I know it's a bus, but it's a Mack!

Just came across this photo of a Mack bus that my Dad used to drive many years ago on the North Shore of Auckland. A Mack diesel, no idea which engine, and a 3-speed gearbox. That 3 isn't a typo, either.

http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz350/vicandval/Mackbus.jpg?t=1273988776

Ah Vic, you probobly won't get much response on a bus pic here, but I like them. The Seppo's had a lot of trucks/buses with minimum gears.

Vic - Only 3 speeds??!! I'll wager top gear was only good for 35mph, then ..

No you're wrong, Onetrack. It would do about 45mph and there was a huge gap between the gears. If you started off on any sort of uphill, it was completely impossible to get the next gear, so you went all the way up in 1st.

Vic,A little bit off the thread I know,but somewhere recently you mentioned that you used to drive one of the Freightways FIAT 697s.
Do you recall the fleet number ?

R/

No. That's a real sign of old age, isn't it! However, I used to drive for Freightways Bulk Services, the tanker division of the group and I was based in Penrose, in Dales Freightways yard. The 697 I drove was an 8-wheeler (a 697E), a sulphuric acid tanker and it towed a 3-axle trailer.

I thought it may have been this one,I snapped in Tauranga in 1977.



However,very interested in the mention of an 8 wheeler 697.I always thought that the 697s in NZ were mostly 6x4s with those humungus hub reduction axles and spider wheels.Although Mobil,I think,had some look alike 4x2s.Probably had a different model number......I'm not big on Fiats.
I took this pic (below) of what looks like an 8 wheeler Fiat on Port Rd,Whangarei in 1979.
Until now my thinking was that it was some kind of custom build with a Fiat cab.
Notice that it has 10 stud wheels but does not appear to have hub reduction back end.
The air tank arrangement looks Continental though.
Any idea how many of these there may have been?Any other operator run them that you know of?..............
What I can tell from this pic is that the 8 wheeler has a shorter version of cab than the six wheeler.



R/

On the original subject of the Mack bus.Webb's Motors of Whangarei had at least one,
possibly two Macks that looked exactly like the North Shore bus. I have the idea that
Webb's were acquired second hand from NZR.MY mates Dad (Mr Nash) used to drive for Webbs and I have done a couple of school trips in the Macks.......
Webbs ran theirs up to the late 60s.

I have actually driven that top one, but it was normally based in Mt Maunganui. My one was identical to that 8-wheeler, except that it was a tanker, not a flat deck, and how many were there; that's easy, there were 2, that one and mine! They were built in Auckland, by Torino Motors the Fiat importers and had Fiat 697 engines, Rockwell front and rear axles and Fuller 9-speed gearboxes. The gearboxes were originally mounted about midway between the engine and rear axles in the Fiat manner, but the one on mine was later changed and moved up to the rear of the engine in the conventional position. As I said before, they were called a 697E, the E standing for Eight wheeler.

North Shore Transport's Macks were also bought second hand from NZR Road Services. I think they had 10 of that model as well as some petrol engined ones.