ThaddeusW

How did they screw that photo up? They show a Picture of trucks in Britain, none of which are Mack. FAIL.

I thought the Metroliner was already in that category. Standard Mack cab with a 105" BBC and Cummins ISL engine under the hood. We don't need Volvo or UD trucks. If you look at the US market cab overs are not popular, and that is all Volvo or UD could offer. I like em but many others don't. Hino looked at the market and saw that a conventional design was the way to go. And they were very successful with that design too. Since Paccar brought the DAF LF over I have only seen a scarce few, my local KW/Mack dealer (Gabrielli) dealer had about 4 or 5 on their lot and they sat and sat and sat. Who wants a European truck with European parts that are difficult and expensive to get in the US? Bottom line is the Metroliner is not foreign and can easily be built at Macungie, so whats the delay?

The big problem with the war in Iraq was that there was no real evidence of any connections with al-qaeda. They kept on babbling on about vague terrorist ties and weapons of mass destruction when they did not even exist. We all knew it was osama in laden and he was known to be located in Afghanistan, not Iraq. Plus once we found osama he was in our supposed allies territory, Pakistan. A huge quagmire if you ask me. When the war at at its peak I had a close friend of mine in the army come back on leave. We got to talking and he basically said "all that bullshit they told us about weapons of mass destruction was just that, bullshit. Why am I even there getting shot at, kicking down doors and running patrols when the damn terrorists are in another country?"

I can understand the lack of E9 knowledge, it has been out of production for over a decade here in the US. Plus generally people on forums talk out of their ass as everyone is a genuine know-it-all, though there are sites that are an exception. The VIN number required for everything is just to cover the asses of the parts vendors. Most of us on this site have a clue about Mack trucks. But there are many who don't even though they run them. So those clueless users would stroll in and think they know what they are asking for, ask and receive the wrong part, find out its the wrong part and then try to return it. Said returned part might have scratches or damage from the attempted installation or mis-handling. So the VIN is a guaranteed way to ensure the clueless user gets what he/she needs. Also prevents screw up behind the counter as well.

Its a fact that this government is out of control. Pointless wars Jobs going over seas at alarming rates Federal budget in the toilet eroding personal freedoms increased spying on its own citizens (they read your email and text messages, listen to your phone calls and track what websites you visit, all in the name of preventing terrorism) The book 1984 was just supposed to be a book. Now it seems as if people in the government read it and thought it was a manual. And this years election is another hopeless disappointing turnout. I hate to sound so negative but its a glaring truth.

I was going to call him myself after work today. Glad to hear he is doing fine. I suppose one of my two predictions was sort of true after all.

When you say you have power to the fuel tank, what do you mean? Also, Are the tarp controls in cab or located outside? And are they all electric (meaning there are no hand operated hydraulic valves?) The tarp has an electric-hydraulic power pack. I assume the switch energizes the solenoid which turns the hydraulic pump motor on. Get a meter or test light on the solenoid and turn the dash switch on. Then probe the wires to the solenoid and motor (from the dash switch on back to the motor.) Make sure you have power on both sides of the switch. Since I never used a tarp system, just give us a quick explanation of how you activate the tarp, is it a dash switch? Are there limit switches to detect when the tarp has fully deployed or rolled up? My guess is you have a loose wire somewhere.

Trent was on today.

Damn, that's terrible. Sorry you lost your shop and vehicles. First the accident and now this. What vehicles did you loose?

I was wondering the same thing. He hasnt been on in 8 days. Probably at a top secret gubberment radar installation. That or he bought home another Mack and momma finally had enough.

Back in grade school I was playing soft ball and was right field. I was too busy BS'n with my friend (who was center) to notice a classmate hit the ball in my direction. It was a good hit and smacked me square in the side of my head. Didn't have a helmet on, we weren't required to wear one as it was a catholic school gym class, they weren't concerned about law suits then. I went blind for about 10 - 15 seconds and was disoriented but my vision returned and I didn't really feel anything. Kept on playing and I never felt any pain or had a headache. But to this day I still think I feel something every now and then on that side of my head, like it did dome brain damage lol. Maybe that's why I am on this site Have fun with the braces, I had top and bottom for years along with a bunch of other metal in my mouth to keep everything strait. Its not all bad but one piece of advice: WEAR THE RETAINER after the braces come off! I said screw this and threw mine out. Now I have a crooked tooth in the front of my mouth, thankfully its a lower incisor otherwise it would be more noticeable. Annoying to look at and always gets yellowy because its tough to brush in the gap. I wish I had never thrown that thing out.

2500 ohms is far from open depending on the application. 1 million ohm or more resistors are available and used frequently. In fact your meter might have upward of a meg ohm of input impedance. I say this because I have worked with hall effect and inductive sensors that are two wire and have a very high input impedance when measured. Though, for the VSS on your truck it could mean the difference between a bad sensor and a good one, depending on its design. If its supposed to be 10 ohms then it could be a basic induction loop sensor. A simple coil of wire with an AC signal ran through it. when the magnetic field is disturbed by the tone ring the inductance drops slightly and can be detected with a tuned circuit. Pretty simple design really.

That is what I don't understand, who is his target buyer? Obviously a very wealthy person who will buy it to tool around in and then sell it again. 500 miles since the build was finished is nothing, its about two weeks daily driving for me. He does not give a reason as to why he is selling it but its almost as if he won some awards to build up value and is now trying to make a profit from it. Wrong approach if you ask me. I guarantee he will have that truck for quite a long time until he gives in and sells it or auctions it off for what a real human being is willing to pay. Tell you what, I guarantee once my Mack is on the road it will have 500 miles on the clock before it ever makes it to a show.

In the end thats all that matters. Screw what anyone else thinks, its your truck and your money. If you bought a perfect LTL Mack and then set it on fire and then crushed it up, its your right to do so. Even if everyone on this site wants to flay you alive.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/03/22/freightliners-awesome-new-revolution-innovation-is-a-future-rig/ Interesting concept truck. I like modern designs so its not too bad a design. Maybe Mack needs to make a big ugly concept truck too.

RW is the model designation for the Superliner and the prefix of the VIN number (before they changed the VIN numbers). If it is a Superliner an example model number would be RW713. The electronic speedo has a few wires, power, ground and two wires to the sensor. If you move a piece of metal near the sender and the meter needle moves then it sounds like the sender might be working. Have you buzzed (continuity check) the wires between the sender and the gauge? Do that and also check the ohm reading of the wires. If you cant get the leads of the meter to reach, either extend them with a length of good wire OR just jump the wires at the sender side and measure across the wires in the cab. The reading should be near zero in terms of ohms. And as for the ohm reading of the sensor, its not an accurate check at all. If its a hall effect sensor or some other type of solid state sensor then the ohm value means nothing. I am surprised that you even got a reading at all. Try this: if the wires are good, remove the vss and use an electric drill with a bent rod in it or a gear like wheel and put the sensor next to it as you spin the drill, see if the gauge responds.

Ill take that B81 and DM800

Art, Sorry to hear of your problem. If I were you and I wanted the truck bad, I wouldn't let the fire stop me. If I couldn't find a 707 I would get a non turbo 673 and drop it in until either I found a 707 or just leave the 673 in there.

Sorry to hear of your loss Trent. I lost both of my grandfathers a while ago. My fathers father during 1997 and my mothers father in 2000 (just 5 days after the new year.). Then I lost my father in 2003 (he had been bed ridden with severe brain damage due to a massive stroke since 1994). I too have a picture of my grandfather in uniform. It was taken during/after WWII and is hanging on my wall at home. All the good men in my life have been long gone. Its a terrible thing to see them go.

If I were Mack or Volvo and I heard that I would flip shit. Why sit idly by watching the competition make money when you could be offering a product to compete? I want to know who is holding back Mack. Is it Volvo or Mack management? I would hazard a guess that its Volvo, I imagine its a combination of arrogance and cold corporate culture. The Titan is not a bad truck, its been a workhorse in Australia and other RHD country's for years. But how they released it in the US was brain dead. I understand they are trying to synchronize the product lines to cut down engineering and manufacturing costs. But they could have done a much better job. A Superliner would have been the ticket. Why? Because everyone knows what a Superliner is! It is an already known truck and has a great reputation. Very few people knew the Titan ever existed for over a decade in Australia before it was introduced in North America. So to many its a brand new unproven product. And what is worse is the asinine decision to never make mention of the Titans history outside of North America. They should have had pictures of the Titan working down under pulling road trains and mining road trains hauling 200+ tons of raw material. Go to Drake Trailers website and they have a picture of Three titans pulling a hydraulic trailer: http://www.draketrailers.com/ . Mack should have shown that the Titan has been around the block a few times and its design isn't green behind the ears. Big BIG mistake. Mack made a few brain dead mistakes and I want to know who was stupid enough to make them: -Releasing the Titan with no sleeper options and giving no history of the design -No MP10 options for the Pinnacle line -Renaming both the Vision and the CH to Pinnacle, WTF! I do think that the Titan release was a bad idea, not bad in the sense that they should have never released it but bad in the sense that it feels like a design stuck in limbo. Its too damn big for the highway, has no sleeper option and is the only Mack truck with an MP10. Where does it fit in besides a portion the really heavy duty market? Here is what I would have done if I were a Mack big shot: -The CH/CL be merged into one product, the new Superliner. Give it a full range of specs: sleepers, MP8/MP10, heavy frames, Axle forward and back, up to 20/23K front, and rears up to 65k/70k, tri-drive and even euro style planetary axles. -Sneak a small sleeper option or two on the granite, for those who need a small sleeper on their vocational truck. (how hard can that be to engineer?) -Put an MP10 into the Vision and give it some special order heavy haul options such as double frames, 20k fronts and rears up to 52k and possibly euro planetary axles beyond that. -Bring over the Titan only after the new Superliner and Vision prove themselves in terms of sales. Then Give it sleeper options and super heavy duty axle options to top off the Mack line. -If there are enough resources, bring over the Metroliner or make a short (108" bbc or less) Granite and put a small Cummins in there (isb/isc/isl/ng). Offer it as a light vocational or pick up and delivery truck. 20k front, 46/52 rears max. Give Paccar some competition in the premium class 6/7 market (Pete 330/340, Kenworth T300 series.) Also make sure it has the full range of sleeper options as well as an extended cab for a rear bench seat or even a 4 door crew cab. Would be a great expediter strait truck. So now you have a line of trucks that makes sense: Granite - universal vocational truck, handles any job thrown at it (dump, mixer, block, roll-off, trash, crane, twin steer etc.) Superliner - Covers everything from premium highway to heavy haul as well as vocational, a swiss army knife (just like the original Superliner.) Vision - Versatile aerodynamic truck for Regional/Highway/City and heavy haul. Titan - Handles the really big jobs such as cost effective off highway dump, heavy haul, super haul, logging and oil field. big axles to 110+k and steer axles over 23k. For GVW's well over 100k and GCW's well over 200k. (a modern LR/M replacement) Metroliner - Small truck for those who don't need big engines, high ground clearance and extra heavy duty options (city/beverage tractor, small dumps, roll off, small mixer, roll back tow truck, light wrecker, box truck, flat bed, etc) Terrapro - stays the same, it already does what it needs to do, nuff said. Just look at how Kenworth covers everything from class 5 through class 8 as well as their super heavy duty and highly configurable C500. they even offer small class 6&7 cabovers. Hell they even offer three different aerodynamic models. Mack has two highway trucks with no big power options, one aerodynamic and one axle forward. A great vocational offering and an excellent LCF offering. And a heavy haul truck that is too big with no sleeper option. Its all screwy.

Wow. It is an interesting restoration job, even more interesting is the V10 viper engine. One thing that any restorer must realize is even thought you might have put X amount of dollars into a restoration both in terms of parts and labor does not mean your vehicle is worth that. And for trucks its even worse, how many people collect antique trucks vs. antique cars? Have you ever seen a truck at one of those auto auction shows (Mecum) on the Speed channel? I haven't. Bottom line is you better be prepared to empty your wallet numerous times and realize you might never get that money back ever again. Its a labor of love, not profit.

Well if you wanted to be creative and save a little bread all you need is plywood, some thick foam and cloth. Cut a board to match the frame and cut the foam to form the seat. Pre-drill the mounting holes and stick carriage bolts through them. Glue the foam to the wood and staple the cloth to the boards underside keeping it taught. Bolt the seat to the frame. Probably not too comfortable for long trips but its better than a bare frame. I have done a ton of padded railings and other padding so its not too hard. I would like to try my hand at making custom upholstery one of these days.

Its actually an MH Ultraliner.

Holy smokes! It comes with a 20 ton WENCH! That is a big girl. They must have used the truck to pick her up when she fell. I think ill pass.

That is simply awesome. Goes to show you there was plenty of interesting truck technology way back when. I like how you have to wait for the neutral light before letting go of the clutch. I would assume if the light blew it would leave the driver hanging with his foot on the clutch for quite some time before they decided to let go and see what happens. They should have reversed the logic and designed it so the light goes out when in neutral. Thanks for posting the pictures.