Why the Mack Maxitorque is Bulletproof

Comments · 145

• HE

  @heavymaticyt · 3 months ago · pinned

  Did you ever have to dance the &quot;ballet&quot; with the twin sticks of a Quadruplex? Or better yet - did you ever have to crawl under a rig with a road flare in a blizzard to unfreeze a stuck air-shift valve? Drop your wildest old-school trucking stories below! 👇<br><br>If you love these deep dives into history and want to help fuel the channel, you can buy me a coffee here: <a href="https://buymeacoffee.com/heavymaticyt">https://buymeacoffee.com/heavymaticyt</a>

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• US

  @user-theworldsgonmad · 3 months ago

  Got out of a 350hp, 15 speed Kenworth running interstate in Australia.....went for job interview at fuel company, test was in a 285hp 5 speed R model at 42.5 ton. Could not believe what it could do! Spent the next 9 years a Mack man! 285, 300, 350, E7 400, then E9 500 B double. A real privilege.<br>A workmate asked me once, &quot;why do you love American trucks&quot; I told him &quot;the Europeans build a truck for the Butcher the Baker and candlestick maker but the Americans build trucks for professional heavy vehicle operators&quot;

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• RO

  @RobertSmith-le8wp · 3 months ago

  The oil embargo of 1973 killed Detroits and big block engines at the same time. My Dad said there were a lot of priceless muscle cars that they almost couldn’t give away. He had a Charger 440 but said when you went to a dealership there were stacks of 427/454/455/460/440/426 the list goes on. He said if he had known what some of them would be going for now he would have bought a few and held onto them.

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• RI

  @richardbarber4444 · 3 months ago

  I once owned an 18 speed farm tractor. Reverse was a flick of a switch and the same speed as your present forward speed. gear shifting was the same in either direction.

  49

• PG

  @PGU13BHEI · 3 months ago

  Powertrain division was Hagerstown, MD. Allentown was an assembly plant. Engines and transmissions were built in Hagerstown. You could buy a Mack with any powertrain, but you could not buy a Mack powertrain unless it was installed in a Mack. My dad had engineering responsibility for testing new engines and transmissions. He monitored a vehicle that delivered parts to Mack Western. Their driver said that his truck was a marvel on the Rockies and up I-80 from Reno to Sacramento. He passed everything going up those grades. I think the steering wheel fell off in Auburn, CA one day, but that was an Allentown feature. Driver was on an off ramp sitting there waiting on traffic, wheel fell off. He had just come down the hill from Truckee, CA. If you have ever been there, you will understand just how fortunate he was.

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• PH

  @philhall5609 · 2 months ago

  We never used the clutch except to start and stop.

  2

• DA

  @danwalters9781 · 2 months ago

  My 12 speeds and last 18 speed maxitorque boxes had pumps and coolers

  2

• WH

  @whiskerzbmf4634 · 3 months ago

  They suck for mechanics because they don&apos;t sit on transmission jacks well and are heavy. The old saying is... &quot;Speed kills, drive a Mack and live forever&quot;

  10

• PE

  @peglor · 3 months ago (edited)

  No mention that adding 3 shafts around the main shaft in a gearbox is what planetary gears in automatic boxes have been doing for a century (And you don&apos;t need to stop at just 3 depending on geometry) and the reason other manufacturers didn&apos;t do it was because you&apos;ve added 2 more shafts, each with it&apos;s own bearings and you&apos;re machining twice as many gears as are required, so fitting the gearbox in the length required is the only reason the design was viable compared to running pairs of gears instead where the load bearing area of the gear teeth is the same. <br><br>Having the center shaft floating only works on straight cut gearboxes, with much quieter, though slightly less efficient helical gears that every gearbox uses (Except for reverse in most manual cars), the center shaft would be launched out the end of the gearbox without thrust bearings to take the side loads. This is incidentally why reverse gear in most car gearboxes is straight cut too - the gearbox is designed for thrust in one direction from the main loads, it would have to be beefed up in the other direction too for a helical reverse gear and cars don&apos;t spend enough time in reverse for that to be money well spent.

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• SA

  @samsymes001 · 3 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPjPyAhjrYI&amp;t=1272">21:12</a> I have driven MACK TITAN #1 e9 v8 gold dog series rated at 550hp 130t. Is a NT stock crate truck for a station 👌 air start and still used daily

  10

• DR

  @dresdensvo · 3 months ago

  Your Mack video sure has a lot of Louisville pictures .<br>What does gasoline powered passinger cars have to do with Mack trucks , you even showed a motorcycle engine being assembled .

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• KO

  @Kolan_Koala · 2 months ago (edited)

  NZ is 3 hours flight from Australia. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPjPyAhjrYI&amp;t=830">13:50</a>