rsb502

Superdog it was a either a 54" or 60" sleeper didn't put a tape on it and they're hard to guesstimate with the exhaust notches, it was the tall roof flat top.

Almost forgot, the mirrors and mudflaps were backwards on the Superliner too, that kills me for some stupid reason.

If either of those quads goes up for sale I want it not kidding just price it and well talk, I like the first one best. Ryan B.

Superliner was rough, lots of spray paint and no tape before, kinda sad to me because the red paint was pretty nice and the body was straight as an arrow. The r is a 9 spd just use the second shifter for high/ low range it was straight too, I'm not into the super show stuff so not my cup of tea but still nice. I was surprised how few trucks were in the show actually seems like a pretty light turn out. I had more fun inside talking to parts/ tool reps ( only the cute ones) than outside.

Yep gotta get another 41" section and another carrier bearing now. I wsnted to put u joints in it anyway I have no idea how old those were but they were still tight.

Makes me sad to say but we don't have very many folks left in the US that could build those scale replicas. We have dumbed down the population so far being a nation of people that buy what they want no one wants to learn how to build anything. I remember when I was in high school they were starting the computer programmer age they actively tried to get kids to go into office work rarely teaching mechanical skills. We as a nation are one of the worst in the world for teaching and graduating mechanical crafts. If you look at the numbers there will soon be a major need for mechanically skilled workers. The railroad industry alone is looking at over 30,000 machinists and other skilled trades retiring in the next 5 years.

Oh and no I have not Ray, I figured it might as well be kindof a reward after I get done to drive it at highway speeds.

Here's a decent before/after.

Well there ya go kids, I'm about half done. I have to break out the wire wheel and do some rust control between the frame rails, drill about a hundred holes and hook up a few air lines. I am glad to say there was not as much rust between the rails as I expected, I actually feared the worst but theres still some factory paint holding on. I guess I'll try to get more done after this next bit of rain and after I recover from doing this much myself( come on back Staxx). I can safely say having a 6000# crane available never gets old it is the only reason I could do this much.

Well there ya go kids, I'm about half done. I have to break out the wire wheel and do some rust control between the frame rails, drill about a hundred holes and hook up a few air lines. I am glad to say there was not as much rust between the rails as I expected, I actually feared the worst but theres still some factory paint holding on. I guess I'll try to get more done after this next bit of rain and after I recover from doing this much myself( come on back Staxx). I can safely say having a 6000# crane available never gets old it is the only reason I could do this much.

Ok kids can anybody guess what uncle Ryan did on his day off? He nearly broke his back stretching a truck.

Got a couple pics but nothing good yet I've been busy at work, I got all the old Denver brackets off and all the factory bolts out. I'm gonna try to get the rears slid back today and get em bolted up.

Well I got some 3.65 carriers from Sevart LLC (thanks again) last week and decided to just go ahead and swap em. I got started had some help from Staxx and that's bout done. I have wanted to stretch my little 236" wb out a hair dab since I got the truck and while I was swapping carriers started staring at that. Long story short I've got everything ready to slide except one stubborn trunnion bolt and two cuts in my outer frame rails, then she's growing to a 277" wb. I have decided to use the rear crossmember bolt holes ( slightly reamed to 16mm)in the inner frame for my trunnion bolts(second from back) then I'm still using factory holes and alignment. More to come including pics soon.

I remember reading a story in Popular Mechanics I think back in the 80's when I was younger that had a couple miniature Freightliners that were built by Freightliner I think one of those is in a museum up northwest.

Unless something crazy happens the BMT meet n greet at the Mack Trucks booth is good to go for noon on Saturday at MATS. I should have 3 other truck guys with me one is the owner of that 69 RS wrecker I posted a week or two ago. Hope to meet some of you there I'm sure I'll have a Superliner shirt on.

Ok so look at the roof line and the windshield.........that's a modified B model cab, pretty neat.

I wouldn't mind trying one of the super econodyne trucks out if I were still trucking otr, however I think it can be made better with a couple changes. I would try to order the chassis, cab, engine and rolling hardware but swap the rears for a slightly higher ratio and use a manual 10 spd direct transmission. If economy is the end goal they have a great product but going from an od tranny to direct and swapping ratios to get the same rpm/road speed would benefit efficiency. Od transmissions are great for keeping rpm down but the higher the od ratio the more power it takes to turn it, go with a direct 1:1 top gear and you will pull better on grades and have less parasitic loss thru the drive train in top gear. Makes sense to me and so does the Mack approach of using the automatic. They are trying to build an efficient truck for the steering wheel holders that can't figure out when to shift appropriately themselves so they let a computer handle it for them.

Windows are too low? Cant see lights? Let some air outta that seat driver your gonna get a concussion!

Zephyr pro 40 metal polish go easy by hand, use a terry cloth wax pad to apply it and terry towel to remove after it dries if there's a film when you're done just wash with regular car wash and dry it off.

Yeah Staxx is the man my mind went straight to the check valve on the water separator too.

Have you Been in a newer +4 cab, hell I'm over 6'1" and all leg and I manage to keep the seat off the wall with no air in it. I know a lot of people think bad things about Mack when they think about comfort but the truth is they have come a long way since the B model.

Bedroom! Hell I don't think I did anything in a bedroom for the first few years there.

If they aren't smooth you'll have to either wet sand or use a buffer and a polishing wheel with some jewelers rouge. The tanks will shine like new after you use a buffer on em, I like a yellow (medium) wheel and green jewelers rouge for a one shot polish. Oh and it beats the hell out of hand polishing you'll have to wet sand then hand polish two or three times to get the same effect.

A MACHINE! You don't get nearly dirty enough like that, you know you've been polishing when your blowing out black boogers the next day.

Mack comes out on top in vocational use, Mack transmissions and rear ends are some of the strongest available and the Mack camelback rear suspension was so good as designed it has barely been changed in over 50 years. Volvo makes a quiet comfortable highway truck but everyone I've known to try them in heavy use has gone back to Mack or KW asap, it's just a different way of doing things. With a Mack pedigreed drive train you go to one place and deal with one company for everything from the front to the back and always have, other oem's like Volvo are getting there now but there about 100 years late to that party. In short Mack sets up their engine programming to get the low rpm high torque rise for vocational work, then has their transmission and their gear ratios in Mack double reduction rears that are all matched for the best possible operation. I will say this Mack started designing their trans/rear gear ratios around their engines way back in the early 1900's and now they are having to set the engines to Mack gear ratios, kinda flipped.