Chad may break my chops over loving old trucks so much but I’m certainly not the only one out there who has an unnatural level of affection towards the lumbering machines that helped build our country, one load at a time. This video backs up my claim as it features a 1929 Mack AK dump truck that was lovingly restored by a guy in the materials business down in Florida. In the video we learn about what the truck is exactly, the specs of the truck, and there is some neat footage of the owner cruising it down the road. Yes, the truck has a top speed of 40 mph (which is actually up from stock), and it weighs about 20,000lbs while packing a 77hp engine (four banger with a 5″ bore and a 6″ stroke!), so acceleration isn’t a strong suit either, but how can you deny the neatness of this big red monster?
Of the interesting things we learned while watching this surrounds the engine, or specifically the layout of the engine in old Mack trucks. Those guys always placed the radiator almost against the firewall and we never knew why. The owner of the featured truck explains that it was a carry over practice from the days when teamsters driving horse wagons were fighting the “newfangled” trucks for hauling work. The guys with the wagons knew that they could back them into the front of a truck and smash out the radiator, rendering the truck useless and “securing” their work. Mack recognized this issue and moved the radiator to a location where a horse drawn wagon couldn’t damage it. The side benefit was the fact that it provided some measure of heat to the driver in the winter because otherwise, there was none.
When you see the owner drive the truck and you realize that men drove these things for years (Some Mack AK and AC trucks worked well into the 1960s) it isn’t hard to see why old timer truck drivers like to tease the new guys. One of the “luxuries” this truck had was rubber pucks under the seats! Between having to muscle the wheel and basically lean into next week to shift the thing, this was not a place that soft men hung out in very long. Tough guys only! This is one neat video.
Press play below to see a neat video feature on a 1929 Mack AK dump truck!
that was really neat, thanks for sharing! hard to imagine chain drive was durable though, all I see is thrown chains every time they stretched, though the idea of being able to change your final drive ratio just by removing a couple of bolts and swap in another sprocket is great
Old Guy flashback…… http://www.tomdaniel.com/85_kits/frm_85kits.html