Recent purchase 1984 MH

[Vladislav]

Was keeping an eye for an MH tandem tractor which was in service in Southern part of Russia. Actually a city of Novorossiysk - a big sea port at Black sea. It used to tow trailers with containers from the port and do other hauls until got a synchro issue and lost hi range in its T2090 9-speed. Overall condition was poor either and the owner was running out of money and went out of business as the follow. So the truck was put for sale about a year back or so. The price tag was way out of common sence but he made a drop in a month and I called him. Learned some basic facts and put the deal on a back burner. Than this past spring I had a side business in the region so I made a 1600km road trip with a car and checked out the truck in person. Wasn't lucky observing the chassis condition and didn't make any offer. Actually just kicked the tires. Than I took 3 more months having the truck on my mind and finily resolved to buy it since as long as I could figure there were only two MH's survived all over the country. One was already in my yard and that was the other. So I got my breath away, made a call and offered 80% of the last discussed cost. The owner took 2 days and than said Ok.

Further story was relatively smooth. I took my former wifey for the company (to drive a car) and she was eager for a travel. Got to the place in two days, arranged all paperwork with the owner in two days more and fixed a couple of small troubles on the 3rd day. After that I asked him to drive the truck myself when still with him to see how the things actually were. He drove 10 or so km, made a U-turn and I continued myself. First trouble was shifting since the shifter was really worn and almost impossible to put it in the top hole. Another issue was me always keeping right too much since I never drove cabovers and didn't use to be sitting right above the left wheel. But further events made me sad. After getting back closer to the place the truck was parked I couldn't shift into Lo (Lo gear of the high range was the lowest since he blocked compound in high range due to the synchro fail). After some more attempts the owner took driver's place and finally stated he couldn't get either Lo or reverse. And his suggestion was a broken shift fork in the main box since he had something similar in the past. I had doubts on that because seemed of not so easy for such brake doing nothing extraordinal to the shift lever. But having no other options we removed the top cover. Good thing cabover has free access to it. To my big surprise we found a half of fork sattling on the lo/rev sliding clutch. Good thing it didn't fall further into gears and another good thing the owner had a spare tranny apart including two forks. He had a brake down in the past indeed but not the same gears. It took us an hour or less to swap the part and put the cover back on. After that I thought to myself to drive the truck home hoping for no serious issues but being ready to call towing service to put it to nearest parking lot or a shop for further suggestions. Actually it was original plan since I didn't expect really smooth way of things from well worn rig.

Being at a Black sea coast we took a day on a beach. In fact the woman already spent a day there when I dealt with Mack but I could catch only one. Sure preference of spending time sunbathing or driving a Mack is questionable to some guys so I started the trip back home. Ufff... About no shifting, tire bouncing and smell of transmission oil pretty soon since it started getting off from the shifter on the top cover. All that wasn't really bad since the truck continued moving. Forgot to mention one "nice" especiallity. Probably fuel supply pump was bad or so and the owner installed small electrip pump into supply fuel line. The pump was off injector car but the way of attachment... It was put in between two portions of rubber hose hanging on them between left hand fuel tand and chassis rail (and leaking ocassionally). The wires were a top notch job. One took its way straight from positive battery pole and wrapped over the pump terminal. Another wrapped over the 2nd terminal and than attached (sure just wrapped over) some chassis part. And when you park the truck and going to off the pump you reattach the positive wire off the terminal. And sure if you leave it falling down and catch any chassis part it was making sparks. I could live with that during the trip but in some first 50 km the engine shut off and the reason was that loose wire. The shoulder was empty and it didn't happen again. Further things turned out very well since the truck survived the trip and we got home in two days. I made 600 km on the 1st day (we started about noon) and covered 1000 km more on the 2nd one. Oh, and all that was with tranny in direct so the fasted I did was 80km/h. Maybe that was good.

Edited September 29, 2019 by Vladislav

[Vladislav]

A couple of pics of Southern Russian environment. I followed the truck driven by the owner when we went to the city to make registration to my name.

[HeavyGunner]

 Congrats on the new truck Vlad. Beautiful countryside too by the way

[Dirtymilkman]

Why is the dog on the grille and not forward on the cab?

[yarnall]

You are crazy Vlad.  But it worked out and you got a neat toy.  Have fun with it.  Mike. 

[Brocky]

9 minutes ago, yarnall said:

You are crazy Vlad.  But it worked out and you got a neat toy.  Have fun with it.  Mike. 

I agree with Mike.. And having met you at Macungie, I know he is right!!! But that is all part of the FUN in this antique truck hobby.. If you took any more scenic countryside pictures of your trip, please post them as a lot of us enjoy learning about other countries.. 

Thanks

Brocky

[james j neiweem]

Great story Vlad and great find on the MH. Your English is better than mine now. I see you drive on the right side of the road in Russia.

[j hancock]

Another chapter from "Vlad's Excellent Adventures"!  Soon, all the Mack Trucks will be in your backyard!

[Vladislav]

18 hours ago, yarnall said:

You are crazy Vlad.  But it worked out and you got a neat toy.  Have fun with it.  Mike. 

Mike, your right. I tried to hide that when talked with you but you count me out anyway

Actual idea was to complete my first MH with parts off this truck and than later build a Superliner using 2nd chassis. So now I'm on a slow hunt for a good RW2 hood.

[Vladislav]

18 hours ago, Brocky said:

I agree with Mike.. And having met you at Macungie, I know he is right!!! But that is all part of the FUN in this antique truck hobby.. If you took any more scenic countryside pictures of your trip, please post them as a lot of us enjoy learning about other countries.. 

Thanks

Brocky

Ok, I promised in the past to do that and I will. Unfortunately not so many scenic wievs along the roads I usually drive. Central Russia is mostly flat with many fields and forests. Also a trouble I do many trips alone in the recent years. So difficult to steer and catch a camera at the same time.

I took this road shot in this past summer. Just a common Russian highway, followed to Belorussia in 20 or so km.

[Vladislav]

7 hours ago, james j neiweem said:

Great story Vlad and great find on the MH. Your English is better than mine now. I see you drive on the right side of the road in Russia.

James, thank you for respect to my English. I hope ideed I write suitable but difficult to figure that out myself. Another story is talking. Much less practice than typing on BMT and another trouble is to recognize speech. So always a wide field to increase your skills

Yes, that's true. The most people in Russia drive on the right side. Just excepting those who do it really drunk

[Vladislav]

6 hours ago, j hancock said:

Another chapter from "Vlad's Excellent Adventures"!  Soon, all the Mack Trucks will be in your backyard!

True indeed, I try my best. But it' turns out always 2-3 more out of the stable

[Vladislav]

20 hours ago, Dirtymilkman said:

Why is the dog on the grille and not forward on the cab?

As always, simple reason. As long as no Macks in the country there are no Bulldog mascots too. So such a shiny chrome plated figure is a dream toy to any boy here. And probalby to many already grown up boys. So someone got the original dog off the truck. Even possibly it was done by some of the previous owners for memories. Than at a later time some loving owner of the truck put his hand on that half-dog (catched what he could) and attached it to the grill.

When I found both of my R's I was too surprized both trucks still had original dogs. Suppose the main reason was R-model has the dog attached with screws from under the hood. So difficult to steal. Green MH had the bracket only and that blue MH doesn't even have the bracket. Both my "Syberian" captures had trace in the paint only and military Macks didn't have any dogs from the factory.

Actually nowadays anybody here could buy a dog from e-bay. Or order in American truck parts store if knowing the part#. But 25 years back it was absolutely impossible.

Edited September 30, 2019 by Vladislav

[Jamaican Bulldog]

On 9/29/2019 at 4:57 PM, Vladislav said:

Was keeping an eye for an MH tandem tractor which was in service in Southern part of Russia. Actually a city of Novorossiysk - a big sea port at Black sea. It used to tow trailers with containers from the port and do other hauls until got a synchro issue and lost hi range in its T2090 9-speed. Overall condition was poor either and the owner was running out of money and went out of business as the follow. So the truck was put for sale about a year back or so. The price tag was way out of common sence but he made a drop in a month and I called him. Learned some basic facts and put the deal on a back burner. Than this past spring I had a side business in the region so I made a 1600km road trip with a car and checked out the truck in person. Wasn't lucky observing the chassis condition and didn't make any offer. Actually just kicked the tires. Than I took 3 more months having the truck on my mind and finily resolved to buy it since as long as I could figure there were only two MH's survived all over the country. One was already in my yard and that was the other. So I got my breath away, made a call and offered 80% of the last discussed cost. The owner took 2 days and than said Ok.

Further story was relatively smooth. I took my former wifey for the company (to drive a car) and she was eager for a travel. Got to the place in two days, arranged all paperwork with the owner in two days more and fixed a couple of small troubles on the 3rd day. After that I asked him to drive the truck myself when still with him to see how the things actually were. He drove 10 or so km, made a U-turn and I continued myself. First trouble was shifting since the shifter was really worn and almost impossible to put it in the top hole. Another issue was me always keeping right too much since I never drove cabovers and didn't use to be sitting right above the left wheel. But further events made me sad. After getting back closer to the place the truck was parked I couldn't shift into Lo (Lo gear of the high range was the lowest since he blocked compound in high range due to the synchro fail). After some more attempts the owner took driver's place and finally stated he couldn't get either Lo or reverse. And his suggestion was a broken shift fork in the main box since he had something similar in the past. I had doubts on that because seemed of not so easy for such brake doing nothing extraordinal to the shift lever. But having no other options we removed the top cover. Good thing cabover has free access to it. To my big surprise we found a half of fork sattling on the lo/rev sliding clutch. Good thing it didn't fall further into gears and another good thing the owner had a spare tranny apart including two forks. He had a brake down in the past indeed but not the same gears. It took us an hour or less to swap the part and put the cover back on. After that I thought to myself to drive the truck home hoping for no serious issues but being ready to call towing service to put it to nearest parking lot or a shop for further suggestions. Actually it was original plan since I didn't expect really smooth way of things from well worn rig.

Being at a Black sea coast we took a day on a beach. In fact the woman already spent a day there when I dealt with Mack but I could catch only one. Sure preference of spending time sunbathing or driving a Mack is questionable to some guys so I started the trip back home. Ufff... About no shifting, tire bouncing and smell of transmission oil pretty soon since it started getting off from the shifter on the top cover. All that wasn't really bad since the truck continued moving. Forgot to mention one "nice" especiallity. Probably fuel supply pump was bad or so and the owner installed small electrip pump into supply fuel line. The pump was off injector car but the way of attachment... It was put in between two portions of rubber hose hanging on them between left hand fuel tand and chassis rail (and leaking ocassionally). The wires were a top notch job. One took its way straight from positive battery pole and wrapped over the pump terminal. Another wrapped over the 2nd terminal and than attached (sure just wrapped over) some chassis part. And when you park the truck and going to off the pump you reattach the positive wire off the terminal. And sure if you leave it falling down and catch any chassis part it was making sparks. I could live with that during the trip but in some first 50 km the engine shut off and the reason was that loose wire. The shoulder was empty and it didn't happen again. Further things turned out very well since the truck survived the trip and we got home in two days. I made 600 km on the 1st day (we started about noon) and covered 1000 km more on the 2nd one. Oh, and all that was with tranny in direct so the fasted I did was 80km/h. Maybe that was good.

LOL Those Lada lights don't look too bad either

[Freightrain]

Great story Vlad.  Glad to see you got to save another Mack.

[Vladislav]

5 hours ago, Jamaican Bulldog said:

LOL Those Lada lights don't look too bad either

You spotted them clever man LOL!

Some while back the truck had four headlights which were close to the original setup. The guy I bought the truck from said he installed those Lada's for better light since old American beams are blind indeed relating to European pattern. He gave me leftowers of that set and I sure will keep my final MH truck look factory.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Vladislav

[mrsmackpaul]

Fantastic story Vlad 

You journey a long way for your toys like me

Last trip I did was over 5000km round trip for a trailer I had been searching for for decade's 

 

The things we do for our hobbies 

 

Paul 

[harrybarbon]

Thank you Vlad for a story of successful improvising, where there is a will there is a solution. And your English as second (you may even speak more) language!!!

You mentioned 25 years ago, so is that 25 and possibly more years that Macks have been imported into Russia? Do you have knowledge of when the first Macks came into Russia and did they come via a European country or new direct from USA or Canada? Here in Australia our media reported 25 years ago and before, that there was no such trade into Russia on account of the cold war. And that is what I remember from my school teachers as well. Now I am not convinced that we were  correctly informed by our teachers!

 

[Brocky]

Vlad will have to answer about the commercially imported Macks, But I believe there were some in the Lend-Lease program during WW 2???

[Vladislav]

12 hours ago, mrsmackpaul said:

Fantastic story Vlad 

You journey a long way for your toys like me

Last trip I did was over 5000km round trip for a trailer I had been searching for for decade's 

 

The things we do for our hobbies 

 

Paul 

That's a good way of things Paul.

If I were searching something for decades I wouldn't miss a chance to make a 5000 km trip to grab that.

[Vladislav]

8 hours ago, harrybarbon said:

Thank you Vlad for a story of successful improvising, where there is a will there is a solution. And your English as second (you may even speak more) language!!!

You mentioned 25 years ago, so is that 25 and possibly more years that Macks have been imported into Russia? Do you have knowledge of when the first Macks came into Russia and did they come via a European country or new direct from USA or Canada? Here in Australia our media reported 25 years ago and before, that there was no such trade into Russia on account of the cold war. And that is what I remember from my school teachers as well. Now I am not convinced that we were  correctly informed by our teachers!

 

I mentioned 25 years since things got a big change overhere after Soviet Union collapsed. In relation to our subject I would admitt 1st the end of Cold war which meant greatly improved flows of import of different goods into the country including commercial vehicles. And 2nd reason I explained before is Socialistic economy meant prohibitation of any commercial property for citizens. State had a total monopoly on all production facilities. You could buy a car but not a truck. You could buy a garage to store your car but couldn't open a shop in it and start commercial repairs. That way nobody here owned trucks in the past. And since that just a few people have hobby trucks now - because not many old ones were saved  and also because there's no culture of private trucking so no interest in collecting its artifacts.

Speaking of the time the first Macks found their way to Russia I don't have quite corect answer. My suggestion they might be imported in very beginning of 20th century - before WW1. I haven't found facts so far but for example there were FDW trucks supplied to Tzar army about 1914 or 1916. Also I have a documented source of Hurlburt trucks sold in Russia in 1917. So importing Macks into the country during the same times seems quite possible.

That later there was time when Bolsheviki had wide cooperation with American companies during late 20's and 30's for supplys of different industrial equipement and technologies. One of the most well-known projects was a newly built Ford plant which took a name of GAZ factory in Gorky (Nizniy Novgorod). So also too possible on purchasing heavy trucks including such famous brand as Mack. I read on some Russian technical web-site about Mack ladder firetruck in service in Moscow before WW2. Unfortunately no documented proof survived. And there's info of the same state of truth of some AC dump trucks supplied for oilfield service. in early 30's.

That's true indeed about Lend-Lease suppliys. The fact is about 700 plus military Macks of model NR were shipped to Soviet Union during WW2. Unfortunately no detailed info on those supplys of were they shipped new as PKD sets of used trucks which transported goods through Iran. The most probably both ways. Also not really many documented facts describing that story but there's sufficient artifact as one such truck which survived (only one known) and it is mine now

Telling further during the times some single units of L and R-models were imported during the Cold War times mostly to provide road tests and than later take apart to investigate technology and materials for reasons of local automotive industry. And much later, after opening Soviet Union border (nobody could go outside of the country before 1990 excepting those who had government missions or served state contracts) some used Mack trucks (along with plenty of different vehicles) were imported into the country by private persons and companies.

There was a latest times remarkable page of Mack history in Russia. About 2009 or 2010 a company in the city of Saint-Petersburg (Russia) started importing Visions (actually Pinnacles with MP8) on a wide basis. They supplied about 100 or 150 trucks during 3 or 4 years. Those trucks were new and the company had official distribution from Mack. Unfortunately drop of oil costs in 2014 made that business inoperatabe and import cancelled. They still have 3 unsold trucks made in 2013 and many sold ones cruise Russian highways so you can see them down the road from time to time.

[Brocky]

Vlad, THANK YOU for the history lesson.. I have learned many things about your country I did not know before.. I cannot begin to imagine travel was that restricted..How much were the people allowed to move around within the Soviet Union???

Edited October 2, 2019 by Brocky

[david wild]

Keep voting for liberals and you will know first hand what is like, when you declare the NRA a terrorist organization and Hamas is not ?????

[HeavyGunner]

Like Brocky said awesome history lesson Vlad, I get a better understanding of things when I hear first hand accounts like yours. Keep the stories and pics coming. I really enjoy reading about your country. 

[mrsmackpaul]

I like others find it interesting that a country like the Soviet union could operate with such restrictions 

We complain about the restrictions we have in  Australia but I think we are very spoilt and we just dont know it

 

Paul