other dog

...so,after I went to Cranberry,Pa. and back to Lynchburg I went to Fremont,Oh. Last time I was there was during the great blizzard,this time it was water everywhere,rain,rain,and more rain. Lot of the fields looked like small lakes.Too bad we couldn't get some of that rain around here,we need it. Brought another load of steel from Pittsburgh to Lynchburg,and was hoping i'd be done for the week,but I had to go back to that jobsite in the mud by the river in Point Marion,Pa. I should have some more pictures later today,after I go to the film developing place.Had to go to Butler,Pa.and loaded at AK Steel going to Chesapeake,Va.to unload Monday. Not much time off at all for the Easter weekend,which really made me...well,let's just say somewhat grouchy.Probably a good thing though,today I paid the electricity bill,phone bill,Visa card,Directv,and pickup payments. Plus an eye drop prescription,the film developing,gas,Wal-Mart,..who knows what else. Never did get the dump valve on the trailer and would have had a tough time at Point Marion,with the hole,and the fence,and the dog-leg,but there's a button on top of the valve that you can push to dump the air. It's spring loaded and pops right back out when you let go,but I solved that by finding a stick and cutting it the right length with my pocket knife to wedge up under the trailer floor and hold the button down. Backed in easier than last time,and they didn't even have to get the dozer to pull me out this time. These are more bigger better pictures from the Point Marion jobsite,showing how you had to back-up straight towards the tree,then cut the trailer over towards the crane,(to the right in the picture) with the fence and the hole to deal with.When I left I crossed the bridge,which was built in 1927. Had my eyes closed all the way across... must've made it...

Well that's a new one on me-never heard of a Romertopf,but i've heard of Roma tomatoes.Grew some myself once.

They checked it at the shop and Jimmy (almost like a real mechanic Jimmy) said the valve was bad. I backed the trailer in the shop so he could put one on it,and Jeff said not to because it was still under warranty,and go ahead and run another trip and take it by Sonny Merryman's (the dealer) when I got back. So I went to Fremont,back to Pittsburgh,took it to Sonny Merryman's when I got back,their shop was full so they couldn't get to it,so they said to run another trip....It'll probably have the same dump valve on it when the year's warranty is up in October,then Jimmy can put one on at the shop.

Got the pipe unloaded in Cranberry Township without too much problem. Biggest problem was that somewhere between Cranberry and Pittsburgh my trailer dump valve quit working. Pittsburgh is one of the least truck-friendly places I know of anyway and I ran over every curb in town...well,most of 'em it seemed like. That can be very hard on tires. I checked the fuses and the wires going to the dump valve where they have a tendency to break off and didn't find any obvious problem,so i'll have them check it at the shop today. They're almost like real mechanics,and I ain't much of a truck driver so I need my dump valve. Gotta run up to Handy in Lynchburg now and unload the load I dropped there last night.

Cetainly-according to one of my favorite history books "Mack-Driven for a Century" the F-model was introduced in 1962 and made until ...well,it just doesnt say.The last one I drove was a '79 model.It does say the Ultra-Liner came out in 1983 and the Cruiseliner came out in 1981. The Ultra-Liner replaced the Cruiseliner,so I would guess the Cruiseliner replaced the F-model in '81. The last R-model rolled off the line in August of '89,but it doesn't say when the last F-model did. ah-hah!!! I found it in another book-they were made until 1982.

Got to looking around on e-bay last night and saw a Mack bulldog belt buckle.I liked it,and the top bid was like $8.99 or something so I bid on it too. The top bid kept climbing and I kept bidding 'til I was up to $29.99 I think,then I went to bed.I was hoping I got outbid because that was more than I wanted to pay,but you know how easy it is to get carried away at an auction. Anyway I checked this morning and was glad to see that I had been outbid,but I was astonished to see that the winning bid was $89.99! I must be off to Cranberry Township,Pa. now with a load of pipe.

could well happen,since that's what i'm usually doing.

That's gonna be my next cooking project,deep fried porpoise.Spotted owls are getting harder and harder to find in the grocery store.It takes a lot of oil to deep fry a porpoise,but that's not a problem,I know just where to get enough on 3 pieces of chicken.

Went to Best Buy yesterday and bought a camcorder-since I got a tax refund, I figured i'd try to do my part to help stimulate the economy. If everybody keeps hearing on the news how bad the economy is,after a while they believe it,and then it is. Anyway,the salesman recomended that I get an extended life battery for it because the battery that came with it was only good for about 45 minutes. So after I fully charged it this morning,just like the instructions said,I tried to put it in and it was the wrong battery.Pretty much par for the course for me-nothing ever seems to work right,I don't understand why i'm basically pretty happy,maybe there's something wrong with me,I don't know. So I called Best Buy,they said they didn't have the right battery in stock,and it cost $100. $100?!!-I told them i'd bring the other one back and take my refund and take my chances with the 45 minute one that came with the camera! And I stopped at the wide spot where I lost my cap-no sign of it.Looked up and down the ditch,in the median,in the woods-it's like it just disappeared! On the lighter side-I called no clue joe when I was on the way back from Florida the other day-told him I stopped in Candor,N.C. at a little fuel stop and got a piece of chicken to eat and it had enough grease on it to deep fry a porpoise...or several spotted owls...true story.

WOW!!! I finally found these parts y'all were talking about. Man,this is too good to let get away,so I was just thinking...Speed has the right idea- but what if every member payed some for Barry to purchase the whole lot and move it? How many members are there? It couldn't be but so much,right? Then if a BMT member needed a part you could get it at a greatly reduced priced,and hopefully we won't even need any of it,but?.. How about that Barry,if you could come up with a figure-there's strength in numbers you know!..As my hero Paul says,just a thought! I'd be willing to help,and hope I never need none of it...what do y'all think? If say,oh...700 members wanted to donate about $20 that's almost $14,000 right there.

Uh....I'm sorry, but I don't see a picture. Probably from dial up inernet. Did you post it on this blog? Sorry I would have commented on it. I don't think that would be a good hot dog over a nice warm dozer fire..lol. Maybe repost the picture or e-mail it to me. it was on otherdog's blog titled "hey Joe"

Hey Grant,and welcome

OK Joe,I can't take it anymore-how come you had no comment on the burning bulldozer picture? When I saw that picture I thought about you,just because you said you might be running a dozer in the woods-I wasn't trying to imply that you might catch it on fire your first day on the job and cook an oscar meyer weiner for lunch. You know a hot dog wouldn't taste good cooked over diesel fuel,plastic lines,rubber hoses,and foam seats.

well done!

you're welcome-let us know how they turn out. I posted a picture of that muddy jobsite in Point Marion,Pa. too. I should have gotten back further to show the hole and the fence and to better show how steep that bank was,but that's water under the bridge. Sounds like you had a fun rest of the trip to florida from when I talked to you. You was talking about a/c I fixed ours in the suburban yesterday and today it's in the 50's. If you ever get tired of truckin' you could always open you own restaurant or bar & grill. I can cook some on the grill, but suck in the kitchen. Reading this is making me hungry... I've always thought i'd like to have a little barbecue joint.You can work the counter if you want,i'm gonna be out back smokin' boston butts in the cook-shed.Or you can help me if you'd rather,we'll get some women to wear short shorts and half a tee shirt to handle the front and lure the customers in. When I win the lottery that is.

you're welcome-let us know how they turn out. I posted a picture of that muddy jobsite in Point Marion,Pa. too. I should have gotten back further to show the hole and the fence and to better show how steep that bank was,but that's water under the bridge.

2 reasons-we had no loads,and I've got a dr. appointment tomorrow anyway. There sure is a lot of stuff on trucks now that used to be unheard of-power steering,power mirrors,heated mirrors,engine brakes,heated seats,swiveling seats,refrigerators,microwaves,satellite radio,500+ hp...and many more i'm sure.

do I?!!....YOU'VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE! Couple of ideas,both good- Last week I got a boneless pork loin out of the freezer,sliced the whole thing,marinated it for 24 hrs. in a ziplock bag with teriaki(?) marinade,then when the charcoal was about ready I put some green hickory wood on it to "smokify" it more(I just now invented that word by the way). Put the chops on the grill and closed the lid ,turned them once. Took a good portion of it with me to Florida to make sammiches,and it was delicious. My usual rib recipe though is to boil ,or simmer-I'll bring 'em to a boil then cut the heat back to simmer,don't want to boil 'em too hard,or you'll boil the flavor right out- them in a mixture of a 40 oz. beer,some of my home made bbq sauce that is mostly just vinegar,liquid smoke,red pepper,black pepper,garlic-if you don't have any of this it's easy to make,just boil in beer,about a cup of vinegar,some garlic powder,chopped onion if you want,red and/or black pepper,and I'll usually pour in some "real" bbq sauce,any store bought "sweet" sauce while they're simmering.Then when they're done,or almost done,just put them on the grill long enough to brown them on both sides,and you're done. I usually cook the sliced ribs,the big thick ones-but I can't remember what you call them-this way and they're always tender and delicious. If I cook the whole slab of ribs,not cut up, I usually coat them with the rub and put the whole slab in the smoker oven,but you can grill these too. If you put sauce on them wait until they're done,or nearly done because the sauce burns easily. That's one advantage of the home made sauce,it's real thin and won't burn so you can brush it on while you're cooking if you want to,then put more sauce on when they're done. A friend of mine gave me that sauce recipe to cook boston butts,but I started boiling ribs in it with the beer,which was part of another recipe I saw in a magazine,and it worked well. I lost the recipe,but it was a gallon of vinegar,tablespoon of liquid smoke (I used a whole bottle!),little red pepper(I used a lot!),black pepper,and garlic (lots) best I can remember. Very simple,good on pork. You don't have to boil them at all of course,but I do except for the whole slabs because it makes them so tender. And I don't have a pot big enough for a whole slab anyway. If you cook the thing without boiling it,the slower you can cook it-or the longer you can cook it without burning it up the better it will be.And that little bit of green hickory wood on the charcoal seemed to work very well too for extra flavor,if you like a smoky taste. Don't tell anybody this,this is all top-secret stuff.

when I went from a transtar IH with a 2600 rpm vt-903 with a 13 speed to an F-model with a 300 and 5 speed in 1980,I certainly had my doubts about it,but the F-models turned out to be some of the best trucks I ever drove. I drove that Mack all over the eastern half of the U.S. Here's a picture out of a magazine-interior looks pretty plain,but it had everything you needed.

Know all about that-I don't own a truck except the B-model ,but where I work most of the trucks have the c-15 475 cats and there's always one or two at Carter cat being worked on for one thing or another.Not too much major stuff,but we've had a time with broken rocker arms, water leaks,oil leaks,etc. The starters haven't been lasting on them either.I'm driving a 2006 Peterbilt with about 300,000 miles on it now and i've had broken rocker arms twice,intake valve actuator malfunction twice, and one turbo put on it. The truck I drove before that,one of my all time favorites by the way,was a 2000 W-900 with a 525 N-14 Cummins that had almost 700,000 miles on it when Jeff traded it for the Pete.It ran great,pulled good,never broke down and got well over 5 mpg pulling heavy loads across the mountains. The last new trucks they ordered they went back to the ISX Cummins. I don't know that they'll be any better. Drove a couple of them before,and it was always EGR problems.They're supposed to be in in October. Jeff turned my truck up to a 550 and it's really pulling good now,so I guess i'll be starting over too. I wouldn't mind giving one of those new Detroits a try,but now it's getting to the point where you have to buy a particular brand of truck to get the engine you want. I don't get to pick anything anyway,I just get to drive it. That 550's a "hawse" though-'til the engine light comes on.

I made the trip to Florida and back,but i'd rather have gone to Romulous,Michigan or somewhere. It's too hot down there,and my AC wasn't working. I've always heard you should run the AC periodically in the winter,but I never did. Guess I should have,it worked fine when I turned it off last fall. It was a sweltering 80 degrees in Boca Raton Tuesday evening. Didn't get there 'til about 2 o'clock,because I didn't get away from Lynchburg until 3:00 Monday. I had 8 skids of sheets, 4 pallets of racks, and 1 machine. Made it down to exit 7 in Ga. Monday night and stopped at the little fuel stop and went to bed. Next morning I fueled up,because I figured fuel would be higher in Fl, got my book right,and went on to Boca Raton. I had to load lumber in Brooklet,Ga. Wednesday so I made it back up to exit 7 in Ga. and went to bed-almost 700 miles round trip,all but 14 miles in Florida. Like last time I saw: 0 armadillos 0 alligators 1 girl in a bikini,but she was on a billboard ...but I did see lots of palm trees,and have pictures to prove it! Worst part though was right after I left the shop Monday-my trailer was in Lynchburg,and I had to go to the bank so I just bobtailed. When I pulled into 460 I thought I saw something in the mirror at the end of the driveway that looked like diesel fuel,and pulled over to make sure my fuel tank tops were tight. They were, but when I walked back around the front of the truck a tanker went by and blew my hat off. I looked in front of the truck...nothing.Looked underneath it,in the woods,in the median-no sign of it. I'm not concerned about the hat,it was just a black "Cat" cap,but it had my little bulldog pin on it with the bulldog wearing an "Aussie" hat. I bought that pin at the Winchester antique truck show year before last. I might stop there tomorrow at that little pull off and look again-I would like to find the bulldog. He's wearing a red hat if you happen to spot him.I bought a new cap at the fuel stop,and i've probably got dozens of them here-you should always carry a spare! I'm off today,unloaded the lumber in Moneta this morning, and i've got an appointment at the eye doctor tomorrow,but we didn't have anything today anyway,so... how do you like my new hat?

You're right,that's what I always say-I pull in at the shop and the mixer is parked there still looking pretty good and it still works good and i'll say "now how many of these new Peterbilts,Freightliners,or Internationals will still be around in 43 years?" Most likely none of 'em. And you're right about the emissions engines- when they have a particular engine available long enough to perfect it and get all the "bugs" out, like an N14 Cummins,they have to change it to meet the newest pollution standards so they have to start all over. I've often wondered about if truck manufacturers did like the car makers and came out with an old look cab with all the latest bells and whistles,like a B-model cab,only bigger, or the old 2 story International DTC 405-always wanted to drive one of them!

looks like y'all did a great job! I like the black fenders too.

Don't worry about the english-I don't think none of ours is perfect either!