Built Like a Mack
Mack – An American Icon
Mack Trucks, Inc. is a manufacturer in America with its headquarters in Greensboro, N.C, but the manufacturing plant is located in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvannia., with two others located in Middletown, PA. and in Dublin, VA.
Mack parts for vehicles that have a right-hand drive for overseas are made in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia and made ready for worldwide distributing for sale.
History of the Mack Company
Mack Trucks started in 1890 when John M. Mack started working at a company that made wagons and carriages in Brooklyn, New York called Fallesen & Berry. Two years later his brother, Augustus, bought the company and a year later the third brother, William, joined in with them.
In 1902 was renamed the Mack Brothers Company and they began making buses. Only seven years later a new one and a half ton truck was introduced by the company. By 1910 two more Mack brothers, Joseph and Charles, had joined Mack and it was making locomotives and rail cars, as well as buses and trucks. The following year, they merged with the Saurer Motor Truck Company to form the International Motor Truck Company (IMTC).
In 1916 they made the new Mack AC vehicles, and shortly afterwards, more than 40,000 of these models were sold. Over the next few years, this innovative company was the first to put air cleaners, oil filters, power brakes, and drive shafts into their vehicles. By 1922 the name changed back to Mack Trucks, Inc and they had adopted the corporate symbol now associated with Macks, the beloved bulldog.
The Mack Bulldog
The first bulldog hood ornament was carved by Alfred Fellows Masury, Macks’ chief engineer ten years later and it has been an adornment for the trucks made by them ever since. Mack got this iconic nickname in 1917 during World War I. The British soldiers called it the Bulldog Mack due to the fact that the vehicle was said to have the stubbornness of a bulldog and it reminded them of their country’s own bulldog mascot.
Over the next few decades, Mack continued to prosper and make vehicles for the military (delivering more than 6,000 trucks in World War I and more than 35,000 Macks in World War II), as well as being famous for helping build the Hoover Dam in the 1950s, and for producing many types of heavy duty vehicles. Between the 50s and the 60s, Mack introduced several models of heavy duty vehicless and sold hundreds of thousands of them, including Models A, B, D, F and G. Mack continued its innovative production by patenting the cab air suspension system in 1969. Since then, they have continued to make new and more innovative models of trucks and other vehicles for the construction, military and transportation industries.
Over the Road Macks
During the 60s Mack made their R and U models, which were meant for running on the highways, as well as their RD and DM models, which were used by the construction industry. By 2005, the RD, RB and DM models were discontinued and were replaced by the Granite model, which is also used in the Mexican Army for usage as a Troop and Utility vehicle using a slightly different configuration. The 60s also saw the creation of the Maxidyne truck series in 1968, which was considered an industry changing event. This was due to the fact that the Maxidyne made it possible for heavy duty trucks to run with only a five speed transmission called a Maxitorque, when before this time these type of trucks needed 10 gears at least to operate. In 1990, Mack was a subsidiary of Renault Vehicles Industriels (known as Renault trucks in 2002), and they joined in with Volvo AB of Sweden in 2001. The company had a record sales year in 2006 and moved to North Carolina in 2008. These days Mack is a very well known brand of off road trucks and other vehicles in the class range of Classes 8-13. Macka are sold in more than 45 different countries worldwide and are considered the most popular maker of heavy duty vehicles on the road today. When you hear the phrase, “built like a Mack Truck,” it stands for durability and strength. The company has held itself to high standards its entire existence and continues to do so today as they have in their more than 100 years of service to their customers.
Visitors can watch Macks being “born”
The Mack Truck Company allows visitors to their manufacturing plants in Dublin, Va and in Lower Macungie Township, PA. to see for themselves how they build and design the famous Mack powertrains, engines, transmissions, axles and other parts as it gets built on their assembly lines. It can be a fascinating experience to actually watch a Mack being put together piece by piece for you to see. There is also a remanufacturing plant in Middletown, Penn. where used Mack parts are refurbished and made ready for resale and usage. The bottom line is that Macks are as popular as ever and are a well known and beloved brand of heavy duty vehicles continue to ride the highways and byways and service industry all over the world.
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