Mack anthem, scratching my head.

Tire soap works good for that. I just put some on my finger and coat the rubber blocks good . Usually lasts a week or so , or until a truck wash.
Doesn't hurt the rubber, and if you get it on your clothes while cleaning the windshield it will wash out . I get it from the tire shop, comes in a tub , it's like wax . The tire guys mix a little bit with water to make the lube they put on tires when mounting. A little bit goes a long way.

 

You can also use silicone grease. It does not deteriorate the rubber

 

Sorry, missed the tag.

I'm too early to the Anthem party to speak much about durability. First one is just hitting the 1 year mark and going in for major PM and anything that makes sense to get in under the wire on warranty with 3 days remaining. Second new one is due this week. In general I am really pleased with this truck. No issues with interior rattles. Everything works as expected. I've probably put 10k miles on it personally at various times, most recently 2 weeks ago. It's a pleasure to drive. Due to an employee issue, I'll be driving the new one myself full time and actually looking forward to it. The last time I went out, I did 2 weeks out in my old T600 (like putting on some old comfortable boots) then went right back out in the Anthem for a week. Night and day difference, and don't expect to be unhappy with the new one.

The steer axle spring bushings have no grease fittings. That said, I grease this truck every 10-15k miles. No popping noises so far. Steering is still smooth and nothing feels weird. If it ends up needing spring bushings, I'll insist on serviceable replacements. There is some slight cupping on the outside ribs of the left steer tire, but nothing alarming. Same thing I've seen on every other truck I've had, even when I'm the driver and staying on top of tire pressures and whatnot (versus a company driver). Looks like I'll get 150k or better on the steers, which is what I've gotten with Goodyear LHS tires for years. Yeah I know there's better choices. I buy that mediocre brand because the dealer support has been hands down better than everything else. Works for me, but I understand maybe not everyone.

The hood latches are problematic. Best I can figure, I'm gonna end up having to figure out the adjustment process and just do it myself 2-3 times a year to avoid the delay and cost of having the dealer do it. At the first PM (6 months just under 50k miles) the dealer replaced the right hood latch under warranty. It had been a little hard to close when new, and had just reached a point it wouldn't latch completely the week it was going in the shop anyway. The left latch is rattling now, likely needs only adjustment. That's on my warranty list for the upcoming shop visit.

The hood mounted mirrors rattle pretty bad. It's a securement problem with the shell. I believe it's because they aren't fastened all the way around. Clip secures the top with screws on the bottom. Long term I'm just going to neatly gorilla tape them. If I make the warranty mention and it turns into back order drama, I'll tape them now.

On one of the early grease jobs I found a big air line just about to pop out at the tanks. It was a quick release fitting that was not fully seated when the truck was built. Pushed it all the way in and no more problems. On the new truck, I will put my hands on all of those hoses first time it's up on the ramps for grease.

Last winter we had some issues with the Davco 382 primary fuel filter/water separator gelling even when the filter still seemed to have adequate headroom before element replacement would be due. It's out front, so this winter I may just try wrapping it and may even look into a heated wrap if I'm feeling like I don't have enough projects to do.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. I'll come back and edit or post if I remember more. All in all, a few minor cosmetic complaints.

 

He's the reason I gave them a look. He may have some ideas, but I got the impression the company moved back to Volvos and never got too many Macks. I don't do FB often enough to really keep track, but Joel has been back in a Volvo for over a year now I think. He had them doing some bleeding edge configs with 6x2 automatic lift axles, super high drive ratios, and whatnot, and I believe some of the things he wanted were just not available on the Mack order list. But they would do them on a Volvo.

Another person on that FB group is Cameron Freeman. He's the Atlanta regional sales manager at Nextran, and follows and posts on Joel's threads.

IMO your dealer will make a bigger impact on things like this than anything Mack the company will ever do. So far, I have nothing but good things to say about Nextran in Atlanta. There have been some issues over the past year, and they have met my expectations. I cannot say that same thing about the Freightliner, KW, and Pete dealers in my area.

 

My new 680 had what appears to be white grease maybe Lithium from the factory.
I can remember my old Ford cabover if it wasn't creaking and shaking I'd think something was wrong , things have changed for the better.

 

Grease is the answer for squeaks. I drive a 2019 HX International. Hood squeaked when it was new. Put the regular grease on the bare spots where it was squeaking. Runs like the breeze now.

 

It's just the rig. I've got one, and it does all that. Plus, ridiculously loose steering. About the only thing they did right, is the engine. That Mack out pulls a Cummins any day.

 

Since this came back to the top, just a couple updates.

The hood latches and hood mounted spot mirrors still suck. Warranty isn't worth bothering with, I'll wait forever and the replacements will be the same thing. The factory maintenance schedule says lube hinges latches etc once a year. In addition to the hood latches, the locks that secure the side fairings on the '20 Anthem are failing. One is seized up completely, another I caught in time. With that discovery, I hit all the hinges and latches with spray white lube every time I grease the truck at 10-15k miles which works out to 4-6 weeks depending on what we're doing. Seems to have preserved the side fairing latches on my '22 so far. The most common problem with my '22 hood latches is the thru bolt the latch grabs onto working loose and causing the rattle. Takes two box wrenches and about 15 seconds to solve by tightening it. One of these times, I'll remember to pack a tube of red locktite and make it the last adjustment. The right side has a bit more rattle than it should lately, I suspect the bushings/spacers are wearing, so may need to adjust that side to close a little tighter. It's not bothering me enough just yet.

Both trucks intermittently have forward imager faults crop up. That's the camera in the windshield that activates the lane departure warnings, and on my '22 model reads speed limit signs and alerts when you're > 5mph over. When it quits, that is all that stops working so no great loss. I can disconnect it, blow out the connector, and reseat the plug and the system goes back to working fine for a month or three, until it acts up again.

The '20 had a fuel gauge sender failure a few months ago at about 150k miles. Out of warranty, so I paid for that. Worth mention: the replacement part was a revision. Of course no admission that the original one was prone to fail or any discounts for the trouble.

Also just got my '22 back from having a boost whistle diagnosed and repaired. Over the past few weeks it's developed a noise that reminded me of when the turbo flange gaskets start to fail on the Acert CATs I used to have. They claimed to find a hot side leak on the EGR system and sealed it up, under warranty. I did not press for details, but will look for the fresh parts and disturbed dirt next time I'm under the hood just to have an idea of what was leaking.

That's about it for now. The '20 truck is at around 170k miles now, my '22 about 67k.

 

I cut the bottom on a windshield bottle off and zip tied it to the hood bushing part. Squeeze gone forever and no oily / greasy mess.