Mack customer center includes museum

Updated Nov 2, 2010
A customer views an early Mack truck in the new Mack Museum and Heritage Center.A customer views an early Mack truck in the new Mack Museum and Heritage Center.

Mack Trucks unveiled its new 159,000-sq.-ft. customer center Oct. 28 near the company’s Macungie, Pa., assembly plant.

Designed to “enhance the sales and ownership experience, and present product demonstrations and training,” said Kevin Flaherty, senior vice president of sales and marketing, the center is located at the company’s former engineering development and test center.

“The Mack Customer Center is an important new tool for the company,” said Mike Reardon, vice president, marketing. “It gives us a powerful way to immerse customers from North America and around the world in the products, history and culture of the Mack brand.”

The center includes the Mack Museum and Heritage Center, filled with Mack vehicles dating back to 1905. The museum’s walls communicate the rich history of the company including the invention of a constant-mesh transmission five years after the company’s start.

Director of powertrain sales and marketing, Dave McKenna, discussed the performance of the 2010 engines, reporting fuel economy improvements often reach 5-6 percent compared with 2009 models, and claiming that one vehicle has accumulated 160,000 miles without an active regeneration of its diesel particulate filter.

McKenna also said the company has sold 500 mDrive automated manual transmissions. The two-pedal design incorporates synchronizers and shifts using the clutch to speed up shifting, especially on upgrades. A test drive of a Pinnacle tractor loaded to over 70,000 pounds revealed rapid shifts, intelligent skipping of gears when appropriate and smooth operation of the clutch.

McKenna also introduced the company’s new C150 series carrier, a tandem drive axle system designed for use with gross commercial weights up to 150,000 pounds, available with ratios up to 3.25:1. It will be offered for GCWs up to 120,000 pounds for direct drive transmissions like the mDRIVE with ratios as fast as 2.54:1.