A bit of travelling and one more R-model

[Vladislav]

Some day in the fall an ad popped up offering a Mack with some kind of an oilfield pumping unit mounted on it. The truck was located in 1300 km from my place and there was no price tag listed. I scratched my head for a couple of days, made a call and learned the details. The condition was running but it was not in use for a few years. The asking price was not too attractive either and having well enough of old irons to play with I put the deal aside. The ad kept posted for a few months and had me scratching my head ocassionally. But once about the New Year the title got changed from a truck to a chassis. I made another call and learned that the equipment got removed (and sure scrapped) and the asking price reduced. I put an offer of nearly 2/3 of what was asked and having it not accepted put the deal on a back burner again. But noted to myself that cab and chassis is much simplier combo to be transported than a truck with heavy equipment.

Closer to the spring the guy called me back himself and said he got ready to get rid of the truck. I than had to wait for warmer times for snows to melt down and than some time more to shedule the trip. Took my shop guy as a company and we covered 1350 km in a day and a half with Mercedes. I investigated the Mack and found it well worth its money. Called a semi guy I have had preliminary arrangement with and asked the seller for a crane to load (which he had promized to bring). In fact it turned out the crane could get to the place no earlier than in a few hours (after a shift) and others haven't pleased us too. So the seller said there was a crane in a company he was employed in but it could not go off a yard it supposed to work at. The yard was in about 10km from the place the Mack was parked so it was needed to drive that distance on a public road and partly in a city. I was not happy to drive unregistered old truck in unknown condition having no wrecker coverage but also didn't want to spend extra half a day there waiting. So I test drove nearly 10 circles over the yard the Mack was parked in and after fixing a couple minor issues hit the road.

The drive turned out smooth and the crane came to work in a quarter of hour. The semi truck arrived about the same time so we packed the toy really fast. Than me and my swamper got our trip back home and the semi followed us the next day. In a couple of days the load was at my place so I arranged another crane and freed the Mack off the trailer. Had to drive it from the place we unload to my property on a public road again so was glad I could test drive it earlier. All in all not a really heartbreaking story but some reasonable purchase I currently have no particular plans on

Edited June 7, 2022 by Vladislav

[mrsmackpaul]

As always Vlad a interesting story

Interesting trailer as well, your the only other bloke on here thats crazy like me 

 

Great stuff and looking forward to part 2 of this adventure 

 

Paul

[VALS327]

I love hearing your stories about finding and getting trucks home. In my opinion that’s half the fun of the hobby. 
 

Take care,

          Don

[yarnall]

Congratulations.  That’s just what you needed.  Post more photos of the trip.  Mike 

[85snowdog]

Looks great Vlad.

Like the others , I love reading your adventures .  

Is it an R688 ?  

[mowerman]

Excellent have a ball with it it looks great

[Hayseed]

8 hours ago, mrsmackpaul said:

Interesting trailer as well,

That Roof has me intrigued.. I often wish My tautliners had Roofs like that for Top Loading.. But they Don't exist here in Australia..

 

8 hours ago, mrsmackpaul said:

Great stuff and looking forward to part 2 of this adventure

Me Too..

[Vladislav]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Answers to the questions:

No part 2 of the travel story is upcoming since the truck is already in my yard. The 2nd portion of driving was less than one km from just a paved spot big enough to park a semi and a crane to my street. I live in a residental area so the streets are narrow to slick with a semitrailer in. I will tell more about the truck since it has its chassis stretched up but the job looks really rough with poor correspondence of the rail heigth and helluva bunch of fish plating put at the outer sides. So I'm going to clear those excessive parts off the chassis first and maybe move the bogie to its original position. But need a bit of time to do that and also some time before to figure the best way I would choose.

No trip pics this time because I had been in a hurry and the road itself was not too scenaric. I crossed a big bridge over a river of Volga near a city of Toliatty (where Lada automotive plant is located) but turned out I drove there both times in the dark.

The trailer is a typical European "gardine" trailer as it's called here (and probably in Europe also). It has frames at its sides with rails at the top. The roof is a canvas with cross planks. The plank at the rear end forms the gate opening when in place but can be reattached and moved forward. The same for the other planks and the top canvas. Side canvas can also be freed at the bottom and slid forward along the top rails Side stacks and planks go off really easy being dismantled allowing you full side access if needed. Both operations are simple and can be done by one person (driver) in about an hour. Usually you don't need to open everything so less time is required.

The Mack is 1985 R690 with 4V EM6-300 and T2070 7-speed tranny. Double frame with Camelback and 5.73 carriers as I could found out yesterday. The frame has about no spread probably due to being covered with equipment unit at the top but has plenty of extra holes drilled for attaching the fish plates. Currently I just wonder how many kilograms of heavy 1/2" thick steel will go away.

[mrsmackpaul]

I wonder if the trailer is what is called a "Tilt" trailer in other parts of Europe

Dunno why they are called tilts as they dont tip but thats the generic name in lots of parts Europe 

Thanks for your reply Vlad

5.73s means your gunna have a nice steady cruise and see plenty of country side 

Does the truck have a air ride cab ?

 

Paul 

Edited June 7, 2022 by mrsmackpaul

[Brocky]

Vlad

Thanks for posting those pictures and the account of getting this truck.. Your posts are always interesting.

[Vladislav]

11 hours ago, mrsmackpaul said:

I wonder if the trailer is what is called a "Tilt" trailer in other parts of Europe

Dunno why they are called tilts as they dont tip but thats the generic name in lots of parts Europe 

Thanks for your reply Vlad

5.73s means your gunna have a nice steady cruise and see plenty of country side 

Does the truck have a air ride cab ?

 

Paul 

T2070 has quite fast overdrive of 0,60 which makes those 5.73 diffs allowing reasonable cruise speed. At least I felt that way when drove the truck. I didn't shift that high but had good feeling following gear sequence. Currently I have 5.02's with the same tranny in my running R and it's too fast in overdrive barely allowing you to shift into the top hole at 85-90 km/h. One hundred and faster is Ok. Both trucks have 11R24.5 tyres and swapping to lesser radius would make the things different.

The cab has air suspension, right. But the front springs are a common style, not those 3 taper leaf setup. My guess multy leaf packs have higher load capacity but ride rougher. Overall look is strange a bit since the front looks like 12000 pound axle and the bogie is probably 34000 or 38000. But those heavy front springs and double frame seem singing another song. BTW the tag says it's R690ST so it was a tractor when leaved the factory.

[Mark T]

Vlad, are you sure that truck has lighter axles ?  It certainly looks to be a like something that would be made heavier. Or do you think that may have something to do with having been exported at some point ???  

[Vladislav]

On 6/8/2022 at 12:47 AM, Mark T said:

Vlad, are you sure that truck has lighter axles ?  It certainly looks to be a like something that would be made heavier. Or do you think that may have something to do with having been exported at some point ???  

Mark, unfortunately I don't have a better picture handy but looking at this one you see the trunnion style is of lighter series. I have never taken those apart so far but my guess it has rubber bushings or something and not bronze like 44000 utilizes. The axles are fabricated, not castings. Front axle beam looks very close to what I have on my light green R (FAW537 12500 pound) but it was dirty to read the stamping and the ground was wet to crawl under the chassis. Possibly heavy front axle is not always a heavier beam but same beam with thicker spring packs. So the question requires some investigation to figure the truth.

Actually the truck was not exported the usual way as we understand it. It was American oil company which provided works in Russia and supplied some equipment for. I'm pretty sure the chassis was lengthened in tthe States since the add on is 1/4" thick steel (6.35mm) and here in Russia you can only find 6.00 mm sheets. So if anything major was changed to the truck it was done in the US as long as I could judge.

Edited June 9, 2022 by Vladislav

[Mark T]

There's definitely rubber bushings in the centers.  There's such a thing as heavy welded housings. Count the bolts on the axle flange (6 is some form of 44,0000 pound and eight would make it 38,000 pound ...in general. Mack axles can get confusing. 38s have a somewhat smaller axle flange with 8 bolts)    No matter, interesting find and it looks to be in fair condition at the very least. 

[Brocky]

Vlad, If it was originally a tractor it might well have lighter suspension and the Oil Field pump just overloaded the $h!t out of it!!!!

[mrsmackpaul]

Do 44s have shockers on the Camel back, can't say I have ever seen them fitted 

 

Paul

[1961H67]

I love reading all these stories and comments from around the world! 

[Vladislav]

13 hours ago, Mark T said:

There's definitely rubber bushings in the centers.  There's such a thing as heavy welded housings. Count the bolts on the axle flange (6 is some form of 44,0000 pound and eight would make it 38,000 pound ...in general. Mack axles can get confusing. 38s have a somewhat smaller axle flange with 8 bolts)    No matter, interesting find and it looks to be in fair condition at the very least. 

The axle flanges have 8 bolts what seems suiting that light trunnion. The hubs are steel not alu though and the front spring packs were supposed to carry some load I belive being 10 or so leaves. They more look like off a DM but thinner leaves, I think they were an option for an R-model. Or probably more correct to say taper leaves was an option.

The truck is in fair condition indeed. The engine runs smooth and looks like have never been taken off the truck. And doubly seriousely overhauled. The AC compressor is still on with pipes and condencer. The cab is in a quite good shape with no bothering rust. Just the roof was "walked in" but doesn't look difficult to fix. Frame rails are very good for a 35 y.o. truck, the same with the axles and springs. Another side of the coin is half ruined interior, hardly and excessively cracked hood, both fuel tanks bent at the bottom and that fish plating frame mod. Also the rubber has about no wear but hardly cracked due to sun and age. Overall the rig has a lot of potential, just needs time to put care on.

[Vladislav]

12 hours ago, Brocky said:

Vlad, If it was originally a tractor it might well have lighter suspension and the Oil Field pump just overloaded the $h!t out of it!!!!

Broky, It was definitely a tractor since the tag says R690ST. So oil field folks reinforced it as hard as they could and sure beat some use out of it during the years. Judging by the tyres style and fuel tanks bent where they're facing the ground the truck had to crawl through big muds. But when in place its equipment operated mostly and the chassis was "just parked". So no big miles but big hours on the engine in stationary operation. I'm not sure how long the unit was in active service. More looks like it got abandoned at a certain time a while back.

[Brocky]

It is possible that the engine does NOT have that many hours as the pumping unit MAY have had it's own engine for pumping power???? Does the tach have an hour meter???

[james j neiweem]

Vlad so many Macks and so little time.

[Vladislav]

7 hours ago, Brocky said:

It is possible that the engine does NOT have that many hours as the pumping unit MAY have had it's own engine for pumping power???? Does the tach have an hour meter???

Nope, there was no extra engine to pump. The truck has really huge PTO between the frame rails which more looks like a transfer case but supposed to drive a pump. Also there are two (!) PTO's mounted at the sides of the tranny for some auxilary functions probably. Unfortunately I have no chances to figure out their original purposes. And actually have no need in doing that.

Didn't pay any attention to the tacho and speedo readings since didn't expect seeing anything true there.

[Vladislav]

6 hours ago, james j neiweem said:

Vlad so many Macks and so little time.

James, you nailed that! i try being organized though

[Brocky]

That PTO mounted in the frame rails is actually a transfer case (I think??) It is the way most fire trucks power their pump.

Edited June 10, 2022 by Brocky

[Vladislav]

On 6/11/2022 at 2:01 AM, Brocky said:

That PTO mounted in the frame rails is actually a transfer case (I think??) It is the way most fire trucks power their pump.

Hmm... I may agree with your terminology indeed. A transfer case is also a kind of power take off. But to a front drive axle usually (I think?) The unit in the R-model is of very similar style to what was used in fire trucks. anyway I'm going to remove it as well as extra fish plating and other mods put to the chassis. And I lean toward putting the bogie to its original position since the wheelbase still would be rather long. Quite enough to put a flat bed or even a sleeper.