan on putting it to work.

I wish the engines would just get simpler to work on and maintain....

I was able to get some pictures of the only MP8HE engine coming down the grooming line at the Macungie plant on Saturday. For those that don't know, this is the engine option where the wasted heat energy from the turbo has a drive coupling back to the timing gears, producing more power and torque to the flywheel.

They had to redesign the cab mounts and shave the RS cab mount plate just to get this thing under the cab.  

I will let time and the marketplace determine if this engine option is a success or not.  I'm not looking forward to having to work on it when the time comes. The Volvo version which I've only seen 2 in use so far, has a little more room to work on.

1 hour ago, Mackpro said:

Back in 2009/2010, I had finally lost all patience in working on the MP engine family and went job hunting. Got at interview at a large local Toyota dealership. They asked me why I wanted to work at Toyota. I said , " Toyota makes a great product that is very reliable and any issues are quickly corrected and it would be great to work for a corporation that truly strives to put the best product out there that they can".  Then the interview guy asked " Why do you want to quit where your at?". I said  " Just write down the opposite of everything I said about Toyota ." He gave me a funny look. 

That's funny....

Ironically, Toyota owns Hino I believe.

They make a very reliable product. They can be a pain in the ass to work on at times but a close friend owns a Hino Service dealer. Very seldom does a valve cover come off. Seem like they will be into the class 8 market this year...should be interesting. Hino Canada has been very responsive to customer issues. They build some of them here in Woodstock Ontario at the Toyota plant.

We had a beauty a few months ago.

Had a Volvo with a D13 drop a valve seat, ordered a "factory" rebuilt head from Volvo slap it back together days later the truck comes back pushing coolant.....replaced cups on reman head...truck hasn't been back...

We now joke that cups need to be done like spark plugs. Cups should be made a routine maintenance item.

One mixer we have in the shop from a large customer that orders Granites annually has an MP7 that has had 2 sets of cups and injectors, usual dpf and SCR issues, has had the double idler and flywheel housing done a few years ago and now needs a reseal on the flywheel plate from the idler job years ago. They have several engines that have had the same batch of issues. Truck isn't even 7 years old. That engine hasn't had the bottom end touched yet but has cost over 30k in engine maintenance. These are 7 month a year trucks up here in useage. Imagine the cost over a fleet of them versus older mixers in the fleet. They love their DMs and RBs for a reason.

On 6/15/2018 at 4:13 PM, Mack Technician said:

I'm always open for correction. Especially since I was a toddler and, as much as I hate to talk about it, was hammering the bottle hard during those years.  

Who is exclusively credited, completely excluding Renault (and Signal Oil) during their 11 year creep into ownership, for design of the E-7?

 

It would stand to reason.......I never hated working on the E7 engine (or E6), maybe the French were excluded from the table? 

 

 

You raise a very good point....Mack Engines started going down hill with E-Tech. They were a joy to work on and operate before 1998.

2 hours ago, fjh said:

They got as far as casting there name in the block anyway!

Now with the exception of the external parts  Volvo is etched into all the internal rubbish!

The Renault name casting is only on the e tech 1998 and newer I believe, not the PIN engine that was developed in the late 80s.  

6 hours ago, Mack Technician said:

Renault bought 10% share in 1979

20% 1982

Almost half (41%) by 1983

Renault sealed the deal 1990 about time of E7 line introduction.

Well aware....so tell me about Renault being involved in the design of the E7PLN. Share ownership doesn't directly involve them in the design of the engine.

As a Mack technician, I'm sure you've seen some subtle differences in their engine designs.

The E7PLN engine is one Renault never used in any of their own production trucks globally.

They used the E9....someone else on here will tell you that another European truck maker was hip deep in that one.

3 hours ago, Mack Technician said:

I think maybe even since the late 70's?

The French were both feet completely in after 1990 so they were on board for PLN and E-Tech, Vmac I, Vmac II, Vmac III.

 

Volvo ate Renault in 2000, squatted in nearest bush and grunted out the Aset AI/AC debacle and then the 2007 MP emissions aftertreatment debacle.     

May want to quote your sources on this one....to my knowledge, the only engine Renault really had a lot of input on was the Etech.

The platform of the E7PLN was basically a Metric beefed up version of an E6. The E7 was in development years before Renault had controling shares of Mack.

Fill me in....

45 minutes ago, kscarbel2 said:

There's no such thing as Bosch/Cummins common rail.

The superb "XPI" high pressure common rail fuel injection system on ISG and ISX engines, and the entire Scania engine range, is design and produced by a joint venture between Cummins and Scania.

The high pressure common rail fuel injection system used on Mercedes-Benz/Detroit Diesel engines is Bosch, and it's quite good.

The medium duty ISB and ISC use Bosch-sourced common rail.

I was referring to the system on the ISB...its a Cummins/Bosch system..

The only real difference common rail design wise between the ISX and the ISB is mostly pump related. 

I know you feel the need to split hairs on here to make your day complete, but i was refering to when comparing ANY of the common rail fuel systems available on ANY Cummins engines, it's far superior on all levels to the Delphi Volvo/ Mack fuel system.

20 hours ago, Mack Technician said:

IMO..... In terms of brilliance, oh yeah, very smart. Using what they had....... to get to where they needed to be........... without breaking the bank to get there.

But......Start taking apart any European design (taking into account E-7 platform is French) and you will know in the first 4 hours of work that "this is European". I spent two weeks in Japan and same mindset. They grow up in a small house, on a tight street that only a cabover truck can turn onto, with 2' sidewalks and learn that longing for personal space is a greedy, anti-social, vice. When they go to engineering college they sleep every night in a capsule bed on top of a fellow student. They drive a sub-compact to class and learn to build O'so small, tight and tiny.

While back I was swapping a German Head for a swallowed intake valve. Got the new head bolts and they were converted from hex head 18MM to a female torx socket. Why? Saved space? Nope.......redesign!?Nope.....New torque spec?.....Nope, Nope and Nope.....Just a nice "tighter" design so the engineer can call mom to bolster her pride. 

E7 platform was French?

Are you referring to the E7PLN or E7 E tech?

Same gasket on Pinnacles and Anthems..lol