From 1953 through 1966, Mack built Model B61 durable trucks to tow trailers, deliver ready-mix concrete, and carry loads as dump trucks. They featured a bulldog atop the radiator shell.

Before graduating from college, Bill Wilkinson spent his summers wrestling the three-spoke, 22-inch-diameter steering wheel of a 10-wheel Mack dump truck.

“That’s when I fell in love with the B,” Wilkinson says. Another truck aficionado and friend, Eddie Jappell, bought a used 10-wheel 1962 Mack B61 tractor with two live rear ends driving all eight rear wheels. Wilkinson persuaded Jappell to sell the Mack to him. “It needed some cosmetic help,” Wilkinson remembers of the maroon truck with black fenders.

The Mack, with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of 52,000 pounds, had a 170-horsepower, six-cylinder Thermodyne diesel engine under the hood. Power was transferred to the eight drive wheels through a 15-speed triplex gearbox.

Wilkinson had no intention of ever towing a commercial trailer, so the greasy fifth wheel was removed and that area between the tandem dual wheels was covered with a shiny sheet of diamond-plate aluminum. Form-fitting fenders made from the same material cover each set of four drive wheels.

To accommodate the occasional need to tow an antique car on a small trailer, Wilkinson welded a Class III hitch at the usual bumper height. A more powerful 237-horsepower, six-cylinder Maxidyne diesel engine was recovered from a wrecked late 1980s Model R Mack. It was turbocharged, requiring Wilkinson to install the external air breather on the right side of the cab to provide the required extra air.

Because hauling heavy loads wasn’t going to be in the Mack’s future, all the gears in the original transmission weren’t needed, so it was replaced by a straight five-speed transmission, which means less gear shifting and double clutching both up and down.

“With no overdrive,” Wilkinson said, “60 is about tops.” The speedometer tops out at 80 mph.

Before repainting the dashboard green, the color shared by all B Models, Wilkinson replaced the tachometer, speedometer, fuel gauge, and cardboard headliner. All the windows were replaced, and new chrome and stainless brightwork was installed after the body was painted a brighter-than-bright yellow. The front fenders and chassis were done in gloss black, with the twin 45-gallon saddle fuel tanks painted Fire-Engine red.

A satisfying sound comes from the two vertical 10-foot-tall exhaust stacks, each one 5 inches in diameter. Wilkinson exclaims, “This truck delivers me to where I want to be!”

Five amber clearance lights march across the top of the cab above the two-piece windshield. Behind them are two 18-inch-long chrome air horns, which Wilkinson is happy to honk whenever a youngster in a passing car makes the universally recognized request by pumping his arm. “It takes me back to a simpler time,” he said.

Because the 19.5-foot-long tractor has no heavy trailer to hold down the rear wheels, he remarks, “It lets you know what type road you’re on.”

“This truck”, Wilkinson says, “runs me back through a time tunnel.”