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The Frank W. Hake (Hake Rigging) Euclid 8x4 prime movers were impressive in ever sense of the word. As of last year, they were at a New Jersey salvage yard. .

One of the largest ordinance transporters of the U.S. military was the Terex 8x4 model 33-11 MX missile transporter produced in 1979. Very little information is available. The engine was rated at 1,000 horsepower.

Speaking of the Kenworth-produced M249 (front unit) and M250 (rear unit), we're talking about the T10 (the gun it carried was designated M65/T131). While it is reported that only 20 of the atomic cannons* were produced, noted military vehicle historian Fred Crismon states that sixty-six of the 85 ton T10 gun carriages were produced in 1952-1953, and many were stationed in West Germany from 1954 to 1961. Each unit was powered by an 895 cu.in. 375 horsepower Continental A0-895-4 horizontal opposed-piston engine coupled to a 3-speed manual transmission with an Allison torque converter. As with the Mack T8 Series, the forward driver controlled both power and brakes. * The cannon could fire both conventional and W9 atomic shells. It had a range of 35 miles with an accuracy of 20 yards. The 280mm cannon was based on the German Krupp K5 railway gun captured by the Allies at the end of WW2. Twenty eight were produced and two nicknamed "Anzio Annie" and "Anzio Express" by Allied troops made quite an impression in January 1944 when they began shelling the Anzio beachhead during Allied invasion of Italy from 20 miles away. The Allies again felt the lethal end of the German 280mm K5 cannon in June 1944 during the invasion of France. A little known fact is the successful firing of a W9 nuclear shell in Nevada in 1953 is credited with bringing an end to the Korean war.

Now that the Euro and EPA emissions standards have arrived (merged) at nearly the same point with the arrival of Euro-6 and EPA2010, Daimler's Wolfgang Bernhard is wisely calling for one global emissions standard. The entire world, less the U.S., uses Euro emissions standards. If the US agrees to join the rest of the world and use Euro-6, this will greatly reduce the development costs of all global diesel engine manufacturers. It costs Cummins billions extra to develop and produce two sets of engines to meet both EPA2010 and Euro emissions requirements, money that could be far better spent on developing next generation engine technologies.

Trailer/Body Builders / October 22, 2013 The health of the trucking industry depends on harmonizing truck emissions standards, refining an open approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing policies that encourage retirement of older trucks, according to Wolfgang Bernhard, the new CEO of the Daimler Truck business. . Speaking at a press event during the American Trucking Associations’ annual management conference in Orlando, Bernhard said an agreement between NAFTA and Western European countries to remove the small differences between one another’s emissions and safety standards “can bring big savings … strengthen our economic competitiveness for both areas substantially and create a standard for the world.” Pointing out that current standards differ only slightly yet involve large costs for separate certification testing, Bernhard said, “We all need to park our regulatory egos in the loading dock, both sides. Standardization could strengthen the economic competiveness for both industrial areas substantially and also sustainably.” Turning to GHG, Bernhard praised the next phase of U.S. emissions standards for offering both total cost of ownership benefits for users through fuel savings while also providing environmental gains. However, he said it was important that future GHG emissions standards now under discussion should not single out engines, but rather they should “recognize the fuel savings of the complete system, the tractor and trailer, not just the engine.” He also argued for open GHG standards “because we don’t know what we will invent in the future and we need standards that will be open to anything that lowers CO2.” With EPA 2010 diesel standard, particulate matter (PM) and NOx emissions have been reduced to near zero levels. Rather than chase the remaining small amounts of PM and NOx coming from new trucks, Bernhard argued that incentives to remove older trucks would be a far more effective way to reduce those emissions. Instead he suggested that overall diesel NOX emissions could be reduced by 60% and PM by 99% by replacing older trucks built prior to EPA ’98 emissions requirements. Those trucks account for 60% of the U.S. truck population, according to Bernhard, “and getting rid of those could really make a big, big difference.” Although there could be a number of ways to encourage the retirement of those older trucks, Bernhard said ATA’s proposal to repeal the federal excise tax (FET) on new trucks and replace the lost revenue with higher fuel taxes “is one way to go about it.” The current FET “punishes guys for doing the right thing” by investing in new trucks with cleaner but more expensive technology, added Martin Daum, president and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America. While he’d prefer to just remove FET on new trucks, Daum acknowledged that would leave a revenue gap for important infrastructure rebuilding, which is also needed. Since the cleanest EPA 10 trucks are also more fuel efficient, replacing FET with offsetting higher fuel taxes “incentivizes cleaner, more efficient trucks instead of the reverse.” Financial aid, especially for smaller businesses, would also be important in any efforts to modernize the U.S. truck fleets, he added.

Bloomberg / October 22, 2013 The largest U.S. trucking association is vowing to reconsider its support for Republicans after last week’s debt-limit standoff in Washington, escalating a feud between industry groups and the small-government Tea Party movement. “If I was your political broker, my advice would be that you sell your Republican shares and buy the Democrats,” Bill Graves, the chief executive officer of the American Trucking Associations, said at the group’s annual convention in Orlando, Florida. Business, he said, must weigh its relationship with Republicans who threaten to “burn the house down” and who take positions that are “foolish, ill-advised, reckless and detrimental” to the U.S. economy. His remarks underscore growing frustration over the difficulty in passing what once were bipartisan bills on such government basics as maintaining the interstate highway system. They echo similar impatience expressed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Retail Federation, and other business leaders after House Republicans on Oct. 16 yielded in a showdown with President Barack Obama over funding the new health-care law that produced a 16-day partial government shutdown. The rift between the business community and the Republican Party could carry political consequences as some industry leaders consider challenging candidates in primaries and others look to shift donations. Political Donations The Arlington, Virginia-based American Trucking Associations’ political action committee contributed $724,500 to federal candidates in the 2012 elections, with 78 percent of that going to Republicans, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. “All of this is about consuming resources in a family fight as opposed to taking the fight to the other guy,” said Dirk Van Dongen, president of the Washington-based National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, in a reference to the intraparty battle. Van Dongen also is a Republican donor. While many of the business leaders share the Tea Party’s dislike for the Affordable Care Act, the tactics employed by lawmakers, including bringing the nation to the brink of a default on its debts, exposed a divide in priorities that’s playing out on other issues important to commerce. A revision of immigration laws to allow for more skilled-worker visas is languishing, while a reauthorization of the Export-Import bank, which provides loans and loan guarantees to foreign firms to buy U.S.-made products, last year was passed at the last minute. Both were caught in the ideological tugs-of-war in Congress over the size and reach of the federal government. Highway Bill For Graves, the fight is over increasing a federal gas tax to finance projects in a highway bill. “Our No. 1 issue is getting a package of infrastructure investment,” he said in an interview. “We know we can’t rely on the general fund to keep saving the Highway Trust Fund. We know how expensive tolls are. We know the answer is a fuels tax. That’s a fairly straightforward conversation to have with a member.” Yet in 2012, the highway bill became so mired in the Republican-controlled House because of its price tag and the tax issue that the chamber couldn’t pass it through the normally united Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. A two-year compromise was hammered out, without a tax increase and four years shorter than the typical highway measure. Ray LaHood, who served as U.S. Transportation secretary from January 2009 until June of this year, said the two-year law offers “no certainty at all for anybody to do long-term planning.” ‘Chintzy Bill’ “It was a chintzy bill that does not provide the revenue to do what needs to be done to get America back to being No. 1, and to provide long-term certainty to people who build roads and bridges and other infrastructure,” said LaHood, a former Illinois Republican representative. When the debate is rejoined next year, he said, there probably will be 30 or 40 Republicans in the House who will block a longer-term measure, forcing a one-year extension. “The business community is fed up with the inaction of Congress when it comes to infrastructure,” he said. “The business community knows that America has fallen way, way behind. There’s a long, long list of bridges that need to be replaced or repaired. There’s a long, long list of roads that need to be fixed up.” Traffic Upswing Road transportation accounts for 16 percent of gross domestic product and 60 percent of all U.S. spending on transportation, according to a 2012 analysis by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association. In 2007, trucks handled more than 39 percent of all U.S. freight-ton miles, up from 35.7 percent in 1993. “A very significant portion of the cost of U.S. goods is directly related to the cost of highway transport,” the report concluded. “To improve U.S. competitiveness, a high-quality national highway and bridge network is essential.” According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, highways in poor condition cost users as much as 25 percent to 30 percent more per mile. Every 1 percent increase in highway-user costs adds about $15 billion to the nation’s total highway bill, including increased vehicle depreciation and maintenance, fuel, oil, and tire consumption, the ARTBA study noted. Bruce Josten, the Chamber of Commerce’s executive vice president, said yesterday that his group, the largest business lobby in the nation, has worked unsuccessfully for years with the AFL-CIO, the country’s biggest labor union association, to reach consensus on a higher gas tax. The problem is “far, far bigger” than the Tea Party, he said. Belly Up “Everybody in town -- the administration, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party -- refuses to belly up to the reality that you need to fund infrastructure. We and the unions and others have been calling for more than a decade to raise the user fee,” said Josten, at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. The last time Congress successfully moved a highway measure was in June 2012. The two-year law was dubbed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, or MAP-21. After failing to get a version of the legislation out of committee and onto the House floor, Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, appointed conferees to negotiate a final measure with the Senate. Roadblocks also had to be overcome in the Senate. The bill’s advocates fought off amendments that would have ended the federal highway program and sent all gas-tax receipts to the states. Gas Tax The 18.4-cent-per-gallon gas tax that finances the Highway Trust Fund was last raised as part of a budget deal signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993. It would take another 10 cents per gallon to bring the trust fund back to solvency, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Because of shortfalls and the failure of Congress to boost the gas tax, the government last year transferred $18.8 billion of general taxpayer money to meet the identified highway, bridge and transit construction needs. Business groups in general are “really frustrated and disappointed” by their allies in the Republican Party, Patrick Griffin, an adjunct professor of government at American University, said in a phone interview. Griffin was also an assistant to the president for legislative affairs during the Clinton administration. “They have a lot of irons in the fire” and they have to engage Republicans and Democrats, he said. David French, senior vice president for government relations at the National Retail Federation, said “all parties go through shaking-out periods” where different points of view compete. “If at the end of this process we could have in the Republican Party the grassroots energy of the Tea Party with the long-range focus of the business community working together instead of at odds, I think it’d be a stronger party,” French said.

Stuttgart/Wörth / October 11, 2013 Spanish refrigerated hoods hauler Primafrio has decided to upgrade its fleet with 400 new Mercedes-Benz Actros tractors. Mercedes-Benz trucks now make up over half of Primafrio's total fleet of 750 trucks. The 400 Actros trucks are equipped with environment-friendly Euro-5 engines and will be delivered by January 2014. "We're proud that Primafrio has opted for our trucks in the largest purchase of vehicles in its history, and thereby substantially increasing its overall share of Mercedes-Benz vehicles. This means that the customer has been convinced of our products' merits in terms of quality, economy and reliability," said Stefan Buchner, Head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks, at the handover. The fuel savings offered by the Mercedes-Benz trucks made a particular impression on Jose Esteban Conesa, owner of Primafrio. Mr Conesa explained: "Economy plays a crucial role for us as a logistics company. We have tested the Mercedes-Benz Actros successfully in our fleet. Decisive factors which persuaded us to opt for the Actros were the excellent fuel economy and the customer-oriented after-sales service. " About the Mercedes-Benz factory in Wörth, GermanyProduction started up in 1963, originally focusing on truck cabs. Since 1965, more than 3.6 million trucks have been built in Wörth. A 12,000 person workforce produces a daily output of up to 470 trucks including Atego, Axor, Arocs, Actros, Econic, Unimog and Zetros model. Today, Wörth is the largest truck assembly plant worldwide.

Stuttgart / São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil / October 21, 2013 Daimler Trucks subsidiary Mercedes-Benz do Brasil has won a truck tender from the Brazilian Ministry of Agrarian Development for the the Mercedes-Benz "Atron", a truck specifically built for the Brazilian market. A total of 2,884 dump trucks have been ordered and will be delivered by year end for use in rural regions of Brazil. For Mercedes-Benz Trucks, Brazil is an important sales market that has already seen the two millionth Mercedes-Benz truck roll off the assembly line at its São Bernardo do Campo plant in the middle of this year. Stefan Buchner, head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks Europe and Latin America, said, “With sales of around 27,000 trucks until August of this year, Brazil is the world’s strongest sales market for Mercedes-Benz trucks. Brazil will continue to play an important role for our global growth also in the future.” President of Mercedes-Benz do Brasil and CEO for Latin America, Philipp Schiemer said: “We are proud that the Brazilian government continues to trust in products with the star. The high quality typical of Mercedes-Benz, the efficient fuel consumption, and the versaility of our Atron model were decisive for this purchase.” Daimler recently won large orders from four public transport operators in a tender of Brasília’s city government for renewal of the municipal transit bus fleet. The total order includes 2,100 Mercedes-Benz bus chassis, which are to be delivered by December 2013. Daimler also won several large tenders in 2012. Last October, Mercedes-Benz do Brasil received a government order for over 2,100 Mercedes-Benz trucks and vans for different areas of application. Over 1,700 Atego trucks are in operation by the Brazilian Ministry of Defense, and 400 Sprinters are deployed as ambulances with the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Mercedes-Benz do Brasil also received an order for 2,600 Mercedes-Benz bus chassis from the Brazilian Ministry of Education in November 2012. The chassis have been assembled as school buses in cooperation with the bus body manufacturer Caio. About Mercedes-Benz do Brasil At its plants in São Bernardo do Campo and Juiz de Fora, Daimler AG manufactures trucks, bus chassis and components including engines, transmissions, axles and cabs.

A further development of the Mack Trucks T8 series was the experimental T9, resulting from. In 1950, the T8E1 was adapted to carry the army’s 280mm atomic gun carriage (it fired atomic shells), resulting in the Mack T9. Length increased from 60 to 71 feet.

A more powerful version, the T8E1 (U.S. Army 5137225), was powered by two all-aluminum 1100 cu.in. (18L) 450 horsepower (@2,600rpm) Ford GAA V-8 tank engines featuring dual overhead camshafts and 4 valves per cylinder. Paired with Allison Torqmatic transmissions, it had a top speed of 31 miles per hour. The Mack T8E1 could carry a 40-ton payload cross-country and weighed 92,400 pounds. The tire size grew slightly from the original T8 from 21.00-28 to 21.00-29. The driver of the front unit had control of the power and braking for both units (the rear driver could override the controls if necessary). While the front unit could be detached, it was the rear unit that was designed to be detached in normal use for loading and unloading. Note how the "E1" variant of the T8 series has a radiator that protruded from the front cab panel.

The Mack Trucks T8 series of tank transporters resulted from a new U.S. Army requirement in 1942 for a double-ended design with significant off road capabilities. Once again, the U.S. Army gave the challenging assignment to Mack Trucks. Mack Trucks produced three Mack T8 series tank transporter during the 1945-1946 period and all were extensively tested at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. The Mack T8’s front and rear four-wheel drive tractor modules were powered by two 1,090 cu.in. (17.8L) 240 horsepower (@ 2,000rpm) Hall-Scott 440/441 engines coupled to Spicer three-speed torque converter transmissions. Steering was accomplished via differential control. Each unit had a 30-ton winch and 200 gallon fuel tank. Minimum ground clearance at the axles was 20 inches. The Mack T8 could carry a 35-ton payload cross-country and weighed 99,100 pounds. Tires were 24 ply size 21.00-28.

Mack Trucks - Trucks · Buses · Fire Apparatus

Mack Trucks - Allentown production .

Mack Western - Hayward, California "The Truck Capital of the West" .

Of course, Mack was no more a stranger to tracked vehicles than it was to rolling stock. Note the Mack AC cab, hood and radiator on the 4-ton Mack "Roadless" truck. .

Exactly. Look at the innovation in that drive system. Can today's engineers do that? So many of today's designs are not all-new, but rather refinements based on the foundation of all-new innovations from previous eras.

When doing business with the U.S. military in the 50s and 60s, that was the way. And in all fairness, the products that emerged under that system were usually impressive. With today's available research technologies, the design process is now different.

Mack FCD rail buses (light rail cars) still in service decades later with Sperry Rail Service. .

Mack promotional photographs of the first and second generation Mack FCD rail buses (light rail cars).

The Mack Trucks T19 .

The Mack TrucksT1 experimental gun motor carriage (Note the Mack Trucks vehicle identification plate on the right side of the steering column in the second photograph)

The Mack Trucks T3 .

The Revolutionary Mack MB-3 8x8 Aircraft Fire Fighting “Crash” Truck .

Mack Trucks' model 6-CQ-4S hybrid transit bus prototype operated by Public Service Coordinated Transport of New Jersey as unit #3100.