Most guys hit eBay and look for muscle cars and trucks of the classic vintage. I hit eBay and look for things that are bizarre, cheap, destroyed, or otherwise interesting to see. I have really gotten hung up on this 2013 Mack Granite truck that had some sort of totally catastrophic wreck and your job is to try and do what I can’t….which is to explain what in the hell happened to this truck to cause the damage you see here. There are a few things that have me stumped like the fact that the exhaust stacks are relatively unscathed but the roof and upper section of the cab are COMPLETELY GONE. How does that happen without the stacks being cleaned off the truck as well?!
Mechanically, the truck is probably about perfect because all of the damage is topside. Yes, the nose looks as though it took a little shot but the photos of the engine and other components show them to be intact and looking pretty good. The gas tanks are not all messed up either and while there is some blackening on the cab that looks to be more a function of something spilling down the side of the thing rather than fire.
I have stared at these photos for far too long and am completely stumped. Your mission on this fine Saturday is to become the mechanical CSI agent and determine the cause of this Mack’s traumatic death. I would continue on my quest but I have to keep teasing myself with old B-Models that I want to buy and bring home. What’s your take on this? Anyone recognize the truck from a local wreck? How does this happen?!
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE PHOTOS OF THE TRUCK AND THEN HIT THE LINK TO SEE THE EBAY AD WITH EVEN MORE PHOTOS (BUT NO SPECIFICS ON THE WRECK THAT KILLED THIS HEAVY HAULER!) –
CLICK HERE to see more photos of this destroyed Mack and try to figure out how this happened
Looks like a beam or pipe landed square in the middle of the roof. You can see how the doors are buckled and the roof line in the upper cab corners are bent down. As far as the black stuff on the drivers door I would bet this truck pulled an asphalt tanker.
Maybe not pulling an asphalt tank but in a terminal that had it. Black runny stuff down the fuel tank as well but looking again there is no pump on the truck. Unless it was already removed
Looks like it was used in the latest version of Mad Max.
The ad says one steer tire bad, it’s laying on the fifth wheel. The rubber is not blown apart, so I doubt it caused the hood damage. I’m guessing a layover in something soft, like a ditch or mud, judging by the slop on the truck. My guess is the cab roof was cut off to get to the driver, zooming in on the pics on eBay brings me to that conclusion. The mirrors are on fold in brackets, contact with the ground could have folded it in rather than break it off. Ad claims fifth wheel damage, so likely there was a trailer on it. It is a no tilt fifth wheel, which one would use for a dump trailer, but then no mention of a wet kit on the truck, so who knows. I drove a Mack Granite similar to this one, the cabs are not as sturdy as you might think.
I’m pretty sure a dinosaur tried to eat it.
My guess is that it got “doored” by some little chick getting out of her big SUV while yapping on the phone. Maybe some shopping cart damage. Also, some gigantic metal-eating land pirañas. Looks like it’ll mostly buff out, though.
Well……we’d just picked the midgets and 1500 cases of vaseline….
I’m going to say that with a new wheel and tire on the back covering its hitch plate, it is possible that it was being hauled on the back of another truck. And that it originally had a large air dam mounted to the roof. It then clipped an underpass that the stacks barely cleared and the dam didn’t.
But that doesn’t explain the black tar like substance all over the driver side stack and fuel tanks.
It stopped, it’s load didn’t. Came right thru the back of the cab.
Looks plausible – maybe a tank of asphalt through the back window?
Agreed, cab was cut off to extract the driver.
After nearly 50 yrs. driving these things, this truck baffles me. The more you look at it the more “confusing” it becomes. I agree that the roof was probably cut off to get the driver out. The front end and tire placed on 5th wheel (off the rim) suggest that maybe it took a slow roll to the right into some kind of ditch. Although the right side stack is still straight the left one is bent up. As for the “black stuff” I also thought it might be liquid asphalt but the rest of the wheels and frame look a little bit too clean. Anybody who has ever hauled that product knows what I mean. Man, after all this typing, it comes down to I don’t have a clue. And I thought I knew just about everything. Neat post though.
You could use the contact seller link, and ask him
From the clues I see my guess is the 5th wheel broke and the trailer hit the back of the cab.
It was hauling a portable tank on a flatbed float trailer. Load was not secured properly. Look at the background in the pictures. I used to haul these kind of loads all through W. Texas.