JoeH

Pretty sure it's Barry that "works" at Watts. Pretty sure he owns it?

That's great history there! I'm surprised they aren't all identical, the military is normally really anal about every part on every piece of equipment being identical. That way parts swaps in the field will match. What engine and transmission?

Each ball implies 25% charge, so 5 balls would be overcharged.

Freightliner I drive in the winter does the high idle (not 2k rpm though) sometimes if it's not plugged in. Part of the cycle to warm up the engine. Could be voltage fluctuations. Have you tested every cell of every battery? Could have a couple bad cells, dirty voltage can do crazy stuff to computers.... ECUs rely on varying voltages from sensors to determine what's going on. Bad batteries can give off irregular voltages yielding one confused ECU. Caps can be popped off every battery, including "maintenance free" ones. Each cell needs to be nearly full of DISTILLED water, and with a simple float tester from an autoparts store you should have 4 of the 5 balls floating in a sample drawn from each cell. If you have a cell that's low on water or gives a low float ball test then chuck it and replace the battery.

I had a motorcycle that would randomly shut off... wound up being a wire going bad on the ignition switch. Possibilities are endless, but maybe one of the techy gurus will be able to make sense of it.

And that's a 10 wheeler. 😉

Pretty sure it denotes Camelback rating. 38k is ST, 44k is S, 55k+ is SX... I don't think Mack knows if it's getting a 5th wheel or a stake body when they put a model number on it.

Just put the big 6 from the Mack museum in there and that engine compartment would look about right. Wish someone with some dough could get their hands on the moulds for that big 6....

Nice looking truck, good to see one rust free and with a good cab and hood! ST in the model implies it's 38k rears, not 44. What's the front axle rating? Could make a nice light duty tandem dump truck for someone if the front axle has any beef to it.

Being in shape isn't an issue, I'm used to throwing concrete around and mechanicking. To be honest I don't even know what my local truck tire shop charges, it's not much if anything. Mostly it's just the down time waiting an hour for them to get a few done while I could be on to other things if I wasn't 20 minutes from our shop. The old spoons we have work fine, but this kid I saw stuck his golden rod or whatever in the tire and just walked across the tire and it pretty much just popped off.

Sorry for your losses! Good to hear so much positive feedback about these, and of course tire lube is a must!

saw a kid use something like this once. https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200707991_200707991?cm_mmc=Google-pla&utm_source=Google_PLA&utm_medium=Automotive > Tire Equipment&utm_campaign=ESCO&utm_content=66420&&gclid=Cj0KCQjwi43oBRDBARIsAExSRQFQe_Ans-y00s3dADGXse-agneZOoZ6Eno3i1yxzk-U_QH4qI5SrHoaAvx9EALw_wcB He weighed maybe 90 lbs wet, and was may be 5`6". Popped tires off and on 11r22.5 rims like they were nothing. Anyone use something like this for their tires? We have the spoons and all, but I wouldn't mind something quicker and with less effort.

Is that a police escort for oversize load?

My trucks never see road salt, but it's hard to imagine the truck frame outlasting those towers due to rust.

The trunnion bar on our 1980 dm686sx broke years ago, got it off the ground and dropped old one out, new one in and we were good to go! You must have really stressed the truck if you broke the trunnion tower or cross member...

You're guessing the rest needs to be replaced? Why? What's broken? Trunnion bar? Trunnion cross member between the frames? Trunnion tower? Not enough info! Sounds like we might be telling you to do more than you replay need to!

Engine codes. Make sure the lightning bolt comes on with the key and goes out promptly. There's a write up on here to turn that motor into a really good engine, it's currently set up with exhaust restriction to force it to return some of its exhaust. Watch for double frame rust jacking, cracks in the frame, etc. Replacing frame rails is 25-30k. Unless you can do it yourself, then you'll be looking closer to 15k for the rails.

Usually radios have a "pairing mode" you have to put it in while you hunt for the radio in your phone bluetootg list. After that they should Auto connect

On top of that, they put the idiot on your truck and have the experienced guy doing piece work like tires because the idiot will log more shop hours on your truck and the experienced guy can do tires faster. No offense to the dealer mechanics on here, you're a great asset to the rest of us.

I'd probably start the truck in lowest gear, rev it up and with clutch pedal in as far as it'll go keep brake pressure on. Just gotta create more friction with the brakes than you have with the clutch.

Get a number from Autocar and then tell the Mack salesman the number and specs and see if he actually wants to sell you a truck or if he's wasting your time. Best thing to do is get a salesman to think you're angry with him for wasting your time. Guy (Mike) I bought my used pickup from did that for his wife's car. He told the salesman what they could afford per month, then the salesman took them around the lot for a while trying to upsell them. Finally, Mike chastised the salesman pretty well for wasting his time: he had said at the outset what he could afford, and the salesman kept showing him cars he "couldn't" afford, so Mike got himself a good deal. (May have been a few customers around to "eavesdrop" on the chastisement. Nothing like that to get a salesman to capitulate!)

I've seen a few anthems around the Bucks County PA area. Single axle box trucks, tractors, etc. Not a terrible looking truck, haven't spent much time looking at them to decide if I like them. Mack is a day late and a dollar short on 9mpg trucks, IMO. What you save on fuel you spend on injector cups because I'm sure they still haven't reengineered that...

Working hard or hardly working? Looks like this truck is going to a beach house for vacation on the bay! Or it's fantasizing about some Evel Knievel stunts.

With the wheels off the ground my 1973 Mack will turn effortless, and it has no power steering!!! The trucks weight on your tire contact patch is the only thing that generates resistance to turning the wheel. Unless you've broken the steering box, in which you'd likely feel a clunking when turning the wheel.

What'd shock me is if it had fusible links. Ran into those on a junker PoS 89 f250 gasser I bought, never could get the truck to run right.