Mack B61

I have recently acquired a 58 or 59 model Mack b61 truck. It was used locally when it was bout new in my area as some sort of trailer wrecker setup. "Slim's wrecker service" was the only tow truck for about a 120 mile stretch back then. I personally know Slim and his wife and kids and grandkids. He is a cool older man with all sorts of whitty stories about things that he had seen and those that had happened to him. He tells them all with a very unique persona and that all so evident "old guy" voice and swag.
I acquired the truck from another gentlemen that owed me a bit and had begged the old truck off of Slim for nothing. It is pretty awful shape and will require an almost complete rebuild. It is single cab and single axle. Perched up on it's back is fifth wheel hitch and right in front of that rests a very hefty overbuilt winch tower. Winch is pto driven and slim had to knock the back window out to reach the gear handle to run it. slim claims it ran fine when he parked it there years ago. He. Can't remember what exacty was wrong with it but he thinks it was several small things and he also seems to remember not being able to get repair parts because of wartime. At any rate, this will be my first restoration ever and quite possibly my last but I have found a good source for parts that's not to awful priced and a lot of good info on the thermodyne power plant and parts sourcing for that as well.

I have some questions and some of you might know. Maybe not either but I appreciate the interest in advance. #1 how many lbs can this thing handle with the one axle? The fifth wheel measures to be the same heights a regular truck so it should couple up to any drop deck or lowboy but really how much could it tow behind it. I own a construction company and have a small cat 215 excavator that I am hoping it could pull around locally. Al though I'm not sure of the weight on the 215 I expect it to be around 30,000 lbs or so. Either way what are my limitations?
#2. What is the general consensus on re powering it with the original thermodyne or going with something more current? I am a business owner but that also means mechanic and electrician, so on and so forth so I am perfectly capable in mind and facility as well. Not looking for what would be cheaper but more popular reliable? Ther are many other bouncing around in my head but let's start here and see if anyone has anything for me. Like I said, interest is appreciated in advance.

The weight I'm not sure of but I think this would be the same as any single axle like that.Yes you can repower it.I was told you could put a 300 Maxidyne in it.You do have to change a few things but since I talked to Mack Truck Factory Rep.I have forgotten what.But I believe one thing was steering box and maybe radiator.The cost was not to high to do this.There is a web site called Old Mack Trucks where you might get more help on this.

2stickbill said:

The weight I'm not sure of but I think this would be the same as any single axle like that.Yes you can repower it.I was told you could put a 300 Maxidyne in it.You do have to change a few things but since I talked to Mack Truck Factory Rep.I have forgotten what.But I believe one thing was steering box and maybe radiator.The cost was not to high to do this.There is a web site called Old Mack Trucks where you might get more help on this.

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That will be a sweet truck if you could modernize it a bit! Do you have any pictures you could post??

Check out www.aths.org and give serious consideration to joining. They publish a bi-monthly magazine with an awesome classified section, I know there's one company dedicated to reproduction Mack parts. You can also network with other members who may have done a restoration just like yours and can give you pointers. I was a member for quite a while but got so busy my membership lapsed.

2stickbill, I know I said I own a construction company, and this might sound odd but we have not ever owned a transport truck. Not one legal anyhow, most of our transport is either so far that owning just one truck would be a too little and moves are so far in between usually that it is just more cost effective to hire a transport company to do it all in one swoop with many trucks rather than one-tripping it to move everything. If I was so I'm not as savvy about trucks and numbers of axles as I should be. I think I know a regular truck and trailer with the load can legally width 80,000 lbs. But I'm somehow sure one axle drops that legality. I have an international 4900 service truck that I believe is rated with a 17,000 lb axle. Are you thinking the old Mack will be comparable? I mean how much of a trailer plus load could go behind it? I have visited Old Mack Trucks and plan on using them.
Bark lee, I do have some pictures. I am new here so I will have to figure out how to post them. I was thinking that modernization would be pretty neat too. I would lean towards a cat 3116 or something similar. Just wondering about the room. It would be nice for the driver to also have a transmission with one shifting lever also.
Steve, I will check those guys out. Thanks everybody.

Hi !

Coondog , make sure you get into this forum : http://www.bigmacktrucks.com
those guy's will help you out with any Mack info parts and so on !!!

Coondog said:

2stickbill, I know I said I own a construction company, and this might sound odd but we have not ever owned a transport truck. Not one legal anyhow, most of our transport is either so far that owning just one truck would be a too little and moves are so far in between usually that it is just more cost effective to hire a transport company to do it all in one swoop with many trucks rather than one-tripping it to move everything. If I was so I'm not as savvy about trucks and numbers of axles as I should be. I think I know a regular truck and trailer with the load can legally width 80,000 lbs. But I'm somehow sure one axle drops that legality. I have an international 4900 service truck that I believe is rated with a 17,000 lb axle. Are you thinking the old Mack will be comparable? I mean how much of a trailer plus load could go behind it? I have visited Old Mack Trucks and plan on using them.
Bark lee, I do have some pictures. I am new here so I will have to figure out how to post them. I was thinking that modernization would be pretty neat too. I would lean towards a cat 3116 or something similar. Just wondering about the room. It would be nice for the driver to also have a transmission with one shifting lever also.
Steve, I will check those guys out. Thanks everybody.

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You local DMV can tell you more on the weight.I think the 3116 would be nice if it has the HP.But two stick will give you more pulling power.They multyply the touque to the rear.A 15 speed,13 are the 18 is good too.I had a 1965 B61 with two sticks and a non turbo Maxidyne about 190 HP.Would run 62 MPH with 90,000 in logs.62 was top speed it was geared low.

Yair . . . Coondog. Sacrilege! A B61 IS two sticks. LOL. Seriously though it will give a driver lot of satisfaction if he perseveres and learns to drive it. It takes a while to learn ring all the changes but you don't have to use both boxes all the time.

Cheers.

Yair. . . Scrub pulled, I own the old truck. I am fully aware it Is 2 sticks. I was saying I believe it would be nice if it was modernized a bit. I do believe if I was to use a cat engine it might be dificult to couple that to a an older tranny as such. The only reason I said a cat 3116 is because it will fit in the hole. There might be an opportunity to get something large in it, 3216 or maybe a cummins or something. I completely agree with you 2stickbill, about getting at least 15 speeds in there, does ur username have anything to do with that old Mack?

how much can the rear axle take LEGALLY? or actually.

Legally im saying that 20k max is probably a safe bet. IN actuality those little single axle wreckers ruled the world. putting 30K on that rear axle wasn't unheard or even thought as crazy. Todays HYD wrecker operators would have you locked up for even thinking of doing things that the little single axle wreckers did every day without thinking twice.

Single rear axles are limited by the DOT to 22,500 lbs. (Tandems are limited to 20,000 each. Little known fact - If you remove one rear axle from a tandem and convert the truck to a single axle truck, you are still limited by law to 20,000 lbs on that axle. Doesn't matter what the mfgr rates it at. Dumb, eh?) There should be a plate in the cab that lists the GVW of the truck and of each axle as manufactured.

I've seen quite a few B models turned into daily work vehicles by mounting the cab on an R model chassis. I'm told it's a simple conversion and it is less expensive to pick up an R model with the mechanicals you want and a rusted out cab than it is to rebuild the old 50s hardware. Plus you get better brakes, trans, and all the newer accessories and a more powerful engine built right in.

It seems as though the world is full of sissys these days,dualie. Even as young as I am I can see such an unwillingness to do what it takes to get the job done. I understand that you are only talking about the capabilities of trucks and not legality, but with that said, I have ran across several situations or happenings in the last couple days that also fall into this category. I mean come on people. I also think insurance might have a lot to do with to days," hey did you know there is a machine for that?" attitude Everyone has. Phildirt, I will look for that plate. Thanks for the information on the axle. I have an uncle that hauled a lot of hay. Every dual axle truck he had got converted to single axle. I neverthoughtmuch of it but he pulled doubles so I guess he did not need that axle under the truck if he had two more midway down the load. I suppose that taking axle out probably allowed him 2 more big square bales as far as weight goes. Is that your rig attached? If so, very nice. I stilling quite decided what i want to turn mine into yet. Thanks for the help y'all.

alot of it has to do with regulations the other half has to do with intuition and common sense. The old timers knew how hard they could push their luck before REALLY bad things started to happen.

common sense isn't that common.

Dualie I also gotta give you props on your comments to linking groups last post. Lol, I wanted to go there but I just joined. I was not sure if I could get kicked off or not, but I enjoy being a part of this forum too much to take the chance just yet.