other dog

miscellaneous pictures- I went up to the shop in Concord today to put a bumper on a Dodge pickup. I got a piece of 3" square tubing Monday from Moore's Machine in Spout Spring, Va. They cut it to length, capped the ends, ground everything smooth for me, loaded it in my pickup, and only charged me $39. I told them you couldn't beat that with a stick. They're the same folks that made a lid and put an offset smoker box on my grill last year and charged me $50. Looks like 4" tubing would have looked a little better, but it's thick wall tubing and pretty heavy so I was trying to save weight so I wouldn't have to put a counter weight on the front...this looks better than the "no bumper at all" I had at first anyway. I cut some brackets out of a piece of plate and bolted them on, then I was just going to weld the tubing to the brackets and paint everything black. I could have finished it today but I couldn't get the stupid welder to work. The wire wouldn't feed at all so I unscrewed the tip...still nothing...pulled on it with pliers...still nothing. The thing-a-ma-jig- or is it a thing-a-ma-bob?..I don't remember- anyhow, the thing in the machine was just spinning on the wire but it just wouldn't go through. Had plenty of wire. They should have the old fool-proof stick welder there, but they don't. I put the license plate on the front too, but I didn't put one on the back because there's no bumper to put it on yet. The truck washer guy took my truck to wash it too. He was just getting back when I was leaving so I went down to where he was hooking back up to the trailer and said "how am I supposed to be in Minneapolis at 7 in the morning when you're out riding around?" He started apologizing, then I told him I couldn't deliver in Troy, Va. until Tuesday. He said "man, that truck runs good- I left the stop light down here and it felt like somebody hit me in the ass!" The difference in the way it runs and pulls compared to the Paccar engine is like night and day. It almost- almost- makes me look forward to getting in it and going up the road. And, I saw this girl in Winfall on the way home. She appeared to be broke down, but I didn't have time to stop and investigate the situation.

I think this one was in Cleveland. I delivered a load of pipes there and this was at the job site. They still used it every day, and it looked like new.

I got some pictures-

Mark and his wife are at Macado's in Roanoke right now celebrating her impending birthday with "some fabulous drinks"...she just posted that on facebook. Mark is the designated driver, "being the professional driver that he is". Randyp shows up on facebook periodically too.

Took this from Canatol Steel in Roanoke. Saw the Joe Montana bridges in Pa. Stopped at the grocery store in Winfall on the way home- ...OK, I got nuthin' this week- is it too early for this?

That was one of my concerns- I'm expected to take a 10 hour break if my 14 hours are up and i'm a half hour from the yard on a Friday night?..what a crock! My 14 was over at 9:00 last night. Got to the shop at 8:50. I unloaded in Erie, Pa. yesterday morning, then went to Galv-Tech in Pittsburgh to load and saw 7 trucks in line to get loaded in front of me. Didn't leave there until 1:30, and it's a good 7 hours back to Lynchburg, plus a little more to Concord. Hadn't eaten a thing all day except a cinnamon roll out of the vending machine until I stopped in Rupert, W.V. and got a cold meatloaf sammich at the store and ate while riding. I did pull over on a ramp to pee one time too.

That is very true, I wish I had realized it when I was in my 20's and thirty's. Hope you're doing well Mike, take care of yourself!

I've seen this on facebook many times, makes me wonder if somebody, somewhere, would actually do it...probably!

Nice looking unit!

No, they usually trade them around every 4 years or so. The last 2 trucks I drove for Jeff, a W900L and the Peterbilt, both had almost 700,000 miles on them, so he didn't keep the T660 near as long as he did those. The T660 only had about 455,000 on it, but i'm glad he did trade it in. I liked it- I liked the way it rode and drove, and it turns shorter than the T800- but I never liked the 10 speed and 3.36 rears, it's just not a good set up for hauling lumber and steel across W.V. and Pa. It was a good flat ground truck, not so much in the hills.

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I don't have many this week, good thing AppleDog did. I only made one trip, because of the holiday. The new truck did fine, I took a load of mullite to Chester, W.V.with it. Saw some big Mack trucks going south on rt.2. Then I saw a train in McKees Rocks. I saw the moon when I got to Lynchburg Tuesday night. Saw another load of coils sitting there too. When he pulled his tarps off Wednesday morning I noticed he chains his coils altogether different than I do.

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A-ha!..I thought i'd seen her somewhere besides Winfall before!

Maybe a shed just like this one off the side of your house would work?..just a thought.

Nice!

This is true, I drove a 379 for a long time, and they're a hard truck to get comfortable in. It was a nice truck though, I liked it.

Double secret?..and this place out in the woods on this pig path is only a "secret" location?..you'd better put a gps beacon on it if you move it to a "double secret" location, or you might not find it again yourself.

I called the Winfall mattress testing team to come test the mattress for me, they said it was all good.

Lookin' great Vinny!

I think I finished moving today. Here's a few more pictures I took- this is in the sleeper of the old red truck- this is in the new red truck- notice no doors on any cabinets and less storage space- Old drive shaft- New drive shaft-

maybe if this one was out there-

Well gee, thanks everyone!

I thought this was a pretty good picture. I didn't post it at first because it has a Peterbilt in it.