Vladislav

Ok, got it. Just thought the prime mover was yours. And the small one also by the matching colors.

Wow! Didn't know you had that old A-car in the middle. Nice collection and thank you for the tour

That trip I covered nearly 40 kilometers of that dirt road. It took me one and a half hour plus a 10 minutes relaxing stop. Rears were inflated to 4 bar/59psi and the truck was really shaky. Fronts were 6bar/88psi. Having that pressure I noted rear tyre's shoulder areas didn't touch pavement when you're on a highway keeping dust on. After home I deflated rears to the pointed above 2.5 bar/37 psi and felt much better with tyres making contact by full width. Was going to drop off more down to 2 bar/ 30 psi but just didn't do that. Cars drive with 2 bars in tyres but car's rim has humps for better sidewall lock and truck whells don't.

Almost the same with me. No TV antenna/cable and news only from the net being patiently readed to filter off BS and hidden advertizement.

Any fenders?

Good question. I'm in the line to hear the answer.

They look really nice on period correct trucks.

What was the last year of production of Valueliners in Australia? And btw were there NZ made Valueliners?

Ha-ha-ha I posted this below pic a few years ago when asked a question on the same matter. Dropped the pressure down to 2,5 bar in the rears (don't remember how many psi) and got much happier. But the wheels were 11R24.5 tubeless.

You can use hub piloted wheels on old studs if machine the holes. Otherwise (and the correct way) is to install newre style hubs for newer hub piloted wheels. On the pic of the rear hub you can see wheel nuts for the old style wheels. But seems not easy to find such ones in the design of the front ones on the truck. So I expected some mod.

So far it seemed to me like not all the hardware used in MH frame was metric. Wonder which style of threads was used to attach Camelback stand or Neway brackets if airride was used. Neway was a vendor so the brackets could be pre-drilled SAE. 3/4 is equal to 19 mm but you have 18 mm or 20 mm of metric hardware.

Interesting story and pics. BTW do Australian trucks have 17 digit VIN numbers or shorter ones? Or 17 digits starting from 1979? And did Macks have VIN stamping on the RH frame rail (or LH?) or neither of?

No, these are for Estern trucks. Would fit R, DM, late RW and MH. Ealy Superdog, Cruiseliner and RS had wider tops and different bottoms either. You can't step on Western tops as was mentioned on here. Eastern ones set alog all the front and rear line so don't flip when you put your weight near the side.

Wow! Cool! I haven't seen it.

There was discussion about this truck on here about a year or two back. As I remember the cowl was modified to make the total length of engine compartment larger to accomodate V12.

looks like inverted Camelback rears to me.

I wouldn't advice you on engine options since my strong preference is stock configuration which only brings historical value to a vehicle but I would toss an idea on the look. If you're thinking installing pickup bed or so I'd put a big winch or a small crane behind the cab and mount the bed further to the rear. This would allow you to keep long wheelbase and achieve special and a bit agressive appearance. Telling further that may bring you smooth enough ride with stock rear and also front suspension and split the rebuild costs sufficient. Again, your truck means your rules.

I think such option was typical for many firetrucks. Probably to save space for rirefighting equipment at the sides of the chassis and also for weight distribution. Nice looking unit, congrats on the new toy!

Welcome to the forum! Sounds like you covered plenty of interesting miles and kilometers with your F-model. And also sounds like you passed along my neck of the woods several times. Macks are really scarce in Russia, I'm pretty sure you noted that yourself. Would be very interesting to see pics of your restored truck. Vlad

I would pull off the top cover and watch the gears. Including how bad or rusty they are. Identifying an OD tranny against a direct one is quite easy with the cover off. You see 5 gear wheels on the top shaft. The 1st at the front is a constant mesh (actually a drive pinion). The 2nd from the front could be 5th (OD) or 3rd. Relate the size of it to the front gear (constant mesh). If it's less in size it means it allows the shaft spinning faster than the constant mesh so it's OD. If it's slightly larger than the Constant mesh gear (and every next gear is larger in any case) it works as 3rd and the highest gear in the tranny is Direct. You shift that gear wheel in when put the lever into right forward position. It it's OD you first shift Direct and than that spot. If it's 3rd you shift it and than Direct. This explains why old Mack transmissions had different shift patterns for Direct and OD units.

Blue truck is what was for sale at OldMacks. Purple hood was offered by a company in the States. I don't recall details excepting that Paul 41Chevy posted the link. As you can see in both cases the look was Ok.

Where is that cool shade to spend an hour or a half to enjoy?

I rebuilt my old one in a reason of restoration. It also had ancient carbon seal and it still has but I put a new rebuild kit into and had to lap the mating surface of the housing. Turned out Ok, a bit to my surprize.Had to pull the rotary wheel off the shaft and press back on after. Also going to restore a pump for R-model mostly to sandblast and paint and will put new PAI seal in it but that's not today.

Definitely looks like Mack 673 or 711 block to me but with oil/water cooler and turbo it must be something newer than everything installed in L-models. Interesting it has the oil filter mounted off the engine block and this could be one of key points for identification..

O-ho! Sounds like multuple different stamps were involved. Didn't know, thanks, will keep in mind.