Thursday, March 5, 2009

Famous Trucks - Rubber Duck's truck ("Convoy")


“You ever seen a duck that couldn't swim? Quack, quack!”
What better truck to start a “famous big rigs” series with than Rubber Duck’s ole Mack from the movie “Convoy”. I love that movie. It’s cheesy but it’s full of funny quotes and good action and personally I am also a big fan of Kris Kristofferson, both as a musician and as an actor.

And, last but not least, “Convoy” has a lot of nice eye candy for a truck enthusiast such as myself.

Surprisingly enough, for a trucker movie as famous as Convoy, it wasn’t very easy to dig up actual facts about the truck that was being used for the movie, but finally I reached a website that was in fact dedicated to the Convoy trucks! It was a very cool website and I suspect I’ll be visiting it for more information on trucks in the future. I have posted the link at the end of this blog. (Yep, I don't want you all to run over there without reading my blog first ;-) lol...)

Although it says that Rubber Duck’s truck was a Mack RS 786LST, it was actually played by 4 different Macks throughout the movie. All these trucks served different purposes for necessary shots, movie angles and big rig action.

The main truck that was depicted in most promotional photos and movie shots was a 1977 Mack RS-712LST.

The truck’s appearance was in fact designed by EMI themselves, no doubt to fully maximize the vision they had for this movie and for the “star” truck that was to appear in it. Once it was designed, they commissioned Mack to build the truck for them, much due to the fact that Mack was famous for their reliable, tough trucks and it was a truck model that was well known to the public.
(I suppose the phrase “hit by a Mack truck” didn’t spring out of nowhere...)

After the movie was complete, the truck, sadly, was as good as wrecked. Regardless, it was sent back to Mack, who replaced the entire exterior, making the truck look as good as new again. The truck was sold off and made into a dump truck. I guess that’s Hollywood for you, eh? From movie star to dump truck in the blink of an eye.

This Mack truck is still in existence. It has been revised and reworked, many parts have been replaced over the years, but the old legend still roams about the American highway. If you put it on your EBay wish list, you may have a shot at it the next time it comes up for grabs.

The second truck being used for this movie was a 1973 Mack RS-797LST. It was gutted during filming and was used for props and stunts, as well as for in-cab scenes, which were made possible by removing doors and windows on the cab itself.
The truck didn’t survive this movie and was reduced to scrap metal after filming.

The last two trucks were both of the same model, Mack RS-731LST.
One of them were gutted and used for props & stunts, like the truck we mentioned above.
Here it is, plunging to its death and final destination as scrap metal.


A couple of fun facts:
· The truck used for the shootout scene on the bridge had been damaged so badly, that it broken down right before filming and had to be pushed across the bridge by a bulldozer in order to complete the scene.

· After Rubber Duck and Pig Pen’s trucks crash through jail, the grill guard on Rubber Duck’s truck is missing. Mysteriously enough, it came back on for the remainder of the movie.

· Trucker convoys were created due to the 55 mph speed limit that was enforced on US Highways, which made the truckers’ schedules very difficult to keep up. As a result, multiple trucks started driving together at a higher speed, thinking that the police speed traps would only be able to pull over one of the trucks.



18 comments:

Marie Reed said...

You're right I would have run away if eveything was posted in the beginning! Clever girl:)

Anonymous said...

try play.com bought a classic cracking movie £4.99 original no idiots or lies involved i enjoy 70s classics non remastered as gives original feel. Ihave also bought vanishing point, original gone in 60 seconds,cannonball run and frech coonection 1 and 2 for under a £5 each check em out

Unknown said...

Trucks that were used in the past few years in the movies were all commercial trucks. Directors and producers used to manage them for their shooting.

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used digger derricks said...

That was funny, i really expect this to be funny though. Nice post , looking forward to read more of this.

Unknown said...

The two major places that used digger derricks came from are probably mining sites and urban construction sites. One should expect ragged looking beasts when the used digger derricks came from a mining site.

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Truck Rental said...

I liked the content of you post related to Truck. it sounds like you have lot of truck and you really sharing with it with others..Good Work !

Unknown said...

Nice Pics of 18 wheelar trucks..
These huge tucks are very important in transportation of goods to long distances..

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cardealerships said...

I gathered lot of valuable points about 18 wheels. When I saw this kind of trucks i got little scary to chase over.

Anonymous said...

where is the evel keneivel mack i would love to see it restored

Anonymous said...

i am a trucker of 25 years and this movie put us on the map

bus from penang said...

I really don't think anyone has put it that way before!. Your blog is definitely worth a read if anyone finds it. I'm lucky I did because now I've got a whole new view of this. Thank you!

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General Post said...

You have really helped several of individuals like me, who have been searching internet from past quite a long time to find detailed information on this particular topic. Thanks for sharing this post..

Anonymous said...

My dad used to drive one of those macks in the UK in the late 70s it was godlike on the roads in those days :-)

Unknown said...

I would like to thank you for your nicely written post.
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