BC Mack

I put that there to show our regional topography, that's Mt Robson, a bit east of the coke, all I had for big mountains in my personal photo files.. you've gotta come west to see real hills..!!!! BC Mack

looks like you got the 'posidrive' head there not the US crosshead, they take a different screwdriver bit as the taper is different.. but for your use should be ok if you use a handtool. I've found that the aircraft parts suppliers can be good for looking for oddball hardware, NAS, AN or MS series for bolts, screws, nuts and various quick releases for panels like Dzus... not nearly as cheap as automotive parts but they are not chinese grade 2 crap and meet strict manufacturing standards... lots of on-line catalogues too.. generally fine thread is standard. BC Mack

I live in that region and what you see on TV of a bad day on 'the coke' is truly bad for driving, mother nature at her worse in bad terrain.... the highway is a major route of commerce now that Vancouver has become a hub port, unfortunately while there are many qualified professional senior drivers the race to the bottom for price has put lesser skilled steering wheel holders in charge of 140,000lb super B's, you know, the ones with flip flops and wraparound stetsons, and the show is very careful so as not to accent them. the alternate routes in bad weather are mostly two lane highways resembling in places mere goat tracks, the Coquihalla highway had its pundits when built in the early 80's, it was built in a well known bad snow region but it went ahead anyway. Truckers avoided it when new, there was a toll and one really steep hill that wore out brake linings, they preferred the old flatter winding route on Hwy 1.... all in all the TV show is one of the better presentations of "reality", what you see of the stars is pretty much what they are, Jamie can be a dickhead, his brother is far smarter and Al can tow me anytime, the business of towing doesn't attract those with academic backgrounds as it takes a different type of smarts to do that work.... I remember they also had a TV show about another towing operation, on the Donner Pass IIRC... but as B Mack stated, the Snoqualmie can be a bad place too... BC Mack

we get that for just doing the pretrip..!!! different rules apply when you work for government transit vs retail.... there is NO customer.. all our book times are "suggested".. BC Mack

hmmmm... tough one that.... so, if I send them two entries I can't lose... LOL BC Mack KSC... that Merc was only doing 'domestic' in Saudi, not 'lnternational' as on the door, not with a day cab and those sand tires.

since everything in the engine is assembled with "fasteners" should we now weld everything up to comply with warranty??? BC Mack

or..... when the company sends the mechanics on training courses ($$$) to increase their knowledge but not the supervisory management... I asked them for an hour to road test in a hilly area to prove my theory of why we were getting fuel problems on a Cummins ISL coasting downhill, they said "no way".. they told me to change the $6000 fuel pump, after all that work and money we still had the same problem.... then they allowed me the road test with a laptop and I changed the $150 fuel return line with a hose flapper in it... and they got the attaboy for fixing the issue... go figure..!!!! BC Mack

do you have a gelled up tank...?? solution... find some rags and drop on the ground, shower with diesel, set it alight, find a stick and drag pile of burning rags under your diesel tank... simple..!!... note, doesn't work too well with aluminum tanks. BC Mack

you've hit the nail right on the head, the whole planet has lost it... BC Mack

I'm sure we've all met one of these.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo0KjdDJr1c years ago they were the "Valley Girls"... totally..!!! I can't wait for retirement, just hope there are enough of these millennial snowflakes still working to support my pension.... BC Mack

LOL ... youtube has videos to prove you wrong... Scania vs Lada seems to be a common scene in Russia but nowhere is perfect for road safety, I bet they have bad drivers in Antarctica too.. I don't know whether to call those particular Brazilian drivers skillful or fools but in general they have some extreme conditions to deal with and their roads are by far not up to world standards. BC Mack

hmmm. drifting for semi's...!! straight roads, cameras at the ready... ??? now, let's see that for 747's..!!!!

this is the guy who brought Japanese production up to what it is today, part of MacArthur's team after ww2 he created what we term today as the "quality system" in production.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming BC Mack

take them back to your brake supplier with the drum mounted on the hub and have them machine the shoe to match the drum profile, but give 0.010" clearance to wiggle the drum on... shoes with rollers can have up to four sizes of roller, max oversize of drum is cast in the drum info, and shoes can come as std, X or XX.... most common size I use in 14.5 and drums can wear up to 14.833 before scrap. unless you are putting on new drums with new shoes and linings (which is now recommended given the crap drums out of China) you need to have machining done to give 100% contact from day one, otherwise you will only have a small contact area until the linings wear down some. BC Mack

So let me get this right, 'Macks in Nigeria' asked a political opinion and only after 2 pages the thread degenerates into requesting we post nude selfies ... I just love logging in on BMT..!!!! whatever next?... keep it coming BC Mack

US coal shipped by BNSF train to western Canada port loading onto Chinese ships... just sayin' BC Mack

The Allison control lever is simply a fore-aft motion, many use a cable shift.. my first thoughts were that this truck may be used where a gear is to be held and the "gate" is set up for that purpose.. BC Mack

the tire must have "regroovable" on the sidewall... !!! look up... title 49 CFR 569.3 and .7 for the rules and specs the good tool can cost $800+, not sure if the Chinese have copied it yet.... nick the cord and the recappers will reject it, there is a minimum for the depth of material to be left in bottom of groove and not many tires today give the extra meat... works better for older bias tires if the tire is close to the age limit and you know the cappers will not touch it, then it may be worthwhile, but in general the industry has gone away from it, maybe the small guys still do it for trailers.. not allowed on steers some bus companies still doing it for tag tires, might be easier to find a guy that does it for them.. BC Mack

As I've said in other posts, none of this "breakthrough" technology is new, in fact some of it is 100 years old... it is the advancement in materials and controls that have brought this back into vogue... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilling-Stevens petrol-electric and battery electric were commonplace before advancements to diesels in the early 30's made them less efficient.... though they soldiered on as light industrial machines until this "re-discovery" of late. today's decision makers need to formulate a singular national plan to standardize a grid of support if we are to advance to electric power... do we have enough grid power now and in the future to support this change away from fossil fuel, and do we want the cost to provide this energy to be more than it can be sold for, will the public purse be financing it.... and taxation will follow as the government needs a replacement revenue stream as gasoline/diesel sales fall... fleet and bus management have a tough decision to make as to which technology and supplier to work with, bus fleet planning math is a 20 year life for a city bus so will the supplier support this and are the leaps in technology going to obsolete the fleet in 8-10 years?... tough call... BC Mack

It seems the better book stores for our varied interests are on the other side of the Atlantic, this one has been around for a while https://www.oldpond.com/machinery/trucks-and-heavy-loads.html?___store=default&limit=60 I use a couple of sites to find odd titles, of course there is ebay and amazon too.. https://www.abebooks.com/ https://www.bookdepository.com/ biggest limitation, other than the price!!!!, is shipping and currency conversion it's only money, spend it before the kids get a chance to do so...LOL BC Mack

Douglas sold their prototype DC-4E airliner to Japan prior to WW2... it was then used by Japan as a basis for a bomber... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-4E "The Douglas DC-4E was an American experimental airliner that was developed before World War II. The DC-4E never entered production, but its failure resulted in an entirely new design, the DC-4/C-54, which proved very successful. Many DC-4E design features found their way into the Japanese Nakajima G5N bomber." BC Mack

pretty much debunked https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/11/blogger-discredits-claim-amelia-earhart-was-taken-prisoner-by-japan go to page 99 (44 in book) http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1223403 let the conspiracy continue... given time, someone will prove she also shot JFK... BC Mack

Vlad, maybe this is what you were thinking... Bill Reesman's ex Polish AF Mig 17F and Les Shockly's 'Shockwave'..... boy!!!! this started off as a thread for frame rails..!!!!! BC Mack

it certainly is a race to the bottom, UK driver's have the same issue.... if you could imagine all US states being independent nations with controlled customs borders, different driving laws, different rates of pay, different social support etc.... would there be a fight if the drivers from say Alabama drove internally within Oregon..??? then you form a "union" of all the "states" and everyone drives wherever they want but at rates of pay of their home state... and the shippers figure that by hiring that same Alabama driver to move a load from Oregon to Florida at a lower rate of pay... is that called a "free market"???? that's trucking in the EU BC Mack

with the large surface area of a semi and van trailer... it can't be far off when a flexible skin of solar receptor material could be wrapped around everything... in CA there seems to be a lot of sunshine!! or just strap a genset behind the cab?... and call it a hybrid..!! trailer technology is moving along too, braking energy recovery and solar powered reefer... not much work left for us mechanics to do, time to train up.... or retire.. LOL BC Mack