mechmagcn

I guess I got extremely lucky when I was building my truck, I found a low mileage 98 R-model cab that had been laid on the RH side. I bought it for $75 with everything in it except for the seats and floor mat. All of the interior was in mint condition, and it even had the AC unit still under the dash! Good luck finding the peices you are looking for, I just stumbled up on this cab sitting in the weeds where it could barely be seen. Jeff

If you're ever under the hood of a late model Ford with a Powerstroke, watch out for the injector wiring, they operate on 110VDC. All of these wires are wrapped in red harnesses. Jeff

Here's a pic of my current 59 F600 winch truck and a pic of an old Diamond Reo which will eventually become the current winch truck. Without these trucks, I wouldn't get much heavy work done around my place!

Hey Barry, do we get a discount if we buy one of each? If so I'll take em. Jeff

My Mack is registered in Arkansas as a Motor Home. All I had to do was install a refrigerator and microwave in the sleeper. There is no restriction on what it can haul or pull as long as it is not commercial. No CDL is required and the plates are $35 a year. Mostly I use it to pull a 16K 37' 5th wheel RV, but have been known to pull other trailers as well. Get some really strange looks when I hook my jon boat up behind it I could have registered as antique, but it would have been restricted to a 10K load. Jeff

If looking for rust free doors for a R-model, check out the aluminum doors on a F-model. Only difference I saw was the mirror mounting holes were different. Jeff

To start, I am a self employed truck and heavy equipment mechanic with over 20 years experience. I can tell you from experience if you are looking at the FP diesel kit for the 3 year 300K warranty, it's not worth the paper it's written on. I built a 3406B several years ago and it went down at 91K (#6 piston disentegrated and bent valves and damaged head and spread debris to #5), had to buy the replacement parts for 2 cylinders and wait for warranty decision. It took them 18 months to decide that the engine had been run extremely hot (if so, why are the other 4 cylinder kits still running after 250K?) and totally denied the claim. This owner/operator is a longtime customer and personal friend of mine, so I know he didn't abuse this engine as it is his only source of income. When this company was still Sealed Power, I once had a Cummins go down within the warranty period and they sent new parts and even paid for oil, antifreeze and labor! This has been my experience with this company, yours may be much better. On the Cummins rebuild using aftermarket parts, I would use nothing other than Clevite. Actually Clevite makes many of Cummins parts. I have opened Clevite boxes and found Cummins badged parts inside. Jeff

I've always liked the look of a B-model, but the cab is just too small for me. I'll take a R-model any day.

To tell the difference between a 95 series and a 125 series look at the yoke on the rear of the trannie, If the yoke is close to the seal, it is a 95, if the yoke is about 1" from the seal it is a 125 or later tranny. Both the 125 and 95 series used a reverse shift pattern for the OO, it was only later trans that compensated for this in the shift top. The RTOO9513 trans has a .67 high gear, not real sure of the 125. Jeff

When I started to look for a truck to build a RV toter, I really wasn't looking for a Mack. When a customer told me he had 2 sitting out back that he would sell me for $500 with one of them running,(but with a broken frame and totally trashed from having a log loader on it for years) I jumped at the opportunity. I found another sitting in a pasture for $250. Another was taken in on a job for payment( this one was so rusty that the top of the cab blew off while driving it home!) SuperDawg, in the beginning This is what he looked like before I drug him out of the pasture and proceeded to spend the next 2 years rebuilding from one end to the other. I literally drug these trucks home, I used a customer's lowboy and a log skidder to load and haul. I would grapple the back of the frame and drag them onto the lowboy. My other half looked at what I had brought home and asked " you are going to what with that JUNK!!? A buddy of mine gave me the KW sleeper that is on it and the flatbed came off of my former F450 Super Duty. I kept the EM6 300 engine and added a Fuller RTOO9513 tranny and a 3:55 Rockwell rear on air ride. The cab and sleeper are mounted on a air ride subframe also. Aftr many hours labor and more dollars than I whish to disclose, here's SuperDawg at his finest to date. SuperDawgs a show winner We took a first place trophy at the local 4th of July car show last year! There are still several modifications and additions still forthcoming ahead, but some other projects sort of got in the way . We plan to do some extensive RV traveling in the near future, so he will live a life of luxury and leisure I am sure. So far we have pulled the 16K 5er about 15K miles and he gets around 8.5-9 MPG. This truck is also registered as a motorhome. Here's a pic of him with his Dawghouse. SuperDawg and his Dawghouse Jeff

Looks to be nicely done, but I'll stick to my fullsize version. Jeff

I agree that grease is the best form of PM that can be done. I guess I should have stated that the main problem with these kingpins really hasn't been wear to the pins or bushings, but the thrust bearings have disentigrated. When this happens, the axle and spindle make contact and make steering rather difficult. Jeff

These trucks don't see a lot of mud and water, they have enough road building equipment to see to that. The front axle is always jacked up to grease kingpins, and they are greased until fresh grease comes out. The service interval varies depending on distance to different mills, but usually every 2 weeks for greasing. My point is, they are also running 2 older CH models with over 500K on them and have never had to replace kingpins. Jeff

That looks like one of my short projects that ends up taking most of my spare time for the next 2-3 years!. Good luck, looks like you'll need it. Jeff

I have a customer with 3, 04 Granites hauling logs. These trucks have been pretty good except for kingpin problems. One has had 2 sets in less than 175K miles, another has 163K and the thrust bearing has disentigrated again. When this happens, the axle and spindle make contact and it is hard to steer. The trucks get greased every 5K so this should not be the problem. The local dealer has no clue as to what is going on. Has anyone else had these sort of problems? Have talked to a few other local owners who have similar problems. Jeff

I kept looking at that empty hole and tried to figure out something funny to plug it with. That was all I could come up with on short notice.