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.