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Which Mack models shared the same chassis or platform?


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Someone recently told me that the Mack MH, Superliner and CL all were on the same chassis and that is one reason the E9 V8 fit in all of them. If that is true, I am curious which other Mack models shared the same chassis especially if they were not produced at the same period?

I know the R model and U model shared the same chassis but not with the DM even though they shared cab and hood styles.

As a side note I always thought it was interesting that even the F models shared grill and windshield styles with the R, U and DM models but had come out earlier. Did the F and R share the same chassis too?

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I'm not totally up on it, but I'll take a shot:

R, U, F- Slightly narrower than the standard 34" width, but splayed out in the front. Some F models from the late 70s on had  a deep center section of the frame.

RD, DM, ect.- similar, with thicker, deeper. doubled up frame rails

Mack Western, Superliner I- straight rails with aluminum optional, one piece front crossmember/engine mounts. and axle mounted steering gear.

MR and LR- similar to RD and DM with deep center section on MR and IIRC some LRs had a drop center section

Superliner II, MH, CH, CL early Granite- a development of the R/U/F frame

CH and CX from around 2004- Volvo frame

Granite from around the same time- Volvo frame.

I'm sure I made some errors there, please correct them.

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R and U had the rails the same if we mean R400 and R600.
R700 has higher rail section and different front spring mounting brackets being removed backwards to accomodate longer hood (engine)
 
RD with RB also had higher section and fatter steel than a basic R but the same general frame shape. Same spread and lowering of the section to the front.
 
DM has its own frame style with its special front end (not like a R) and deep center behind the cab for greater capacity.
 
F model had its own frame, not similar to a R or DM.
 
RW2 together with MH and CL (not CH/CX) have their special chassis with "art" siluette of the frond rail ends looking from the side. Easy to figure out what I mean looking at any pic of a RW2 with the hood open. RW2 and MH also utilizes similar front spring mounting brackets, battery boxes together with front air tanks, fuel tank brackets and even the steering gerar setup. The front axles were also similar excepting particular load ratings of the beams and springs. Both had a standard higth of section and thickness (RW600, MH600) and larger numbers for RW700 and MH600 as an option. Aluminium rails could be used but those were bolted to the standard steel front section of the chassis.
 
CL frame looks similar at the front but spring mounts are different because of the set back axle relating to RW/MH.
 
CH is almost another story with straight rails front to back. Probably interchangable with Visions CX up to 2004 when Vovlo frames took the place.
 
RS700 and RS600 Western Valueliners (including Macungie ones as I got figured out) had their special chassis with constant section straight rails front to back. Could be aluminium as an option. Don't know the section higth and distance between the rails but suppose the last was the same as Eastern R's had at their back end.
 
RW1 Hayward together with WS Cruiseliner Western models utilized similar frames. The speciality was split design when the front part of the rails was an independent unit bolted to the pair of straight rails right behind the cab on a WS and below it on RW1. Another especiallity of those models was a steering gear mounted on the front axle beam, not the frame rail.
 
Don't know much about B-models excepting their frames had nothing common with a R and there were different desgns depending on load capacity. Too probably some other models of Macks of those years utilized similar frame style. Can tell H63/67 were different but nothing above it.
 
Edited by Vladislav
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Никогда не бывает слишком много грузовиков! leversole 11.2012

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  • 9 months later...

I am going to be building a 1/24 scale replica of the Mack MH Magnum with E9 V8. Since there were no scale model kits of the MH made I was thinking of using the AMT scale model kit of a Cruiseliner as a donor chassis and mount a resin MH cab kit and resin E9 V8. 

Based on the valuable responses from this topic and also from a model truck forum, someone mentioned that the E9 might not fit the Cruiseliner chassis and suggested that I use a R model chassis as the donor kit. What do you guys think? Did the real Cruiseliner chassis accommodate V8s the size of the E9?

 

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I put an Auslow Models Resin E9  Australian spec 500 h.p. in an AMT Cruiseliner with no issues at all.

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"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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If you're going to build a model of MH you need a frame of MH, RW2 or CL. Neither of them were represented in a model. No 1:24 and no 1:25. And too probably neither model in any scale at all. Cruiseliner frame accomodates E9 and Superliner 1 either and those frames were the same as I mentioned above. R-model rails could get E9 since there were factory V8's of earlier series mounted onto R700 trucks. But neither R600 or R700 chassis had anything in common with a MH about shape. So only way to make a correct model is a custom-built (scratch) frame rails. And they're not simple to reproduce.

There's another option though which would put you into a story of special kind. I suppose (about almost sure) Australian MH's were built on R700 style frames. So in theory you could get AMT R-model (which is 1:25) and put MH cab on it. If you use AIM one those are 1:25 too. But right hand steering and many other Aussie things would be "a must" points.

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Никогда не бывает слишком много грузовиков! leversole 11.2012

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Depends on how much scratch building you want to do. Vlad is spot on as usual. The US spec MH had an entirely new frame which was also used on the Super-liner 2. 

Here's a link to a series of articles on upgrading the old Italeri Superliner including scratch building the correct frame. I'd have thought you could pretty much follow this but using the MH Cab.

 

https://public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/model_magazine_articles/scale_auto_enthousiast/sae_2000-2004/sae_2001_02__februari/saefeb01p1.html

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On 1/6/2019 at 4:15 PM, Vladislav said:

put MH cab on it. If you use AIM one those are 1:25 too. But right hand steering and many other Aussie things would be "a must" points.

Do you mean AITM in New Jersey? They do no do a MH cab only F ,G , H, MB and W coe cabs. KFS and Auslow both did a MH conversion cab in 1/25. Here is the one I bought years ago. This conversion is made for the AMT modified Cruiseliner kit.

I've done a Cruiseliner with the E9 resin engine kit from Auslow and an other Cruiseliner with a 866 V8 and added a charge air cooler and piping with no issues. Also did an E9 conversion the the Italeri Superliner from P&P again with no issues.

Danmodels from Romania is was going to do a full conversion kit of the MH Magnum.   search DANMODELS on E Bay to see his resin kits and conversions. They are awesome.   Paul

resin-mack-truck-kits-2.jpg.3bfbae9556fd9a15abd0a6d423c77a72.jpg

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"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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2 hours ago, Jamaican Bulldog said:

I bought a 1/25 MH from this site in Australia. He does both day cab and sleeper cab MH.

https://www.robbosscalemodel.com/?fbclid=IwAR1nYLp7odRDr9KY7B40bmW7uzzhyAq8s-_wgh5-zHXogLOvx21fBRnnmAc 

 

Looks the same s the one I got from Auslowe in Australia.  Nice.

"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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2 hours ago, Jamaican Bulldog said:

Auslowe doesn't show the MH anymore but they have really cool Mack stuff.

Auslowe is re organizing. The owner was a bit disgusted with people coping his items so some were dropped. Him, the ower of Sourkraut Models, Whitefang Models, Models by Dave and Jerry from Modeltruckn are all members on my truck model site.

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"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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18 hours ago, 41chevy said:

Auslowe is re organizing. The owner was a bit disgusted with people coping his items so some were dropped. Him, the ower of Sourkraut Models, Whitefang Models, Models by Dave and Jerry from Modeltruckn are all members on my truck model site.

What is your model site?

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2 hours ago, Jamaican Bulldog said:

What is your model site?

http://rustycab.proboards.com/

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"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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He is only selling plastic kits now.

"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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  • 4 years later...

Hello everyone! I plan on making a scale model for my son of MH Ultra-liner and got info about the size from an old magazine, but have problems making the frame of the truck. Unfortunately I do not have access to MH to make the checks personally, so I am asking here in this Mack dedicated forum.

Here in this topic Vladislav shares that I will be needing MH, RW2 or CL frame. I got some schematics on the MH frame, but need to clarify two things:
1. Is the front part of the frame wider compared to the back part (like the modern Volvo trucks) - for example the front crossmembers is 1000 mm, but the middle (where the frame starts to become wider) and the back crossmembers are 800 mm? And if yes, does anyone knows the size of the front and the back crossmembers (inches, feet, mm - it does not matter the measurement - I will make the necessary calculations)?
2. Does anyone have more detailed picture about the way the front suspension is put / connected to the frame?

Thank you in advance! 

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Where are you in the EU?

There are a few MH's in The Netherlands and you can usually see them at a Mack day fest. It takes place in authumn though. Or you may travel to my place if such a trip is comfortable for you nowadays:)

MH/RW2/CL chassis is wider at the front. I'm not ready to tell the exact figure, it needs to be measured. Or you can relate it to a truck width by distance between the bumper bolts. You need a good pic of a truck with a bumper removed. Frame rails keep constant distance of 862 mm (measured at the outer sides) over them from the rear end up to nearly the rear point of the tranny. Than further up front they get to the outer sides making the frame wider. Speaking the higth and thickness of the rails there were 2 options. RW600 and standard MH600 had 238-239 mm high boss with 84 mm flanges bent of 6.35 mm (1/4") steel sheet. Factory specs indicate 0.24" (6mm) thickness (meaning it was a metric frame). But actual measurements of my two MH's showed 6.35 not 6.00. One of the trucks was made in (late) 1984 and the 2nd is 1991. The 2nd option was a heavier frame of 274mm high channel with 86 mm flanges 10 mm thick (9.6mm I guess being 3/8") That was a standart chassis for RW700 and optional for MH600. As I understand MH700 has never took place along models offered by Mack.

I have many detailed pics of MH/RW chassis. You may PM me for sending some of your way. Recently we discussed that same subject in another thread, you can see a few pics there too  

Vlad

 

Никогда не бывает слишком много грузовиков! leversole 11.2012

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