Unexpected purchase. DM686

[Vladislav]

The story is there's Turkish construction company which built alot in Moscow during 90's and 2000's including a borough of skyscrappers which was named Moscow City. They brang a fleet of Mack trucks from Turkey and used them for moving machinery and transporting concrete (those were mixers). All the trucks were painted yellow or amber and were either DM686 and DM690. I don't know the exact number of the Macks but to my understanding it was 30 or so trucks. You could see them driving in Moscow in 90's which was no doubt uncommon and impressive sight. Years flew and closer to 2010-2012 the trucks dissapeared. The last time I saw one was in 2010. Once I even googled the company address and called the office. The guy redirected me to their transport department and the manager told me they had one or two Macks parked in a yard. Promised to call me back when they would figure to sell them off but it never happened. I was not really eager to purchase a DM and was partly happy having an excuse to not gab one more boat anchor to add to my fleet of projects.

A few years passed by and a week back a friend texted me with photos of yellow DM and a phone number. I immediatelly got excited by the look of the rig and also by the van body installed on it. If I bring the truck back to life it could be used as a camper and if not (as long as it wouldn't) I could use it as a storage. So I made a call and the guy explained the company cleaned the yard indeed and they were going to set the price. A few days later he called me back and declared the cost. It sounded higher than would be reasonable for a non-running truck nobody needs for job but my argumentation was declined by "sells for that or... scrap?" Actually it was nearly 1.5 times of the scrap cost so I figured it was just money and not really big money. And I had a spot in my property... I could make free selling my GAZ-66 truck which didn't run for the last 15 years and was parked because of its military van body I used as a storage. So the puzzle achieved shape. You know when you assemble a puzzle you want a nice picture. I wasn't the exception.

Further story was realitively fast. To my pleasure the truck was parked locally. Just 40 or so km from my place. Absolutely surprizingly! I didn't need to drive 1 or 2 thousand km to get it home! The issue was the van body heigth so I had to look for a wrecker not a low boy. Turned out the qutes were very reasonable and I got the Mack parked near my place in a few days. We had to remove the prop shaft to prevent the tranny from spinning. IDK how it was critical for towing just 40km/25 miles with 60km/h top speed so figured I wouldn't experiment. Bad thing the wrecker couldn't get into my gates with the DM hooked so I had to park the latter in the street. The most right way was seemed to fire the engine up, reinstall the prop shaft and drive it in. I connected two fresh batteries, checked fuel in the tank, hand primed and made a few attempts to crank. Having no luck I took a can with diesel and primed by electric pump. After a minute or so of cranking I heard sparks and in 30 seconds it fired up. Fun strated after I tried to accelerate by the pump lever and having no reaction I tried to shut it off. No reaction!!! Honestly I was prepaired for such the scenario. Grabbed a piece of plywoood and closed the intake pipe. Turned out a couple of small air lines were found dissconnected and the engine continued to spin sucking air through them. Ok, we removed the supply hose from the can and after about a minute of consuming the content of injection pump it rest in peace.

Further investigation showed the rack stuck due to 2 stuck plungers. That's a Bosch pump and it didn't have a side cover to get to the plunger tappets. So turned out as a not really simple story but that's another story I'm currently in.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Vladislav

[D-Day]

Excellent story good find congratulations 

[85snowdog]

Now I see why you were asking about tires , lol

Congratulations  on your new find. Great story to. 

We have more than an R688 in common now 

Edited July 23, 2021 by 85snowdog
Spelling

[yarnall]

That’s great.  Congratulations.  Maybe you should pretend you went on a long journey and  send some photos of the countryside. Mike. 

[609albert]

what type of wrecker ,tow truck is that, and also how did you get to Russia ,did you come from U.S.A.?  Is their a lot of Macks their ?

[Brocky]

12 hours ago, yarnall said:

That’s great.  Congratulations.  Maybe you should pretend you went on a long journey and  send some photos of the countryside. Mike. 

We always enjoy pictures of your countryside!! Whether on a truck retrieval run or just a Bike / car ride.. I have forwarded you earlier topics pictures to my son-in-law who is 2nd generation Ukrainian. 

That wrecker looks like a cross between what we call a roll back and a ramped low boy trailer, with an under axle lift mounted on the back??  Got some more pictures of it???

[Red Horse]

Excellent Vlad-keep the pix coming. Likewise on Brocky's comment on "countryside" pix-always enjoy the education😎

[Vladislav]

20 hours ago, 85snowdog said:

Now I see why you were asking about tires , lol

Congratulations  on your new find. Great story to. 

We have more than an R688 in common now 

Thank you Keith. Yes, honestly I hate the look of the front wheels of DM when narrow 20 inch wheels are fitted on spoke hubs. So strongly going to put something wider and with positive offset. I'm thinking of 385/65R22.5 so far but found out Dayton rims wider than 8.25" is hens teeth in my part of the world. The only option I found so far is a set of 14" wide rims somewhere in Siberia and they asked nearly $1K for 6 rusty barrels. 14inch seems to wide for my blood and another possibility seen is cutting centers off 11.75 trailer wheels which are pretty common here and weld in a fitting ring off 8.25 Daytons. Big lathe is needed to do this job and and all those spoken wheels to buy. So looks like an entertainment you should get prepaired for and much better to avoid it at all purchasing ready rims instead.

You're right, now we have more than one smilar truck in common. And you seem having the most kinds of the Mack "softnousers"

[Vladislav]

19 hours ago, yarnall said:

That’s great.  Congratulations.  Maybe you should pretend you went on a long journey and  send some photos of the countryside. Mike. 

Mike, I hope I will make a few more long journeys in my life. Sometimes you just should force yourself to do crazy things to fill up the life with bright colors. Although the trip was short I made a few pics down the road anyway. Mack didn't have any lights at the rear (someone found another use for them) and to my surprize the wrecker guy didn't have a light panel to temporary install on a towed vehicle. So I preferred to follow him all the way being that light panel.

[Vladislav]

19 hours ago, 609albert said:

what type of wrecker ,tow truck is that, and also how did you get to Russia ,did you come from U.S.A.?  Is their a lot of Macks their ?

No, I'm a local aborigen. Never lived in the States. Just got lucky attending Macungie show a couple of times and that was about all my US experience.

The wrecker was a single axle roll off truck which also had hydraulic arm to put under a front axle for towing. It's called "brill" here for some reason. So the truck could transport light vehicles on its bad and tow heavier ones at the same time. The driver said that Scania was originally a car transporter tractor-trailer and was refurbished into the current shape by a shop. Honestly I got surprized when the driver said he was eager to tow the Mack since it was definitely heavy for that wrecker. But he gave my attractive cost and it was his business not mine.  Also a good point was the wrecker wasn't long. There's a sharp corner when you're entering my street and he had better chances to slick into the curve than a bigger size unit. I had a MH-model purchased a few years back and it was delivered by a wrecker. It didn't go into my street and I had to pull the MH with a rope by my 4x4.

Speaking about Macks in Russia they are really scarce. Putting aside a hundered or so Visions/Pinnacles you can count the rest of rigs using your fingers. Actually I do it from time to time. Of the rigs known there were nearly 10 R-models, 30-40 DM's, 7 or 8 MH's, 10 or so newer RD's, 3 known DMM's, 10 or so CH's, 4 CL's, 10 or 20 CS, a couple of MS, 1 Cruiseliner, 10 or so MR concrete pump units. There was a lot of nearly 700 NR-models supplied Under Lend-Lease in 43-45 but only one chassis survived. Visions continue working. The same with a few CH's. A few DM's must be still in operation together with 3 known R's. The same with MR's and RD's. I think 2 or 3 CS are still alive. 1 MH showed up in Vladivostok but I don't know if it still exists. 2 more are in my yard. Also 2 R's, WS, one DMM, the NR... Now the DM too. So I belive no less than 50% of historical Macks in the country are in my collection now

Edited July 23, 2021 by Vladislav

[Vladislav]

7 hours ago, Brocky said:

We always enjoy pictures of your countryside!! Whether on a truck retrieval run or just a Bike / car ride.. I have forwarded you earlier topics pictures to my son-in-law who is 2nd generation Ukrainian. 

That wrecker looks like a cross between what we call a roll back and a ramped low boy trailer, with an under axle lift mounted on the back??  Got some more pictures of it???

That's cool. I'm glad to hear of anybody enjoying my posts. Mentioning Ukraine I personally don't like the way of things my country currently gets into relating that country but I would like to keep away from political discussions. Sorry no good photos of the wrecker excepting the posted ones. I described the most I could about the truck in the post above.

[james j neiweem]

Vlad great story! Definitely need wide tires in the front. That would make one slow heavy camper. Post the specs when you get a chance.🙂

[Vladislav]

17 hours ago, james j neiweem said:

Vlad great story! Definitely need wide tires in the front. That would make one slow heavy camper. Post the specs when you get a chance.🙂

James, the specs of the truck make me cry. When I first saw it and looked below the chassis the tranny seemed to me as T100 series so I (a stupid) got expecting it as 10 or 12 speed. But when I took it home and wire brushed the stamping it turned out X107A what meant the old 6-speed with the top direct. Brushed the carrier and the mark of 5.32 showed up. What the hell! I just even don't want to figure the top speed of that beast riding on 11.00R20 rears... Probably something like 75-80 km/h or 45-50MPH. The chassis is a 3/8 double frame in very good condition (was covered with the van body the most of its life) and I belive 20,000 front axle judging by the hub style. Camelback rears of 44,000 and EM6-300 4V engine under the hood. The Turks had a few tractors based on the same chassis, just a bit shorter and towed low boy trailers. I suppose my truck was originally specified for a similar kind of job but turned out converted into a service vehicle.

Edited July 24, 2021 by Vladislav

[james j neiweem]

Six speed was popular in these. Easy to drive also.

[Vladislav]

I have a T2070 laying in a shop. Seems nothing extraordinar to put it in there. I even have offset shift lever off a DM for it. That tranny has 4th direct but also 0.60 over which would improve highway performance sufficiently. Two speeds of the low range would work no worse than the Lo in the 6-speed at my suggestion. So the main issue is the time you need to put your hands on those bolts and nuts.

[mowerman]

Right on man have a ball with it…. Bob

[mrsmackpaul]

Im impressed Vlad, always a great story from your part of the world

It should make a great camper except for the speed but it gives you more time to enjoy the scenery as you travel 

[85snowdog]

On 7/23/2021 at 4:04 PM, Vladislav said:

Thank you Keith. Yes, honestly I hate the look of the front wheels of DM when narrow 20 inch wheels are fitted on spoke hubs. So strongly going to put something wider and with positive offset. I'm thinking of 385/65R22.5 so far but found out Dayton rims wider than 8.25" is hens teeth in my part of the world. The only option I found so far is a set of 14" wide rims somewhere in Siberia and they asked nearly $1K for 6 rusty barrels. 14inch seems to wide for my blood and another possibility seen is cutting centers off 11.75 trailer wheels which are pretty common here and weld in a fitting ring off 8.25 Daytons. Big lathe is needed to do this job and and all those spoken wheels to buy. So looks like an entertainment you should get prepaired for and much better to avoid it at all purchasing ready rims instead.

You're right, now we have more than one smilar truck in common. And you seem having the most kinds of the Mack "softnousers"

Heres a pic of some 385's on my RD compared to 445 's on the DM .

You mentioned your specs. It made me curious as to what rears were in my DM .After checking , It has 5.55 rears. I didn't know but after checking BMT , it turns out its kinda common with a T2070 and 300 maxidyne . I learn something new every day on this site . 

[mowerman]

also.....seems to be in pretty good shape...bob

[Vladislav]

19 hours ago, 85snowdog said:

Heres a pic of some 385's on my RD compared to 445 's on the DM .

You mentioned your specs. It made me curious as to what rears were in my DM .After checking , It has 5.55 rears. I didn't know but after checking BMT , it turns out its kinda common with a T2070 and 300 maxidyne . I learn something new every day on this site . 

The 5.55 is a figure I also came along. Those are installed in the DMM I accuired a few years back. Unfortunately I haven't been able to do much with the truck. The cab was removed for transportation (not by me) ans some damage to air lines and other small stuff was done. Also the bab itself needs some fix and paint so it seems as a shame to put it back on the chassis in a shape it currently is in. The truck is equipped with EM6-285 and T2060 which has the same hi range ratios as T2070 or T2080. BTW DMM has 445/65 at the front and I could found wide Budd wheels to fit the same type of tyres to the rears. So gonna be a hot looking unit when it's done.

A question - do you have an idea on the width of the front rims both of your RD and DM have? I'm curious on what size would work for 385/65? It's very common tyre size in Euroope for the most trailers which have 3 axles at the rear and ride on 6 such wheels. Also many tractors have them at the steer axle. But they all mounts on "Budd" style wheels. I type it this way since European wheels have different bolt pattern, actually larger stud circle so those wheels don't seem correctly called Budds. Ok, no matter, those wheels are 11.75 wide and I belive American wheels of that width don't exist.

[85snowdog]

13 hours ago, Vladislav said:

The 5.55 is a figure I also came along. Those are installed in the DMM I accuired a few years back. Unfortunately I haven't been able to do much with the truck. The cab was removed for transportation (not by me) ans some damage to air lines and other small stuff was done. Also the bab itself needs some fix and paint so it seems as a shame to put it back on the chassis in a shape it currently is in. The truck is equipped with EM6-285 and T2060 which has the same hi range ratios as T2070 or T2080. BTW DMM has 445/65 at the front and I could found wide Budd wheels to fit the same type of tyres to the rears. So gonna be a hot looking unit when it's done.

A question - do you have an idea on the width of the front rims both of your RD and DM have? I'm curious on what size would work for 385/65? It's very common tyre size in Euroope for the most trailers which have 3 axles at the rear and ride on 6 such wheels. Also many tractors have them at the steer axle. But they all mounts on "Budd" style wheels. I type it this way since European wheels have different bolt pattern, actually larger stud circle so those wheels don't seem correctly called Budds. Ok, no matter, those wheels are 11.75 wide and I belive American wheels of that width don't exist.

I think they are 14 inch rims Vlad. But let me double check and get back to you. I will figure out the offset on them to. 

 

[Vladislav]

9 hours ago, 85snowdog said:

I think they are 14 inch rims Vlad. But let me double check and get back to you. I will figure out the offset on them to. 

 

Thanks. I do belive 14 inch would work fine for 445's. But have worries on good fit of 385 on them. If you have a minute check out the blue truck. No rush with that.

[85snowdog]

2 hours ago, Vladislav said:

Thanks. I do belive 14 inch would work fine for 445's. But have worries on good fit of 385 on them. If you have a minute check out the blue truck. No rush with that.

I got the size wrong Vlad. After checking , I was able to get you some good info that may help you . 

The RD with 385's has a part # on it of 31674.   Thats a 22.5 X 12.25 rim with 3 inch offset .  

 

The DM with 445's has a part # on of 13228.  Thats a 22.5 X 13 with 3.94 offset.

That number is no good any more . But by dimension I was able to get a new number. 

The new # is 32201TK .  

The rim part numbers are Accuride  numbers . And the way I understand it . The offset is from the centre of the rim , not the outside edge.

But I could be wrong , lol . Ive been wrong before . 

Hope it helps. 

[Vladislav]

Keith, many thanks for the sizes and especially for the numbers. I made a quick look and it appeared like your info helped a lot to narrow down the search.

[Vladislav]

Freed up two plungers in the pump to make the rack moving, started the engine. Tinkered with slack adjusters and air lines a bit and got her running. Than washed all fleas off the hood and the cab.