The 34-pallet B-doubles and B-triples a new target for 16-litre MP10 engine coupled with m-Drive AMT
Mack is pushing the credentials of its Super-Liner model for linehaul work, focusing on the east coast’s Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane corridor.
The Super-Liner is powered by the 16-litre MP10 engine, pushing out either 600hp (441kW) or 685hp (504kW).
Up to now the main Macks sighted on freeway linehaul work have been the 13-litre Tridents hauling 34 pallets and the Super-Liner with 52-inch cab pulling 32 pallets.
However Mack has been taking truck media on drives of a Super-Liner with a 36 inch (914mm) sleeper capable of towing 34 pallets (see our review tomorrow).
“We’ve traditionally been really good in vocational and heavy applications,” Mack vice president Dean Bestwick says.
“But now linehaul is a significant chapter in our book that we want to start to re-write.”
And it’s no wonder. According to the federal Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE), the interstate road freight task is expected to more than double by 2030.
Bestwick says the synchronised driveline of Mack’s MP8 and MP10 engines coupled with the 12-speed m-Drive AMT (automated manual transmission) allows the choice of Trident or the larger Super-Liner to be tailored to customer’s linehaul needs.
“The significant one at the moment is B-triple applications,” says Bestwick, adding he expects triples to “take off” on east coast linehaul.
“So once we start getting greater than 80 tonnes, that’s where the Super-Liner seems to come into its own. “
Bestwick says the transmission build for Super-Liners is running at an “astounding” 96 per cent m-Drive at the moment, and that AMT is extremely popular throughout the Mack range.
“It covers off on every GCM,” he says.
“We’re going from 70 tonnes all the way through to 290 tonnes, so it’s such a versatile transmission in all those applications, and that’s been a game changer for us.
“We’ve got some very good drivers that we deal with, and they’ve come back to us and said ‘We know it’s working well because it changes gear everywhere I changed’.”
“That’s people that have accolades for driving in their businesses and in the industry, so for us that means the transmission knows what it’s doing. It’s nearly pre-emptive.”
Bestwick also says there has been “significant demand” from customers for the factory-fitted option of roll stability program, which has recently become available in Super-Liners.
Check out our feature on the 34-pallet Mack Super-Liner in the September issue of ATN.