Why Mack's Diesel Only Needed Five Gears

Comments · 105

• JO

  @johnblocker5674 · 2 months ago (edited)

  Drove an old Mack daycab with a Maxidyne V8 with giant twin turbos and a 7 speed transmission. When the boss first bought the old Mack (this was the early 80s) I thought  how can that pull a load with a 7speed.  I thought it was a mistake till I drove it.  That truck was a pulling BEAST.

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• LE

  @leliksolow · 2 months ago

  Озвучка искусственным интеллектом это чудовищно

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• DE

  @deanblack8166 · 3 weeks ago

  I drove a 1972 R600 Mack with the 6 speed Direct (2 stick with reverse, low and direct on the one stick, and the 5 speed main, which once moving the heavy load from a stop, the second stick never got touched again until picking up the load from a stop again.) With the 237. I was pulling loads up to 108000 pounds on 3 axle trailers in Northern Canada. I loved that little Gold Bulldog on the hood. That little Mack truck would average 7 Miles per Gallon year round with -40 F winters and idling when I had to get some sleep. Cummins and Detroit (2 stroke)  were running 4 to 5 miles per gallon doing the same job the Little Mack was doing. It had over a million miles on it before it had the engine rebuilt. Oh I miss those days.

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• TH

  @Themachinearchive · 2 months ago

  Huge respect to truck drivers. Their work keeps everything moving.

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• BR

  @brocluno01 · 2 months ago

  Old guy here. &nbsp;Drove Macks, Pete&apos;s and Autocar as petro tankers and steel flats. &nbsp;Cummins, Mack, Detroits (2-strokes) out west. &nbsp; You&apos;all back east have hills. &nbsp;Try the Sierra&apos;s where grades are 50 miles long and vary all the time. &nbsp;The 237 Maxidyne was OK, but it still liked the 8 speed. &nbsp;Cummins liked 5&amp;3 or a 13 speed. &nbsp;Detroits just wanted gears, the more the better. &nbsp;TQ is great, but RPM spreads give you flexibility. &nbsp;All the Macks I drove had 5 speed mains and 3 speed aux with the stick right there next to the driver - yeah. &nbsp;On most of those long varying grades you could row the aux for small variations and leave the main in one gear. &nbsp;Letting the engine down to max TQ meant no reserve on the next shift, and a hard hit.<br>The thing your argument misses is that 5 speed meant you still had to rev to get up for the next change down, and it&apos;s a wide shift. &nbsp;The sweet spot is a ways away ... &nbsp;😅

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• KE

  @keith5409 · 2 weeks ago

  I drove a 94 E7 427 tri &nbsp;axle pulling a tri axle single detach low boy. It had the Maxi- torque 13 speed and yes, it had the gold bulldog on the hood. Hauling a D9 cat was an afterthought to this rig.

• RO

  @royhcampbell2381 · 2 months ago

  I learned to drive a tractor trailer in a 1957 mack B61 thermodyne pulling a 3500 gal thermos bottle tanker I was 18 I&apos;m now 77 I will never forget

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• MI

  @michaellybarger8119 · 2 months ago

  I drove a Mack model R when I was on the local volunteer fire department in Black Earth, WI. &nbsp;The truck was a tanker and carried 3500 gallons of water. &nbsp;There are many steep hills in our district and everything this video says about it is true, the Maxidyne had incredible torque.

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• PM

  @pmbair · 2 months ago

  I drove a U model 237 hp Mack with the duplex trans. It was a vacuum loader 10 wheel. It worked in coal fired power plants around Pennsylvania and New Jersey. A distinctive feature was that you could run the power takeoff that drove the vacuum pump in different gears so it didn’t spend all day at idle where some trucks would wet stack, the Mack didn’t.

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• ER

  @ern48 · 2 months ago

  They were amazing engines, but having the clutch brake adjusted properly was an absolute must or shifting out of low was nearly impossible on a hill. &nbsp;More often I drove a RL700 dump truck with the 325hp V8 5 speed and it was a fun truck.

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• PE

  @petersipp5247 · 2 months ago

  I appreciate when you gave the size of the engine in cubic inches. The R model cab looks so good. &nbsp;Volvo and the other foreign co ruined the cabs look. <br> &nbsp;Brilliant of Mr. Pelizzoni to have the torque to rise as the engine slowed. <br>Your vido is well done, Thank you.

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• GA

  @garyhalmbacher6875 · 2 months ago

  Not a trucker but a car guy. &nbsp;Saying is that horsepower sells cars but torque wins races.

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