Today’s work trucks are marvels of modern engineering. You can buy pickup trucks with strong diesel engines that make over 1,200 lb-ft of torque and America’s fleet of medium-duty trucks plays an important role of keeping this nation running. But what did this look like a century ago? Meet the 1925 Mack AB, an innovative truck that pushed the needle forward on heavy hauling despite having only 60 horsepower at the most on tap.
The bulldogs of hauling, Mack Trucks, has brought a bit of a special treat to the 2025 New York International Auto Show. The company, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary alongside the auto show, has decided to illustrate over a century of engineering by showing off what truck innovation looked like in 1925.
That truck is a 1925 Mack AB. It may not look like it now, but over a century ago, these trucks were huge deals. If you needed a medium-duty truck for farm work, delivering cars, or any other task that a 1910s light truck couldn’t handle, chances are you were using a Mack AB to haul the goods.
From Carriages To Buses
The Mack story started in the 1890s with brothers John M. “Jack” Mack, Augustus F. “Gus” Mack, and William C. Mack. In 1889, Gus joined the Fallesen & Berry firm in Brooklyn, New York, in building carriages and wagons. Jack would join a year later, and in 1893, Gus joined Jack in purchasing the Fallesen & Berry factory. The third brother, William, who had operated a wagon manufacturer in Pennsylvania, decided to join Jack and Augustus in 1894.
The three men initially focused on building horse-drawn carriages before shifting gears to building wagons. However, the Mack brothers, much like other pioneers of the era, saw a potential future beyond horses. They began experimenting with the day’s technologies to make steam and electric cars.
The Mack Brothers Company was officially incorporated in 1900, and Mack explains that the company’s first vehicle was actually an early motorized bus (above), not a big truck:
John Mack had already spent years researching and experimenting with his own design for a motorized wagon by the time he and his brothers opened their first bus manufacturing plant in 1900. The work paid off the same year, when the brothers introduced their first successful vehicle — a 40-horsepower, 20-passenger bus. The Mack bus, built for sightseeing concessionaire Isaac Harris, operated in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for eight years before being converted into a truck. The success and acceptance of “Old No. 9” initiated a history of truck development unparalleled in the industry, and established a company whose reputation for tough, high-quality products has since become “part of the language.”
The brothers were also doing automotive repairs at this time.
Mack used a slogan in advertisements for many years, especially when we produced buses…”The first Mack was a bus and the first bus was a Mack.“
Mack notes that this was also the same year when the first New York Auto Show opened as a showcase of the “horseless carriage.” The Mack Brothers Company would later join the auto show circuit in 1904 by displaying its first bus, the Manhattan, to the press of the Madison Square Garden auto show.
According to Mack, the company’s eventual turn toward large commercial vehicles came from Jack’s ride in a 2-cylinder Winton car. Mack was excited by the performance of the gasoline engine, then he came up with an ambitious goal to produce the most durable and powerful heavy-duty trucks in the world.
It wasn’t enough that the Mack brothers just built big trucks. They also wanted to solve the many pain points that truckers had back in the 1900s. The trucks of those days were known for poor maneuverability and poor outward visibility. Mack’s solution was to place the cab over the engine, aiding in low-speed agility and giving the driver a panoramic view of the road ahead. Back then, it wasn’t so much a “cab-over-engine” as we call them today, but a “seat-over-engine,” as Mack called it. Mack doesn’t claim to have built the first-ever cab-forward truck, but that it was one of the design’s pioneers.
Another issue the Mack brothers sought to fix was in shifting behavior. In 1905, Augustus patented a solution to the problem of drivers grinding, crushing, and stripping gears during shifts. The constant mesh smoothed out shifting. Mack then says that Jack improved shifting further with a gear selection feature that allowed drivers to skip gears when shifting up or down. Other truck manufacturers would later adopt these features in their designs.
Mack was also in a variety of different industries during the early 20th century. The company also constructed streetcars, interurbans, buses, and switcher locomotives.
Mack Goes Big
Many of Mack’s trucks from the 1900s were heavy-duty rigs, which left Mack largely outside of the light-duty market. Mack decided to change that in 1909 with a line of 1-ton, 1.5-ton, and 2-ton trucks. These trucks featured 32 HP gasoline engines and pressed steel frames, which were positioned for more light-duty work than Mack’s larger trucks, which used rolled channel steel frames.
This line of smaller trucks would become known as the Junior line. In those days, production was relatively low. Before 1911, Mack produced fewer than 100 trucks per year. However, going into the 1910s, the company was able to ramp up production to about 600 units a year. In 1910, the Mack Trucks Historical Museum tells me:
[T]he Mack Brothers approached JP Morgan for a loan to expand, Morgan only invests in groups and joined Mack, Saurer and later Hewitt under the International Motor Company as they were all inquiring about borrowing funds.
Jack and Augustus left the company soon after the multiple mergers, leaving William with the company until his retirement in the 1920s.
Mack was set on the path to becoming a household name in 1914 with the launch of the AB. Mack noticed that the demands of drivers were becoming greater than what trucks could handle. Operators wanted their trucks to carry greater loads, have better reliability, and be easier to repair. The AB was designed by chief engineer Edward R. Hewitt and replaced the Junior line as Mack’s medium-duty truck. I had Matt get me some photos of the truck at the show, and it’s sweet:
A huge selling point of the AB was its robust construction and rock-hard reliability. Mack offers this blurb about the AB on its site:
The Mack AB was the company’s first standardized, high volume model series, introduced in 1914. The first ABs had chain drive or worm drive. In 1920, a dual reduction drive replaced worm drive as an option. The AB filled the medium-duty role and incorporated many innovations particularly adapted to the times. Its simple, classic styling and overwhelming customer acceptance endured continuous modification and a production run extending through 1936, for a total of over 55,000 units.
Check out the engine! This 255.33 cubic inch four was responsible for hauling the AB’s 1.5-ton, 2-ton, and 2.5-ton capacities.
This 255.33 cubic inch four was responsible for hauling the AB’s 1.5-ton, 2-ton, and 2.5-ton capacities. The engine, plus a four-speed transmission, was good for up to 25 mph, depending on load and gear ratios.
While we’re checking out the guts, take a gander at the rear end here. Note the dual chain drive and the solid rubber tires:
As you would expect for a vehicle of this vintage, the interior of this open body truck is also pretty simple in design. I adore the wood floors and the total lack of instrumentation:
Advertisements pretty much claimed that the AB could do it all, from handling steep grades, dense traffic, and rough roads. The AB was said to carry heavy loads at high speeds and while returning decent fuel economy. That’s amazing considering that early ABs had four-cylinder engines making just 30 HP.
Even the later model’s 60 HP isn’t much by today’s standards.
Yet, ABs were workhorses around America and beyond. ABs were turned into car haulers, fire engines, grocery store delivery trucks, farm haulers, construction vehicles, tanker trucks, and all points in between. Mack even built a few thousand buses on the AB medium-duty platform. All around America, workers, businesses, and local governments figured out that if they needed a truck that took a serious beating and kept on driving, the AB was the rig for the job.
A lot of the reliability was in Mack choosing durable materials, but it’s also noted that in 1918, Mack also started offering air cleaners and oil filters. Of course, the idea here was that your engine would last longer if it had a way to filter out contaminants from the air it breathed and the oil it needed for lubrication.
The Bulldog Of Trucks
The AB would join forces with the even more famous AC heavy-duty truck in cementing the Mack name in fame. Macks lived up to the promise of hauling heavy goods for a long time, something the company remains known for now. And in case you’re wondering, there is a story as to why Mack’s mascot is a bulldog, from Mack:
The famous AC model was introduced in 1916. With its chain drive rear axle, the AC model earned an unparalleled reputation for reliability and durability, and was called on to help accomplish nearly impossible military and civilian tasks. The AC model was manufactured continuously through 1939 — a remarkable 24 years, and 40,299 were built. The AC is not only credited with giving Mack its famous Bulldog identity, but also with achieving a degree of success and international fame that has never been accomplished by any other motor truck in history.
The story goes that the British soldiers (“Tommies”) would call out when facing a difficult truck problem, “Aye, send in the Mack Bulldogs!” The primary, and generally universal, story is that the British engineers testing AC’s and the Tommies in France said that “the Mack AC’s have the tenacity of a bulldog.” At that time, the symbol of Great Britain was the bulldog, and this was high praise for the trucks. American “Doughboys” expressed the same opinion of the truck.
Mack officially embraced the bulldog as its emblem in 1921. That enduring image remains Mack’s emblem today.
So, the 1925 Mack AB at this year’s New York International Auto Show is a pretty big deal. Without the AB and its AC sibling, Mack might not be the truck icon that it is today. It’s also just awesome to see how far we’ve come in a century. We’ve gone from tiny engines, chain drives, and open cabs, to crazy diesel-electric drivetrains and luxury big rigs. Who knows what the next century has in store?
Update, April 17: Added clarifications about the late 1900s history of Mack.
If you like Macks you need to check out the Mack Museum and America on Wheels in Allentown PA.
Incredible piece. I had no clue about the history of Mack, but it’s a great story.
Thanks for the article. At the moment I’m very much interested in 1920s motoring, and particularly the lesser-known aspects like busses and trucks.
I enjoy little backroads. The old way over a mountain near me is steep & full of switchbacks. My old 60hp Subaru wagon sweated going up that. And I’ve often thought of the old truckers steaming up that hill.
Speaking of doing a lot of work with little power, look at farm tractors. Though I’m no expert in it, but from what I’ve seen, they often have far less power than a similar truck engine (size, cylinder count, tech, etc.), even when the technology is available. It’s likely a case of detuning for reliability (less stress) and reducing cost.
I remember looking at an 80s tractor that only had 32 hp.
Mercedes, your history deep dives are some of my favorite pieces on this site. I love learning about early motor vehicles no matter which surface they run on.
And now we live in an era where 600+ HP semis can do 75+ mph up a grade. Triple trailers in Oregon for the bonus round!
The scary part is that most of them, and their trailers, are running on tires that are only speed-rated to 70. When I lived in southern Texas, the amount of thick slabs from rubber of blown out tires and peeled recaps (particularly in the summer) was mind-blowing. And they are allowed to go the same speed as cars and motorcycles (75 or 80 in rural areas) and for everyone, that’s just a suggestion as far as enforcement goes.
In my experience, riding a motorbike over one of those is not usually a big deal. You’re riding on two gyroscopes that don’t really want to deviate from your intended path. But once, many years ago, riding a Suzuki 550 with a Plexifairing on a freeway, a car kicked up one of those “road gators” up and it hit and completely shattered the Plexifairing. If it hadn’t absorbed the impact, I probably would not still be on the planet.
Semis can do 75mph uphill now? That information has not made it to the drivers running the I-81 corridor in Virginia
I’ve seen a few do it on I-81 & I-90 here in New York, but most don’t with how windy & windy it can be on the highways here (excluding 90: that’s mainly with how many cops tend to be on there since that’s a toll road).
My step-grandfather was a WW1 motorcycle messenger in France. He said the roads were horribly washboarded and trucks traveled at 5-10mph vs 25+mph acheived by motorcycles. And this was in good weather, not mud season.
I’ll say it again: For everything I need to do I can get it done with 250 HP or less.
With BEVs being unaffected by altitude, and having instant power delivery, you can get a lot done with a little. My 25 Leaf S with all of 147 horsepower can out accelerate any non BEV in my area.
Also MACK needs to bring back the Bull Dog chewing up bills emblem. Animals make for great emblems, especially cartoony ones.
I had several perfectly healthy teeth rattle right out of my mouth after thinking about how the AB would ride with whatever suspension it (may) have and those solid tires.
The relationship between horsepower, gearing, and torque is hard for many to understand. There are Unimogs powered by the same ~90hp diesel used in MB taxis that will rip out a tree, and in low gear you can hop out and walk alongside them.
A similar limitation is my main concern when it comes to looking around for a Ford Model TT truck instead of a regular Model T. I think the TT would otherwise be the more compelling of the two but its top speed of either 15 or 22 miles per hour, depending on axle ratio, is a bit slow even for my sense of the passage of time as a geologist.
So which truck, the AB or the AC, would be considered the Mack Daddy?
How I miss trucks made for working rather than rolling corporate offices..
That story hit like a Mack truck! Thanks, Mercedes.
When roads were such that anything faster than 25 mph was a death wish, 60 HP was plenty. Think about the magnificent Budweiser wagons, being hauled along by (gasp) 8 horsepower! Now imagine a wagon with 60 of those monsters connected to it. That’s a lot of power and, if geared properly, is enough to do pretty much any task you might need to do, short of hauling a space launch vehicle to the pad.
Edit: it’s even about enough to haul an airliner across the tarmac. Airport tugs have as little as 74 horsepower: https://www.motorbiscuit.com/how-much-horsepower-do-trucks-that-tow-planes-around-airports-have/
You’re welcome! I do sometimes think about what it would have been like to be a daredevil back then. I bet going just 50 on some of the roads back then must have felt insane.
Also, I may or may not have a dream to pull some sort of jet with a Smart Fortwo.
“Also, I may or may not have a dream to pull some sort of jet with a Smart Fortwo.”
Enough horsepower, but you’ll have to add several tons of ballast! From the article: “For an advertising campaign, Volkswagen towed a Boeing 747 with a Toureg. They did not need to hot rod its engine, but they did need to load it up with 8,600 pounds of concrete and inflate its tires to twice the recommended pressure.“
I’m actually somewhat excited about that part. How will a Smart run with tons of ballast over its engine? Time to find out! 😀
Nowhere near as impressive but I watched a first gen Audi A6 Allroad tow a Grumman Mallard (9,350 lbs empty) a very short distance to avoid a light pole at a small airport.
Is Mack still a power house today? They are essentially just rebadged Volvos now.
Good point! I think I really meant “legend” there. Because it’s still a famous name even under Volvo ownership.
They’re coming back in a big way. You could say it’s the Return of the Mack
Or Mack to the future, perhaps?
I like the “Return of the Mack” angle, but would not that require them to ditch the bitch (as in the famous Mark Morrison song)? 😀
Before that, they were French – Renault. It’s also how they became Volvos.
All the farmers I grew up around had Fords with 300 straight sixes that were plenty to do what needed to be done around their farms. When needs arose that were more than the Ford could handle, they had tractors. For the really massive loads that needed to go on the road, there were semis that were available at the drop of a hat.
It isn’t like dairy farmers with 300 cows will be hauling the milk to market themselves.
My dad was a ceramic tile and flooring installer and had very many ford work vans and he only wanted the 300 I-6. They hauled van loads of heavy ceramic tile around just fine. (probably over the capacity of the van most days)
“But I NEEEED 500 HP for my once a year mulch run” sigh. We have more horsepower than we can handle given our driving skills.
I was just coming to make a comment about “capacity used vs capacity available” (not just for cars, but for everything). The American lifestyle is probably the lowest in the world on that metric. Or to put it another, more optimistic way, how awesome would it be if we tried harder? 🙂
There’s also something to be said for keeping that ratio low to avoid burnout — both for machines and for society as a whole…
Yes it is like we try really hard to try not to do anything.
I know people who work harder trying to game the system. When they could just work smarter
I used to have a friend like this (We are no longer friends) he once extolled on about how smart he was by signing up for a new credit card that offered triple airline miles so he could score a free trip to Italy, and the machinations he went through transferrring balances and buying and then immediately paying things off to earn those points. All to addend a mutal friends wedding. I replied with “I just bought mine with money, took five minutes”
If you are buying things anyway, why not let someone give you something back in return? It seems like you think he was being stupid but if you paid out of pocket and he didn’t…
All my expenses go on credit cards. Utilities, insurance even. I gotta pay for those no matter what, so if the rewards allow me to book a couple nights getaway in a hotel for free every so often, why wouldn’t I do that?
It’s exhausting and not a way I want to spend my time. If I have the moeny to do or buy a thing i do it and move on with my life.
It’s not exhausting at all. Set up all your accounts on autopay to the credit card. After that you don’t have to do anything, the points just come to you. Then when you book your trip the money you would have spent on the room becomes more money to do and buy things.