Terry T

My opinion is that a Cat is useful as a boat anchor and little more. Keep it Mack. T.

Dustin, Right at the moment ebay and other online classifieds are flooded with Mack MR tractors, both single and tandem axle tractors. These are former US Post Office tractors with a lighter steer axle and on air ride rears (I believe they are on air ride). Typically an MR is a vocational use truck mostly used in refuse or as a platform for concrete pumpers requiring much heavier spec suspensions (typically on camel-back) there-by setting higher than the USPS tractors. I have an interesting pic of my old Ford LTL9000 wrecker with a twin steer MR cab and chassis on the back. I was towing from Advance Mixer (now Terex Advance) to the Mack dealership to have the air ride removed and camelback installed. Apparently someone decided that you can put a concrete pumper on air ride, Advance said ahhhh..... NO! So I towed it to the dealership to switch the suspension and towed it back as the drive line had already been removed and cut to be reinstalled with the bed. For your application an MR tractor would work out real nice and will get you in and out of tight quarters with minimal effort. Terry

CH's were almost never orginally spec'd as dumps so yours most likely has been converted to a dump. Best thing to do is take the VIN to your nearest Mack dealer and they can pull up the info on their computer and tell you what it was orginally spec'd with. Typically in the Midwest/Great Lakes area a CH613 road truck will be bought, the sleeper removed and converted to daycab and the frame may or may not be stretched to accomodate the dump bed. Chances are you have a 12K front and 38K rears.

Chris, My former employer has hired several of their mechanics out of Northwestern T

Thad, The only real way to make a small fortune in the trucking business is to start with a LARGE fortune. To ask people all around the country and the world is not the best way to go about it. This is also a bad time of year to try to speak to the owner of a dump truck outfit as it is the busy season. Now the way to get a feel for vocation work is to find the owner of a small operation who will sit down with you and tell you about it. The best way to do it is to be born into the business, but it doesn't sound like this is your back ground. Find the right owner or supervisor or small fleet owner who you "click" with and you have a way to get your feet wet. If you have the means to buy a truck, insurance, fuel, maintainance you are ahead of the game too, but there is little chance anyone will put you on without experiance. As in anything new, "baby steps" is the best way, maybe the right guy needs a "gopher" around the shop, and as the relationship grows, so does your income and your ability. I am kinda rambling, but I think you need to work on this closer to home. I mostly learned the wrecker business on my own, but I had my bro-in-law and his brothers as my back up most of the time and my relationship with many other towers grew as well. You can do what ever you want if you put your mind (and your back) to it. Make the right friends and you can go a long way, but don't rush, live and learn. T.

Chris, At age 13 I went to work washing trucks, learned to "lot" drive at 14 (tough learning to drive a car after two years of big trucks, the cars were all missing one pedal!). At 16 went into the office as a billing clerk, and went on thru all of the office positions up to and including operations manager. during same time also drove locally when needed (which was often). Got out of the office and went OTR at 25 for a while, then back into operations, and back to OTR, and back to Ops, then into sales, then bought a heavy duty towing operation, then got out of towing (full time, still do it part time for a few friends) and I am currently running local T/L. It's nice to be home every night, no weekends, and not married to my phone anymore. I can still remember being 14 or 15 ('bout 100 lbs) trying to dismount and remount truck tires (both tube and tubeless)! Man what a lot of work. T.

Chris, We had one R S/A with the 2 stick 6 speed, the remainder of the S/A's were 5 speeds and our tandem R's had the Mack 10 speed (Superdog could tell you the model #) that you split each of the 5 forward gears (like a super 10), and could select reverse giving you 5 reverse gears. I have seen many R models with Fuller 10 speeds as well. T.

If anyone ever runs across one of those "high-rise" units that is usable I would really like to hear about it. I would like to put one on my '70 F Model. T.

Barry, Along the lines of not taking things seriously, I was looking thru my photo albums on BMT and I noticed that in my B model album of the approx 7 pictures all but one have been looked at between 50 or so to 150 or so times. The other one has been viewed over 200 times! It is the one that I labeled "Topless"! T.

I don't know quite as much about the history of my F model as I do my B model. I do know that it was built for Geiger Brothers Inc of Pandora, OH and "Placed" by Lima (OH) Mack Sales on 12/11/1969. It is an F795LST originally built with an END865 and a 5 speed. The second owner, Dan Rodiger swapped in an ENDT711 and tri-plex. I have know Dan for a number of years as he use to have a large fleet of R models that he ran (still runs a few trucks today) out of his home on US 33 just east of Wapakoneta, OH. Dan sold this truck to another party who had yet another person backing him. Unfortunately for these two their deal went sour. It was after this point that I discovered my F quite by chance. I was called to hook a KW from the Ft Wayne truck plaza and tow it to a shop near St. Joe, IN. After dropping the KW I made small talk with the shop owner and eventually got around to the old Mack setting in the corner under a trailer. I said some day after my B and after I do an R, I would like to restore or have an F model. He said "there's your F Model", I said yea, like that one, he said no, "that is your F, take it, get it out of here, but you have to take this Marmon over here too!". I hooked the F, and brought it home. I went back, got the Marmon and scraped it (nothing more than a busted up shell with engine parts scattered throughout). Any time I want to start the F all I have to do is put the battery charger on it for about 45 minutes and she will take off on less than a full revalution. Currently it is setting on the back burner waiting for me to get the B done, but it does run very well, just doesn't stop so good as only the brakes on one wheel work.

My B model was built for the E.W. Bohren Company of Woodburn, IN in September of 1964. I was born into the trucking business in September of 1965. In 1970 my dad's friends helped us move from Ft Wayne, IN to Findlay, OH. The thing I remember most about that move was the B Model Mack that Don Parrish Jr. provided (as well as his muscle!) and the single axle trailer. Dad was being transfered by CW Transport to become TM of a new terminal that wasn't even built yet and the Ft Wayne TM, Rex Heare, and a dispatcher, Jim Bearman (who is now my father-in-law), also helped with the move. The B used in the move was not the one that I currently own, but Don's father, Senior or "The Old Man" as we all affectionately called him bought the truck in 1972 and numbered it 203. We moved back to Ft Wayne and eventually my dad went to work for Parrish Leasing. My dad and my father-in-law both drove 203 thru the years and in my early teen years 203 was relegated to yard work and taking trailers to the truck wash (because the seals didn't leak and you could stay dry inside as opposed to the much newer IHC 4070's and 4070B's!).I went to work for Parrish when I was 13 and I lot drove it alot as a 14 and 15 year old, using it to bring trailers into the shop and re-arranging the yard. By the time I turned 16 203 along with 200, and 201 both B's (one of which was the one that moved us in '70) had been parked. 202 was an R model that lil bro Gary Parrish crashed & totaled while returning from Ft. Madison, IA with a brand new Fruehauf trailer. eventually all the old B's, R's and IHC's were scraped (very unfortunate, but this was still in the late 1980's, who knew!), except for 203. It just kept setting around, every once in a very great while it got started, but by about 1990 it was "permanently" parked. I kept seeing it set there and set there and finally in March of 2004 I stopped and talked to Don, made him an offer and hooked it up the next day. Unfortunately money has been tight since I first started on it and it is in "pause" mode right now, but I hope to get back to it this fall or winter. It will retain the red, black, and white that Don Sr. believed all real trucks were painted as well as the #203, and I believe that it will get the name 'The Old Man" in memory of Senior. I am going to add a Holmes wrecker bed to it though instead of keeping it as a tractor.

Block, To each his own, but I have seen exhaust systems like you mentioned and personally I think they look worse than a White Trash '70 Nova with the butt end jacked up 10 inches with M50 Dayton Radials sticking 6 inches out the rear wheel wells! The bracket's are still available from Mack, so one might as well do it right. T.

Contact Vomac Truck Sales and Service in New Haven (Ft.Wayne) IN. ask for Dave Sarka or Jeff Mekus. They are the old time Mack guys at the dealership and they had a hand in putting proper duel exhaust on a R model last year during the complete restoration for a good customer. Either one should know exactly what you are talking about, but if not just say it was Boeke's Maroon single axle. Their phone number is 260-749-5061. T.

Well..... Good news and bad news, I have exactly what you need. That's the good news, bad news is I will be putting all of it on my 1970 F795LST. I will keep you in mind, I will be talking to a fella that I know who has a LOT of older Mack parts. He has a little bit of everything, Trannys, rears, engine components, etc. Terry

The '95 CH613 wrecker that I ran had about 15 or so extra lights on the bed and in a 2 1/2 year period we replaced the headlight rocker switch twice. Not sure if it is related to the extra lights drawing thru it or not, but it is a possibility. T.

I am not sure why you would want more than 400 hp for a unit who's primary reason for being built is to set still and move liquid concrete. Schwing and Terex typically spec's their own chassis for such an application and I think that if they felt their product needed more hp they would order it that way. If you are worried about getting from point A to point B faster the minimal hp that you are going to get to the ground after upgrading probably won't be worth the expense. But then again I am 40 now, and I have realized that you can only get from point A to point B as fast as traffic and stoplights will let you.

Joe, Funny you should mention stopping. As the truck sits, it weighs 82,000#. After the mechanic finished working on the truck, he took it out for a test drive. At some point the two lift axles had been raised and he was completely unfamiliar with the operation of the truck (i.e. actual weight) as he approached the road he intended to turn onto at 55 mph he attempted to slow down...... well........ He continued on to the next road then made his turn, he got back and inquired if there was also a write-up on a braking problem. At this point I got a phone call from the service writer. "Terry, do you know that Campbells truck won't stop?" I asked about the position of the lift axles, Greg asked Rodney and came back to me, "up". Well it isn't going to stop then, that thing weights 82,000#. It was at this point that I was asked to come to the shop and take it back out for another test drive checking for a power problem and etc. The truck carries 24,000# on the steer axle alone with the axles up. I wrote an article about the truck that was in Bulldog Magazine a year or two back. Barry, Gotta love Superdog's with 750's too. If it ever goes up for sale, give me a ring. I have my eye on an R with a 70 about 12 miles from me, but I don't know if he will ever sell. Below is the truck I drove before the dealership decided to "make some changes" after I got hurt at work.

Barry, Nice looking project. Joe, Single axles are nice, but I am kinda partial to multi axle hooks as seen here. I have never had the opportunity to operate this truck, but I have driven it and man, what a ride! Belongs to some friends of mine in Ligonier, IN. They are on US 6 just West of town, if you ever happen through the area on a week day, stop in and see Freddy and Dan. Freddy is off this year having surgery on both arms, but Dan will be around. Terry

Mike, I don't think you can place a monetary value on vintage trucks like you can vintage cars. The market is totally different. You have to consider what is valuable to you not to the next person. You will never get back what you put into a truck restoration. You have to do it for you, not value. By rights I should have kept the B61 wrecker that ran and got rid of the B61 tractor that I am restoring, but the tractor had more value to me as I, my dad and my father-in-law all drove the truck while it was part of the fleet. The wrecker only worked the yard, was not plated as long as I can remember. Now, the B67 is "rare" compared to the B61 as there were many more 61's built than 67's. I don't have the numbers handy right now, but Barry or someone like Mike Harbison could tell you off the top of their heads! I do know where there is a B67 cab/chassis for "best offer" about 30 miles from me right now. body is average, "ran when parked" and the frame needs a lot of help. Terry

Funny that this topic would come up today. Just this morning a Mack B61 sign truck caught my eye. It was installing a new sign in a more affluent part of Ft Wayne. First I thought, that is really cool to see an old B working, then I thought, that is really, really cool to see it working here! with all the beamers, and benz' and Caddy's going by it with the drivers on cell's looking over and thinking God only knows what! Neither of mine will work again, they will be registered with Historic Plates. The F might get a chance once in a while, but only if one of the D.O.T. officers that I know request me to use it to clear a semi trailer from an accident scene. I will never offer it, but if it is ordered by an officer that is a different story. Terry

Well I don't own a diesel pick-up but if I did it would be a Duramax. I have driven several wreckers with the various Powerstrokes. You know the ones.... You can't hear yourself think over the rattle of the engine. The Dodge/Cummins combo is awsome, but until this year you couldn't get a true crewcab so you were limited there. The neatest thing I read about the Duramax was from Car and Driver when they had one in a prototype GMC in which they had put the 6.6 in the 88-99 C/K series truck. On an uphill pull it out pulled the 'stroke and cummins but seemed sluggish at the top. Turned out the make-shift air intake was sucking the rain in and the airfilter was completely saturated with water and the air cleaner housing had water standing in it. When I borrowed the one that is in the attached pic I was beyond impressed. ran 70-75mph without a problem, when I discovered I was in a lane about to end, I left a stoplight hit the pedal and actually got the jump on an old IROC-Z to the point that he lifted and let me in (Fuel mileage suffered at this point!). All in all however I got 11 mpg with the truck on and 19 mpg coming home with the mostly empty trailer. Everyone will have their preferance and everyone will have a "horror story" about something, but this is just what I know personally. I also have a friend that works at the only "real" machine shop in town and he has seen everything thru their shop, except Duramax's. Now the next guy might say that a Duramax is little more than a boat anchor, but we all know that real boat anchors are "YELLOW"! T.

My 1st thought was that it would be great, but then rational set in. Farming out? one word there...... Midliner. And actually it would not be a Mack even if it was built in Allentown anymore. By the time it could be ready there would be so much Volvo influence that it might as well have an angled line thru the grille. Now onto the CXT and like. The only people who can afford these are those with more money than sense. Jay Leno said it best in regard to the one he purchased (and I like Jay as a collector and car/truck guy). On a rainy day I hit the brakes and did a 360, but still stopped at the light without going thru the intersection, it was real scary, but kinda cool. Think about the people who are buying these things, driving a 15,999# vehicle that is just daily transportation to them while talking on their cell phones and yelling at the kids in the back seat, etc. Now, restore a '67-72 Chevy/GMC, stretch the doghouse a little, raise the body/bed on a body lift kit, drop in an E6 300 with a 5 speed manual on a custom suspension and one ton front hubs and rearend and you have a way to tow your jonboat down to the river and sound cool while you do it, then when you catch your limit and you head home you can get your foot in it and make a little smoke! T.

White Road "commode"? Air starter, and JIF lock. Sounds like a former Roadway unit or some other freight hauler. Roadway loved those air starters. When I was at Parrish Leasing/Brothers Express and both companies were experiencing growing pains, we aquired various odd trucks and partial fleets to keep everyone going. One kinda odd (too us anyways) was an IHC 4200 Transtar with a 6V DD and an aluminum frame. Another was a S/A IHC S model, model unknown, but it had the IHC "Fleet" design paint scheme, but had been hit front and the hood replaced with the incorrect model S model hood. The hood was more than an inch wider on either side than the cab! An over site as it rolled thru the auction line with the hood tilted forward (suppose the owner was the one who tilted the hood and stayed near?). We had some tandem GMC Brig's talk about sitting on the floor. I think I know where Pete owners buy their seats. We did end up with one "special" truck during a growing period. Parrish bought a Freedom Edition MH which was sold only a few years ago to a company in Lima, OH who is in the process of running it into the ground. Terry

Might take a new cab Barry! By just looking at the pictures, I would say that the truck was already on it's side or most of the way to being on it's side when it impacted the pole and snapped it off. Looks like the steer axle is moved back on the right side as well, probably got caught on a culvert or something on it's way to the pole. I seen the remains of a Ford Aeromax that was behind an oversize load that was too tall for an overpass, knocked off a piece that then came back and cut the cab open at the base of the "a" pillars and just destroyed the cab, the driver was still seatbelted in, and in his seat, but was sitting left of an invisible line from the outside of the left steer tire, to the outside of the left drive tires. Ron had a very severe arm injury, but other than that some bumps and bruises and no memory of the accident except for the ISP and newspaper pictures, was fine. Oh and not a scratch on the hood, but it did take a cab and sleeper. Terry