My uncle was doing some asphalt work for a good friend of his, who was paving a parking lot for a new church. The dump box on my uncle's Peterbilt 357 was too wide to dump the asphalt into the paver, so we initially had to unload the asphalt into a loader bucket and then transfer it to the paver. This was pretty inefficient and time-consuming, so for the rest of the loads that day, we ran one of the friend's dump trucks parked on the site, which had a narrower dump box that could unload directly into the paver.

It was a 1998 Mack RD688S tri-axle with a Mack E7 engine and an Eaton-Fuller 8LL transmission - very popular drivetrain combo for heavy-spec and construction work, especially here in the northeast. Many of these trucks are still out running the roads and making money, 15+ years after the end of their production. The late-model or "slope-hood" Mack RD's were the last incarnation of the long-lived R-model series, which were discontinued in 1991. These were built from the Renault takeover of Mack in 1990, up until 2004. These trucks use the later R-model cab and heavy-spec R-model frame, but have a redesigned hood. They were also offered with the E6 and E7 engines and a variety of different transmission and rear end combos. Compared to the original R-models and Superliners, I see a lot more of these late-model RD's with non-Mack drivetrain components. The popular Thermodyne/Maxidyne/Econodyne engine and transmission combos were getting pretty dated by the time these late RD's were introduced.

This particular truck had well over 550,000 miles and had seen plenty of wear and tear. Coming from the Peterbilt, it was definitely a change of pace and a change of scenery. My uncle used to drive an R-model back in the day for a local tank lines company, but always hated the rough ride and the tight cab. Needless to say, running this truck after 25+ years brought back some bad memories for him.