Mack's MD Series is a rebirth of sorts for a company whose mantra is "Born Ready."
Mack exited the medium-duty segment almost 20 years ago with the retirement of the Freedom, which was mostly a rebadged Americanized Renault. The Freedom concluded Mack’s 20-plus year run with its medium-duty Mid-Liner.
The MD entered production just 13 months ago at the company’s new 280,000 square foot Roanoke Valley Operations (RVO) facility in Roanoke Valley, Virginia. Mack announced its re-entry into the medium-duty market in January 2020, but COVID protocols delayed the truck's production from July to September 2020.
Targeting medium-duty trucking vocations with frequent urban stop-and-go cycles like dry van/refrigerated, stake/flatbed, dump and tank, the 25,995 pound Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) MD6, and 33,000 pound GVWR MD7, are both exempt from the 12% Federal Excise Tax (FET) and the MD6 model slides in just under the cutoff for requiring a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) for non-hazardous payloads.
Nextran Truck Centers Sales Manager Bruce Graham said the bulk of the units moving through his Birmingham, Alabama, dealership have been spec'd with flatbeds, but service bodies have become increasingly more common with some vans mixed in.
Bruce and his team at Nextran loaned me an MD6 to shuttle around the greater Birmingham-area – a Glacier White Class 6 outfitted with a Lyncoach box. This is a fairly standard configuration for a local-route beverage hauler, which is exactly where this unit was headed.
Mack didn't have to look far for inspiration for its MD Series. There's no denying the influence of Mack's on-highway flagship, Anthem. The squared off nose; the grille; the body lines; a wrap-around dash with ergonomic controls; a tilt telescopic steering column with flat-bottomed steering wheel; power windows and door locks; cruise control and a driver air-ride seat are all regular long-haul driver comforts found in the MD Model. Anthem's paw prints are all over the MD inside and out.
