Lmackattack

there are shops around but It seams I can find them for cheeper online.

I'm calling him this Tuesday noon to see if he can meet Tuesday at 6 pm. He has to get some stuff moved to get pics the truck... I just spoke with a fried about the 309. He is a bmt member and knows some more cool stuff about both of bobs trucks. told him to check out this thread so. Hopefully he will post what knows.

Took the truck to get a safty sticker.I got to the repair place and then remembered it was sunday not saturday...Dummy... left the garage and noticed that the temp was at 200. it never goes above 180 in this cool weather. turned the heater fan on and it was blowing warm but not hot. I was hoping I could get to my house about 2 miles away but lit got to 225 and then pulled over to let her cool. I checked the level and notice it was very low. there was a creek 20' from me so I found a pop bottle and used it to put about 2 gallons of water in the rad. I got back in fired it up and the temp dropped to 155 in about 10 secs of running. I got it back to the shop and saw water dripping under the truck. I then saw that the weep hole in the water pump is spitting out water. not a hard job but wondering do i just buy a reman or take it to a shop to get rebuilt?

I Spoke with the owner of the Ebay RL. his name is Jim and here is its story... It was Bob Eckstein's first or 2nd truck. Factory new in 72 it had spoke rears, spring ride and a short 36" sleeper. It was cat powered, not sure of the transmission.(sounds just like his style?) When Bob bought the new RL"309" he sold the truck to Jim. Jim stretched the frame 3' and put an air ride cut off that he had bought from a mack dealer. at this time he also removed the small crawl in sleeper and put a walk in bunk from a KW. a few years later work had slowed down, he parked it and went trucking localy in a company truck. the engine was kind of tired and was going to need to be gone thru. While in the slow down Jim thought Instead of rebuilding the engine he would put in a 3406C? but he never got to install it. So I think it retains the factory engine? The truck was put into garage storage in the mid-late 90s.He said it sat there untill 5-6 years ago when he Moved. He said he did fire her up and drove it the 5 miles to its the new indoor parking spot in Lake villa. He said he primed the turbo put new fuel filters on added some new fuel, jumped started it and it fired off. The cab does have some rust in the normal spots, behind the cab under the door etc... He did have mack put in new lower cab metal panels when he was running. forget where he had them do the cab maintance but it sounds like he was trying to maintain it. the cab interior was painted blue, and he had some interior panels made to spruce it up. the bunk is all facotry KW tan... He has sevreal people intrested in it so I said I will call him early this week to set up a time to get over to look at it. We chatted about Bob a little and he said that Bob had died from a hart attack in his mid-late 30s. the truck went to his uncle or brother in NJ/PA. He was hoping that if it was ever going to be sold that they would have contacted him first but he herd that the hood and sleeper showed up at a auction and the rest of the truck was junked. Hope to get some pics next week and more of the story of both trucks.. Tret

That sure matched the closest to what Mr Hall and others have commented on. I would have to say thats the vin for that truck... Got to give you a big thanks for all this searching. Its itntresting that all this data is availible for one of the rare truck models. Not sure if that makes it easy or harder to find but you made it happen. yes that Truck was Phantom 309 noted on the nose of the hood. this has been pretty cool searcing for all these cat powered trucks...Thanks again

years ago I think you could buy just the frame with rubber or just the glass. Now I think its only sold as a complete vent window. I bought 2 of the complete windows from watts last summer.

I see alot of guys doing this tube extension and I have never heard or seen it cause issues. My understanding is that the tube just needs to be unrestrictive. just my .02

Next time Im at mack I will ask Mr Hall if he knows the last 5 of the vin...I know IL is a PITA to get old 13 digit vins looked up. I tried looking for my dads truck and never got any info out of them...

I think the first truck that this guy had ordered was with a 290 cat? and it was a 72 steel dash cab. the later RL had the +3 cab and would think it would have been a mid-late 70s model? I think late 77 was the last year for building the RS/RL and all of them were sold by mid 78. Mr Hall had to get a RW because they would not build him one in late 77. this tells me that it was 73-76 that this Truck would have been built? but im going off other peoples recolection from 30 years ago LOL.

I always thought the sound of a straight stacked Maxidyne lugging 1100 RPM thru 2nd gear in the soft mud was the best sound. just a dirty rumble that screams "I got the power!"

Mr Hall had made a comment that it had alum rails...also said it was built as a Day cab if that matters...

If you look at the Ebay listing it says Bobs first truck 1972 model was on Air ride and budds. the "309" was camelback and spoke rears with budd fronts. Mr Hall knows the person that is listing it.

good work Rhasler, this is like an easter egg hunt...such a shame how it ended up but would be cool to see all the specs of it. How did the numbers sequence? For instance my Vin is RS786LST32474...how do I know what number my truck is in the build? and did each model get a diffrent sequence? For example does a RS786 and RL755 fall into the same build sequence numbers? Trent

Rhasler....If rob sees this he will likely have a vin number to start with. I do know It was a RL700L... Or if someone that knows what a RL with a 1693 cat is, thats a start. I think Rob said only 3-5 were made?? if rob has one we can eliminate that one... Mr Hall thinks it was sold out of his Dealer. Northern IL mack, Grays lake IL. its the closest dealer to Round lake IL Trent

glad to help mark. If you got any questions I can always ask him. If anything the mack museum should be able to help as I think Rob said there were only a few built? Little more to the story with Mr Hall. He had ordered a RW in 1977? (what ever the first year for them was) this was before he saw how nice Bobs truck came out. He then cancled the order because he thought about it again and decided to try for a Westcost mack RS. After much frustration he had to continue the RW order as mack refused to build just one last RS one for him. So he said he ended up with one of the first RW east of the mississippi. He commented that he has that shell calendar at home and that one of the pics you had was the same pic...

Have to ask... did you check the linkage for any binding. I had this issue after I installed a throttle lock and it was causing the pedal to stick right before idle RPM.

Ok I talked to the guy at mack tonight. Guys name is Mr Hall and showed him the pics that Mark and Rob had of the Purple RL700L. He said that that was the truck that he rembers. Mr Hall made a few calls and talked with a old friend that comfirmed It was delivered as a day cab and sent to double eagle for the 36" sleeper install. He does not recall when the sleeper was extended but after I showed him the diffrence he agreed that it was extended at some point. Anyways after the sleeper install it was sent to a shop in north western IL to get the fancy paint(think he said freeport IL?). when Bob put the finishing touches on the RL it made its way into overdrive mag and made it into a Shell Oil calendar. He said the truck had a Cat 169?.....what ever robs truck has... engine, riding on camelback rears on spokes. No air ride cab. Dident ask him about the transmission. Said Bob had the engine worked on by a guy in PA that was able to get about 550HP to the rear wheels. Mr Hall and Bob ran from Chicago to NJ hauling steel and recalls how Bob would let him get a run at the hills and then he would get passed like he was standing still. said after the truck was turned up the smoke between shifts was so heavy that it just fell out the stack to the ground. Bob won englishtown 3 years in a row with it. They would run with a guy in a KW with a KTA called (nickname was rubberband)this guy with the KW had 2 police scanners and radar front and rear. only other truck that compete with the RS. Mr hall said when they all met up he would just fall back knowing that the 2 hot shots were just going to have HP wars all the way to NJ and back. Mr hall just wanted to keep his licence.LOL Said that they put rods and mains in the cat every 100K just to be safe. now the sad part. Bob past away when he was in his early 30s. the truck when to his step son to work on Bobs brothers farm in PA. thats when the engine had trouble and head came off. the Engine rusted and the engine was junk.Cab was rotted out bad as well from the east cost winters. I know 2 guys that have pics of it at a scrap yard and will have to call them for pics. Here is a twist. I showed Mr Hall a pic of this active ebay listing.... http://chicago.ebayc...uck/?ad=1274723 Told me that was Bobs old truck before he bought the Purple RL.... Trent

I'm with bullhusk on this one. Heard and read all the same reports and saw a few pics of the prototype brockway that never entered production. The rw sure looks like it evolved from a brockway if you look at the pics.

Found this link tonight. Looks like a sharp 1972 RL700L air ride 290hp,been in storage for years. http://chicago.ebayclassifieds.com/trucks-vans-suvs/lake-villa/1972-rl700l-mack-truck/?ad=1274723

heated mirrors are nice in foggy rain storms. I had to use them last week coming thru southern IL. also good on winter mornings. I rarely use them but they are nice when they keep fogging up...