39 Baby Mack

Vinny, I probably have pictures of it somewhere, and if I find them I will be sure to post them someday! I do however have the chassis# or cereal# as you call it------- U611T1170 it had two bent sticks in it! (fifteen speed triplex) Ron

Great job Ben, Sounds good except for the transmission! Maybe you could edit the first part of it and get O.D. to put some Winfall Wimmin' in it for you, would be better than just listening to the birds! Ron

That's F-----G ridiculous!

That's just one of those "ergonomic" places to rest your foot! I wonder how many times they had to replace the treadle valve on the passenger side??? Ron

Mark, I don't have a Mack Marshall badge but I do have have one of those Mack bolo ties like Dale Robertson is wearing! Maybe I'll wear it to Macungie! Ron

Mark, They were great times indeed! I was in the attic at Luddy's rooting around for manifolds for a military engine I was converting over to put in our "U" model, I bet Vinny's ears will perk up now! Any way when I got up there, unattended, the first thing I noticed was a left rear quarter panel hanging from the the rafters for either an H-61 or an early H-63 I don't remember which it was for now but it had the quarter round windows in it for the sleeper, this was probably in '82 or '83! , right after Charlie Horner took it over. As far as Luddy goes, God rest is soul, he was one hell of nice guy and really, as you said, knew his stuff. The only thing you didn't want to do was go for a ride with him in that old black Ford pick-up! He gave me a ride from his place to Garden State Diesel one time so they could do some hurry up pump work for us and when we got got back to his place he said "Ronnie when there done with the pump I'll give you a ride back over to pick it up" I nicely said that I apreciated that but I was going to go over and wait for it. Maybe I could hurry them up a little, I still had to get the pump, go back to West Chester, put the pump back on, and have the truck ready to leave by 6 o'clock that night! And it did leave at 6 o'clock! This was all true but even if it wasn't I was not getting back in that pick-up with him! Luddy didn't pay a whole lot of attention to those eight sided red signs! For that matter, my brother Tommie and I rode up to Macungie with Charlie Horner to see our first "MH's" built and that wasn't a bargain either! Are you going to be at Macungie?? would love to sit down and bullshit with you! Ron

Happy Birthday!

The ones in the "E" models were gray I used Mack power gray engine paint. Ron

Mark, Our family and the Horner family were pretty good friends over the years. Our father knew Charles Horner Sr. who used to be at the Brockway factory branch in Philadelphia. Charlie Horner Jr. and his wife Harriet had four sons Chip (Charles III), Rob, Scott and Doug. Our parents also had four sons Ralph III, Thomas, Richard, and yours truly! The last time I saw Charlie Horner was in Pennsauken, NJ after they had taken over Camden Mack from Luddy! Were you ever at Camden Mack Service Co. in Pennsauken? This was a place that serviced Macks and sold parts--didn't sell trucks except for an occasional used one that people owed money on a repair!. It was owned by Ludwig Mueller who used to work for the Mack branch on Woodword Ave. in Philadelphia as a mechanic. He knew his Macks and opened this place on Rte.130 in Pennsauken. He also lived in a house at the rear of the property. He was so good that supposedly when the branch in Philadelphia had a real problem child that they couldn't figure out they'd send it over the river to Luddy's! There parts dept. was excellent, this was the last stop Horner made on there way back to Vineland usually to get parts not to deliver them! We used to get parts from both places, Horner delivered, Luddy didn't, but they always had what you needed so you didn't mind driving the forty miles if you had to. I remember one time ordering a windshield rubber for an "F" model from Horner's and they said I'd have it tomorrow which was fine with me. Then later in the day I had to run to Luddy's for something in a hurry, while I was there here came the delivery guy from Horner who I'd just seen at our place maybe 2 hours ago, guess what he was picking up? You guessed it a windshield rubber for an "F" model. I told him that it was for us and that I'd save him a stop tomorrow if he wasn't coming to West Chester He made a phone call to Vineland to make sure it was indeed for us, which it was, and I brought it home with me! They were fun times for sure! Ron

I was thinkin' the same thing! Ron

Mark, Do you remember the guys at the parts counter? John Jones, Melvin Street, and Manny? All nice guys. Melvin used to like to use that jive talk, Hey babe, how you doin' babe?, OK babe etc. etc. My brother Tom and I were used to that when we got him on the phone to order parts. I remember one day our father called down to Vineland to order something and got Melvin on the phone, to say the least he wasn't very amused!! Hate to admit this but Tom and I thought it was funny as hell!! Ron

Mike, Dale Robertson did have a tie to trucking, he had some sort of affiliation with Lux Hart horse transportation. I can't remember exactly where they were from (out west somewhere) used to have an autographed picture of him, I believe on horseback, in front of a Lux Hart van. The tractor in the picture was a green Bullnose KW with I believe a yellow horse van. I think the reason we ended up with the picture was that they were trying to make some sort of a deal with our father? I'm not sure but I believe Lux Hart eventually became Fox Hollow horse Transportation from San Dimas, CA. There's a glimpse of one of there trucks in the movie White Line Fever (white and turquoise green) On a local note to our family business they (Fox Hollow) eventually merged a with long time competitor of ours also from West Chester, Vernon T. Mercer horse transportation! Definitely is a small world! Ron

Yeah Mike I noticed that too! I also loved the picture of the pedals with the one on the extreme left being the windshield washer, the reservoir was a Trico plastic bag mounted on a bracket under the drivers seat with the hoses running under a plate screwed down over the driver's door threshold. This pedal wasn't just hooked to a switch you had to pump it like an old tire pump-----1st class to say the least! I often wondered this-- If you were going up Pike's Peak fully loaded in an "F" model with say a 255H.P. V-8 backed by a triplex and your windshield was constantly getting dirty would you be able keep your windshield clean and downshift at the same time?? Sure would keep your feet busy! It's really funny when you look back on some of this stuff, but heck you didn't need a crystal ball to fix them then either and a lot can be said for that!!! Ron

Great pictures Mike Thanks for posting, you must have one hell of a collection of Overdrive magazines! Ron

Congratulations and good luck with it! Ron

Happy belated Birthday! Ron

Great pictures Mike, Thanks for posting, nice to know that some of them are still around. Just amazing, when you think about it, how some of them are lucky enough to be taken care of and somehow survive to the point that they'll probably outlast us all. While other ones are wrecked, scrapped, or rust away to nothing. And then of course there are those that end up having to learn a new language later in life! Ron

Thank's Mike, I have seen this, but I certainly do appreciate you posting it! I've got a copy of the magazine and I think I still have one of the models around here somewhere? Michael made one for our father which he displayed in his toy train store along route 202 south of West Chester. Ron

Lookin' good! Ron

Happy Birthday Vlad! Hope you have great day! Ron

Neil, Sorta proves the the fact that newer isn't necessarily better! Ron

Nice looking' truck, go for it, then all you need to find is an H-67 to complete the set! Ron

Happy Birthday, I think you should treat yourself to one of those $50.00 haircuts! Hope you have a great day! Ron

Ken The Trico motors were the first ones used in an "MH", small half round shaped castings like the last ones used in an "F" model. They went to the Sprague motors after Trico went out of the air wiper motor business. There is no adjustment to the sweep of the motor other than buying another motor (higher than elephant ass if they're even still available,which I doubt) There was a rubber snubber located on the plastic mounting plate between the two arms that I think was to eliminate some of the bang, this might also cause the arm to have a little excess sweep if it is missing. You can also remove the arm and reinstall it closer to the center windshield post to try to eliminate it hitting the outside edge of the windshield rubber while in operation. Just for curiosity sake, Ken, how many times have you had to repair the windshield washer hoses where they wrap around the motors. With a fleet of "MH"'s you could make a career out of keeping them working without washer fluid spraying out all over the place!! Ron

There is unfortunately no conversion from air to electric wipers for an "MH" The Sprague wiper motors in my opinion are absolute garbage, Trico motors were much better. These things used to give me fits, they would quit in Ky., S.C., Fl. wherever! Keep your fingers crossed that there was a Mack dealer nearby, that they had the parts and if they did, they could work on it right away. After all that criteria was met be assured that you were gonna get bent way over and not even get a lip lock! I finally out of desperation did manage to convert one of our "MH"'s over to an electric motor for the drivers side. This is only one you could convert, of course it's the only one you really need anyway! I looked into converting the one on the passenger side but that was totally impossible with the H.V.A.C. ductwork! If you ask me how I did it I'm not going to be able to tell you exactly how I did it, it was too long ago, and we don't own the truck anymore, but the truck is still around. For the conversion I started with an electric motor for the left side an "MR" but believe me, with no exaggeration,it was quite involved!!!!!! The thing worked great, very quiet, and with the electric motor was able to have an intermittent delay in it, something you can't have with air. The main thing about it is it kept working, one less thing to worry about when the phone rang at 2 o'clock in the morning and it was raining and the truck was in Va. loaded headed north!! It also made the wiper arms and blades last longer because they didn't bang with the electric motor. Ron