Newbie from Australia

[Ryan Waldram]

Hi there, my name's Ryan and i'm coming here from the 'dark side' of Trucks. I'm a Recovery Mechanic in the Australian Army and my daily drive (well, when at work anyway) is a 1985 Mack RM6866RS. There were 64 of these trucks 'withdrawn' from service in the early 2000's and re-built into their current form as Heavy Recovery Vehicles (HRV's) before being re-introduced into service in 2005.

The wrecker's tare weight is 19t with a combination weight (GCM) of 125t, has a 10 speed Eaton Fuller transmission behind a Maxidyne E6-320. It run's two 13t winches and an hydraulic overlift system as well as having a Palfinger 5.7t crane mounted behind the crew cab.

My reasons for coming here to this forum are actually slightly different though. I am currently building a 1:24 scale replica of this wrecker that is planned to be the master pattern for a limited number (50-100) model kit's and am currently using any and all means possible of sourcing available resources for the build.

[cgallamore]

I think it's under odds and ends, a guy is working on a superliner model.

As for the rest of us blokes, would enjoy more pictures????

[Timothy Maikshilo]

Great looking truck, good luck with your build.

[slpwlker]

Welcome to the jungle. Nice looking ride

[B613T owner]

Welcome at Big mack trucks! hope it works out with building a 1-24 scale model of the Mack. (i might be interested in a kit )

The real truck is a nice machine!!

[Ryan Waldram]

Thanks for the welcomes and comments guys,

Here's another couple of photos of the HRV

this was on my 'basic course'

The 'rear end' of a 40t combination. The water tanker was 3/4 full and the trailer it was towing weighed was too (casualty combination of 28t). This was my first attempt at a combination recovery, towed it like this for 135km (into Mt ISA from the NT side)

Using the crane to change an ASLAV pack (engine) out field

Here's a photo of the first version of the model i started doing in 1:25

This one has since been abandoned in favour of a 1:24 version that is getting a lot of attention & detail

Here's the inside of the cab so far...

[Timothy Maikshilo]

Very nice,

I really like the crane set up and do you fabricate the model parts from scratch?

[Lmackattack]

I think the steering wheel is on the wrong side??? LOL!!!! Nice rig there. Looks like it can do what it was built for! Whats the cap on the roof top? is that for added head room and storage? The R cabs are small for todays standards and I have never seen a roof like that before!?

[Ryan Waldram]

Very nice,

I really like the crane set up and do you fabricate the model parts from scratch?

The Palfinger on this truck is the bigger brother to the one we've had on our Medium Recovery Vehicle (MRV), a 6x6 Mercedes Unimog, since the late 90's. It's a brilliant peice of kit in itself with the option to use the vehicle/crane mounted levers, use a remote with 30mtr extention, or wireless upto 50mtr away. The Yellow part's (ie: the cab itself) on the second version of the model was from the Italeri Superliner kit, unfortunately a highly inaccurate kit even if it was extensively modified to represent a Mack it'd still have issues (i'm not a fan of Italeri kit's on any level). The RM series i'm building however, required extensive modifications to the cab shell and almost nothing else was even close to being right, so yeah, i've done pretty much everything there myself either completely from scratch or extensively modifying the Kit parts or resin parts from other compaines.

I think the steering wheel is on the wrong side??? LOL!!!! Nice rig there. Looks like it can do what it was built for! Whats the cap on the roof top? is that for added head room and storage? The R cabs are small for todays standards and I have never seen a roof like that before!?

The high roof serves a number of purposes, the inside of the cabin does have slightly more head room now, but it also houses the A/C unit and the top of it is firm & flat and is covered with a non-slip coating to enable us to stand on it to guide vehicles onto the trailer etc.

[Timothy Maikshilo]

Dose anyone in your area operate any V 8 Macks?

[Ryan Waldram]

I believe there are a number of operator's that do, i know there's a 'civi' company not far from the base i work on that has a number of late model Mack wreckers and a few others that do heavy haulage. I can't really say for certain as i'm pretty limited with what i have access to and & experience in as i'm pretty much only used to being around the military side of things.

[Vladislav]

Hello Ryan,

What ready parts do you use for?

Italery Superliner yellow cab has seen, but what the steering wheel/column and other gray parts are from?

I'm not understood did you make correction of false-formed rear wall of the Ital's cab? It is too wide near the bottom.

Are Australian air filters from English man or some lockal producent?

Too interesting to have the kit in the future, especially of good quality.

[Ryan Waldram]

Hello Ryan,

What ready parts do you use for?

Italery Superliner yellow cab has seen, but what the steering wheel/column and other gray parts are from?

I'm not understood did you make correction of false-formed rear wall of the Ital's cab? It is too wide near the bottom.

Are Australian air filters from English man or some lockal producent?

Too interesting to have the kit in the future, especially of good quality.

The grey part's are the part's i'm happy with and as such have primed (hence the grey). The steering collumn & wheel are slightly modified parts from the Superliner, the heaterbox is actually from AMT's 1:25 R series Mack, the rest are scratchbuilt. The rear wall was modified as you've noticed, it is now the correct shape & size for our truck's. The airfilters i'm going to be using are modified item's from Auslowe here in Australia (i can use the intakes & tube's without change, supports will be scratchbuilt (the kit's will be PE), the filter housing's will be modified, the plumbing & mounting brackets will be entirely scratchbuilt)