other dog

The only issue with driving it to Macungie is the distance, Google says it's 368 miles from here, and the fact that we usually leave there and go to Connecticut to see Zina's dad. I don't like to go to Connecticut but her dad is either 89 or 90 now, so... I don't know about insurance yet either, I went with Gulfway when I had that mixer truck, but they're no longer in business. But they had mileage restrictions and if I put antique tags on it that comes with some restrictions too, so I'll have to check into all that.

this was either a 71 or 73, don't remember now. I had one of each, one was a stock rust bucket with a 345 and an automtic. I bought it from a guy who used to plow snow with it in New Jersey. They were prone to rust anyway, so you can imagine what a rust bucket it was. All I used it for was riding through the woods and old logging roads around home. This one had a Chevrolet engine and transmission, it was the cat's ass.

Oh, I forgot about this- this was H.H's too, I used it to tow my mud bogger to the mud races all the time. It had an International diesel with a 5 speed and 2 speed rear. Can't believe I don't have a better picture of it. It was an old highway department truck, crew cab, had plenty of room for everybody.

Thank you Vlad, that put a big smile on her face! Dave liked that 2 tone brown paint job too, it is an eye catcher and that's what she said she wanted. The one in the picture I posted used to be parked in the same spot in Macungie every year, but it wasn't there last year.

I've driven a GMC that you shifted like that, and some 5 speeds that you shift 4 low- 4 high then straight to 5 high. I actually asked him on the phone about this when I first talked to him, but I forgot what he said. I'll ask him when he brings it. As far as 2 speed axles go, I haven't driven one at all for many years. Last one was an International Loadstar lime truck that H.H. Moore used to have. I did drive a couple of trucks with Super 10 transmissions though, and always said they were "like driving a pulpwood truck with a 5 speed and 2 speed rear". 🤣

They can "be removed quickly" now. I guess that means however quickly the coroner can get there to remove their carcasses. That's a good governor right there.

Zina wants to paint it to "make it our own". She really likes these colors, and so do I. Not something you see every day, which is what she wants. But then I showed her this picture and she liked this color too, and the wood body.

I had told him when I picked it up I wanted him to tell me everything I needed to know about it. And he said today the best way to do that was face to face, and I agreed. So he said he would deliver the truck here and when he backed it off the trailer in our driveway he would be as happy as we were. I doubt that, but anyway, he seems to be a class act.

So, Stevie called me today, like he said he would, to talk about picking this truck up. He had already told me that he would be out of town this weekend. He had to fly- in an airplane, he can't really fly himself- to Iowa and drive a firetruck back to Maryland. I could not go to Maryland next weekend because we had plans that we made months ago. And he called today and said he had gotten the check and as far as he was concerned it was my truck. So he offered to bring that truck here on a trailer with his pickup for expense money. I had a good friend, also a BMT member, tell me the truck load rate would be $1250, but he would do it for $500 and a Hamm's. He also said he was pretty well covered up now and it would probably be about 3 weeks before he could do it. Then Stevie called and it was almost like he was reading my mind. He had already figured the mileage, his approximate gas mileage, and expenses and said he would deliver that truck next week for $790 as soon as he got back from Iowa. So I told him to bring it.

Stevie said the truck had an overdrive transmission in it, so I'm thinking 5th. gear will be towards the dash anyway.

I see now, I don't know why I didn't catch that, it clearly shows two bridges and the Key Bridge was a single bridge. It was labeled on Facebook as the Key Bridge collapse. I'm going to delete that post if I can.

We're not going to York, but we're planning on going to Macungie. Whether or not the truck is depends on whether I can find it a ride or not. I doubt if I would drive it that far, Google says it's 368 miles. Be nice to find somebody going that way with room on a trailer, I could help with fuel for a ride. I haven't even driven it yet, just taking Stevie Stevens- "it's not junk"- and Dave Couto's words to heart. It might drive like a dream, Stevie said it would cruise at 70mph. Oh, that reminds me - do you remember that real pretty blue Chevrolet tandem dump truck at Harrisonburg? He owned that truck too, and Keith Jones bought it from him and put it in the museum. Maybe it was part of the deal of him getting the International back, I don't know.

Thank you.

Yes, 401. I'd never heard of it either. The only 401 I'd ever heard of was the AMC 401.

Thank you, she'll be glad to hear that!

1963 V-190 actually, I don't even know what the difference is though.

I saw that too, don't remember who posted it. Sparks everywhere.

I told her, "it's going to be smaller than you think". So we'll see. But like I told her, the "coolness factor" is there on this truck, it has "cool" written all over it. A single axle Columbier or Cascadier might be a better show cruiser, but there's nothing cool about them 🤣. She's already painting it, she doesn't like the grill protector, "does it have air conditioning?" so she's pretty excited about it.

Well, I haven't posted any pictures of the week for a while. I don't get around nearly as much as I used to. I have to go to the interwebs to find a picture of a girl in a car, something I used to see all the time. So here's a girl in a car, from the interwebs. Oh, and there's this- I don't want to jump the gun, or count my chickens before they hatch, but the check is in the mail for this unit. We've been wanting another old truck for a while, Zina kept saying "you need to find us a truck", but nothing really suitable came along. I told her we really needed a single axle unit with a sleeper so we'd have some room in it, like an old fleet truck. Then I saw this on marketplace one day and showed it to her and said "that's a neat looking truck". And she said "you should call". I said "but it's really small, we need something with a walk in sleeper"... "That's a neat looking truck, you should call the guy". So, anyway, his check is in the mail. Dave Couto, "maint1" on BMT approved. I actually saw this truck at Winchester a couple of times but I never really paid much attention to it. It has a 401 gas engine with a 5 speed transmission and 2 speed rear. This man used to own it, he sold it to the late Jerry Howard, Keith Jones from the Keystone Antique Truck and Tractor Museum bought it when they auctioned the Jerry Howard collection, and Dave called him to see if he wanted it back. He did, bought it, and he said he spent about $4,000 on it putting a fuel tank on it, tuning it up, rebuilding the carburetor,etc. The gas tank had rust in it and kept stopping the filter up so he put a tank that had only held diesel on it. He sold it for $1,000 more than he gave Keith for it. He said he would drive it pretty much anywhere. I called Dave and asked him about it and he verified everything and said he liked it, so we bought it. Almost- his check is in the mail. And just because - another girl in another car.

Oh absolutely, as bad as it was if it had happened at 7 or 8am, it would have been so much worse.

Too soon?

Yessir, that bridge was tall. I've been across it many times, and I read an article years ago that listed it as one of the most dangerous bridges in the US. That was after the I-35 bridge collapse in Minnesota I think, and it was considered dangerous because it was on the " most likely to collapse" list. I thought about that every time I crossed it. Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point was at the north end of the bridge. Huge steel mill, loaded coils there many times. You'd leave the mill, get on 695, stop and pay the toll, then you'd start climbing. It was a pretty hard pull going up that bridge.