Mack Parts
Need Mack Truck Parts?
With a history of producing tough, reliable, and durable heavy-duty trucks for over a century, Mack Trucks continues to be a leading innovative force in the industry today. Mack manufactured its first truck back in 1907, and has been paving the way ever since. Despite the tenacity of its rigs being reminiscent to that of a Bulldog, like any vehicle, Mack trucks need to have parts replaced sometimes too! At 1A Auto, it is our mission to supply you with the right parts you need to keep your Mack truck working in tip top shape, at a great discount. Simply put, if you are in need of a replacement part for your Mack truck you've come to the right place. You'll find a large selection of new, high quality aftermarket Mack auto parts, such as speed sensors, fuel tank sending units, window regulators, headlights and more.
Our product development team spends over 8,000 hours a year researching the best auto parts, and they are carefully selected by our trained engineers so you can rest assured that you are getting the correct, high quality part you need for your Mack truck at a discount price. If we wouldn't put the part in our own vehicles, we won't sell them to anyone else. A new aftermarket replacement Mack part from 1A Auto will save you 30-50% on average over a comparable new OEM replacement Mack part that you would get at a dealership, and our new aftermarket Mack parts are also extremely durable and reliable. Don't overpay for Mack truck parts and save yourself from a lot of potential headaches by shopping at 1A Auto.
You can shop for all of your Mack parts online and buy safely and securely right here on our website, or you can call our customer service toll free at 888-844-3393 if you have any questions about any of our auto parts, or to buy over the phone. With over 150 years combined experience, 1A Auto's customer service representatives are the most qualified to answer your questions about all of our new and aftermarket Mack auto parts. Our representatives answer 99.9% of phone calls in less than one minute and emails are responded to within the hour because we know you need answers quickly to get your beloved Mack truck back in working order again. We also know you want your part fast for the same reason; 98% of in stock Mack auto parts ship from our warehouse within one business day so that you can get back on the road in no time, and all ground shipping in the continental U.S. is completely free. And, in the unlikely case that you are unhappy with your Mack auto part for any reason, 1A Auto also offers the only No Hassle return policy for unused items in the industry. Simply put, our competitors can't beat the 1A Advantage. Don't just take it from us - take it from over 50,000 satisfied customers!
Look no further than 1A Auto for your aftermarket, original equipment (OE) replacement Mack auto parts and get your truck the parts it needs today from Mack enthusiasts just like you! If you happen to be an enthusiastic Mack truck owner, have a deep passion for Mack vehicles, or just want to learn more about the truck manufacturer, continue reading below for a detailed look at the brand's history and some of its past and present models.
Overview
Mack Trucks, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks, and a former manufacturer of buses, trolley buses and even rail cars and locomotives, founded in 1900. Mack is headquartered in the United States but sells and services its trucks in numerous countries across the globe. It is currently wholly owned by Sweden-based AB Volvo and a part of the Volvo Group Trucks division, along with Volvo Trucks, UD Trucks, and Renault Trucks.
Contents
1. Origin
2. Manhattan and the Move to Allentown
3. The AB, AC, and Mack Bulldog
4. WWII and the B Series
5. Birth of the R Series and the Maxidyne
6. Ownership Changes
7. New Horizons
Origin
One of America’s most popular truck lines today, Mack Trucks was originally founded in the early 1900s as the Mack Brothers Company. Its story starts with the Mack brothers, who were raised on a family farm together and spent their youth learning to man plows and work with farming equipment. The oldest brother, Jack, ran away in 1878 at the age of 14 to join the teamsters. He found various jobs in construction, which even included travelling to the Panama Canal for a short period of time, but his most influential position may have derived from a stint as a steam engine mechanic. Eventually, in 1890, he landed a job with Fallesen & Berry, a carriage and wagon company located in Brooklyn, New York. He recruited his brother Augustus “Gus” Mack to join and, for the first three years, they repaired milk, brewery, and contracted wagons. Founder Christian Fallesen sold the company to the brothers during the Panic of 1893, and without much of a market available, the brothers – which now included a third, William - resorted to working on steam powered and electric motor cars.
The brothers were inspired by the inventions of other visionaries like the Wright Brothers and Henry Ford, and thus they took a great interest in manufacturing engines and their own vehicles. Their curiosity for the internal combustion engine led to a number of experiments and tests on steam-powered and electronic engines, though they were all labeled as failures. They finally struck gold with their own gasoline engine in 1900, which led to the formation of the Mack Brothers Company - one of the most successful American manufacturers of Class 8 trucks today. Their first vehicle, a bus, soon followed.
Manhattan and the Move to Allentown
“Old No. 1” was the first of many successful ventures led by Mack. Appropriately named, it was a chain-driven, self-propelled bus that came with a three-speed transmission and served as a tour guide through Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for sightseers. It featured their brand new 24 horsepower 4-cylinder engine that went 12 mph and it lived for nearly eight years before it was converted into a truck. Perhaps its most remarkable achievement was the fact that it ran for over a million miles before its retirement in 1917. The success of this vehicle established Mack’s reputation for building reliable and durable products.
In 1905, the company moved its headquarters from Brooklyn to Allentown, PA at the suggestion of their brother Joseph who had been running a silk mill in the area, and had become a stockholder at this time as well. The city remained Mack’s headquarters until 2009 when it moved to North Carolina. The main reason for the move to Pennsylvania was to find space that could accommodate their wildly growing business. There were a growing number of orders for buses similar to “Old No. 1,” which was now being produced under the nameplate of “Manhattan,” which eventually grew to bigger endeavors such as heavy-duty trucks, cab-over-engine trucks, and a seven-ton truck that was constructed to help with the building of the New York City subway. The company also used the Manhattan chassis to build 2-ton trucks, and eventually built models ranging from 1 to 7 tons. Arguably, one of their most brilliant projects was also one of their earliest, their first hook and ladder fire truck in 1910 - a venture that would support Mack up until 1990. That same year, the company dropped the Manhattan nameplate and began to officially label their trucks as Mack Trucks. A fifth brother, Charles, also joined the company at this time.
The AB, AC, and Mack Bulldog
One of the more interesting facets of the automobile industry, especially during its early years, was the surplus of companies that only dwindled as sales and time wiped them out. Mack had been one of the fortunate companies to survive these volatile years of the 20th century, but there were several corporations still looking to make a name for themselves in the young industry. In order to establish its validity and cement its financial situation, Mack Brothers, through the help of JP Morgan, teamed up with the Saurer Motor Truck Company in 1911 and formed a holding company named the International Motor Truck Company (IMTC). Under IMTC, the two manufacturers were free to operate independently, and a year later the Hewitt Motor Company joined IMTC as well. Brothers John, Gus, Joseph, and Charles all left the company and William, who had been with them since the early 1890s, hung around for another decade or so before leaving in the twenties. Though it’s pure speculation, it may be possible that the Mack brothers left at the behest of several newly appointed administrative positions in IMTC hand-picked by Morgan himself. The Mack Company, which had clearly been the most popular of the three companies, was the sole survivor after the Hewitt Motor Company disbanded in 1914 and the use of the Sauer name ended in 1918. In 1922, Mack restructured itself from the International Motor Truck Company into Mack Trucks, Inc. and also took on the infamous bulldog as its corporate symbol (more on this in a second).
In the early 1900s cars and trucks were secondary to horses and carriages. This was especially true for trucks, whose image wouldn’t change much until the early 1920s. Part of this was due to a lack of roads, and part of this was due to their inefficiency. Trucks needed to be able to handle the rough terrain and be durable amidst adverse weather conditions. This was where Mack thrived. Two of its most cherished and exceptional models were the AB and AC Mack. In 1914, the AB Mack was revealed as a 1, 1 1/2, and 2 ton model with a 30 horsepower 4-cylinder engine. It had a three-speed transmission and came with a worm drive, though in 1915 Mack also offered chain-driven models. It was the first long-term series from Mack and it lasted until 1937. It was known as a medium truck in comparison to the AC Mack.
The AC is a bit more famous than the AB, and for good reason. In fact, during its 22 year tenure, Mack manufactured 40,000 ACs. Known as the heavier version of the AB, it was revealed in 1916 as a truck that weighed 9,800 pounds and could hold 10,000. It came with a three-speed transmission and was built on a well-engineered and tough chassis that served the company into the 1950s. Notorious for inspiring the iconic Mack bulldog, it also served more than 5,000 British and American troops in World War I in 3 ½, 5 ½, and 7 ½ ton capacity. They were known by the British for having “the tenacity of a bulldog” - the British Bulldog being the country’s mascot - and some credit the name to its bulldog-like appearance. As the nickname circulated among British and American troops, the bulldog image was first used on chain-driven AB models in 1921, and became Mack’s official logo in 1922.
WWII and the B Series
During and after the War, Mack was also known for a series of firsts in the industry. In 1918 it was the first truck manufacturer to offer air and oil filters; to offer power brakes, in 1920 ; and it was he first truck to include a drive shaft rather than a chain-drive, in 1922. Mack also moved to aluminum cast engines in the twenties. With the growing sales and word of the AC and AB’s durability and reliability, the Mack truck name spread.
Part of this derived from the company's participation in the U.S. Army’s first transcontinental motor convoy that traveled 3,251 miles in 62 days in 1919 from Washington D.C. to San Francisco with future president Dwight D. Eisenhower. The rough terrain and hard travel was a key indicator of the lack of decent roads farther out west, and would later serve as an inspiration for Eisenhower’s approval of the Federal Highway Act of 1956, a cause that developed an interstate highway system and helped boost the trucking industry, allowing it to function on a national level.
In 1932, after Mack had established its reputation as a manufacturer of sturdy trucks, its venerable hood ornament was patented. Designed by Chief Engineer Alfred F. Masury, the ornament has been so renowned it’s remained on Mack trucks’ hoods well past the era where ornaments were common and ubiquitous among cars. The thirties also saw a brief stint in producing electric trolley coaches, the conception of the “Mack Jr.” truck, and in 1938 the company became the first to design and produce its own heavy-duty “Mack Diesel” engines.
Like in World War I, the onslaught of World War II increased Mack’s production in response to the war effort. Its biggest contribution was the N Series, and most notably the NO, which was responsible for lugging 155mm Long Tom cannons for the artillery division. Its trucks could be used for towing or transport, and were called upon as a crucial part for the general transportation of Army soldiers. But the N Series was not all that Mack contributed. The company also spent its remaining resources on vehicles like fire trucks and buses, power trains for tanks, and torpedo bombers. However, the war also ceased production for civilians, so the company invested in making sure Macks were fixed at maintenance centers to maintain and repair current Mack trucks that were on the road. After the war, though, this would not help that much to sustain the high production output spent on the war, and Mack found itself needing to find a way to stay balanced.
After the war, strikes and tax increases led to a bit of a slump hat continued until the 1950s. There were a few bright spots, such as the L series, first produced in 1947. The LTL, which had been constructed with many aluminum parts, was particularly good on the west coast due to the tight roads and lofty mountains. The B Series was the line that really helped put Mack back on a profitable track. Introduced in 1953, they could be ordered to fit a wide range of applications, offering models like fire-trucks, school buses, tractors, mixers, dump trucks, and more. Many enthusiasts consider this series as a “classic” of the Mack brand, particularly for its design, but also because it debuted one of Mack’s most formidable engines, the Thermodyne - Mack’s first diesel engine with direct fuel injection.
Birth of the R Series and the Maxidyne
This phase of profitability didn't last for long and new management styles led to a drop in earnings from 15.8 million to 3.4 million from 1959-1964. This almost led to a merger between Mack and Chrysler but it was ultimately blocked by the U.S. Justice Department. Desperate for a change and new leadership, the company hired Zenon C.R. Hansen to take the reigns as president. He was warned of the inevitable demise of Mack but, determined to keep the company afloat, Hansen invested in new ideas and the reopening of several maintenance centers that had been neglected for too long in the past decade. One of the new ideas he supported was the inclusion of a new engine for a fairly new series.
The R Series debuted for the 1966 model year and would go on a run for the next 40 years, serving as a leading model of Class 8 trucks for the company. Shortly after, in the same year, the Maxidyne engine was released. It was a revolutionary inline-six engine for its time and was lauded for its improved torque rise and peak torque around 1,200 rpm, and a power band that rose up to 2,100 rpm. This type of engine didn't require as fine gearing as others - around five-speeds, opposed to other trucks of the time who were lugging up to 10 or 13 speed transmissions. A V8 version was later released in 1970, and an intercooled inline-six was released in 1973. Compared to today’s engines, the Maxidyne might be low in horsepower (237 hp), but its percentage of torque rise was significantly more, which has naturally been stunted due to emission regulations.
Ownership Changes
In 1967, after still struggling to gain capital, Mack became an affiliate of the Signal Oil and Gas Company (later renamed to The Signal Companies, Inc.) in agreement that Mack would retain control over its own operations. The parent company, however, stifled any significant progress for Mack, and other than the 1973 intercooled Maxidyne, there were scarce innovations for the decade. In 1979 Renault, a French multinational vehicle manufacturer established in 1899, bought 10% of Mack Trucks, Inc. Renault eventually increased its ownership stake in Mack to 40% by 1983 when an IPO was conducted by Mack, while Signal lowered its stake to around 10%. This allowed Mack to gain capital, disperse more trucks, and create a bit more freedom.
In 1987, Renault reorganized itself and Renault Véhicules Industriels (RVI) - the truck, bus and military vehicle manufacturing subsidiary of Renault formed in 1978, bought its parent companies shares in Mack Trucks. In 1990, RVI acquired the remaining publicly traded shares and Mack Trucks became a wholly owned subsidiary of Renault Véhicules Industriels at this time. Renault would restructure itself once again following its privatisation in 1996 and as a result, its heavy vehicles operations of bus and truck were divested. In the early 2000’s, AB Volvo acquired Renault Véhicules Industriels, as well as Mack Trucks in North America, from Renault S.A. As part of the deal, Renault S. A. received around a 20% stake (in shares and voting rights) in AB Volvo, becoming its biggest shareholder; it increased its stake slightly years later. This acquisition made Volvo the second largest truck manufacturer in the world, and the largest in Europe. Both Renault Véhicules Industriels (which was renamed to Renault Trucks in 2002) and Mack Trucks thus became wholly owned subsidiaries of AB Volvo. All Volvo trucks were sold exclusively under the Volvo brand name and manufactured by Volvo Trucks North America, which operated independently of its parent company.
In 2010, Renault S.A. sold a majority of its stake in AB Volvo, and in 2012 it sold its remaining shares in the company, thus relinquishing its title as largest shareholder. In 2012, the Volvo Group was re-organized; as a part of this re-org, Volvo Trucks ceased to be a separate company and was instead incorporated into the Volvo Group Trucks division, along with Volvo’s other truck brands: Renault Trucks, Mack Trucks and UD Trucks (purchased by Volvo in 2007).
New Horizons
Mack went on to create series’ such as the MH UItra-Liner which came as a cab-over-engine built with the option of a day cab or sleeper and was the last cab-over truck the company designed for long hauling. In the nineties, Mack ended its 80 year tenure as the leading manufacturing of fire trucks, but it introduced the LE (low entry) refuse cab which made it significantly easier and safer for dump trucks and their attendees to go about their job. With the trucking industry on a much greater decline than its hey-day, Mack went on to improve its R Series, product line LEU and MRU, and the Titan, which featured a 16-liter big-block MP10. But in 2006, the R Series finally came to a close, marking the end of an era of the popular series.
Today, Mack Trucks offers several series such as the Pinnacle, Granite, TerraPro, and Titan built for many applications. And though the Maxidyne served Mack for many years, the company has moved on to bigger and better engines. Mack now offers a 13-liter MP8, 16-liter MP10, an SCR and Clean Diesel engine that aims to emit zero emissions, and a natural gas ISX12 G engine. With new innovations and new horizons ahead, Mack and its famous bulldog look to retain its image, and put many more ornaments on future hoods to come.
