CaptainCrutch

I’m glad I live where I do, when we were putting the L on a trailer to take it to the shop all our neighbors came by disappointed asking if we were selling it, luckily all turned to smiles when we explained were taking her to put some more life into that old 707 she’s got. Only time anyone’s ever complained was the neighbors who told people to park in our lawn to visit their yard sale and tore down a sign saying no parking... long story short there was soon a Ford fire engine screaming down the road spewing black smoke as it passed their house and the next day their garbage cans were full and smelled strongly of burnt diesel... we haven’t had any issues since! The neighborhood kids still drop their jaws whenever they hear the exhaust whistle screaming and a loud rumble come their way... It’s a shame not everyone can see these things the way these kids and old folk do... I’ve never seen a smile brighter than when we pulled up beside an old man in his 50s model convertible Corvette in a 1953 Mack Firetruck! Those moments right there make everything worth it...

If you were really desperate you could probably get someone to make you a 3D model and then print it to the measurements you need. Jut gotta find the right guy...

Well personally I think it’d be an honor to have my pictures used to discuss history, or used at all and an example of something! It’d be different if someone tried to claim they took the photo themselves but that’s clearly not the situation here... but I guess people will do anything for money. It’s sad to see someone try to scam others out of money for sharing information, or in this case photos, that they have provided to the public. This would be a different story if he just responded “hey those are my pictures!” and left it at that but he had to go and threaten a lawsuit over it! thank you for sharing the history of Macks on rails, it’d be interesting to restore one of those AC based ones, it’d probably be easier than the other two, can’t believe nobody ever talks about Macks locomotives.

I love driving old i40 in the L, it can just about do the speed limit and it nice just to feel like you’re racing along through the back country! I can’t wait to get it back so we can go out for a drive in it again, luckily 40 is the route back towards home...

The old firetrucks typically has a top speed of either 55 or 65. I hope that answers your question...

Found this picture of a factory 4 door tractor, this is all I have though, but it’s real interesting, it’s one of only 3 left supposedly! Don’t know anything else about the truck or any more pictures... so enjoy this one, it’s a beauty!

We’re trying to keep it as original as possible, only doing mods in cases like we couldn’t find the right fuel filters so now we have mustang filters which are much easier to get... in fact the company modded the hose bed to accommodate a bigger water tank and we plan on putting it back to the factory look, which luckily Mack took pictures of it before delivery, so we have references to go back to! That’ll be the next big thing but before that we have to get everything mechanically sound and working... the shop gets to work on it tomorrow so pray that it’s nothing major this time!

Ok, so we just got back from taking the truck back into the shop and it was hell getting the thing up on the trailer since it wouldn’t start this morning, it was running on just starting fluid, and the fuel pump was working fine... so it took the truck with the trailer holding it’s brakes up on a hill and another truck towing it from the side... it was an adventure to say the least! Broke a brand new chain but our trusty old rusty one held just fine. Enjoy some pictures of our adventure this morning!

Mike I might be seriously looking at it, but without a price I can’t even really look at it, between restoring the two trucks we have and dad having to take off of work for a year to have heart surgery, not to mention grandpa recently being confined to a wheelchair, we don’t really have the money to buy a new truck right now. But if we had the money the worst we’d do to it is paint it up and put new wheels and tires on it and it’d go right back to being an OTR tractor hauling grandpa’s firetrucks to shows now instead of box trailers. What I’m trying to say is I’m sure there’s others out there who could give this truck a good home they just don’t have the cash right now to buy it, especially since it being so rare is probably gonna drive up the price... I really hope it goes to a good place though, I hate to see any old truck go to waste. Even parting it out is better than letting it rot away or turning it into scrap metal... especially a historic piece like this! It deserves to be back on the road!

I saw a guy recently who had a Mack B 1/14 body custom built and is working on it. I don’t know if you could contact him or not and find out who he got it from but here’s the link to the video it’s in...

Such a gorgeous car! Jay never ceases to amaze me with the cars he shows off...

Last I heard the restoration had kinda been halted but I saw pictures of the sleepers in a nice shiny black paint. I wonder what it looks like now, it’s certainly a good looking truck!

Don’t we all wish we had deeper pockets, and sometimes a patina gives it some character... and that truck certainly has character!

How unfortunate...

Point being an open cab is much more useful on a ladder truck than a regular pumper, yet all the open cab CFs I can find are pumpers. I’m just curious if any open cab CF ladder trucks were made or if the only open cab CFs were pumpers. I’m especially more interested in the tiller trucks because dad is starting to look at open cab tillers...

I know a few guys with open cab pumpers but to me it always made the most sense to have an open cab ladder truck so you have slightly more swing for the ladder, granted at an angle you’ll almost never use but the point is it allows more versatility for the ladder. So that being said were any open cab CF aerial or ladder trucks ever made because I can’t find any info on them.

Glad to see see that truck is in good hands Yarnall! Last time I saw it was at Macungie a few years back, I always wondered who the owner was. And awesome truck to say the least...

We were thinking more of a smaller sleeper so we can over hang the ass end of of of the firetrucks over the front edge of the trailer without fear of it hitting the truck... just so we can get away with a 50’ Landoll for instance. The two trucks combined are just a little over 50’ If I remember correctly and obviously you don’t want them touching... and we’ve been talking and another truck that we feel like would fit what we want is a Superliner if any of those are for sale for a pretty good price... this has all come to light because we’ve been having problems getting the L places and it’d just be easier to have a truck and trailer so we’re not having to call up friends and dish out a few hundred dollars every time we want to take it somewhere, and it’d just be nice to expand our Mack collection...

It was awesome seeing that old Bulldog out and driving around, but boy could you smell it, even after it was shut off and just sitting for a while. A beautiful rig though, absolutely loved seeing it, put some of even the newer ones to shame on it’s driving capabilities...

In case anybody wants a really great video that has been run through Twitters awful compression here’s a link to the many videos of the parade that’re on my Twitter...

Just my pictures that I took at the event... I’ve also got a video of the parade coming through but it’s over 20 minutes long and I’m pretty sure I can’t put any video on here...

I can only imagine after the stories people had about those cabs having no space that the concave one would make a driver stand outside the truck to be able to maneuver into anything... though you could probably rest your hands and just drive with your chest for a while...

What’s the location and who should those interested contact. Looks like something my dad’s been wanting and the price is pretty good... only other question is what’s the engine and trans in it.

Yeah I saw it but it looks like a bit too much work since we’re still trying to get the L running right...