What happened to Mack?

A few years ago I came home a day early, she asked if I would come and take her to lunch. I show up and parked in the visitors parking lot with a then brand new 07 KW T-600.

Mark

 

If it had been up to me, it would have been another condo,b ut Mack discontinued the 56" condo a few years back. Realistically, the way my truck is setup, I could easily have a 60" flat top or condo and have the same wheelbase, but just have been a few lbs heavier.

As far as weight, well, it really does depend.

The best way to tell if a Mack has a complete Mack driveline (engine to axles) is too look at the bulldog, from the factory a Mack equipped with a complete Mack driveline will have a gold hood ornament, all other will have a silver one.

my truck weighs 18,500 full of fuel, my fat butt, and all the stuff I carry. We have 2 freighshaker columbia's that are setup similar and weigh almost 1,000 lbs less then me. The biggest difference is the weight of the DPF unit and emissions equipment. In order to offset the emissions weights, we had to order it with Alum. wheels (all our other trucks have steel, alum. side steps, etc., etc., etc.. If we hadn't of ordered it will Alum. parts, the truck would have weighed close to 19,000 and with the type of freight and trailers we haul, weight is super important. The upside, when it's all clean and shiny it looks beautiful, but when it's dirty, man it looks like hell. This little piece of machinery, and all it's related parts makes up 900lbs:


Backing up a little, the '03,'04, and early '05 Mack Visions had numerous engine problems. We had two of them, every time you turned around they were breaking down. After a little more than two years the company turned them into Mack as lemon's, both blew 3 turbo's each, the one lost it's fan belt/drive assem. 3 times in 18 months, another one had it's fan disintegrate while pulling a mtn. road, took out both rad. hoses and a power steering line. They tranny's had problems as well, they were autoshifts that just didn't work correct with the emissions equipped engines. Now, my '09 has an Autoshift as well and I've had zero issues with it and the engine.

 

The one problem we have had with Macks is poor service . 90% of the time when my truck has gone in the shop shoddy workmanship has caused more downtime when the truck had to either go back to the shop or have repairs done by our mechanic . This included shops in Evansville and Lewisville IN and London , ON . Evansville is the worst . That is where our tractors were bought and get "serviced " most .

 

Any brand has that story, I have one local dealer that is clueless in the shop but another is dead on every time But I have had less trouble out of Mack's than any other brand

 

LOL. We have a few 08 Visions at my work. There is one though that we all remember. It already has 90k less miles on it than the others because it has spent so much time in the shop. It is almost always the same problem, it goes limp. Turbos replaced, nothing. Sensors, nothing. This one truck is the biggest POS ever. On the other hand we have a few 2010 Volvos that are nothing but great. The sensors are a bit too touchy and will trigger false oil alerts and such but they pull awesome and are noticeably quieter than ANY Mack in our fleet. The air clutch takes some getting used to though. It's almost like it has too much pressure springing the pedal back so it's a good thing most guys don't use the clutch.

 

I think Mack's biggest problem is it's dealer network. Colorado Mack Sales and Service in Denver is a joke. Our salesman is fairly decent, but the owner is an ###, he's had several offers to buy the dealership and won't, now his daughter runs it and she's a real piece of work. I once made an off-hand comment that they should give us a better deal on truck that was sitting on the lot for over 18 mos. she siad I've given xxxx the best deal I can give on that truck and he won't take it. I know for a fact she didn't give #### for a deal on the truck. The truck sat for another 3 mos. before someone bought it.

Service is hit and miss, I've had nothing but problems with my CB and antenna's since new. Ground problems fried my original radio, the truck was in to Mack 7 times, 11 days, for this problem and each time they would tell me it was the radio. Well, yeah it was the radio, after the poor factory install ruined it. Ended up costing the company $100 to have it fixed at an outside shop and Mack still won't reimburse us for it. 90% of the time when the truck goes in for warranty item, things that should take a day to fix usually take 2 or 3 days. But, I once blew a heater hose coming back from Houston, stopped at the Mack dealer in Wichita Falls, Tx. Right at shift change, they never even had me unhook from my trailer, just pulled it into the shop, within 2.5 hrs they had me back on the road. Hell they even pressure washed my engine and the whole right side of the truck, frame, etc. before I left so I wouldn't have to smell coolant. My new truck was 5 mos. old when the upper rad. blew. Limped the truck back to Colo. Mack, took 4 days to get it fixed and they couldn't be bothered to clean things up. When we got it back, we had to pressure wash it to get the coolant smell off.

 

Isn't it amazing how one dealer can ruin a companies reputation. Sure it's only one bad apple, but if it's your closest dealer when your ready to upgrade or buy a new truck just that poor service will make you think twice about buying another. We had a problem with the a couple local KW dealer (all owned by the same company) not stocking parts that were on every truck on the lot. Simple items like flasher relays, radiator caps, mirrors. Very irritating.