Mack RD822sx

[kubotaman]

Very cool. Did the Mack Museum ever show any interest in buying the truck from you because of its unique history?

 

[SCM35A2]

Awesome find!

 

[m16ty]

Very cool. Did the Mack Museum ever show any interest in buying the truck from you because of its unique history?

No they haven’t.

 

[m16ty]

I've found out that is was used in 471st Transportation Company, 2040 Transportation Battalion, truck #104.

I've got some more info and pictures from the guy that drove it while in was "in country", but am waiting on his permission to post his personal info and pictures.

 

[m16ty]

The truck's main driver was Sergeant Robin Titus and Specialist Angela was the co-driver.

Sergeant Titus went on a second deployment to Kuwait in 2003 and he said this truck, along with some others, sitting in storage in Kuwait. So the truck was still in the middle east as late as 2003. I've only seen one other of these trucks back in the USA, the other one was a black one that sold through GL in CA back in around 2013. This makes me think that very few of them made it back to the States, and makes you wonder why any of them were brought back. As I think I've said before, my truck was used by the TN National Guard, after it was brought back to the States, and they used it to haul tanks on a civilian lowboy.

Here are some other pictures Sergeant Titus sent me, back during Operation Desert Storm. On the second picture, the blue one (which is now painted white) is my truck.

 

[Ajax MD]

Wow, that is AWESOME!!

 

[m16ty]

Got a chance to talk to Sergeant Titus today on the phone. He told me he was assigned the position of convoy leader and trainer because he was 1 of 5 out of 200 people in his unit that had experience driving civilian trucks. He picked the truck he did because it had the V8 in it. He said I was very lucky that I had “his” truck, because most of the others had severe abuse, due to inexperienced drivers.

He also said the trailers they pulled didn’t hold up to the task very well. They were in such a hurry to build them (90 days to build 48 trailers), that a lot of corners were cut, and some of the trailers they had to finish making operational after they got to Saudi Arabia. Also, due to the way the tank sat heavy to the front of the trailer, it overloaded the front trailer axle. They were experiencing problems with bent axles after just a few trips.

 

[NDT]

Got a chance to talk to Sergeant Titus today on the phone. He told me he was assigned the position of convoy leader and trainer because he was 1 of 5 out of 200 people in his unit that had experience driving civilian trucks. He picked the truck he did because it had the V8 in it. He said I was very lucky that I had “his” truck, because most of the others had severe abuse, due to inexperienced drivers.

He also said the trailers they pulled didn’t hold up to the task very well. They were in such a hurry to build them (90 days to build 48 trailers), that a lot of corners were cut, and some of the trailers they had to finish making operational after they got to Saudi Arabia. Also, due to the way the tank sat heavy to the front of the trailer, it overloaded the front trailer axle. They were experiencing problems with bent axles after just a few trips.

Did you ask him about Angela?

 

[cbear]

Looks like they were scrapping together anything they could get. Look at all the Mercedes trucks in the background. That's awesome that you have the direct history for your truck.

 

[m16ty]

Did you ask him about Angela?

He just said she was a really short Mexican girl. Said she was a great driver, but even with the seat all the way up, she still could barely reach the pedals.

 

[m16ty]

Looks like they were scrapping together anything they could get. Look at all the Mercedes trucks in the background. That's awesome that you have the direct history for your truck.

He told me that all the army guys got the Macks, the reserve units and even some civilian contractors got whatever else they could find.