ABF | Last Sterling Made For A B F.

the best freight truck ever build was a mack..rolling off the assembly line in allentown penn...i sure do miss them....down hill slow up hill fast...if it aint a mack...you can kiss my azz..............great ole trucks freight companys ran them 24 hours a day...like the 300 maxidines the best...the more weight the better they pulled
 
Hopefully Freightliner will make up a nice freight truck for us. Mack is failing us. It seems to me that the Macks have to be a maintenance nightmare, considering that the only breakdowns I have had were in "new" Macks.
 
The proper question is.....

What is RIGHT with the Macks?

This is a much shorter list.

Head lights.....thats it.

Whats wrong?
The totally ignorant wiper/washer switch.
The heated mirrors that go off in 3 mins.
Poorly designed dash.
Nice bright blue lights on the dashboard
Legroom sucks.
The steering goes in every direction on slippery roads.
If when regeneration is needed is not done immediately, will put the truck out of service, regardless of where you are.
Windshield wipers only clean 65 percent of the windshield on the drivers side.
The coat hook sucks.
Not enough room between the drivers door and seat, so you bang your knee on the window handle all day.

The Sterlings are Cadillacs compared to the manufactured junk Mack is producing. I would be embarrased if I was Mack, offering this product for sale.

HEAD LIGHTS Yea I can spot a Mack a mile away at night.One light is allways brighter than the other.And the old saying is when you drive a Mack You park in back of the truck stop and walk to the front.
 
Now, now Hiballin.....
Thats jus to give the drivers of other makes and little head start toward that first hard
pull. :) LOL

Yea could be right.Unless it's a CAT. As for the tri plex.I had a B61 with a quad.62mph tops up hill and down.Wish I still had it.These new Macks in my opion are junk.The old ones were trucks for working.But now they are cross bred with Volvo.
 
I learned how to drive with a triplex in a B model.

That is a Rolls-Royce compared with the Pinnacle Mack.

How many of these new truck drivers fresh out of drivers ed could even shift a two stick truck.And don't forget they have to have a AM,FM CD player too.
 
Macks,duplexes and stacks

We had a H63 cabover Mack running (dragging) Columbus, MS to L.A.
Little truck came in to dealer piped out the bottom and no fifth wheel.
The company needed it quick. Dealer slapped on a fifth wheel plumbed
out air hoses / pigtail and put on a stack.
They just turned the muffler outlet spout up, piped on a section of stack,
turned the mounting bracket around and viola, a tractor....
But !!! the stack shot smoke up near over the middle to the trailer.

Denver-Chicago was running the half cabs KW's. Looked like a mixer or
crane truck cab.Their exhaust stack came straight up off the manifold,
thru a hole in the hood, and right back over the middle of their trailer.

Was fun to go thru Lordsburg, NM, see a BIG CAR coming up from back
of a truck stop, me get by before he got up to the street, and he fall in
not having seen my tractor.
He would dog along for miles, waiting for that DC to wake up and roll.
Finally get PO'd and roll out and on by. The expressions on some of the
faces were priceless.
 
Last Sterling - First Sterling

First Sterling I saw was near Tupelo, MS in about 1954.
Owned by Blue Bell (of overalls fame) and ran out of NC down to
the little sewing plants Blue Bell was starting in the South.

Old thing had a long pointy hood similar to some of the smaller
DiamondT-Federal trucks of the day. First truck I had seen with
22" rubber on it. Diesel engine (didn't know the brand) was piped
out the right side of the hood; right above the fender line, then 45'd
up and out about 3 feet. Kinda in line with the right side cab/windshield
support. Just gushed it off to the right and up.
Fool thing would fly. Others had "fast" K8 Internationals with the ELLIS
manifold holding TWO carburators. Were no competition to him.
 
fun stuff ole guy....i started in an old h-model duplex mack....always smelled like sparklers on the 4th of july on the inside.....remember no matter what the color of the truck was on the out side...the inside was always the olive drab color....do you remember two old ltl companys in mississippi...southern forwarding and rebel motor freight........
 
fun stuff ole guy....i started in an old h-model duplex mack....always smelled like sparklers on the 4th of july on the inside.....remember no matter what the color of the truck was on the out side...the inside was always the olive drab color....do you remember two old ltl companys in mississippi...southern forwarding and rebel motor freight........

If Rebel Motor Freight was out of Oxford, MS, YES
Mike Starnes dad had a interest in Rebel and Mike sold for them, Mike foresaw the truckload deregulated business and wanted them to get in it.
Owners decided not too, so Mike quit, went to Mphs, leased some FreightLiners, set up MS Carriers, reportedly did a million-five his first year off his kitchen table.and as they say, The Rest is History...
Rebel shut down years ago and bought some of their forklifts at the final auction,
 
If Rebel Motor Freight was out of Oxford, MS, YES
Mike Starnes dad had a interest in Rebel and Mike sold for them, Mike foresaw the truckload deregulated business and wanted them to get in it.
Owners decided not too, so Mike quit, went to Mphs, leased some FreightLiners, set up MS Carriers, reportedly did a million-five his first year off his kitchen table.and as they say, The Rest is History...
Rebel shut down years ago and bought some of their forklifts at the final auction,

yes that would be them...very interesting info..did not know that....i tried to send you a pm...but never done it before...so i hope i went through...i got yours...
 
First Sterling I saw was near Tupelo, MS in about 1954.
Owned by Blue Bell (of overalls fame) and ran out of NC down to
the little sewing plants Blue Bell was starting in the South.

Old thing had a long pointy hood similar to some of the smaller
DiamondT-Federal trucks of the day. First truck I had seen with
22" rubber on it. Diesel engine (didn't know the brand) was piped
out the right side of the hood; right above the fender line, then 45'd
up and out about 3 feet. Kinda in line with the right side cab/windshield
support. Just gushed it off to the right and up.
Fool thing would fly. Others had "fast" K8 Internationals with the ELLIS
manifold holding TWO carburators. Were no competition to him.

Oleguy wasn't the first Sterlings chain drive?? I used to work with a guy who owned a Diamond T 5x3 with a 220 cummins.Had his fuel pump repair kit in a cigar box.
 
Seen some Macks in the egg market in NYC,chain drive and bonded on rubber tires like a forklift tire. Also same thing on the Poydras St. Wharf in NO,La. Don't believe they make now and sure not then chain strong enough to wind that booger like it did.
You should have had your old B61 quad down in Lakeland FL around 1958.
Some un-official Mack reps could install washers in your pump-Kinda adjust the stroke some and make it boogy better than 62. You might get back up to St. Louis enroute to the twin cities before it blew if you took full advantage of your upgrade.
The guy carried his kit in a little fishing tackle box tho.

Any of you guys ever heard of "One Armed Bill" and his shop in the tin building in Lordsburg???
 
Seen some Macks in the egg market in NYC,chain drive and bonded on rubber tires like a forklift tire. Also same thing on the Poydras St. Wharf in NO,La. Don't believe they make now and sure not then chain strong enough to wind that booger like it did.
You should have had your old B61 quad down in Lakeland FL around 1958.
Some un-official Mack reps could install washers in your pump-Kinda adjust the stroke some and make it boogy better than 62. You might get back up to St. Louis enroute to the twin cities before it blew if you took full advantage of your upgrade.
The guy carried his kit in a little fishing tackle box tho.

Any of you guys ever heard of "One Armed Bill" and his shop in the tin building in Lordsburg???

Yes those were the days.You could turn up your truck eat have coffee then hit the road and pass some large cars.And by the way in 1958 I was five.LOL
 
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