Leaderboard

Hello Forum members! I have some updates on the B-Model restoration today. I have new steer tires and rims. My wife did not want me to try and use the old rims, (hazard) so I went to Schierl tire and purchased new rims and tires. I also did not like the stained boards; I painted them white while the tires and rims were being mounted. The brakes are now working! It had a leak that I fixed, turn signals and brake lights are installed and working. It's starting to look like a truck again! Best Regards.....Frank

I’ve always appreciated old semis all the way back to my dad taking me to car shows. I never thought there would be a day that I’d find a unique truck for myself but after some unfortunate events, I stumbled across an old Mack and fell in love with it. I talked with the old man who owned it previously and offered to exchange tractor work on his property for the truck and he agreed. 4 months later and the title is in my hand! From my research and experience working on it so far, it has the END 864(I know it has issues, don’t be a stinker) and a quadruplex transmission. I’ve already done some work inside the cab to make preparations to drive it off the guys property and back to my house 5 miles away. I may be 19, but I’ve worked on engines since I could walk and have found a good connection to this truck already. Good thing I have the land to restore it. To my knowledge, there was 456 of these made, but that could just be a bunch of bull. Anybody have any fun facts a first time Mack owner should know about his truck?

Well guys,Work continues on the Cruiseliner but slower than we'd like.The good news is the guy who owns the farm we are on has told us he will NOT be putting us out of the shed untill shes finnished as he wants to see her done....Apart from some re assembly all mechanical work is done.When we removed the roof trim we discovered a 3in hole that was cut in the roof and then patched.Why it was cut we dont know but the centre rib was cut right through.We rebuilt the rib and patched the hole with fiberglass but it caused a big delay in the work.....Shes back on her wheels and starting to look good...we think so anyway....... Paul

Busy, busy with the B73 this weekend!! Spent Saturday morning cleaning it up from Lititz for an event Sunday. Then Saturday evening my wife and I were in our Tahoe enroute to a family event, when a brake issue left us stranded. Rescued it with the B73. Then out all day Sunday at the “Back the Blue” motorcycle ride and car show, hauling vehicles for the State Police Museum. Another great event and weekend with the truck!!

Haven’t posted in a while.Here’s a update.Just picked up the cab.Mickey Delia did a fantastic job.Thank you.

Oh I forgot the most important picture,, remember where we were!

Well I went. finally met several people from here and had some great conversations!! Met a lot of anonymous people that have read my page here. It was a great time and many amazing trucks showed up.

My lovely wife and I went out to eat in Lynchburg yesterday for our third anniversary. Went to Texas Roadhouse, first time I'd been there in several years, since well before I retired anyway. It has to be good when the only thing I had to complain about was too much food! Most of this is at home in the refrigerator now. I ate the small ribeye and skrimps, and a salad, Zina only had a couple of bites of her prime rib. She had a couple of sips of this margarita, and I finished the rest, along with 2 of those large beers. I hate to waste stuff. And we went to Elba Butcher Shoppe in Altavista Wednesday because they have a lot of gallon size cans of vegetables. We got everything we needed to make our annual stew, except the potatoes, onions, and the meat. We always get that fresh. We're going to make that Nov. 15th, so y'all drop by and get you some if you're in the area. I know Brocky would love to have a bowl of real Brunswick stew. Here's some stew from years past - Looks delicious! And, to keep things truck related in case gear head grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl is out there, a lot of truck drivers have had this stew, and liked it. And here's a big Mack truck-

We got the truck home! 2 tires went flat on the drive home, and we lost all brakes. The foot pedal is rusted stuck and gave out, and the parking brake knob isn’t up to snuff like it should be, but luckily we didn’t make a 755 sized hole in anyone’s house! I’m gonna need to find some tires and some brake equipment for this old truck. Motor runs like it shut off last week, no hesitation on startup what so ever. Does anybody have any questions about this truck? I’m new to Mack’s in general and understand that I struck gold with this clean machine sitting in my driveway, I’d love to share with y’all’s community any important info.

Well, I just got the truck to start today for the first time since 1985! Shifters were both rusted solid but some CRC penetrant free’d em up. I saw two six volt batteries per side so I swapped them out with one 12v per box. Bypass line from the pump to the top of the can filter was roached so had to swap it out. Little bit of ether and rebuilding the solenoid got it started. Whole lotta rat crap and nests under the seats. Realized that’s where the solenoid was by following the smoke cloud. The guy before me parked the truck infront of his barn in 1985 because the insurance back then was too expensive for him. Sadly, he made a custom shag carpet floor mat and left the drivers smoker window open, the floors gone. Good thing they were ment to be removable! Just gotta get some 14 gauge steel and fab up a new floor and some runners for the bottom. Looks like 4 years of metal shop paid off. The bellcranks were rusted solid for the splitter transmission, the hole in the floor was a big help to access them and free them up. Now I just need to get the air horn valve to close (it’s froze open and honks anytime the engines running) and I can start building air pressure. Time to play Mack roulette with air lines😂

I beat you home @mattb73lt, but you beat me at posting! 😎 It was great talking with today. Lots of BMT members around. Chatted with yourself, @Firemack and the Mack brothers. Saw @farmer52’s “Roll Hauler” and @yarnall’s F model. Sam from Scrappy Industries @Superliner92 was there with his Ford. I’m sure there were others that I don’t know or recognize their trucks. A beautiful day and great conversations with old and new friends. Doesn’t get much better than that!

I finally made the pilgrimage to the big Gerhart's All Mack Show in Lititz, PA. Drove down Friday morning, leaving the house at 5AM. Missed most of all the traffic the whole way. But what a show!! So many amazing trucks and vehicles. Met people from here and many others that have read this page. Did a lot of talking and spent a lot more time at the truck than at Macungie, so people could find me. Left for home today just before three and rolled up the driveway just around 7:45 PM and traffic wasn't too bad. Truck ran perfectly, put 571 miles and 11 hours on it for the trip. Quite the adventure!!

I’ll start with a picture of the first time I saw this truck, and is probably good that I start a topic on it so later on I can read it and remember some of the things I have learned about it, and some of the interesting people I have talked to concerning it, and hopefully someone will have some more information on it. It may take me several days to remember and post what I have learned so far. I saw it parked on the side of the road leading to a truck show we were having in Waynesville NC in May 2022 , it wasn’t up where all the trucks were, just setting with no one around it . My Grandson and Me walked down to see it ,, it’s very rare for a LT of any kind to be seen here in the mountains of NC , we stayed till the show was over and never saw anyone, no one knew who brought it but I did look under it and saw it had a V8 Detroit,, so I took a couple pictures and left scratching my head! With no clue who brought it or what the meaning of the odd name “ 10 Tucky “ was all about.

That part is original, the fellow ( Johnny ) I got in from took me inside before I left and gave me some information on the truck, he had a magazine, the information from the Mack Museum with all the information and gave me the name and number of the fellow ( Joe) he had gotten the truck from near Kingsport TN a few years before whom was a family member of the fellow that had it in Alaska , John C “ Tennessee “ Miller . So here is where several questions were answered, I called Joe ,here’s his story of the truck, His Uncle John C Miller had hoboed a train near Newport TN in the 50s and worked his way to California , there he started in the construction business until he started his own, then moved up to Alaska, continuing to build a bigger company in Anchorage, he had a lot of equipment and most of the trucks he brought up there he would change the engines out to 2 cycle Detroit Diesel, because they would start better in the colder climate . He had a top notch shop in Anchorage, and you can tell it by the craftsmanship of the engine swap. He did a lot of road building, and in 1964 he put together a caravan of D7 Cats to take equipment to Prudhoe Bay for Richfield Oil , Joe said he has the missing fingers to prove it from frostbite! They had to go from Fairbanks north in the middle of winter so they could cross the Yukon River when it was frozen, This was not the way the Dalton Hwy runs today, they basically went around the mountains , I have a good article about it from the Anchorage Museum. He said the LTH was used to haul equipment with lowboys to Fairbanks .

I was drinking this, but then one day I just decided that I should switch to Jim Beam. No particular reason.

We got the last truck show of the year in today,, great weather and show in Cherokee NC , good to talk to everyone. Its going to be time to put them away for the winter,, My Grandson and Me have had fun with the LJ this summer, hopefully we can do some next year, we took the LTH along today , it was a all day trip,, Rolling in at Sunset.

Wow, a V12 Detroit powered R model!

I have learned to like my steaks closer to medium than medium well.. A lot more tender!! I Had a friend who like very rare beef.. We were in a group at a fairly fancy restaurant, well on the way of being very tipsy, when the waitress asked how he wanted his steak he said " trim its horns, wipe its a$$, and walk it in" She never batted an eye.. As she was serving us our dinners, the chef walked in with a totally RAW steak on the plate and asked him if he "would like it warmed up?" As the rest of us were laughing our a$$ off his wife was ready to kill him!!!!

Here's a few of my favorites. There was over 300 trucks in the parade, each banner costs $250, and some trucks had 2, 3, and more banners on them. That's a lot of money raised for the American Cancer Society. Over $2 million since they started doing it, this was the 25th. year..

Took the LTH to the Mayberry truck show in Mt Airy NC , Great Weather and it was for a good cause Brenner Children's Hospital. There were a lot of newer trucks and very nice custom trucks ,But the few old Mack’s were still a draw with the crowd. Dawson answered questions for hours about the LTH , surrounded by Peterbilts! Several B Models, 3 Superliners and a R700 with a factory V12 Detroit.

It was 2013 when a buddy and I went up to Lititiz. Roger Gerhart was a Northwest crane and equipment dealer. His family still runs an equipment repair business out of the big shop. Here are a few pictures from then:

That’s a great explanation of the LT Models ! The summer went by and I really didn’t think much more about the truck, I was busy with the LJ , Grandsons baseball and was trucking a lot more than. So October rolled around and we went to the truck show in Cherokee NC I think I took my Dad’s C Model. When I pulled in the LTH was there! A friend of mine said a fellow dropped it off early and left because he had a business about 10 miles away. Well we walked around it all day, he had raised the hood, he had not returned when the show was over, so I left a note in the seat to call me about the truck thinking I would probably never hear from him. About 9pm that Saturday night he called me and said I found your note,, we talked about the truck a bit and I asked him if it was for sale, It belonged to him and his Dad and they had talked about selling it because they didn’t have a good shed for it . I asked him about the price and we agreed on it . I had to haul a big forklift down to the outer banks of NC Sunday and would not be back till Monday evening, he said that was fine. As it turned out my Son was trucking out that way Monday so he stopped and left a deposit with his Dad and actually brought a older bulldozer from him also. So Tuesday afternoon we went back with a Superliner and lowboy and got it and the dozer. This is where I started asking questions and after about a hour I knew some of the history,,, but the interesting part had just begun!

Here’s mine,not for sale,it’s from late 40’s early 50’s.

I found it and took a screenshot,,, I love that look!

Slow trucking day,,, made some progress on the Superliner

It was a good show, I’m glad there were some older trucks in the mix, The Blue R700 belongs to Rick Sowers , he’s in the grading business. I don’t think he uses it , maybe at one point though, it has a drop axle. A machine co bought it new in Marion NC . Yes he also has a Big Horn and the yellow 55 GMC with a Detroit . Here’s a few more pictures, there were about 300 trucks, lots of custom,Pete’s and KWs .

A GMC V12 cabover survivor that actually runs and drives. I heard it only has 12,000 original miles. Jim Rymes out of Florida, formerly of New Hampshire, just bought it on his way to Gerhart's in Massachusetts.

well i'm gonna steal this thread for a minute. My wife is very happy with the progress. 3 more days off to go...

ooooooooooolala

None are my photos but they sold plenty over there Most made in New Zealand Paul

Added these decals to each side of the truck. They seem pretty fitting:)

The AI stuff is getting out of hand.

We're at the Truckers Parade Against Cancer again this year. Just waiting for the parade to start, that's not until 3:30. I have a few more truck pictures that I'll post when I get home, the phone signal isn't that great here.

The Princess is never happy, I cam tell why they invented Bourbon Why do men die younger than women ? They choose to Did you know Off to a wedding next week, another man I failed to save ha ha ha Will done my usual wedding attire and frock up for the event Yes a summer kilt and my town hat and a tie, dunno if you blokes would get the tie, it's covered in semen, given to me by a herd improvement company one year when AI "joining season" was underway on the farm Always gets a laugh Paul

Factory sleeper B61. This one was really well restored, great paint in and out and a lot of attention to detail poured into it.