Mack Trucks Historical Museum

An interesting and enjoyable tour lead by a former employee of Mack truck. We were fortunate to have Don guide us through the displays. The history how Mack Truck started and changed over the decades was told and explained well by Don. He seemed genuinely happy, and at times melancholy, to describe events that occurred through the company's growth, expansion and decline in the Allentown area. But Don seemed most at home as he described the "quirks and features" of the various trucks restored and on display. We really think Don's view as a former Mack employee made this tour experience so enjoyable. All our questions were graciously answered, and we really want to come back some time and bring other to learn about this company that had such an impact in the Allentown area. Reservations are required, and a donation requested, but highly worth it!

Free but $5 donations are recommended. They have volunteers and give tours that last about an hour and a half. They also have a gift shop if you want a souvenir.

Very interestng and cool museum! If you're into Mack trucks then this THE place to go. The staff is friendly and very knoweldgable.

Excellent samples of Mack's products over the years. Simple, informative.

Ken, our tour guide, was very informative and shared a lot of Mack history. Really enjoyed the tour and seeing all of the old classic trucks. Will definitely be going back! We didn’t have time to visit the gift shop, but they do have a really nice gift shop there for all your Mack memorabilia. The tours are free with a suggested donation, be sure to reserve your spot in advance!

This museum has a great history of Mack trucks, and only a small donation is requested. We spent almost two hours exploring the trucks and displays. No crowds! This little museum is tucked away in the commercial area, but it is absolutely worth finding. A visit starts with a one-hour tour by a friendly, knowledgeable docent, after which we are free to roam around the collection and explore.

Neat place, super clean, very friendly staff, but the whole experience was rushed. We were shuffled from truck to truck to truck and not given any time to really look at or enjoy each vehicle. Each tour is given an hour and a half and there was a tour behind us. You’re not allowed to touch anything either. Lots of talking, no touching, and no real time to investigate anything meant we quickly lost the attention of our kids and most of the adults too. This museum would be greatly improved with even a single truck the kids could climb on and touch to experience it. I get that it’s a free museum with somewhat limited funding but I hope to see it continue to improve in the future. Great gift shop with lots of cool merch to buy.

It is a wonderful experience, I love MACK TRUCKS. My all time favorites are the B60, B61. We had a informative intro to the museum with the reception gentleman Bill . And a great tour guide Don. It's a must see . You should make reservations for the tour

First of all, entrance doors need to be open prior to 9:00am tour start for travelers who are visiting. Also, you better make sure you have 1.5 hours to listen to a docent talk about Mack history along a timeline you can clearly read on your own. I don't mind taking a self-guided tour to read, enjoy, and talk to my party as I go. There would be more days open and hours if self-guided. Most guests along with the docents probably do not have the energy to talk or listen for that length of time nowadays. I am in a museum and let me do my thing and read placards as I go and admire the trucks. This museum is a 30-40 minute tour tops!

Overall good tour. We learned when we got there it would be an hour and a half. We had a 3 year old with us. Expected to just walk around on our own. After about 30 minutes we went and looked at the actual trucks on our own and left. Jim our tour guide was very good and knowledgeable. We just didn't have a 3 year olds attention span to stay for the whole thing. Excellent for free and if you a lot of time and interest in Mack truck history. The trucks were very cool. All very old. Some in original condition. Most reconditioned.

So good. Our tour guide, Jim, was fantastic. He was historically accurate from the companies inception to where the company is and what they look forward too. Do you know how the bulldog became the symbol of the Mack truck? Jim knows. What a great story. I would go back. Gift shop was great too. Lots of good things.

The set up is fairly simple. Mack has this museum to show off the history of the company from when the Mack Brothers started everything in 1900 all the way to the present with Mack having been bought fifteen years ago by Volvo and with how the museum has been relocated a few times with this location being their final move five years ago. You go from room to room looking first at a brief history of the company which is given via displays that catalog things in ten year increments. That room also houses the original Mack Bus that ran for over a million miles and is still operational via a hand crank today. After that it's into a room where Mack keeps a new display model or two plus the Megatron truck that appeared in the Transformers movies. The new display models were open to anyone on the tour and anyone wanting to climb up into the cab can do it. Also on display is the current engine of choice the 605hp Titan. Then it's into the echo proof room that is now used to store a few fire engines (which Mack no longer makes) and you also pass various pins, toy trucks plus tons of memorabilia in display cases in the hallway. So far all of this might sound great except that it took us almost two and a half hours to see it and apparently there was still more. Look I appreciate that this is free and I hate to piss on something which is free but as I've said in other reviews, the guide can make it or break it and our guide not only broke it, he destroyed it. I won't mention his name but he was horrible. Way too quiet and went on way too long about things that no one in our group asked about or cared about like how Vultee Street got its name which he went on for over ten minutes about. I don't know how the tour ends because we stopped and walked back into the lobby one we somewhere between the 120-150 minute mark. On site is also a small Mack gift shop which has a lot of stuff jammed into it but the prices were all fairly crazy so we didn't partake. If you go: The museum is open Monday-Wednesday-Friday only from 10-4 with the last tour beginning at 3pm. Tours start every thirty minutes and each tour is limited to ten people. If you're bringing more than ten you need to give them a call. While all ages are welcome I really struggle to say that bringing younger children is a good idea because quite honestly I'm not sure that they'll care much for what they're seeing and if you get the wrong guide like we did it will be horrible. To me this tour is designed for gear heads, hard core truck lovers and historian types only. Also if you need bathrooms or if you get hungry the receptionist up front told us that we had "free roam" of the place and that we were more than welcome to visit the tiny employee cafeteria and their restrooms while we waited for the tour to start. Also make sure that you read all of road signs on Lehigh Street & Vultee Street coming into the facility as 2402 Lehigh Parkway South does not appear on all GPS units.

I toured the museum using the headphone guided tour. The museum items were 5 star provided by owners from across the US. Staff was friendly and helpful. The gift shop had items mostly, if not all, made outside the US, 0 stars. A big WTF.

Hours say they are open everywhere online. Stopped by twice on different days and was turned around by the guard. Provide correct information please.

Our tour of the Mack Truck Historical Museum began with a short film about...of course, Mack Trucks! The initial room of the museum traces the beginnings of manufacture and design. It contains impressive vehicles that historians would surely appreciate. Since the tour included a visit to Mack's real showroom of late model trucks, we were able to climb aboard and sit behind the steering wheel of a few big rigs, which was much fun. Our guide was informative and more than knowledgeable about Mack and its history. I believe tour guides are volunteer retirees from Mack. The tour was about two hours long and included a brief history of past presidents and important contributors to Mack.

The ac mack is by far the best looking bull dog ! Why don't you have a picture of one in the 50 pictures in your gallery? Thanks Jim Hunt yes I own a 1929.If you need a picture I'll send you one

I would have given five stars as the museum was interpretive and comprehensive. The gift shop was reasonably priced and sold nice merchandise. The problem was the tour guide or docent. Every few minutes, he uttered an anti Obama jab. It got to the point where he was rather vocal and somewhat angry. I had to talk to my daughter and explain things myself. It was an exhausting experience and we broke off from the tour. He said, "trucking is being destroyed by Obama and the industry is in turmoil because of Obama." And on and on. On display is a turbine truck that was funded and developed by the DOT in the early 70s. The docent was critcal and opined the "government knows nothing about trucking." The thing is, he was knowledgeable about Mack, its history, and the trucks themselves. However, he seemed to be obsessed with making a political point. A family, school or any tour is not a forum for expressing potentially divisive personal political opinions not supported by facts or related to Mack trucks.