New generation of Mack Addicts

[purepressure2004]

I definately agree that its great to see you younger guys getting into this. It makes me think there's some hope coming up the line. With the technoligy we have at hand its cool that you young guys are into a more mechanical hobby. When I was a little squirt the only way I could invision myself as an adult would be behind the wheel of a DM800. Even then it was kind of frowned upon. Its kinda like that bumper sticker that reads,"if I have to explain, then you wouldn't understand". The early eighties for me were great. There was still a huge variety of U models and DM's. Not to mention all the Brockways and A-Cars. I remember driving up 91 in North Haven in the early eighties and looking down at Stop and Shop's wharehouse and gazing at the rows and rows of U-Models parked for the weekend. I wish I had pics of back then. When you are a kid you think everything is going to be around forever. It's great there are alot of guys here that are into preserving the history of our industry, but it's better that there are young guys to preserve our history now. I think its cool that there still kids out there that are into trucks and equipment and working with their hands. I'm proud of how I make my living and if I could go back in time I wouldn't change HOW I make my money, but what era I would do it in. I feel honored that you young guys are interested in not only the equipment but the history of the companies and all the guys that made they're living from them as well. And for that I Thank you ALL!

[philatruck]

I will be 20 in June, and I always had a respect for Mack trucks. Growing up in Eastern PA (Which I consider to be part of the Mack Truck Capital of the world, PA), Mack Trucks have always been a common sight and sound throughout my life, and I enjoy the older (and modern) Mack trucks.

Edited February 16, 2013 by philatruck

[Green Dash]

I didn't realise how many of you were so young. I knew Vinny was 12 because he's been 12 for about 3 years now, but I was surprised to see the number of members in their teens and twenties. And Vision386 is only 50, I though he was like 80 or something.....

Anywho, as Mike mentioned above, it's hard to understand why any boy would not have some interest in trucks but i think it may simply have to do with what you are exposed to at a young age. I would sit for hours on a retaining wall down the street from my house that was along side a busy street and watch cars and trucks go by and never get bored. Then came that fateful day when I was nine and my Dad told me to climb up behind the wheel of a U model where he worked. At first I was kicking and screaming because it looked like it was going to fall over, but I calmed down after Dad put the kickstand down. This was my first time inside a Mack, or any large truck for that matter, and while looking out (and to the right) over that hood I had what I believe was an epiphany. It was a feeling I'd never felt before and it was the moment trucks and trucking got "into my blood". For the next 10 years or so I spent every moment I could riding with my Dad in various B, F, R, and U models as well as several other brands, cabovers and conventionals, sleepers and daycabs.

My favorite memories from my childhood are mostly from times I spent in or around a truck and it's refreshing to see that same enthusiasm in today's youth despite the fact that we live in a much different world.

[vision386]

I didn't realise how many of you were so young. I knew Vinny was 12 because he's been 12 for about 3 years now, but I was surprised to see the number of members in their teens and twenties. And Vision386 is only 50, I though he was like 80 or something.....

Anywho, as Mike mentioned above, it's hard to understand why any boy would not have some interest in trucks but i think it may simply have to do with what you are exposed to at a young age. I would sit for hours on a retaining wall down the street from my house that was along side a busy street and watch cars and trucks go by and never get bored. Then came that fateful day when I was nine and my Dad told me to climb up behind the wheel of a U model where he worked. At first I was kicking and screaming because it looked like it was going to fall over, but I calmed down after Dad put the kickstand down. This was my first time inside a Mack, or any large truck for that matter, and while looking out (and to the right) over that hood I had what I believe was an epiphany. It was a feeling I'd never felt before and it was the moment trucks and trucking got "into my blood". For the next 10 years or so I spent every moment I could riding with my Dad in various B, F, R, and U models as well as several other brands, cabovers and conventionals, sleepers and daycabs.

My favorite memories from my childhood are mostly from times I spent in or around a truck and it's refreshing to see that same enthusiasm in today's youth despite the fact that we live in a much different world.

Well said! and just so you know,i only LOOK 80,feel like a "young" 65 !...............................................Mark

[Green Dash]

65 is the new.....I just checked the calculator, it's still 65.

[vision386]

65 is the new.....I just checked the calculator, it's still 65.

DAMMIT!

[607t1173]

I know how it feels to be 65 ,at least for 20 more days.

[41180]

im 32 and its nice to see some guys my age that are into macks like me. most of the guys my age that are drivers and truck enthusiasts are all into paccar and cat engines. i remember as a kid in the 80s and early 9os mack was king around here in the northeast. my dads first truck was a 1968 international loadstar single axle with a tag log truck he bought in 83. he only ran that for a yr or so and in 84 bought his first mack a 74 RD . andhas been mack ever since with the exception of 2 western stars but mack superliners and CL 's were the back bone of the fleet .

things have changed so much in trucking the past 15 or so years . as a kid i couldnt have imagined seeing more petes and kw and freightliners on the road than mack trucks. so it is great to see my generation carrying on the mack tradition.

[d427]

I am 38 and have always been a gearhead. I grew up fascinated by big trucks and heavy equipment and how they built this country. I decide after seing a B model last year that I just had to have one. I am a professional car painter and paint Porsche, Audi, Ferrari and Bentley. Those machines are impressive in their own right but there is something about the old stuff that is really cool. What badasses all you guys were who made their living driving these trucks. I have driven some of the newer stuff and my Mom could drive those trucks. I am just now after 3 months of owning my first B model getting to where I am comfortable driving a twin stick and the attention it gets is amazing. you just dont see them out here in the west much (Colorado). Keep up the great stories I am having a blast learning about old Macks and trying to do my part to preserve them!

[Rich Reinhart]

When I was in the shop we had a few of young guys fresh out of Vo Tech that wouldn't touch the Macks, they wanted to work on the shiny new Peterbilts we had, I had no problem being the Mack guy.. and I was the "old guy" then at 33...

[nedly05]

I'm 31. I grew up around construction and trucks. We had 3 GMC 7500 single axles (still have one of them) until I was in my early teens, when my Father bought a 1985 R688ST tractor conversion that had seen better days. I drove it right after I got my CDL for a couple years, then we sold it to a neighbor who uses it as a site truck. We now have a 2005 Granite and a 2003 CH 613 tractor conversion, and the 74 RD (which has gotten the name "one stack mack with the crack in the back") I took my little girl (3 YO) for a ride in the granite this past summer to get a load of stone, she absolutely loved it! I'm definitely a mack fan, I would love to find a clean R model single axle for my operation.

Edited February 19, 2013 by nedly05

[umodelnut]

I'm 13 tomarrow...

[lucerne tractor]

I'll be 59 very soon. When my family moved from Maine to Conneticut in 1958 or so, they moved next door to another family from Maine they knew, in a trailer park in Seamore Ct. George and Shirly Parket. George worked for Beard construction on the Nuagatuck river and drove a Mack, B model? I got to go to work with him a few times and ride in the truck, I was maybe 4 years old,I remember him looking over in the passangers seat saying, "why you bouncing around so much" he also had a MG TD convertable and would pick me up at the end of the street and give me a ride to the house. That was a big deal too. My mom told me years later, the ride was only about 100 feet or less but it seemed like miles to me. I walked up there almost every day and waited.