Drivers choice of truck

I like the Pete 387's. You get the good Peterbilt truck, but with more room on the inside. I'm a big guy... 6'4", and I appreciate the extra space.

 

I would stay away from Freightliner, at least the Century/Columbia models, they beat you too death. I own a 07 Pete 387, 475 Cat.18 spd 3:25 rear I average 6.8-7.1 mpg at 65mph. It is very roomy, unlike the 379, and it rides like a dream. It also has a good turning radius. Thats my personal favorite for the above reasons.

 

I drove 2 different Pete 387s and neither of them could come close to the 379. Squeaks and rattles galore. Nothing on the road is as well built as a 379. Super comfortable and always made me look forward to leaving the house. I also never had trouble with maneuverability in the 379. The worst truck I ever drove as far as maneuvering was a W900. I currently drive a '11 T660 which I think has the best dash layout and is basically the same as a W900 but on a set-back front axle. My old 379 was easier to maneuver. I've never driven an International that I didn't hate. Volvos are roomy and comfy, but the dash layout is too european for me. Freightliners are just cheesy, roomy but cheap. My .02.

 

Mack to me will always mean tough and unbreakable, the trucks that did the jobs that no other make could handle. The old school Mack engines were awesome and even though they were usually the smallest ( I am talking about as far as the 6 cylinder models, not the V8s ) they pulled hard and had the best sounds doing it ( between the unique sound of the turbo on some models, that mean as hell exhaust note, especially with straight pipes )

An all Mack equipped truck was a doomsday vehicle. Pacella Trucking here in the Chicago area ran them until they collapsed, but no doubt are living a second life in another country. I met an old timer at one of my stops that still runs an R Model daycab hauling steel. He's as tall as me ( 6'2 ) and I still don't know how he survives that cab, it's just too small for me.

My favorite story is when I got marooned out in Wyoming for a few weeks, I hooked up with a guy that pulled these 7 axle pneumatics hauling sand for the frack crews. His truck was a Superliner with the big V8, and wow, what an engine! It wasn't stock, of course, he had it tuned to about 700hp or so, and grossing over 110k it ran like most trucks at under 80k. It was like riding in a locomotive with an EMD or an Alco under the hood, just bass and tons of torque.

Maybe someone can confirm this, but a swap back in day involved Peterbilts getting Macks under the hood.......what do you call it? A Petermack, Mackerbilt, a Bulldog 359?

 

for the life of me i still can't understand why they quit making the 359 and 379 both were excellent trucks..... I would be in heaven to have either on in the large car version. #### trucks are getting uglier every year, most look so much alike you gotta look at the label to tell what it is.... I will be in a new cascadia on monday unless i get lucy and draw a pete. Cascadias make me feel like i am sitting at a wheel and shift tower in my frickin living room.....

 

I agree completely that the old macks were incredibly well built trucks. Not very comfortable though. New Macks are NOT the same.

 

The trucks these days are more driver friendly as far as amenities and comfort which I don't have a problem with, but I have a big problem when it makes them excessively complicated and unreliable. What made the old schoolers so nice was that we could work on them ourselves, and even when they were not completely right, you could still go on for a little while before something went kablooey. Can't do that with the new schoolers, they have no tolerance for anything it seems.

 

I run the same truck, but with the mDrive 12 speed auto. It's been a good truck since we got it last April. At the present time it's got 105,000 miles on the clock. All are hard local miles pulling 6,250 gallons of water from the coal region down to the Lehigh Valley on PA309/PA100. There are quite a few hills to pull, and a fair number of traffic lights, and, unless I pull some loads out of Hazleton, no interstate travel at all. It's only been in the shop for a couple of minor things, otherwise all it takes is routine maintenance from our own mechanics.

 

i am old school, and i reckon the days of universal parts , switches, and gauges are history. They are making these big trucks more and more like a car all the time. Wtf, they even have cruise control in them. Face it pretty soon they will be programmed to operate without a driver lol.... Like a slot car track or else the driver just has to be on board in case the auto pilot fails... The good ole days are long gone , me thinks...

 

Never saw that specific swap, but I do recall something in a similar vein. One of our contractors owned a fleet of dumps... one of them was a CH613, which the driver rolled and totaled. Rather than buy a new truck, he bought a Sterling LT9511 glider kit, and put the Mack engine and rears in it.