THANK YOU FOR 1K!! Very long description, but some of you might find it interesting. Or feel free to skip the yap and just enjoy the video!
Back in 2015 I first picked up my camera to film my recycling driver Saturnino collecting the recycling in my favorite truck. That truck had spent pretty much its entire life on my route acting as my trash driver David’s truck before being handed down to the recycle route. The unit number on that truck was 101499, a beasty 2002 Mack LE that was always revved up hard. Two years later, in 2017 I had expanded my channel enough to be able to film the brother unit to 499, 101500. I even filmed 101607, a less known member of this family of trucks that was originally delivered as unit number 101502. With unit 101501 out in Palm Desert operating under Burrtec, and WMs fleet of LNG Macks under the knife, I thought that was where it would end. Eight years after filming 499, in June of 2023 with the help of user California Garbage Trucks, I was able to drive to Moorpark and track down 101499s sister, 101498 from G.I. Industries. One of the last remaining LNG Macks in the WM fleet, and one of only 2 LNG Mack ASLs left with WM.
To say the least, the fact this truck is running and on top of that running great today is simply astonishing. WM first started phasing these out many years earlier and that was done as a result of parts being pretty much impossible to get. Mack stopped producing parts for the E7G a very long time ago. Considering 101499 and 101500 were among some of the first trucks to be retired out of this fleet, it’s pretty ironic that 101498 is one of the two still kicking.
This family of units were all delivered to WM in early 2002. All equipped with the brand new and experimental Mack E7G natural gas engine. These trucks were WMs first successful dip into alternative fuel technologies and it became a major advertising point for the company. Campaigns such as “Breathe Easy” from El Cajon and “Clean Cities” from Antelope Valley were plastered on trucks similarly to the way WM plastered the also experimental BYD Electric Amrep now. The opening of the Antelope Valley’s brand new LNG fuel station was plastered as the front page headline on WMs employee newspaper. (Special thanks to Los Angeles Refuse for sharing that).
Perhaps the biggest contrast between Mack’s first attempt at the experimental technology, and today’s attempts from numerous companies with experimental electric trucks, was that Mack pretty much nailed this. Some small issues arose from the experimental design, most notably a tendency for overheating on hot summer days. But these trucks all ran, and most ran great for a full service life. The majority of the Antelope Valleys trucks were pulled from service at around 17 years. The odometer on each residential truck having often read well over 200,000 miles and in some cases, north of 250,000. That’s not a big deal for your personal car, but when Palmdale’s residential routes usually only total an average of 5-20 miles of running daily, plus the distance traveled to and from route (Often 10 miles at most) 250,000 miles shows these trucks put it in a lot of work.
101498 and 101499 may not look very similar to the average viewer. But under the hood, they are both practically the same truck. E7G natural gas engine, Allison transmissions, etc. 101498 was built for a very different collection route than 101499. While 101499 and most of the Mack Amreps were given the LE cab with a foldback door along with a standard full size Amrep body. They were built to service city neighborhoods where cans are close together. 101498 was built to serve the Malibu hills. The truck had to be made smaller. I’m not sure what yardage 498’s Amrep body is but I would call it “Medium”. It’s too big to be a Mini Amrep. As a result of its smaller body, this truck was given a 4x2 tractor configuration (Some would actually argue this is a 6x2 because of the tag, but it’s hard to get a definitive answer on that) as opposed to the standard 6x4 found on 499. 2 rear axles are drive axles on 6x4s, wheras this truck only has one rear drive axle.
To say the least, it was amazing to be able to film this. The sound of the Mack E7G is truly an iconic sound in my life and to hear it in person again was awesome. The driver also did some manual packing which was awesome to hear and brought back fun memories of the AV Macks setting off car alarms as they manual packed Christmas recycle. I still have a couple of videos of the Mack E7Gs hanging in the chamber, so watch for those, but they are sadly practically extinct in real life.
Special thanks to the driver for letting me film and of course to California Garbage Trucks for helping me locate this truck.
TO THE PEOPLE AT WM: Please don’t use this video against the drivers it is for entertainment purposes only!! If you have questions regarding the content you see in this video please email me at mclements2003@gmail.com
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