Truck review: Mack Anthem daycab and 70" sleeper

Few years ago I posted a review of a new Mack truck equipped with a then new M-Drive automatic transmission. Recently, Bruckner Mack in Denver brought us a couple of new trucks to demo, this time around it's a pre-build 2018 Mack Anthem daycab and ready for sale 2019 Mack Anthem 70" condo.

One item on both trucks, all Mack anthem tractors come standard with power windows and power locks, depending on the package level they will also have a remote lock/unlock standard. The trucks come in basic, ultra and premium trim.

First off the daycab. I was originally told this was a pre-build truck and not for sale, but it turned out it was actually already sold to a farmer in Kansas, but they were letting several customers demo it for a few weeks before he would take delivery. The day cab is a 4x2 configuration, equipped with super singles and a tag axle setup, 11 liter MP7 motor spec'd at 400 hp but turned up to 455 hp (more on this later), I'm not sure the gears and an M-Drive transmission



In this picture, I drove the truck for two days, day 1 I ran out to a customer in Burlington, Co. with a 20' can on a 3 axle chassis to pick up 44K of millet, the second day I took the truck to a customer in Rifle, Co. to pick up 40,000 lbs of sodium bicarbonate.

It's very nice truck, with a redesigned interior, totally new layout for everything.



I didn't take as good a pic of the steering wheel and stalks as I thought I did. Mack has changed and moved things around.

The left stalk controls the turnsignals, hi beam (push down), flash to pass (lift up), windshield wipers and a button on the end to control trailer light flash. The headlight controls also now have a push button for the hazards below them (barely visible), my advice to Mack, it needs to be moved to the right side of the dash and given it's own button, where it's at, it's very difficult to use. At the railroads I have to use them constantly and where it's located, it's inconvenient and several times I had to hit multiple times to get them to turn on.

The right stalk, barely visible, controls the engine brakes (lo, med, hi, max) and as well as the guard dog digital display controls.

The gauge layout feature the tach on the left, with three small gauges for DEF tank, coolant and oil pressure, in the middle is the guard dog digital display which features all your other readouts, odometer, trip meters, etc., on the right side is the speedo, and below it are 3 gauges for fuel and primary/secondary air systems. Surrounding both gauges are multiple idiot lights, Parking brake, ABS lights, Neutral and Reverse indicator, and various other warning lights.

To the right side of the dash is the trans selector, below that is the radio (optional later in the year is a larger stereo equipped with GPS and other telematics, the radios are all Sirius/Xm ready as well as Bluetooth, AUX and USB plugs. To the right of that are the various other switches. The long black piece is currently just a pocket for pens, but in the future Mack will be offering an additional gauge package that will install there. HVAC controls are easy to use and work well.

Mack is now making it optional to be equipped with blind spot warning (in the pic of the right side, you can see a pod mounted inside the grab handle, that's the light for the blind spot monitor) and forward collision warning. Both are a royal PITA, I despised both, the blindspot monitor is extremely distracting at night, when this bright yellow light comes on. The collision avoidance cannot be turned off, it works in conjunction with the cruise control, regular brakes, engine brakes and throttle. You can override it manually, but once you get to a certain closing distance, it starts beeping at you, very loudly and overriding the stereo, you can adjust the distance via a button, but it doesn't matter, in the city you pretty have to turn the radio off as it becomes worthless.

For those that are curious, this truck weighs just under 15,000 lbs in this setup, with a total of 150 gal capacity.

The 11 liter, Mp7 works very well on the plains, it had no trouble pulling the empty container at speed upto 80 mph (thanks Mack), returning to Denver at 74,000 (with 44,000 in the box) it had no problems, although getting up to 75 mph took longer than I liked, and pulling most grades was an issue.

The second day, I took it and a 53' container to a customer in Rifle, Co. to pick up 40,000 lbs of sodium bicarbonate. The drive from Denver to Rifle on I-70 wasn't bad, empty of course, the truck pulled the hills and had no problem on the down hill. However, once loaded, I worked that little 11 liter way too hard, trans was in 6th gear and low teens climbing Vail and Eisenhower, in fact climbing Vail the whole engine was getting so hot it actually started to override the A/C and blow hot air. Dropping down Genesse into Denver, the engine brakes were not happy on that long grade, it's definitely better suited for the plains.

Now for the sleeper.

What can I say, I love this truck. This is a totally redesigned setup, a departure from the old as Mack says. Everything is new. In the 3 days I've driven this truck, it constantly gets compliments, at one truck stop in Torrington, Wyo. I came out to find 6 or 7 drivers looking it over, and a couple climbing inside to take a look after I unlocked it.

Mack calls it Cobalt Blue, most people call it Royal blue, I can say that clean it's very bright blue, they will see you coming.




This new front end, you either love it or hate it, I've had a few people say it looks like a transformer coming down the road.



Mack gave me this truck with 59 miles on it, as of Friday I've put 1,098 miles on it, and still get to drive it one more day. This truck is equipped with a Mack MP8 505 hp engine, M-Drive transmission and all Mack driveline, twin 100 gallon tanks.

I will say, this truck gets pretty good mileage all things considered. My first day running it, I went from Denver to Morrill, Ne. and back, up empty, back at 73,000 gross. I averaged 7.3 mpg, running 69 mph heading to Morrill, and 6.5 coming back. This drive is a lot of up and down, I pretty much had my foot in it for most of the drive. On true flat lands, 9 mpg could probably easily be had with an aero package trailer, maybe 10 mpg depending on conditions and setup.

This truck is also equipped with a collision avoidance system (but not the blindspot monitoring), I really really despise this system, I've already told my bosses I don't care what kind of insurance discount we could get, do not order it, I suspect several of my coworkers would quit.

Let me say upfront, I've never been a true OTR driver, so I'm not sure what to expect in the interior of a large sleeper like this. I've always had 48" or 56", the first one my company bought me specifically was a 56" condo that Mack used to make. This truck, with the 70" condo is designed for an O/O or a company driver to be out for a long time. Lots of closet space, storage compartments, cubby holes a large cabinet for a tv, as well as a flat screen mount, refrigerator and a pull out desk top (I'll post pics of the sleeper below)

TBC...……………….

 

Part 2:
The sleeper










It is equipped with an APU, I have no idea how to work it so I haven't bothered


The three days I've driven this truck, aside from the collision avoidance, it's very easy to drive and handle. One day I went to Torrington, the next day I went to Rifle, Co. and the 3rd day I spent in the city, this next week I'll drive it Monday back in the mountains and then hand it off to a coworker for 2 days.

The dash and controls on this are very similar to the day cab, on the right side of the steering wheel is the stereo controls, on the left are the cruise control. The left and right stalks contains the same controls as the day cab.




The one difference on this truck, aside from being a twin screw with no tag axle, this truck is equipped with an air release king pin unlock, instead of manually pulling the handle. It works well, but, takes some getting used to. It will only work if all brakes are set and the truck is in neutral, if any of the brakes are released or the truck is in gear, it will not activate (I tried several times in our yard with empties)

This truck weighs 19,540 with just slightly under full tanks of fuel. If they could figure out a way to shave 1,000 lbs off this truck, I'd be begging my bosses to buy me one.

A couple of add-on notes, both trucks have disc brakes, man are those nice, they definitely stop smoother than drum brakes, I noticed dropping of Vail and Eisenhower, I didn't feel as much brake fade. Because the blue truck is so new, the engine brakes, while they worked, felt a little soft so I had to use more foot brake.

 

Yes, it lifts, in the picture they were still loading me. As soon as I was loaded and started the truck, as the air ride came up to level, it dropped the pusher to the ground.

It was interesting, a couple of issues I see with it, with super singles at times it felt squirrelly, I would rather that the drive axle had tandems and the lift had a super single. According to Mack this is an option. As I pointed out to my boss, and to Mack, this is a weird configuration for out here in Colorado, if the truck is going to run the mountains in this configuration, the driver will have to carry 3-rail chains, as this truck would be a single drive.

 

The hood mirrors do suck, the low beams on the headlights are powerful enough that I actually never use the high beams.

I would advise stopping by any Mack dealer that has one in stock and crawling all over it, some will probably let you take it for a test drive.