ThaddeusW

Well I came across this great video and thought I would share it. This video shows a Finnish made SISU truck that's an 8x2 (only one drive axle) handle soft dirt with no problems. Its a newer Renault DXi 13 (AKA Volvo D13, MP8). Not too long ago this truck would have been Mack powered (E7)! They still use CAT engines and also at one point also used Cummins too. Yes that is a Renault Premium cab. Another interesting fact is SISU delivers factory ready trucks complete with bodies installed. They use an 18 inch frame rail so the dump box does not need a sub frame, the box sits right on the frame rails. They taper down toward the front of the cab to normal height and use cylindrical cross members. Normal frames and bare cab-chassis available too. Its a tri axle arrangement with a single tire steering lift axle in front, planetary hub reduction drive(SISU axle), and a dual tire lifting axle at the rear. In between the drive and rear lift axle, a special cog drive system is installed called the Robson drive system. When engaged cylinders shove a cog wheel between the drive tire and rear most lift axle tire (on both sides) to create a temporary yet simple 6x4 system (like an old belt drive tag). Result: A dump truck that can handle a heavy load yet lift the two of the four axles when empty. From the comments the poster also says the two lift axles steer, the first linked to the steering wheel and the last is maybe self steered? SISU is also the only truck maker to develop a lifting tandem drive axle system. You can lift the rear most drive axle and then de-clutch it. That axle setup is whats called the Fin-bogie. Still want to see how one works. Cool eh?

Yea UPS for some reason removes branding on their trucks. Something to do with not wanting to endorse any particular brand.

RF/Radio stuff can be a pain in the ass at times. Make sure your coax cable connectors (UHF) are nice and tight with good continuity. co-phasing requires special antenna placement to ensure you are getting the proper gain. Here is an excellent co-phasing guide: http://www.signalengineering.com/ultimate/co_phasing.html I would first try to get a single RG-58 50 ohm coax cable with properly terminated UHF connectors on each end and hook only one antenna up and check the results. Grounding both the antenna and radio unit can cause ground loops. If you can, isolate any metal of the antenna(s) and again test to see if the noise is still present. Antennas don't need to be grounded, that's the job of the shield inside the coax cable. If you already tried to directly wire the CB to the battery and the thing still gets tons of noise when the engine is running then you have alternator noise. Like Bollweevil said, does the sound change when the engine revs faster? If so then your going to need to filter out the Alternator noise. Some filters work, some dont. A proper filter will use an LC filter circuit to block and short AC noise and a capacitor to smooth out any fluctuations in the voltage. Also antenna placement is a problem too, especially since you have a co-phase setup.

You are probably talking about a band pass filter. It lets the 27MHz CB frequency through but blocks frequencies above and below 27MHz.

Never loose hope on that one. Cummins would be more than happy to sell them Mack branded engines, they don't even have to change the engine color . The damn emissions is what is killing the engine makers, too much money has to be poured into R&D for emission control. Mack struggled with that problem for years. International was smart and teamed up with MAN to design an engine for their trucks, even got a deal to use the CAT C15 block with IH fuel and emissions systems. I have to give IH credit there.

So far its part rumor. I am sure someone on this site knows for sure. Mayflower Vehicle systems was aquired by the Commercial Vehicle Group, so thats the company's name now. Volvo is looking to consolidate their entire truck line, I am surprised Renault Trucks is lasting this long too, especially since two Volvo Models use the Renault cabs. It will be a sad day once the Mack's are cabbed with Volvo cabs, the final blow that starts the Mack death spiral. But I do have a bit of hope, the pinnacle line was transferred to the Macunge plant so it looks like Volvo might be trying to separate the brands a bit. Hopefully they renew the Commercial Vehicle Contract.

Welcome aboard! Glad to her someones opinion from across the pond. The modernization of trucks appears to be a European thing, Here in North America its the opposite, we like keeping things old school. Must have been all those years drivers suffered in uncomfortable cab overs that caused a technology race to make the most fancy and attractive truck. Don't get me wrong I like some of that modern European truck technology but its mostly mechanical stuff and not cosmetic. I must admit that a Scania is one damn fine looking truck (P,R and the long gone T models) I also like the MAN's too. If you look there are very few independent truck companies left. Everyone either owns another brand or two or is owned by someone else. Plenty of US/Canadian truck makers were bought up by domestic brands and killed off. Pacific, Brockway, Hayes FWD, Scott and a bunch others were bought up ran for a few more years and then closed down. Its global business and it stinks but what can ya do? Hell I can name a bunch of those British lorry makers off the top pof my head and the companies that bought them and killed them: Scammell(Leyland), Foden (DAF-Paccar), Leyland(DAF-PACCAR), ERF(MAN), Atkinson(International). Its a shame those old lorry makers are gone, the old 60's/70's models really had some class and style (The Foden S36 and the FG come to mind). The only indpendant truck maker in the US is International.

The engine was the Cummins NHRS AKA the "iron lung". It was also available in Mack B model's. Videos of the NHRS:

WHAT? Why the hell would you turn down a half million plus order? Paccar and Freightliner would be on that like flies on crap. I hope he looks at Mack.

There are two types of alcohol systems, the injector and evaporator. You have the evaporator system that feeds evaporated alcohol into the compressor intake. Another type is the alcohol injector which injects alcohol downstream of the compressor, after the air dryer and into the wet tank. It is operated by the same dryer purge line from the governor. Bexdix makes both if you ever need to replace yours.

Its because Volvo is arrogant. They are very respected in Europe and other parts of the world. They cannot stand the idea of playing second fiddle to another company in the market, even a company they own. For years Mack has been very well respected in North America and many other places in the world. When Renault was powering their trucks with E7's many drivers/owners put the Mack lettering on their trucks, they were proud of the fact it was Mack powered. And Renault is in a way the Freightliner of Europe. Now that's respect. Volvo must hate the idea they bought out such a very respected company. Autocar was a very respectable brand but didn't have the stout integrated drive line, household name and heritage of Mack. They were easy prey for the viking like Volvo company, pillaging and plundering other brands to build up their own. Hopefully one day they see the error in their ways but as of now it looks like we have to fight to ensure Mack stays Mack. And iof you want to ensure they stay Mack be sure to: Insist on an all Mack drive line. Don't let them sell you a bargain chassis that's been sitting on the lot because it was improperly specked or ordered. Don't let them sway you with an offer on discounted Volvo trucks, tell them either they discount the Mack like they do Volvo or you take your money to Paccar or Westernstar (bluff of course). Or go to another dealer that gives a damn about the customer and not how many Volvo's they can push in a year. Don't constantly say you would rather buy used Mack's instead of new ones. That doesn't help the cause, it only shows Volvo one thing: low demand for Mack. They don't give a damn about the second hand market because it doesn't make them a dime. It just gives them an excuse to kill the brand. Show them you want Titan's, Granite's, Terrapro's and Pinnacle's. Show then there is still strong demand for the Mack name and drive line.I have said this all before and will continue to say it again!

Hi, The brake light switch might in in one of two places. First it might be on/near the foot valve or sometimes it might be screwed into the tractor protection valve. There are two low pressure warning light sensors, one on the primary reservoir and one of the secondary reservoir if one goes low it trips the buzzer and light.

Barry, good to see you keeping on top of security! Now we just need one more thing: more themes! If you can. bring back the old iron or the other darker background.

What a piece of shit to throw a dog into a compactor like that. Should throw the bum and the We have a beagle. my mother got an older one from a shelter for my elderly aunt after her beagle died. she fell out of bed in hurt her back and legs so she couldn't take care of the dog anymore. So we took her into our shop. And like Rob said they sure do make allot of noise. Good little dog though.

Hey Rob, How low do you want to go? From what I remember you wanted to make a drop deck, correct? How about 215/75R17.5 tires? Dual load is 4540 pounds which will allow you to use an axle upward of 18K in capacity. They are a hair over 30 inches in diameter so if you really engineer the deck you can keep it under 40 inches high, maybe even lower with some tricks. Two 18K axles gives you 36k capacity, couple that with a single axle tractor will give you a 60K GCW. And You could also gross out at 80K if loaded right with a tandem, some serious hauling capacity.

Guy on hanks posted the same problem. Turned out to be the unloader valve, 15 bucks is all it cost him.

Hey Rob, I remember Trent's tractor running that heavy by itself! The number Herb gave is probably spot on, that box has to weigh in at around 10 grand and add that to the weight of the truck which would be around 15-18 grand.

Mrs. Shuman sent me a reply on the 12th of August. I did not mention it because I did not want this to go any further. She was sincere and honest, and that is what I wanted to see, taking responsibility for ones actions. But I am afraid I might have stirred up a bit of a problem for her, I just hope this blows over for her and she learns a valuable lesson. From what I hear she has worked for Mack for over three decades (close to four) and was sucked into Volvo after the takover. I hear you guys, sometimes you have to learn the hard way. But at this point I am glad my voice was heard and I wish Mrs. Shuman no further harm. I hope I have not given Volvo higher ups a reason to axe a senior employee over a silly email. Mack employees have suffered enough this past decade since the takover and even before that in the 90's. She made it through and I would hate to be the reason she looses her job, I did not want it to be taken that far.

Ok here is my take on the situation. What she did was in fact wrong, PERIOD. But at the same time is it fair she loose her job over something that when compared to the grand scheme of things seems trivial? I do not wish to see this woman fired. She could be a mother feeding her kids or a single woman making a living for herself. Maybe she is a spoiled moron at the top of her IT food chain and thinks she can say whatever she wants. Either way I wish that she is reprimanded and learns her lesson, its tough to find an IT job nowadays. All in all I hope she learns that you cant be a condescending jerk about things and always get away with it.

I sent off an email to a customer relations person. I will see what comes of this. Anyone that thinks epaperflip.com is appropriate software is a damn moron. Poor web design and using clumsy gimmicks is my pet peeve when it comes to web browsing.

lol

This is a good one. I was browsing the Volvo Website the other day just checking the specs of the VH and comparing them to the Granite for fun. While I was browsing I found a broken link and as I normally do, I report it to the web master. But along with the report of the broken link I wanted to express my opinion about their use of epaperflip.com. Now in case you are wondering, epaperflip.com is a service that hosts your PDF files and then displays them in an annoying and slow flash based PDF reader. The reader bought my decent specked computer to its knees while viewing the silly thing and thought it would be a good idea to express my opinion. As usual, I received an automated reply as that is all you are supposed to receive and that's that. Well today I see an email from Volvo but this time it was from an actual Volvo.com IT employee. But it was not a thank you or anything else, it was accidentally sent me by a Volvo.com employee who reads the web master mail. He was re-sending it to another IT employee but sent it to me by accident. This is my original message: So does anyone think it sounds too harsh or impolite? I think it was pretty neutral in conveying my displeasure with their using epaperflip.com. This was his message to the other IT guy: Notice how the "care" in his last sentence is bold. This goes to show you the level of professionalism in their IT department, Idiot cannot even properly send an email. I am going to try and see if I can find an email for his boss and send a nicely written email detailing how I am a "Volvo customer" just expressing my opinion and am deeply offended by his remarks and the disregard and disrespect of customer input . Maybe cause the little wanker some grief. Anyone have any ideas or input?

No matter where you are in the US, you need to have a physical to renew the CDL. I believe its a federal DOT law.

Hi, The Bering company was an American company who purchased partially finished Hyundai cab-chassis and fitted them with Cat/Cummins engines and Fuller or Allison transmissions. They went out of business in 2001 because Hyundai terminated the Bering contract in order to secure a more lucrative contract with Daimler-Chrysler. The cab chassis is mostly Hyundai so finding parts might be a big problem.