A note to the anti-auto crowd

I like my 18 speed, too, but if I were to spec a new truck it'd probably have a Mack T-310ME. I've been on a few job sites where there was a lot of backing involved to get the load to where it needed to be dumped....and being able to shift up through the 6 gears in the low range to get more speed in reverse would have been helpful....and it's actually got a lower low gear (17.35 vs. 13.44) than my 18 speed and a similar (.73 instead of .71) top gear, just a 40% or so step between gears instead of 18%....so rather than running each gear 1500-1800 RPM, I'd be staying in each gear a little longer from 1300-1800 RPM...which with an MP8-505M engine wouldn't be an issue at all, since the torque curve is pretty flat right at/near the 1760 ft. lb. peak between 1100 & 1500 RPM while the HP approaches the 505 peak as the engine passes 1500 and stays there up through 1800 RPMs. The more time you spend in each gear, the wider your power band needs to be.

Only problem with spec'ing a new truck would be having to deal with all of the emissions crap they are putting on trucks these days....my current rig is old enough to not even have EGR....and I like that.

Of course it would be nice if they'd build an 18 speed with the multi-reverse option....and use that reverse hole for maybe another low gear to make it a 20 speed transmission. Granted, I rarely use the low hole as it is (unless I'm loaded & getting started on an incline, or rolling slowly in stop & go traffic)...but there's been a few times where a lower low would have been nice.

 

Bulldog, how do you like the mack trk's especially the MP8 engine. My old putty tat is getting tired have just a little over 1.2 million on the old girl and if i can't have a kitty well I'd take a bull dog. My grandfather still has his old 1972 superliner. So were a mack family from way back. But can you get a pure bred drive train anymore?. Does mack still use triple countershaft trans?.

 

Well said! This whole argument about 'only a real trucker can shift gears' to me is some load of crap! Sure even I had problems with guys trying to drive trucks like rally cars and messing up the mpgs but if you are capable of driving a truck surely with a little practise you can change a gear or two, like you said not rocket science! Driving a truck isn't hard to do, being safe and have the ability to know what to do in an emergency is the hard part! changing gears, that would have come with the jOb description!

 

Like I said, my truck pre-dates all of the emissions crap mandated onto trucks, so I don't have any first-hand experience with the new stuff....but if I were in the market for a new truck, it'd probably be an axle forward Granite with the MP8-505M, T-310ME, and at LEAST 46K Mack rears on a Raydan Air Link suspension...but would probably go with the 58K rears on 60K suspension for strength & durability. I've had a few issues with my 38K rears not being strong enough for what I do...

But yeah, Mack still offers their "Pedigreed" trucks with the all Mack drive train. Why buy a Mack truck with anything less?

 

Volvo drivetrain now as far as I know!

 

Thx bulldog. havn't seen any newer over the road bull dogs with gold dog keeping guard

 

well....this is all very interesting.everybody has personal taste and dislikes.one thing i see as a fact is,every driver ive met/talked to wasnt worth a hoot at shifting a truck anyway or just plain lazy.there are those of us that have diesel pumping through our veins and those of us that would rather be doing anything else but driving.i learned on a 13over manual,drove everything from 1972 on up.....then a 2005 shaker auto.yes i hated it.it rolled backwards if you didnt power brake it at every stop.it slammed every gear like a sledgehammer on concrete.didnt back up for s--t.i drove it for 90 days in the n.e.{nyc included}.that piece of crap was the final decision maker for me.if you want a good truck,keep a good truck...you have to buy your own.that way you dont have some bean counter that has no experince in driving[no business] makin you suffer in some pile of sh--,that he saved money on or made brownie points w/captain brown nose.if someone gave me an auto shift,any kind,i would take it down and trade it in for a 13 manual.no hesitation.new or not.im in control of this circus,not a #### puter.you guys that cant shift to save you life,or whine about your leg hurting in traffic,well,the auto sh-t was made for you.

 

Fair point but our autoshifters ain't like that, anybody that drove a proper ishift will tell you that! They won't roll back on hills , never miss or rough change a gear and change gear as smooth as a top mercedes or BMW car!

 

You "know" wrong, then. The T-300 series transmission has been around since mid 2001...and this was simply an update of the T-200 transmissions that have been around since long before then. Only the POS automatic is a Volvo transmission rebadged as a Mack...the manual transmissions are all Mack.

The MP engines are also rebadged Volvo engines, but with Mack programming. Funny how the Mack engineers squeeze more HP & torque out of the engines than the Volvo guys manage to get....