WattsMack

Con-way Freight announced a major re-engineering of its operating network that will cut the size of the network by 40 locations.View the full article

The new chairman of the American Trucking Associations will deliver the opening keynote address at the International Summit on Ag and Food Transportation Dec. 2 in Washington, D.C.View the full article

The Work Truck Show 2009 is being held in conjunction with the 45th Annual NTEA Convention March 4-6, 2009, at the McCormick Place West Building in Chicago.View the full article

Accuride Corp, Evansville, Ind., is drawing approximately $95 million under its $125 million revolving credit facility under its Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement.View the full article

It's been an exciting weekend around here -i've raked leaves, flattened some cans and bagged them-not all Anheuser-Busch products by the way, I think I saw a Pepsi can in there-and cut some grass, piled leaves in the garden and ran the tiller through it, and made a squirrel feeder. The apples, pears, and peaches are gone and I wouldn't want them to go hungry. Besides, if work doesn't pick up I might eat the squirrels. I went to Fremont last Sunday and after I got unloaded Monday morning I went to Brookfield and picked up a Roanoke load and unloaded in Roanoke Monday night. Then I was off Tuesday, no loads . Went to Richmond Wednesday morning and loaded some structural steel going to Columbia, S.C. Unloaded there Thursday morning, then went over to Nucor steel in Darlington and picked up some flatbar and channel going to Madison Heights, Va. After I got that off Friday morning, I went to the shop...then I went home-no loads. My computer still only works half a$$ too -hey, kinda like me! Everything that worked off a usb port seemed to be malfunctioning, first the webcam, then the scanner/printer. I was afraid to try my digital camera because I figured it would fail to operate properly too, but it did work, and I took a few new pictures to illustrate the exciting events described in this blog entry I had the truck here last week, and told otherdog to keep an eye on it...the second picture is 9 hours later and he hadn't moved-still keeping an eye on it! He's a good dog. There's an armadillo by the bush, but he paid no attention to it because I just told him to watch the truck. I cooked a "chicken on a can" Friday. I usually use the old wood/charcoal powered gas stove behind the shed, but I decided to try the anti-freeze grill this time. The oven is much better, and faster, probably because of the insulation around the oven. It makes a delicious chicken though, just coat a whole chicken with "the rub", drink part of a can of of beer, put more rub in the beer left in the can, stick the chicken on the can and put it on the grill, or the smoker oven 'til it's done. Too bad the leaves don't just blow next door! They have none, I have many. This is my squirrel feeder, loaded with corn. Stolen from the cornfield by the road at that bridge job in N.C. I posted pictures of a while back by the way. The spot where there's no leaves is where the pickup was parked. Otherdog-the beagle that is. Attached thumbnail(s) // // // // // // View the full blog entry

Arkansas-based carrier Maverick Transportation recently honored three of its professional drivers; Dale Dunn of Batesville, Ark., Billy Daniels of McCrory, Ark., and Warren Scott of Knoxville, Tenn., for achieving 2 million miles of safe driving.View the full article

Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems is honoring achievement in its Premier Distributor Program, a channel partner program that rewards distributors.View the full article

C&D Technologies, Blue Bell, Penn., announced that it has signed a manufacturing contract with Firefly Energy, the Peoria, Ill.-based battery technology company and developer of lead-acid battery technologies.View the full article

Penske Truck Leasing announced the opening of its new full-service truck leasing and contract maintenance services facility in Faribault, Minn.View the full article

Daimler Trucks North America recently presented Phillips Industries with its 2007 Masters of Quality Award.View the full article

NationaLease, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., announced the 2008 recipients of its Rising Star Awards and Leading Initiative Awards at its annual meeting held recently in Boston.View the full article

An independent panel evaluating the controversial cross-border trucking demonstration program says while there were no crashes involving Mexican carriers in the project and out of service rates were low, there were not enough participants for a meaningful comparison.View the full article

Part 2 begins where Part 1 left off: vouching that Mack Trucks are the best and always will be (sorry for pinching part of the Was. Is. Always will be slogan)! If it wasn't for my chance meeting with the driver of said CHR688RST, I would be a bit boring, still to this day! My choice of the R-600 "Flintstone" was one which was easy to do, trying to find one has been hard..... until now! I only found out about the tow truck through a friend of my brother's who was working at the same place where my friends (who own the truck now) have their holding yard. They brought it as a repossesed vehicle for A$12,000 and were going to put it to work but, due to the age of the gear on the back, they can't use it as a tow truck because of Workcover NSW regulations.... ahhh well, all good plans come unstuck! I was offered a pretty neat little R-600 "Flintstone" single drive with a 6-71 Detroit Diesel 2 stroke engine and a 13 speed RR as well - still might buy that one as a parts truck for the tow-truck! All in all, I have decided the tow truck was a better proposition due to it being completely original, with no rust or anything in it at all! The single drive truck had some rust which would have to be fixed, some parts for the engine are becoming hard to get (bushes for the blower shafts, etc.) and lever parts for the RR gearbox as well! If I had my choice of truck to do up again, I wouldn't hesitate in saying that Macks are the best to do up! View the full blog entry

It all started when I saw a 1994 Mack CHR688RST ValueLiner - I knew I'd end up getting my ass bitten by the Mack bug.... did it ever! It more than bit me ass, it latched on and refused to let go! I got to go for a drive in said CHR688RST after the driver had delivered a bulldozer to my place. I wanted to go down and open the gate to allow old mate in said truck to head back to town after doing so! She was a 1994 CHR688RST ValueLiner with the EA7-375 V-MAC 6 cylinder turbo diesel engine and a 13 speed RoadRanger, Meritor (or Rockwell as it was known back then) RT46-160 diffs and Hendrickson HAS400/461 airbag suspension. Man that first trip was the BEST thing for a 16 year old to ever experience! Since then, I've travelled in a Scania R113M and a International T2670 8x4 (three times for said International!) - the Scania was a comfortable truck as it had the airbag suspension on the cab! But that first experience is what I'm here to talk about! Somehow, when something bites ya on ya ass, it shouldn't bite too hard, or should it??? I'll leave that one up to you, the readers, to decide for yourselves! Mack trucks are the best bar none... I can vouch for that! Most fleets in the city where I live own at least one.... or a whole fleet of them! Signing off for this first blog entry! Part 2 coming soon......... View the full blog entry

I unloaded at Carter Lumber in Fairview, Pa. Monday morning and when I left there headed for Brookfield, Oh. it was snowing pretty hard. First snow i've seen this year. I ran out of it before I got too far though, and loaded coils and went on to Roanoke. Ran into more snow in West Virginia. Unloaded Monday night and came home, where I stayed Tuesday. Got a 55' load of piling Wednesday going to Columbus that had to be there at 6am Thursday morning. So I got there Wednesday night, and they jumped right on it and started unloading me at 11am the next morning . Only problem was I had to be in Sharon, Pa. by 2:30 to pick up an N.B.Handy load coming to Lynchburg. Headquarters called them and told them I was running a little late and they said if I got there by 3:00 they would load me. It's hard to make any time in Ohio, especially when there was a cop or DOT man in every crossover on I-71. I usually don't run but about 57 or 58 in Ohio, but I dropped the hammer and set my cruise control about 62mph. Signed in at Sharon Coating at 2:57. Unloaded at Handy yesterday morning, stopped by the shop to fuel and turn paperwork in, then went to Dillwyn and picked up a Fremont load for Monday. The extra day off threw my schedule off, or i'd be on the way to Greensboro to the ATHS show now. I wish now i'd waited 'til Friday to put 2 front tires on the pickup. The inspection expired Friday night, so Jo took it over here to this little garage on 699 to get it inspected. They said it needed a left front tire, so she called me, and I told her to just take it up to the tire place- the one on Ward's Road, by the Sheetz, where we get all the truck tires- and get two tires put on it. So she did, and they inspected it again. She called me back and said the bill came to $293. I said we only needed 2 tires (one,actually) not all 4. She said that is for 2 tires, and the inspection. They put a bulb in the license plate light and charged $7.00 to put a 10 cent bulb in, inspection was $16, the tires were $110 each,plus mounting and balancing.I called the tire shop and asked them if they put gold or silver tires on it, that was about twice what I was expecting to pay. They said "well, that's a good tire, it's a 60,000 mile tire" . It oughta be a good tire for that kind of money, but they should've called me and asked before just slapping the 2 highest priced tires they had in the store on it. Last time I go there. I could have beat that price, and gone where mounting and balancing is free when you buy new tires Now I gotta go to CVS and get a roll of film developed, make some more hot sauce, and smoke a pork loin Was gonna scan a few pictures...now the #$@ *&!! scanner won't work either! Stupid #*^@ing computers! Well, anyhow...my pork loin's almost done, and i'm running off another batch of hot sauce-that makes it a little better View the full blog entry

Those of you who have seen the pictures of my 1966 R-600 know that the rocker panels and the rear cab corners are shot. Not too unusual with this cab style. The rest of the truck is pretty nice. I have brand new inner and outer rocker panels from Mack by way of Kevin All for the truck. But the cab corners have eluded me. And all of the parts trucks I have looked at have a little ridge in the cab corner that is not in the early trucks. So I needed a fix. And - low and behold, two fixes fell in my lap. I found a parts man at our local dealer who was willing to actually spend some time with the old books and microfiche, and found out that Mack still shows new sheet metal parts, including cab corners, for the early R cabs in stock. Then - to cap it all off - Kevin Heidrich found a parts R model in Texas that he wants the engine and transmission out of. I agreed to buy the adjustable fifth wheel, and he is going to cut the corners out of the cab and send them along on the pallet. How nice is that? Gotta love this truck stuff. BTW: Freight from Dallas, Tx. area to Rochester, NY area from Yellow Freight for one non-haz pallet of about 400# was just over $340.00. Not bad at all. You can't ride your bicycle from Dallas to Rochester for 340 dollars. Let's not forget about the common carriers for bringing home our parts. View the full blog entry

I went to LaCrosse and unloaded Monday morning and when I called in empty Todd said to go home and pick up a van load Tuesday evening in Lynchburg at 4:00pm going to Port St. Lucie, FL. So I did, except they called Tuesday evening and said it would be ready at 6:00 instead of 4:00. Had to be in Florida with it Thursday morning, so I had plenty of time to get there. I dropped the trailer at a power plant Thursday morning, and bobtailed all the way back. Good paying load too. Now i've got a load of treated lumber at the shop going to Fairview or Fairfield, Pa. Jeff said it was near Erie, and it was Fair-something or other...went in one ear and out the other. This computer has about driven me crazy since nocluejoe broke my webcam . I tried to uninstall and reinstall it, but it still wouldn't work...tried a different usb port-nothing. So I figured it must be the camera itself and bought another one, but it still wouldn't work. Re-uninstalled it and tried downloading the latest updated driver direct from Logitech-nothing. What gets me is the little icon at the bottom of the monitor says "your device is ready to use" but QuickCam says ""your camera is not plugged in, or is not working properly" . Well, duh! It's connected to a usb port, and obviously the %$&* thing ain't working properly ! I fooled with it half a day, control panel, device manager, programs and features, windows trouble shooting- i've been to 'em all...but it still wouldn't work ...wonder if Barry knows anything about computers? View the full blog entry

The new shop is finally ready for use. Just got in this morning and finished up some heavy duty pallet racks for my parts. Now we can unload the two flatbeds that are backed in the shop, and get a little organized. Should be fun getting the old B-67 set up for reassembly. Might change up my thinking a little - I had been thinking that the B-67 would be my restored driver with the mods to make it a little more useable, like the air suspension, Jake brake and Maxi brakes. Now I'm seeing that this probably isn't the truck for regular use. Just too uncomfortable inside. So - I'm finishing it as a very original truck, with all the new stuff like wiring, springs, air lines, plumbing etc., but no modifications except Maxi cans for safety. Even the bias ply rubber stays, unless I can reasonably buy radial tube-type tires for the original Dayton wheels. I'm going to put the mods on my R-600 because it is more comfortable, and it runs like a watch. Plus, if needed, one of my higher power Mack diesels will fit in it. Not so in the B-67. At least not with an engine brake that requires valve cover spacers. We moved the Dolomite AC Mack into its' place in the shop this week. Nice to have something finished inside. Changes your attitude about working on what seem like endless projects! View the full blog entry

I picked everything that was left in the garden yesterday, lots of peppers and a few green tomatoes. They said it might frost last night, and it's 30 degrees here this morning. Old Bill, the Diesel Gypsy, sent me a picture of a jack-o-lantern, and Jobyna had to have one just like it. I must be off to LaCrosse now. Attached thumbnail(s) // // View the full blog entry

So, where was I? Oh, last week I went to Petersburg to load a 60' load going to Masury,Oh, but just as I was pulling off the scales I got a call from headquarters telling me not to load it because they didn't want it in Masury until the end of the week. I ended up taking a load to Piedmont,S.C. instead, then loaded a load of 60' re-bar in Darlington for Fredericksburg,Va. Had a flat on the way back with that load, had to call road service to bring me a steer tire. Then I went to Petersburg and loaded a 60' load for Masury,Oh. All on my 48' trailer. I like my trailer.Not as good as the old Ravens I used to pull though- cain't beat a Ravens. Everybody hates going to Masury, because you have to tarp the steel beams that are stored outside, and everyone who works there is an a-hole, from the people in the office to the guys on the floor. Just hateful for no apparent reason. But I survived and loaded at Brookfield for Roanoke. I unloaded there Monday and then went to Dillwyn and loaded for Fremont, Oh. Haven't been there for a long time, it's one of my favorite runs. Then I went back to Masury and loaded coils for Roanoke. Then to Petersburg and Wilmington,N.C. Then empty back to Lynchburg and picked up a Duluth,Ga. From there I went to Birmingham and picked up skidded coils ( good thing-I left my coil racks in the tool box on my trailer in Lynchburg) to unload in LaCrosse, Va. Monday. I ran over 3,000 miles from Monday 'til Friday. Then I made some of the best chili ever today, even cooked some pasketti noodles and served it Cincinnati style-very delicious. And of course I took a roll of film to Wal-Mart, only to find they don't do 1 hour phtos any more! Had to go to CVS, but I got 'em. A nice looking Argosy Freightliner from Canada,loading in Petersburg. Colorful leaves in West Virginia Colorful leaves in West Virginia Coloful leaves in West Virginia wtf?!! looks like the truck ain't setting level... oh...tire's flat-time to get my air hose out-maybe I can pump it up Jeff's other truck, W900 Kenworth, on the scales in Petersbug ...uh...thumbnail's too small for me to identify it yet,must it must be something important-ok,a neat looking old building in downtown Gormania,W.V. Rt. 220 in W.V.- Used to have to keep straight here and cross this old iron bridge either the first snow of the year, or a cotton field in South Carolina-can't remember which Superliner Mack Superliner Mack Attached thumbnail(s) // // // // // // // // // // // // View the full blog entry

HEY IT'S JMK MY GRAND FATHER HAD A TRIUCKING BUISNES AND HE HAD A BUNCH OF H AND F MODEL MACKS IN THE 1950/1960 AND ALSO HAD SOME CABOVER FRIEGHT LINERS.PICTURES AND STORIES ARE COMING SOON. [/size] View the full blog entry

I'm home today so I could go to my brother's wedding. I'm still loaded for Roanoke, but I could have gotten somebody else to deliver the load tomorrow while I took a van load to Georgia tonight. And we had some really good paying loads of 55' piling going to Chicago, to deliver at 3:00 Monday evening. But I had to go to the wedding-Ma wanted me to take pictures. Only thing is, I found out when I talked to her last night that the wedding's not 'til NEXT weekend. D'oh!!! View the full blog entry

"Mack Days" at Gerhart's Machinery in Lititz, PA Friday, Oct. 3th to Sunday, Oct. 5th, 2008 Ranged Event From: 10/3/2008 To: 10/5/2008 View the Original BMT Calendar Entry

ITS THE DIESEL DRAGS. ONE OF THE ONLY SPOT WHERE U CANT CALL A GUY A BUTT HEAD FOR SHIFTIN LIKE MARIO ANDRETTI!! LOL. ITS AT RACE WAY PARK IN ENGLISHTOWN NJ. ALLL DAY LONG Single Day Event On: 9/13/2008 View the Original BMT Calendar Entry

Watt's Mack Sales, Inc. 60th Anniversary Open House and Truck Show! Sept. 12-13th. 2008 Route 22 and Route 119 South New Alexandria, PA Antique Trucks, New Trucks, Industry Vendors, food & fun for everyone! All trucks welcome...free registration, free admission! More details to follow! Call to register your truck...1-888-304-6225 www.wattsmack.com Ranged Event From: 9/12/2008 To: 9/13/2008 View the Original BMT Calendar Entry