EURO-STYLE TRACTIVE UNIT iROM MACK
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MACK TRUCKS has developed a 6 x 4 heavy-duty tractor unit with set-back front axle to suit European requirements.
The axle is set back 140cm (55in) from the front bumper line compared with 71cm (28 in) on the standard F-series models, providing better turning circles and more " European " weight distribution.
Revealing details of the new model last week at a Mack International Conference in Monte Carlo. Mack's engineering vice-president, Walter M. May, said that with its 188 cm (74in) long front springs it had the most comfortable ride of any heavy tractive unit he'd experienced.
Mr May also gave news of Mack's new range of V8 and six-cylinder diesels, its joint gas turbine programme with KHD and Garrett, and its plans for offering digital electronic instruments on trucks in about 18 months.
The latter will also provide for automatic engine monitoring and shut-down—and for a new type of "spy in the cab." This will be in the form of a sealed-away tape cassette that will tell the operator if the vehicle has been in bad condition, eg, with low oil, or water.
In addition to all this news delegates were given specification details of the new 4 x 2 and 6 x 4 Macks and a glimpse of the entirely new-styled cabs with which the company intends in a few years' time to replace its forward-control ranges.
Mother innovation (already available) is a two-bunk sleeper-cab version of the familiar F-series forward control tractive unit. This has been built partly with European requirements in mind and has a 53cm (21in) high extension of the cab roof to permit the bunks to be installed one above the other.
The most significant piece of news was the revelation that Mack intends to offer the electronic instruments as an option on production models by early 1978. The company has ceased its joint develop ment with the Kaiser Corporation and the new digital system will be of Mack design.
All the normal cab dials and gauges will be replaced by digital displays (eg, speed, oil temperature, air brake pressures will be shown as numbers on small panels in front of the driver).
When the driver wants to know the state of a particular item he simply presses a button—water temperature, for example, and the temperature figure is flashed up on the display.
If, on the other hand, an item exceeds a safety level, then the figure is flashed up on the display automatically, a red light flashes and an audible warning sounds. If the driver ignores the warning—for instance of low oil pressure—the electronic system will automatically shut down the engine. There is, however, an override button to prevent the driver being left engineless in some dangerous situation.
The standard system will provide eight read-outs: air pressure (main), air pressure (secondary), oil pressure, water level, water temperature, battery output, fuel level and exhaust temperature. The units in the system are very compact.
Separate options are a sealed "memory module" and a record cassette. Both are small (and cheap) technical records, accessible only to the key-holder—who is intended to be the operator.
The memory module simply shows whether any of the predetermined limits, eg water temperature, have been exceeded during a journey; the cassette records all journeys for six days and when inserted into a cathode-ray display unit will show graphically the continuous read-outs for all the items monitored.
Mack now has the actual hardware for these systems (Mr May showed one of the tiny cassettes) and is now working out how the electronic system can be used to provide a ready-made on-vehicle main tenance check. T is would be done by monit ring vehicle condition electr nically and having a plug-in tester in the workshop. Mac s entirely new range of V diesels will go into pilot uild in the autumn, after le gthy experience of handbui t prototypes in service. The four engine models are all urbocharged, two with inter ooling, and have outputs r nging from 360bhp SAE to 5 Obhp SAE.
Only 100 engi es will be made• in the pilot programmes and these will be onitored in service for abou 18 months before full p duction is started.
Much later—p bably three or four years fron now—the V8s will be joinei by a new range of six-cyli der diesels having bores, pist ns etc. common with the V es. Two of the V8s and two lof the sixes will be "Turbo ne " hightorque types.
Mack is contin ng gas turbine developments as a member of the conso ium including KHD (Magiru ) and Garrett, despite Vol o dropping out six months ag .
The first engine ill be running in 1977 and production could start in 198 -81, but Mr May emphasised t at turbines would have to j stify their higher cost in terms of superior performance if they were going to compete with the diesel. He pointed out that US Ford had dropped turbine development and GM and Leyland also appeared to have done so.
Mack's mainstream truck design developments are in two stages. The first will be in the replacement of its shorthaul MB chassis in December 1977 with new MC and MR models. These will be 4x2 and 6x4 vehicles, the MC for local and medium-distance haulage and the MR mainly for municipal duties.
The most striking new feature is the cab—hydraulically tilting to 90 degrees. It is, at 223cm (88in) a foot wider than its predecessor and has an immense, deep windscreen rather like the tall-cab Atkinson of some five years ago. The driver can see the road only 5ft in front of the massive front bumper, and the hug screen is wiped by massive pantograph wipers.
The second stage—some years off—will be the replacement of existing long-haul trucks and tractors by normalcontrol and forward-control vehicles with very striking cab styling — big screens and slighty more European panel contours.
Mack is investing 25 million dollars in their development, which will be capable of taking engines up to 600 bhp, and the gas turbine if necessary.