My wife often accuses me of being a child. Unfortunately when she catches me slobbering over big red fire trucks on eBay, I can’t mount that credible a defense. Accusations aside, this 1957 Mack B-21 pumper truck is pretty much it when it comes to rare Mack trucks. One of old nine made and of those nine, one of only two with the open half-cab setup, this is a truck that Mack collectors will really get excited over. Outside of the rarity of the piece there are some cool factory custom touches that may miss your glance unless you are a truck loving child like myself.
The nose of the truck was stretched when it was built because power is provided by a massive 935ci Hall-Scott 400 series engine. The gas burning mill churned out about 300hp on a good day. (Believe it or not, there was an even larger 1,091ci version of this engine built as well!) The engine that powered the truck obviously powered the pumping unit as well and that was a 1250 GPM rated piece. This truck could really move some water in its day!
Back to the nose stretch for a moment. What’s really, really cool about it is the fact that the stretch was done from the cowl forward and not just at the end of the hood by the grill. It would have been far easier to do it on the end without the compound curves and other complicated elements that the cowl presented, but the people at Mack did it the hard way and it is virtually imperceptible to anyone but people who really know these old B-model Mack trucks. Doing things the easy way is the rule in today’s world. That logic hadn’t pervaded our thoughts in 1957, though.
The truck runs and drives but needs brake work. It is also located about 80 miles from me. We’ll see who the child is now! (Or we won’t because that truck doesn’t have a roof and I’d be forced to live in it if it ever showed up at my house).
SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS AND A LINK TO THE EBAY AD!
EBAY AD: 1957 MACK B-21 FIRE TRUCK
19,500 pounds and juice brakes?
Every BangShifter should know about Hall-Scott. They built some really great and amazing stuff. The SAE has a good book on them. http://books.sae.org/book-r-368/
Their old factory is about 5 miles south from where I am sitting. The old buildings are still there. They are some kind of offices now. Sad.