Mack Trucks.

I had a bit of time between my third and fourth deliveries this week and as I was passing Allentown in Pennsylvania, I thought I would pop round to the Mack Trucks Museum for a look-around. I turned up in the truck and security thought I was making a delivery and waved me through the gate. I might have been OK with just the unit but I couldn’t find anywhere to park it with the trailer. I nearly ended up on the test-track and was thinking: " I shouldn’t be here. Especially in a Peterbilt." I pretended to make a delivery and then went back out and parked on the industrial estate. I got the bike out the truck and rode back round to the gate posing as an English tourist on a bicycle. The museum is part of the Mack Customer Centre and is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 10am to 4pm. I was just in time for the 10am guided tour; which couldn’t start without me as I was the only one there. So it was just me and a retired Mack engine-tester called Tom who knew everything about the company, its history and its vehicles.

The original Mack bulldog hood ornament was carved from a bar of soap by a bored member of senior management. Mr. Alfred Masury was recovering from an operation in Allentown Hospital and carved it as “something to do.”

The company started in 1900 and this 28 seat passenger coach is the oldest surviving Mack, built in 1905, and also right-hand drive.

This is a L-series model and like most of the vehicles, it looks as good as new.

A heavy-haul B-series sitting in the room that used to be sound-proof booth where the trucks were decibel tested. The furry wedges on the wall are there to stop sound vibrations bouncing around; similar to a recording studio. The whole museum is in the old Mack Trucks Research and Development building which was closed in 2000 when Volvo took over and moved all R&D down to their place in North Carolina.

A B75 similar to one that Flying Eagle had in their yard until recently.

127,653 B-series were made between 1953 and 1965, the most common being the B61.

Mack and Brockway side by side. They were near neighbours when they started out in the early 1900’s in New York. Mack bought-out Brockway in 1956. It was a white Brockway, loaded with lumber, that the Black Widow turned over in the film “Convoy.”

Most of the trucks run and they were moving them about while I was there. What is on display changes regularly.

This was the biggest truck on display; representing the mining and construction side of Mack’s business. It was one of the first to have the off-set cab which is seen on the U-series tippers and DM mixers.

This is the only surviving gas-turbine powered truck from the three that Mack built.

The gas-turbine sits under a virtually un-used Cruiseliner.

The iconic AC Mack. The truck that went into service with the British Army during World War One and was given the name “Bull Dog Mack” by the soldiers because of it’s toughness.

The museum has it’s own restoration department in the room that was once used for dyno-testing the engines to check the horse-power output.

40,299 AC Macks were built between 1916 and 1938 and it came in three sizes. 3.5 tons, 5.5 tons and 7.5 tons.

There was a section on Mack Trucks in films and on TV. Also loads of old photographs, old toys and models of Macks along with an archive of every spec of every Mack ever made.

All the current Mack models were on display in another room and there was a gift shop with everything Mack that you could wish to get for Christmas. Last but not least: a cafeteria. Free entry and well worth a couple of hours of your time if you are in the area.

Thanks for posting that Chris ,looks like a place well worth visiting if ever there.

Heres a Mack test from 1978 ! Click on each page to read.

Here’s one we ran in the early 90’s

Then later on when it had a few changes, it became a 6x2 and fitted with a Scania 112 engine, gearbox and back axle

You might be interested in this custom MACK 685 bhp Super Liner ?

Built and fitted out in Queensland for the Sultan of johor - to be based in Australia just to tow his other toy - a speedboat in the same colours ! Well some people have it all ?

I understand that they procrastinated about having a sunroof fitted but decided instead, to have an LCD screen showing the overhead view ?

Just click on the link below or paste the link into your browser :

motoring.com.au/news/2015/a- … ltan-51534

There is some interesting stuff in that road test of the Mack F700 that Dean posted. The engine and gearbox match seems to be the best that was available at the time. I remember how excited I was when the F700 became available in the UK just after I started driving. I honestly thought it was just a matter of time before everybody would be driving a big-bed Mack. As it happened, they only sold in ones and twos apart from the big fleet of OHS.

JOHNXL70:
Then later on when it had a few changes, it became a 6x2 and fitted with a Scania 112 engine, gearbox and back axle

What happened to the F700? Is it still in existence?

Evening all,

Chris, you do pick some interesting subjects for the threads that you start…did you know that Mack supplied tractors to the Nairn Brothers in 1939, Ive all the details here, and have meant to put them onto your Nairn Thread for ages, but I have more details of their “bus” trailers…even down to the linoleum flooring!

It is amongst all the stuff that I" liberated" from my time in Allentown, Hayward, and Macungie, back in the early 80s. But from your visit I think that you must have found just how enthusiastic, and proud of their lorries the Mack people really are .

I can always remember entering the reception in Allentown, and writ in very, very, large letters on the wall was, " Mack`s Market…Planet Earth", At that time Mack products accounted for 68% of all US Heavy Vehicle Exports World wide.

Bulldog Badges, Carpets, (even the loo rolls in the executive suites), and staff that lived the product, be they in sales, service, marketing, or production. There were no barriers, unlike in many operations…everyone worked together, everyone was a Mack person!

Odd to our Anglicised eyes, but so refreshing having landed there from the political blood letting, and negative attitude that was taking place with the forced merger of Saviem and Berliet in France. At Mack all everyone wished to do…was win…win at home in the US, and anywhere that they could overseas.

But I was parachuted into a cauldron of uncertainty…ok, Mack, (a Signal Group Company, since 1967), were to launch a new range of Class 6, (25.500lbs), and Class 7, (29500lbs) lightweight rigid chassis onto the US Market, the Mack Midliner, really an adapted Saviem Serie J ,but badged as a Mack.

Oh how I became used to relating how the Mack Midliner was produced at Mack`s “European” Plant…but actually that was part of our success in the US…the MS200 &MS300 were seen as true Mack products…a US product, as opposed to the German Magirus, and the Brazilian/German Mercedes, or Brazilian Peterbilt, but of course Volvo stayed Swedish!

Cauldron of uncertainty…why…because Mack with Signal backing had toyed in the class 6 and 7 market before…With Iveco…utilising the Magirus version of the Club of Four lightweight…but the deal was frought with mismanagement…mainly about money…but the product was good…and the Mack Dealers liked it, and the access to another market where there was profit to be made.

But it went wrong, and in 1975, Mack lost out, and their major loss was Raymond Reardon, Group Vice President of Mack Trucks,and President of Mack International, who jumped ship, taking the amiable, and very competent Jack Mc Devitt, former Vice President of Marketing for Mack, and part of the team who were responsible for the Mack/Iveco venture…and Magirus US was born…50 new outlets, in 32 States in less than 12 months in` 76!

On the way to Allentown, on my first day, and well jet lagged…my Ambassador host asked me “where did you learn English”?..“You speak quite well for a Frenchman”!!! Boy had we both got a lot to learn…

Mack, perhaps the best people I ever worked with, perhaps the best company I ever worked with, perhaps the best job I ever had, perhaps the best country that I ever worked in…and perhaps the happiest memories that I have…

Mack is different now, but what an outfit, and what people!

Cheerio for now.

Saviem,you are right about the Mack employees being proud about their trucks and their history. Tom, my guide for the museum tour, and everyone at the centre were all lifelong Mack men. They also spoke very highly of Renault; saying how they saved them from extinction. Tom was full of praise for Elios Pascaul, the first French CEO, who did everything at 100mph and expected everybody else to go at the same speed. He said Elios Pascaul did more to turn things around than anybody. Did you know the man or was that after your time?

I found it strange that while all the old Mack guys were happy to talk about Renault; the whole time I was there; no one uttered the word “Volvo.”

Intresting that they never mentioned Volvo ? Probably did not like being taken over by another
manufacturer ■■

An article on the F700 Click on each page to read.

ChrisArbon:

JOHNXL70:
Then later on when it had a few changes, it became a 6x2 and fitted with a Scania 112 engine, gearbox and back axle

What happened to the F700? Is it still in existence?

I’m not sure what happened to her, I’m still in contact with Mick Lambert who ran it and did the work and see if he knows

ChrisArbon:
…I nearly ended up on the test-track and was thinking: " I shouldn’t be here. Especially in a Peterbilt." I pretended to make a delivery and then went back out and parked on the industrial estate. I got the bike out the truck and rode back round to the gate posing as an English tourist on a bicycle…

Great post.

This was a Mack run by a local company when I was a young lad mad on trucks. It ended up in a very sorry state. The driver who had it really abused it.
I would be very intersted to know if anybody knows anything about what happened to it after it left Murrays or has any pictures.
Regards Pete

Hi Pete,here she is after Murrays had it,John Golding got hold of it,probably cheap knowing John and put her into service in his fleet,Cheers Bubbs,

DEANB:
Thanks for posting that Chris ,looks like a place well worth visiting if ever there.

Heres a Mack test from 1978 ! Click on each page to read.

The Mack beat all of the others on fuel, even the MAN 280, which was the economy king in those days, according to the other Truck Magazine articles we have seen on here (IIRC). On top of that, it was pulling a fridge van, instead of a flat. If it was that good, they would have sold many more vehicles. I smell a rat.

The table at the end does not compare the Mack to its competitors on overall average speed. I suspect that the tester deliberately drove slowly, to achieve the exceptional fuel result. Is 45mph a good or bad average over that route?

Evening all,

Anorak, you are an old cynic! Check out the other results that DEANB has been kind enough to post…45mph is well up on average speed believe me! You should try that route that Pat used, even in a car it is not easy.

I have never seen that test before, (as I have not seen so many articles that DEANB has posted, I was along way from the UK industry at the time).Now that Mack FM786T was a spec formulated by CLS Leasing of Bolton, (Trading as Mack Distributors UK ltd, of Broadshaw Gate Bolton).Later versions had a set back front axle rated at a modest 5987 kgs capacity.

To drive an Interstator, was in its time a great experience. The Maxidyne principal gave the driver a very easy time, and as Pat wrote if you kept the engine brake on, gearchanges made the later Eaton Twin Splitter seem very slow…yes they were that fast!

CLS were primarily a Leasing outfit, offering “packages” on a spectacular, non mainstream product…that limited market penetration, Not the quality of the product.

As a comparison just view the penetration of Igor Macraines MABO in France, where Mack was a serious market contender, and really had a presence.

As for my own bona fides, well, when I was with Mack, I was on Midliner, not heavy product…but seeing orders for 4000 plus Interstators for UPS, 2000 plus for Mason Dixon, spoke well of the quality and performance…and then my own , (well worn) F786, RIJ334, ex Lagan Valley, and ■■■■ Young of Penrith, (Bubbs kindly posted a picture of her, re reg as AUE 267 S, on another thread)…yes I kept the reg, I liked the lorry so much…and its on my Jeep now! That old Mack could handle a T34 Tank on a semi low York, without a murmer, far better than my Transcontinental heap of over egged junk that it was!!! Once that tip turbo whistled you flew up the banks, and as Pat said, you never needed to speed with a Mack…overall journey speeds were high.

Chris, Elios was after my time, but really the man who saved Mack, (and could have saved Renault), Francois Zanotti was the man responsible for acquiring Mack, and would have done more to integrate Mack, and Renault, had Paris, the Regie, and Elesee Palace allowed him so to do. But they did not, and he left RVI in `83, a loss they never recovered from!

Cheerio for now.

as a couple o folk o here know I drive for a ■■■■■■■■ Mack user…company started in 1964 with a mack and still run them now.
they are a redi mix outfit /aggregate own account hauler.
the 64 mack is parked up in the 2nd line of mixers all DMs 6x4…with the 64 a 4x4 box, a couple o late 90s DMs with an 11speed eaton, the rest being early /late DM 6x4s with5x3 boxes gold dogs. they also ran DMMs 8x6 but they were sold last year (69–82).
the redi mix trucks now are RDs with 11 speed (lo lo) eatons .newest is a tri drive granite 13 reg and is not a patch on the old buggies ,its never out of the shop in Winnipeg.
now artics they have ran U model , R ,flintsstone,superliners (very thirsty) and CHs hauling trains and a few visions .
my buggie is a 99CH(daycab) gold dog now hauling one trailer and a 13sp maxitorque,E7 engine 460. may not be quitest but it goes and goes with out any probs in the last 5yrs…engine went last fall with million + kms (cam lugs),had one clutch only. took an engine with 400 k km out of a old Vision and she goes like a train …hehe no egr etc.

It would be intresting to know just how many macks were sold in the UK back in the 70s/80s.
They were by far the most common USA motor over here from memory with White road commanders
second, and then some Kenworths and maybe the very odd Peterbilt ■■

I remember a company up in Shaftesbury that started importing kenworths into the UK would have
been around late 70s or early 80s from memory in C.B.Morgans yard.

I noticed a couple of Kenworths parked up in Cradock tractors yard between Westbury and
Melksham about 2 months ago,anyone know anything about them ? Not sure if they use them
to deliver there tractors as just saw them when driving past ?

Heres some Mack adverts .

Here’s one with a Leeds registration,I took to Harwich docks to be exported.
Chap said he used to do Italy every week in it,but was fed up with Saviem’s Foden overtaking him going up Mont Cenis !
He wasn’t too impressed by those new fangled tilts.
Regards
Richard