INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Mack’s iconic Granite has broken into the Class 7 market, in the form of a 4×2 Medium Heavy Duty (MHD) configuration, showcased for the first time at the NTEA Work Truck Show this week.

The truck is aimed at customers looking for a rugged work truck that falls into the Class 7/baby 8 category. The Granite MHD was first introduced in a 6×4 configuration in 2011, but Curtis Dorwart, vocational marketing product manager, said customers frequently asked for a lighter-duty version of the truck.

“The MHD 4×2 offers a great option for customers needing a truck tough enough to manage their daily operations, but in a lighter weight configuration to increase their ROI,” Dorwart said.

Two Granite MHD 4x2s were displayed at the Work Truck Show: a light dump truck and a service truck. The truck comes with a Cummins ISL9 engine with 345 hp and torque of up to 1,150 lb.-ft.

The newest Granite offers a cost-effective option for customers looking to deploy a rugged Class 7 truck into snowplow, municipal, utility or dump applications for less cost than the full-sized Granite.

“What we usually see, is when things get soft, there’s more demand for the lesser-priced trucks,” Dorwart told Truck News at the show. “Now that things are improving, we’re seeing some good, strong demand coming back for the heavy-duty side of our product. We think the MHD is a great addition to the overall Granite line, so we can get you on both sides of the economy. If things are really great, we have the full, big horsepower Granite, or if things are a little bit lighter on the chequebook side, we can fix you up with the Granite MHD.”

Like its bigger brother, the Granite MHD 4×2 comes with a galvanized steel cab, mounted on airbags and shocks for driver comfort. It’s available in four frame rail thicknesses ranging from 7-11 mm. It’s also available in an axle-forward or axle-back configuration.

New features built into the Granite are also built into the MHD 4×2, including a dead pedal foot rest, ambient floor lighting, an improved body builder console, and self-cancelling turn signals.

Dorwart said production on the MHD 4×2 has already begun, and that Mack is “building them as fast as we’re taking orders.” The truck is currently available for order in Canada.