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other dog

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Everything posted by other dog

  1. yes,that's the only way they load them because that's the only way they can unload them.they load all three at once-that's actually 3 separate coils-but they unload them one at a time. you have to leave the chain over the front one until they get the other two off,so they don't accidently bump it and knock it over. one driver didn't and when they knocked it over he had to bring it from Roanoke to Concord,stand it back up with the fork lift,then take it back to Roanoke. Those are the coils they make truck frames out of.
  2. ...well,it's different from "Saturday" anyway. It's someone else's turn to use that anyhow. I took a load of piling to Point Marion, Pa. Monday. It's on rt.88 just across the Pa. line a little ways from W.V.,near Morgantown. Yeah,one of THOSE jobsites-you had to pull down there,back down a hill to the crane right on the riverbank,then since there was ankle-deep mud everywhere they had to pull you out with another truck after you got unloaded,then you had to back up another hill and onto the bridge while they stopped traffic for you to get out. I had to go from there to Macedonia to load,so I went up rt.88 north to rt.21,then west on 21 into West Virginia. 21 is a pretty good road across there. It runs into 250 and I took 250 to Moundsville,then rt.2 north to the interstate. First time i'd been on that part of rt.250 in years-about 27 or 28 in fact. I saw the "Thelma and Louise" turn I mentioned before was a 15 mph curve and the grade was 11%. The curve has been widened since then,i'm pretty sure. And I don't think the guardrail was there. And I know the trees weren't up over the guardrail then because it just looked like open spaces ahead when you were coming up to the curve,and the road just looked like it ended,right there. And I think it was at least a 20% grade then...and I don't think it was paved ( now i'm kidding ) I took a picture of the curve with my 35mm I keep in the truck,but haven't got it developed yet.Hope to do that today and get the picture on here.I don't have my scanner hooked up,but I can take a picture of the picture with the webcam. After that journey I went to Triadelphia,W.V. with a load of beams. Delivered to the West Virginia department of highways shop. After I got unloaded I asked the guy that signed the bills if they ever went down rt.250,like from Moundsville to Fairmont. "Oh yeah,all the time" he said."They didn't send you that way did they? If they did,boy you got *%#@ed! That's not a good way to go in a car,much less a tractor and trailer...'course we go on lot's of worse roads than that,-"(he liked to talk,wish I'd had longer to chat with him) . I said "oh no,I didn't come that way-I went across there in 1980 or '81 and said I wouldn't go back across there bobtailing- I was just wondering if it was still bad and those tight turns were still in Cameron and Littleton,turns I could barely make with a short wheelbase cabover Mack with a 42' trailer". He said one town,Cameron I think,had changed things and he wasn't sure about the other.I only remembered the one town,and don't even remember the name of it,but like Bollweevil said it took all the room that was there to make that turn. I came into town going south,and to stay on rt.250 I had to make a left turn right in town and the road (street) was narrow,pole on every corner it seemed,cars parked on all sides it seems. He said " well ,you must remember the hard right turn onto the bridge at the bottom of the mountain,that was a hard turn to make,a 90 dgree right onto a narrow bridge at the bottom of about a 2 or 2 and a half mile downgrade-lot of trucks wrecked right there.Lot of truck drivers got killed on that road-looks like a short cut on the map,or their dispatchers would send them that way". No,I didn't remember that turn onto the bridge at all.The two things that stuck with me was the curve coming out of Moundsville and that left turn in that town. I mean '80 or '81-that's 27 or 28 years ago any way you look at it,and it's hard for me to remember what I did last week sometimes.The road atlas shows 250 as a designated truck route today, but unless something's changed I just don't think I could get across there if I wanted to now,driving a 42' long Peterbilt pulling a 48' spread axle trailer. These pictures (pretty bad-I really need to hook my scanner back up,but I usually use the digital camera ) show the curve going north on rt.250 heading towards Moundsville,the 11% 1 mile sign,Moundsville down below after the sharp curve,and a load of the coils I load at I.D.S. in Macedonia,Oh. all the time for Roanoke,Va. As with the steepness of a hill,the pictures don't really show how steeply the road drops away to the left in the pictures-I was going to take a picture of the septic tank truck in front of me after he went around the curve to show it,but he pulled over right in the curve and stopped,so I went around him. I did look at this spot on Google Earth and it shows everthing very well,especially if you rotate it around until you're looking at it from the north,then tilt it towards you-awesome!
  3. maybe a little,but not much-at least the concrete that's still on it is clean! I'm gonna do as speed said and leave it alone and just put it in the "trophy" cabinet.
  4. You're going to have to move quick if you want the big Peterbilt. Looks like it's going to a new home in Oklahoma. (hopefully!) It seems that we have finally met up with a real serious truck buyer. Thanks, Paul VS That's OK-i'm like the old saying "too broke to pay attention"
  5. now that's what I had on the '79 F-model I drove. Not a "real" Mack I guess,should've been a Brockway,had a 350 Cummins with a 10 speed overdrive. I bought a 5'' straight stack at the Toledo 5 truck stop and put it on there. Sounded great,but H.H. didn't think so.
  6. I picked up one of them little free papers you see all the time at truckstops,and the owners of the movin' on KW were taking it to Pittsburgh power for some work - it originally had a 903 cummins in it,but I think they were changing it to a 444 or something. I'd have kept the 903, I drove one in a '74 co4070A IH and it sounded great.They're probably just going to show it anyway,they wouldn't need 800 horsepower anyway,and for just being cool,a V8 Cummins would be awesome. What paper was that in? I'd like to read about that, and I'm with you about the v-8 cummins. I never heard one but always figured they sounded great. uhhh...gee,I just don't remember,but they're always at fuel stops and truck stops-oh,"Movin' Out" I believe it is.Like a little newspaper.Don't remember the date,but it was like last fall sometime i'd say. As in "sounds you miss"- a 903 cummins is right up there. Maybe you could get a 555 in a Terra Gator,but a 903 gets you a "huh?..what's that?"
  7. 'sallright...have at it!
  8. arrright,y'all need to slow down. Y'all are replying before I get done commenting here.
  9. I picked up one of them little free papers you see all the time at truckstops,and the owners of the movin' on KW were taking it to Pittsburgh power for some work - it originally had a 903 cummins in it,but I think they were changing it to a 444 or something. I'd have kept the 903, I drove one in a '74 co4070A IH and it sounded great.They're probably just going to show it anyway,they wouldn't need 800 horsepower anyway,and for just being cool,a V8 Cummins would be awesome.
  10. if everything works here,these are a couple of hills that a truck driver can appreciate as being very,very,steep and the pictures show it. The Kenworth is the original one used in the "Moving On" tv series. So,what's that got to do with 36 degree banking? Bristol has 36 degree banking in the turns,and that's steep too...Besides,Paul was getting annoyed that I was taking all the good blog entry titles, a.k.a. whatever day of the week it was. It gets harder and harder to come up with a new and catchy title all the time you know. And another thing-I've been known to criticise drivers who graduate from "truck driving school" and hit the road already having forgotten more than myself or most everybody else has ever known about driving on this blog,and today when I was anylizing my new "Wheels of Time" I came across the article about Joe Becker. This entire issue is about drivers and companies who recieved golden achievement awards,with 50 or more years in the trucking industry. Joe Becker is 79 and still trucking. In the mid 70's he started a truck driving school in Minnesota.He offered a 6 month, 1,200 hour course for interstate drivers and a 4 month 900 hour course for intrastate drivers. You had to log 5,000 miles with an instructor to graduate,but I guarantee you those drivers knew what they were doing when they hit the road. He eventually closed down his training school when others offered shorter courses. I know they say there's a driver shortage,but the "new breed" attitude of these guys coming out now is something else.Not all,but a lot of drivers are so hateful and arrogant-nothing like the commaradorie-oh forget it,i'll never be able to spell comaraderie-that there used to be. Where drivers used to be quick to help each other,now they're quick to cuss each other out for the least little thing. Unreal...what happened?
  11. I'm off 'til tomorrow.Neal asked me Friday when I called in empty at Orville,when he gave me my pick-up number for IDS and told me I could unload in Roanoke whenever I got there, if I wanted to talk to Todd then about a load for Sunday.I told him no,i'll just call Monday-i'm not really into working 7 days a week.I've got lots of bills to pay like everybody else,but if all you do is work,what's the point? I mean you've got to be off once in a while. I left Saturday when I went to Wisconsin,got back Friday,and left again Sunday and didn't get in 'til Saturday. This right here is my biggest enjoyment of the week.
  12. other dog

    Movies

    oddly enough Joe I once googled "Cannonball"/tv series just to see what I could find on it,because i'd seen cannonball GMC's at Hank's and just barely remembered the tv show. I went through about 20 pages of websites before the tv series was ever mentioned,and when I finally did find it it said no episodes were known to exist today.I thought that was the end of that story,but it wasn't long after that when I saw the robert's hard to find videos "Cannonball" reference on BMT. I ordered 2 DVDs with 2 episodes on each of them,all that was available. p.s-what the heck does she know anyway?
  13. Hi Paul, haven't heard from you in a while,i've been out and about. About that Peterbilt, - ...oh...well..,never mind then.
  14. other dog

    Lemon Pie

    if it was lemon meringue,or however you spell it,it would have lasted that long with me too, but if it was a lemon chess,well that's just altogether different.I love a lemon chess pie,and one of them would not have lasted me all the way home.
  15. other dog

    Movies

    I've seen Porky's but it's been years,White Line Fever was on tv not too long ago ( well,within the last year i'd say ) and I remember Movin' On and BJ and the Bear,but I didn't see BJ and the Bear much.I watched 'ol Sonny and Will regularly though. I you like really old trucking, I remember "Cannonball", a series from about 58-60. Two guys in a Cannonball GMC . I saw a reference to a site called "robert's hard to find videos" right here on BMT that still had a couple of episodes of it available so I ordered them. It's pretty neat just seeing that Cannonball Jimmy still trucking.
  16. I remember the band.When I was a teenager "Love Hurts" was a big hit for them. That and "Hair of the Dog" are the only Nazareth songs I could name though. I was going down 81 to Chattanooga or somewhere a few years ago and decided to drive down by the Bristol track just to see it and it was lit up that night too,pretty awesome looking.I've still never seen it in the daytime. I guess the banking is like taking a picture of a hill,the picture never seems to show just how steep the hill is.I've seen a couple of pictures at Hank's truck pictures that looked scary steep even in the picture,but not too many.I'll try to find them if you want,you might've seen them before. But the best Bristol example i've ever seen was when Ned Jarrett had a racing show that came on every Sunday morning.He had some really interesting stuff,like what 200 mph really looked like-he was driving 55 mph at Talledega and Terry Labonte passed him doing 200+. He wanted to demonstrate how steep the banking was at Bristol,so they took a crane and lifted A VW beetle over the wall (this show came on probably 20-some years ago,before it was so built up all the way around) and set it down at the top of the banking. When they turned it loose it just rolled right down to the bottom. Good stuff! And tarping-I've pulled flat beds most of my career and it's just part of the job,something you gotta do,so it doesn't really bother me that much, EXCEPT- it really burns me up when like i've mentioned before people want you to tarp stuff for no apparent reason. I've picked up lumber in Palmer,Massachusets before that was supposed to be tarped,and it had snow a foot deep on top of it. I told them they could unload it if they wanted,but I certainly wasn't going to climb up on a load of snow covered lumber to tarp it,and I didn't. We used to haul lumber for Hoover treated lumber in Milford,Va. and they wanted everything tarped,year round,even though they stored it out in the weather and everywhere we delivered to did too. A lot of the steel we haul is the same way,it just makes no sense at all. Nothing that I know of gets wetter just because it's loaded on a trailer,and there's no salt on the road when there's no snow or ice,especially in the summer. I think a lot of these idiots in management have absolutely no common sense,plus they just hate trucks and truck drivers. And that's what gripes me about tarping!
  17. ,Yep,last time I unloaded in Orville the wind tried to blow the tarps away 'til I got them drug inside the building,this time it was the cold. The tarps still had ice and snow and salt on them,there was snow on the ground,and when you try to roll them up you can't get any traction on anything so you can't get them rolled very tight so they end up big as a small car,and hard to handle. And I don't have a lumber tarp,I carry two smaller ones. And It's hard enough to stay clean on a flatbed anyway, but when you get the salt all over everything it's even worse,all you gotta do is touch the truck or trailer and it seems to be all over you,and tarping and untarping is really bad. I'm not complaining though,I don't care for slick roads either. And it's good to know that if I go missing somebody would actually notice-thanks!
  18. Made the trip to Nazareth,Pa. I passed right by the Nazareth Speedway going in,never seen that before. I drove the truck to Rockingham,N.C. to races a couple of times,and stopped and looked at the race tracks in Daytona,Talledega, and Darlington,and have passed by Bristol,Dover,North Wilkesboro,Atlanta,Michigan, maybe a couple more. Used to go to Charlotte,Richmond,and Martinsville every year,but it just got so expensive,and the traffic got so bad,and the cops in N.C. got so hateful I quit going. Nazareth looked kind of grown over,even for the off-season. I don't know if they still have races there or not,it might have gone the way of North Wilkesboro and Rockingham. I know they didn't have cup races there anyway,but didn't they run Busch races there at one time? I don't remember what kind of races they have there. Anyway, back in the real world I went down to Baltimore from Nazareth and loaded coils at Worthington Steel for Metalsa in Roanoke-the truck frame plant.Then over to Moneta and picked up treated lumber going to Fairmont,W.V. It rained in West Virginia Tuesday night. It was about 38-40 degrees went I went to bed.But Wednesday morning in Fairmont it was well below freezing,and the parking lot at 84 Lumber was like a skating rink,completely glazed over with a sheet of ice. I couldn't get turned around and backed in the gate 'til about 10 or 10:30 I think it was.When I finally got unloaded I had to go to Pittsburgh to load,so I just stayed on U.S.rt. 19 North thru town until I got back to I-79 at Morgantown. I saw several old trucks going that way,some old Autocars,and one place where you could look down below you and see lots of old iron,including at least one H-model in the woods. The road through there is narrow anyway,and there's no place to pull over and look,or take pictures,but i'd like to.I wish I could take a picture of every old truck I see. Kinda makes ya wonder just what might still be found parked in the woods to rust across the country,and forgotten. But,back to the real world,it's work,work,work.I loaded in Pittsburgh for Franklin,Va. It was an N.B.Handy load,but it went straight to the customer.Should have been on a straight truck,their yard was so tiny. When I got that off Thursday morning I went to Dillwyn and picked up a load of Kyanite going to Orville,Oh.It was bright and sunny when I left the shop,but by the time I got to Lewisburg,W.V. it was snowing so hard you couldn't see. I was pretty much out of the snow by the time I got to Charleston,but it was about 2 degrees in Orville Friday morning.Folding tarps is about like trying to fold a piece of plywood when it's that cold. Then over to Macedonia to reload coils at I.D.S. for Metalsa in Roanoke. Unloaded there this morning,and got home around lunch time. I see I got a "Wheels of Time" and a "Double Clutch" this week,so it's time to check them out now. Hmm...used to be that would be the first thing I checked out,wonder what's up with that?
  19. I was in the office Friday and a driver named Joe came in. He had a load going to Syracuse,N.Y. but he had no name for the customer and no delivery address on the bills. He said " how am I supposed to find this place in Syracuse,i've got no information". Jeff was sitting there and never hesitated a second and said " just pull up in Syracuse and blow the horn,somebody'll come get you-that's what I would do". I thought it was hilarious,but I don't think Joe got it. He just said "well Syracuse is a big place" and went on out the door.
  20. other dog

    Saturday

    Yeah Old Bill told me to chew lots of gum too. He was smoking 3 to 4 packs a day he said-nonfiltered. He must have had one lit the whole time he was awake to smoke that much,but he quit.
  21. other dog

    Saturday

    Sorry, I know it sucks, anymore it seems like the only time I'm home is to sleep then back to doing something. Glad to see you are holding strong on smoking. lol,yeah,that's about it Joe-as whatya macall'um used to say,thank you for being a friend-and I ain't smoked one yet. If I didn't burn one last week I should pretty much have it made. P.S.-aaaaargh!!!!!!!!!
  22. other dog

    Friday

    things might be altogether different now,but when I worked at Cumberland Auto Service from '74-77 we had a brake relining machine that was a pedal operated air machine,and all you did was put the rivets in the hole,lined the rivets up in the machine and worked from the center out to the ends of the shoe-put the rivets in,line it up ,step on the pedal,brad the rivets,move to the next hole outward-you're done. I did it as a teen ager and never remember a lining cracking,you started in the center and worked outward like tightening down a cylinder head.That doesn't mean I know anything...maybe it just means i'm getting old and relining old shoes just isn't done that much anymore.
  23. other dog

    Saturday

    Yeah,thanks for reminding me Joe,i'm outa' here tomorrow headed to Nazareth, Pa. then to parts unknown...always an unknown adventure ahead,at least I can come home and relax for a while...haven't smoked one since the last one,new years day I think.
  24. d'oh!!!!!
  25. I have to disagree on the ugliest truck of all time thing-I still think that's that weird looking cabover Peterbilt from the-late 80's probably? I can't remember,but it was one ugly a#@ truck!
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