CaptainCrutch

Sorry to hear about your mom, sounds like a last I would’ve loved to have met in my travels. It does suck watching them suffer, it took my grandpa 3 years of cheating death before it finally caught up with him. Granted my other grandpa and an old family friend both died suddenly of heart attacks and it was such a shock that I’m not sure which was better. It’s just really unfortunate all around. I’m sorry to hear about your loss. May she Rest In Peace.

Delaying a product is not the same as lying about a product. There’s also a reason when they list dates it’s estimated or stated as NET (no earlier than). If Tesla has done something that could be considered a lie someone would’ve sued them by now. And self driving features are coming soon, they’re just not quite finished yet, another delay but not a lie. Tesla isn’t reliable on dates by any means, when it comes to statistics about the physical properties, though, they’re incredibly reliable, and their vehicles usually exceed those stated statistics. And you can still buy a $35,000 Model 3, you just have to go through a dealership to get it, instead of the website. Kinda shady but you can still get one, just as an off the menu item... If this Tesla Semi ends up being as good as Tesla says it is, which I’m confident it will, then I have a feeling plenty of fleet trucks will be replaced by these, with Owner/Operator trucks still being ICE. That’s just the way I see it...

Supposedly with this truck they’re getting 600 miles of range fully loaded, and they’ve been consistently pretty good on their range stats, most owners actually reporting getting better range than stated, they’ve done a lot of work and had breakthroughs that used to be considered impossible. I know it’s a different company but Elon’s SpaceX regularly lands rocket boosters on ships, something that was considered impossible by most of the world. Especially the way things have gone for Tesla lately, I’m sure they won’t lie about the stats on their vehicles. I haven’t heard any other things they’ve lied about, especially not once they’ve actually had prototypes. Also, this is a company that has dedicated almost 2 decades of its existence to working on this tech, a little different than a company that has been around for around a century mostly dedicated to ICE vehicles. If I remember correctly they just came out with an EV with such horrible stats that only a few hundred have been purchased since the vehicle went on the market. Not exactly one to trust on statistics regarding the limits of EVs.

Looks like that Tesla Semi is coming this year! https://carbuzz.com/news/whats-going-on-with-the-tesla-semi-truck Second half usually translates to fall, and honestly I'm a little excited. It looks like it'll be the first truck to compete in the average truck market. I do hope they allow for a bit more customization but I guess that'll come later. What do you all think of it?

As well, just speaking statistically, EVs are less likely to have an accident than gasoline powered car. I think I read a study that showed EVs drove 4x as long without an accident than the average ICE car. Now with an EV right now you get into an accident and you total the vehicle, but that's less because the vehicle is beyond repair it's more that the repairs are so expensive. That and based on what I've researched the "glitchy" Toyotas were the result of the pedal itself getting stuck down and less of a software glitch. My dad has an older Tundra and says it happens sometimes but all you need to do is give it a little kick and it stays unstuck for a while. Don't get me wrong, car computers still glitch from time to time, but its significantly more rare than some teenager ramming into the back of a stopped semi because they can't even wait to get to a red light to text their friend, let alone waiting until they've parked their car. Either way EVs are the future, and like or not, Mack has to hop on board with this before they get left behind and shut down by Volvo. Mack is also one of the first ones to jump on this too, so I hope they become a leader in the industry again, even if it means this change is needed.

What can I say, my dad wants a Superliner to haul the Firetrucks with, preferably one that’s not too expensive and doesn’t need much work. He really wants an LTL though, but that’s less achievable for the price he wants...

If the price is right I’d like to take a look at that Superliner.

I'd love for them to bring the Superliner back, even if it's the Australian model. A classic looking Mack would sell well I think. Might just email him asking if that's the idea. Other than that I see electricity as the future of powertrains for all vehicle, with some Hydrogen powered vehicle mixed in but being a little less popular. Nice to see Mack jumping in early. I hope i get to see a test mule like this rolling around from the Hagerstown plant sometime soon...

There are Mack dealers in ATS, signifying that Macks are coming, and supposedly Freightliner aswell, but I was referring to wanting Macks in Spintires. Currently I'm looking to see if anyone could make an L/LTL mod and a good L cab B-75 mod for ATS but it seems like nobody is interested. Hopefully one day...

The Brockway Superliner looks more like early 2000s Macks than late 70s models, to me atleast. There's really no similarities between the two Superliners other than the name and cab. This conspiracy is pretty nonsensical because the two are very different. But that's just my two sense.

Still no Mack...

I think that first one is called Spintires, possibly the Mudrunner version. These kind of games are fun and harmless, so I tend to recommend them. Obviously not for everyone. Spintires is fun because you can take huge trucks off road which I wouldn't like to put any of my own trucks through. I saw a guy recently with an R model in one of these games that was kinda like the old Mack test track plow, lifted and on gigantic tires...

There’s a lot of open roads in this game with speed limits of 70 MPH, and some of those have railroad tracks, pretty easy to have everything in the air on those stretches of road. You’re supposed to slow down but why would you when you could just jump the tracks instead!

Just a few more shots I’ve taken that I think you all will appreciate, even if they’re not real trucks per say...

Actually it’s dual air cleaners on this truck for symmetry. I dunno, I just like the truck best with 2 aircleaners or none...

A game called American Truck Simulator. Got it for $5 on a sale recently for my computer, a few quick clicks later and suddenly I’m drive an R on the west coast hauling some Christmas presents. You can haul just about anything, I even got this thing that allows me to haul loads so big you need a police escort. It takes some learning but hey, when you’ve got time to kill it sure makes for a lot of fun and a great picture! I’ve seen some guys so into this game that basically build a computer that is set up like the cab of a truck, with foot pedals, a steering wheel, a shifter, and all the buttons, switches, or levers you could want. Figured I’d share this cool picture I got from that game.

Read this wrong the first time and was wondering where you got the president’s body and what is it doing in Bristol...

It’s a ton of fun!

Absolutely stunning! What’s the top speed on that one? She looks like she’d be able to put up a fight against some of the loggers and city delivery trucks I see...

You’d could but the engine had a lot of problems and he just had to keep everything original... I don’t blame him but I’m not spending that kind of money on it...

yarnall’s right in the sense this should be in the Odds and Ends section instead... he may be old but he’s not a Mack... On another note it’d be nice if Mack went back to the days of being “built like a Mack”... now it seems more like a Volvo with a bulldog on the hood... Just saw a guy today who was star struck over an old R model with huge tires on it that lives in the backwoods somewhere... Just a thought, but I wonder if it’d be beneficial to do an International LoneStar style truck, basically an old inspired design that meets modern requirements, especially if they made it look a good bit like a B or an L or something like that... if they brought back the Maxitorque I bet they’d move some of those units... the only thing I like about these new Anthems are the fenders and the interior is pretty nice...

Well as it turns out, the head bolt patterns are different from the B to the C motor, so instead the shop is gonna tear apart a seized A motor they have to see if they can use that. If not the guy said he knows of someone else with a block and another person with a motor so we’ll see how that works out.

Well I think I figured out how we cracked the block, it just hit me that years before we got the truck the whole motor was rebuilt because there was a crack in the engine block and back then it didn't cost so much to fix so they just had it repaired. My guess is it was perfectly fixed so spending a few winters outside didn't do any favors to the pre-existing crack and that probably led too the big crack we have today. Just a guess though. Anyways it sounds like my grandma wants to pay fort his because she wants to see my grandpa's old truck out in shows like he always wanted it to. Seems like everything is in motion to get this done, the shop told us we could have it back in about a month which would be great. I hope after this we can clean out the pump and I hope some of y'all will see it out and about later this year. That's wishful thinking, but it's good to keep your goals high but your expectations a little more realistic...

Believe me we’re getting a steal for this engine, a small fraction what a friend of our sold his for non running and in need of a serious rebuild... I think we plan on keeping the old block and maybe fixing it up one day, I know of a truck that currently has a diesel that came from the factory with a 707 so that might be a nice place for a slightly different than original replacement motor with a repaired block... and I will add that not only are we trying this idea to keep it as original as we reasonably can, we just put a lot of work into the top end on the old motor, and some of the differences between the B and C motors are things like the carb and exhaust manifold switching sides on the engine... This option will cost us nothing compared to the $26,000 a friend of ours spent getting the block fixed on his 707 engine...

Sounds like the plan is to use the bottom end off the newer C motor and transplant the old B motor onto it to keep things like fuel lines and exhaust in the same general location. Hopefully that works out, if not then we’ll come up with another plan...