March 26, 2008 Vol. 4, No. 7

Since I was a kid, I’ve been a sucker for tough trucks. At the age of five, I probably figured every truck looked that way, while nowadays I’m a little jaded. But the truly big
and brutal ones still get me.

Mack’s new Titan comes quickly to mind, of course, first shown to the world at the CONEXPO show in Lost Wages a couple of weeks ago. ‘Bold’ only begins to describe it, as you’ll see in the first item below. Looks like chrome is in again.

I’m reminded of one of my all-time favorite trucks, the Mack RW Super-Liner. That long-nose beast was a bit different, and the basic R-model cab was a far cry – very far – from the Titan’s plush and roomy interior, but the emphasis on heavy work is common.

The old RW often had Mack’s big V8 under the hood, but if I remember correctly, it topped out at 500 horses or so. Mack’s new 16-liter MP10 diesel, on the other hand, hits
605 serious horsepower. A Mack’ized version of the big Volvo D16, it also churns out as much as 2060 lb ft of torque. Nice. There’s at least 1600 lb ft all the way from 1000 to
1900 rpm, but the peak value is generated in a flat line from 1200 to about 1500 rpm.

There are few things in life more fun than a ton of torque. Ask any driver.

THEN WE HAVE THE WESTERN STAR 6900 XD paired with a very heavy-duty dump body from J&J Truck Bodies & Trailers. It was also introduced at CONEXPO in Vegas, and it too is big and brutal. They call it “the ultimate truck for extreme-duty mining and quarry applications.” It’s built to haul loads up to 40 tons, off-road of course.