other dog

That reminds me of my '70 Chevelle SS engine-I had a tarantula intake too,same valve covers,same Accel Super coil,same air filter-about all the filter you could have and close the hood without a scoop.I bought it from a friend of mine and he wanted to keep the turbo 400 trans. to put in his blazer,so I went to a junkyard and got all the parts and linkage and put an M-22 Muncie in it too. It had a .030 over 402 in it,not quite as hot as yours,ran 13.80's on street tires with the stock rear,3.70's I think. A long time ago-as what's his name sings,thanks for the memories.

Hey Paul,sorry to hear about your fall,but glad to hear you found all your parts. Ever thought about getting a pair of crampons?..and an ice axe? might come in handy up there.

Hi Joe,how's everything? I'm in until Monday anyway. I've never been to Canada,but i've always wanted to see the country,and Alaska-in the summertime though! I picked up a load of steel in Connecticut one time that was so rusty it looked like they dug it up off the bottom of the ocean,and they made me tarp it.When I signed the bills I wrote on them "rusty when loaded" and the man was irate because I did. I just told him "well,it's rusty". When I delivered it they put it outside on the ground anyway,so it didn't even need to be tarped in the first place. That's just the way a lot of the #$%@ers are. Just part of the job,but I guess it would drive some people to get'em an AK 47 and go berserk!

Just got home about 7:30 this morning.Could've been in about midnight,but I ran out of power and had to take a nap. The power plant load kinda sucked-it's near Fremont,where I deliver Kyanite regularly, and it paid about $100 more dollars than a Fremont,but when you consider that I had to go to Richmond to load,then go through two separate security checks when I got there-they looked under the hood,in the sideboxes,all the tool boxes on the truck and trailer,in the cab,in the sleeper, then after I went through 2 security gates where you pull in and a gate closes behind you before the one in front opens,they did the complete search all over again-it's just not worth the hassle. I know they're just doing their job too,but since i'm not a criminal it's kind of offensive when they get up inside the cab and sleeper and go through everything...twice. Then I went to Masury,Oh. Thursday with a load of beams. Everybody hates to go to Masury because the load has to be tarped,winter or summer,even though the beams are stored outside on the ground at Petersburg where we load them. Apparently it somehow gets wetter if it's on a trailer,and it's hard to tarp beams without tearing the tarps up. I didn't cover the ends and still tore several holes in the tarps. After I'd been there about an hour and a half they decided to unload me,and I went on down to Galv-Tech in Pittsburgh and loaded up 5 coils for Handy in Lynchburg and dropped the trailer there this morning. Now i'm home raking leaves...well,i'm going to in a minute...maybe.

Oh...that sounds pretty easy,I'll give it a try. Thanks David

No,sorry,I've never had any dealings with them at all,but I did read or saw somewhere on a website that they had lots of old Mack parts available. When the muffler on the mixer rusted out I tried to find a muffler and 4" stack and nobody in Lynchburg or Roanoke had any 4" mufflers or stacks.Everybody said they could order one for me but it would take several days to get it. I asked G.H.Jamerson if they had anything laying around,because they had nothing but Macks at Jamerson Brothers Trucking since they started in the '40s until the late '80s ,and he said they had sent a whole trailer load of obsolete parts to the scrap yard a week or so earlier, including mufflers and 4" exhaust pipes and stacks. He said he would have given me any of it,but it was too late by then of course. I might give Beebo Litchford a call at Litchford's garage a call later-they say his father Frank had all kinds of old,rare,and obsolete parts upstairs at their garage and Frank knew where and what everything was. I don't know if they still have the old stuff or not,Beebo mainly just does heavy duty wrecker service now I think and not as much mechanical work as Frank did,but he may still have some old parts. He has a huge "junkyard" with lots of old trucks too,but he's a funny ( not ha-ha funny,funny as in 'odd'") man to deal with. I needed trumpets for the horn on the mixer and got some from him. When I found a pair that fit I had to go back and check with him before I took them off to make sure it was OK to take anything off that particular truck. He didn't charge me anything for them though.

Barry,they say there's no such thing as a stupid question,but...I can't figure out how to start a new paragraph,like when i'm writing in my blog and go on,and on,and on...so this might qualify as one-how do you start a new paragraph?

I went to the DMV office in Altavista this morning before I went to work to get the title for the mixer changed.It kind 've started out like a typical Monday morning. I had to find a notary public first,to get my official DMV antique license application form notarized. I stopped at the first bank I saw,but they wouldn't do it because I didn't have an account there. So I went down to the Altavista town offices,got it notarized,then went to the DMV office. I had to get it changed because my wife's name was on the title too,and she passed away 2 and 1/2 years ago. The first thing the woman at DMV wanted to know was if I had a copy of the death certificate...well,..no- your records indicated that one of the owners was deceased,that's why I have to change the name on the title. O.K, I'll just look it up...yep,that's what it says-take a number and have a seat until we call you. A few minutes later they called me to the counter and a man looked at the paperwork and said " I can't do this-it's got to be a supervisor.Have a seat again". So I sat back down and the guy went in the back somewhere and came back a few minutes later with a woman,the supervisor. I explained my situation,showed her the letter and paperwork,gave her the old title,and she said that's $10 for the title change. I said " but what about the one-time $50 fee the letter says I have to pay again?". She said "you don't have to pay that,you just get the name on the title changed and keep your old tags,and you're all set". Great! Here's your ten dollars,i'll see 'ya! So it only cost me $10 when I was expecting to have to pay 50 more,so it turned out to be a pretty good day after all,and having to go to the DMV for anything is usually not good. If I had mailed it in I would have sent the $50 for new antique plates,because the letter they sent me said that's what I had to do,and they would have sent me new plates and never told me I didn't need new ones so they could get that $50 i'm sure. Then I went on to Lynchburg and unloaded the coils I dropped Friday night and went to the shop and fueled,and got the rest of the day off. Gotta go to Richmond tomorrow and load some air compressors going to a power plant in Oak Harbor,Oh.

Not me...I have a little Ford Ranger,dark blue,and a red,white,and blue cement mixer. By the way,where are you located,in case I want to spy on you?..unless it's a secret,then I don't want to know-might get in trouble.

Hey Paul,I was looking for Fishers,N.Y. in my road atlas but didn't see it in the index,so I went to Google Earth and typed it in and went right to it. I really like looking around on Google Earth at different places. Some places it won't zoom in very close on,like here. But Fishers-I don't know if you've ever checked it out,but i'm sure you can see your shop on it.I didn't know exactly where to look of course,but you can see cars and trucks in the parking lots and on the highway. Very detailed. Tom

Once again i've made the trip to Cumberland and back. Got a picture before the parade started ,( THE DECORATIONS LOOKED PRETTY SHABBY THIS YEAR! ) the Dabney brothers 9 second '66 Chevelle, some good friends of mine for years,and one of the bulldog headed into the sunset-going home!

Well thank you very much Paul,that's a nice compliment. I have a "Wheels of Time" magazine that shows A picture of a B-model Mack pulling a tanker in upstate N.Y.,though not in the Adirondacks,and it's almost buried in snow. I believe it was on rt. 26,north of Binghamton.

Yeah Joe,it really is a nice parade.You have to pay an entry fee of $10 to be in it,so I guess that keeps the riff-raff out ! Route 60 goes right through town,and it's 4 lane through town,so they just close the right lane before the parade and put numbers on little flags by the road so you know where your place is.You just find your number and park in that spot,put the decorations on,and it's a straight shot through town,no turns or anything,then I pull over and take the decorations off,and go back to Concord. I live near Gladys,but I keep the mixer parked at F.L.Moore and Sons shop,where I work. p.s....half dressed women? ..and your parade is when?

Yep,you're right Joe.That's what they do. I don't like driving in those conditions,i'm not near as brave as I used to be! But, like you said,you still got to do your job to earn your pay. If it gets too bad,i'm looking for somewhere to park it though. I don't really care about trying to be a hero at all. I've been to the Cumberland parade 3 years now,and won 3 trophies.That's not why I go of course, , I was born and raised in Cumberland.The trophy streak will probably end this year anyway,but that's all right. The first year the theme was "a red,white and blue Christmas" so I was dead-on with my paint job,then it was "oh Christmas tree" so I painted a board red,attached an artificial Christmas tree to it,and strapped it to the front bumper.Last year it was "Christmas bells" so I borrowed 2 big plastic bells and had them on the rear of the mixer.This year the theme is "A Jamestown Christmas"- how do you decorate a cement mixer for that? I have no idea,so i'll just go and put something on it,because the rules say it's got to be decorated.

Usually you don't even have to run a continuous bead,just kinda stick the rod in there and go round and round a couple of times,and the weld will "draw" it enough so it comes right out.

Gee you get up early!

Had a long week this week,driving in snow for most of it. I left last Sunday for Orville,Ohio and when I unloaded Monday morning it was snowing and the radio said the wind was gusting to 50 mph.When I took the straps off of one side of the tarp it blew off and over the trailer and was flapping like a flag,still holding on by the straps on the other side.I finally got it detatched and it blew up under a trailer parked beside me.I struggled with it for a while and decided I was never going to get it folded,so I was waiting to get unloaded so I could just get it up on the trailer somehow and get it strapped down. When the truck at the dock beside me pulled out I grabbed a corner of the tarp and dragged it up to the dock and stuffed it under the door.Then I went inside and pulled it in and got it folded and rolled up with no problem,then did the other one the same way. All this titanic struggle with my tarps probably took 30 minutes,and the tarp was winning the battle until I outsmarted it. Went from there over to Sharon,Pa. and loaded up 2 coils and back to Lynchburg.The crane was broken at N.B.Handy,so I had to take them to the shop where they unloaded them with the forklift.Then on to Dillwyn to load a Fremont,Oh. I knew they were calling for more snow in Ohio Tuesday night,so that motivated me to get all the way to Fremont,trying to beat it. It started snowing about the time I got there,around midnight. Wednesday morning it was still coming down,with about 3 inches on top of the tarps.I had to get a broom and get up on top and sweep the snow off before I could pull them off,because it was so heavy. Again,I had much difficulty trying to fold them,not because of wind this time,but the snow.I had to fold them on the ground in the snow,and when I got finished they were about the size of a Volkswagon beetle,and weighed about 1400 lbs each ( that's just a guess ) so I had to get Troy to put them on the trailer with the forklift. Then I had to go to Macedonia to load coils for Roanoke.It was still snowing,but the roads were in good shape,plenty of salt. Ohio does a good job on the roads,they were putting brine on them from the time I crossed the state line at Marietta Tuesday night,long before the snow started falling.That's key,getting an early start on them instead of waiting until they're covered and people start wrecking,like they do in West Virginia. I made it all the way to Beckley with no problems,but when I got on I-64 and headed east it looked like they had used up all the salt allotment for the year,or they forgot 64 was even there. It was completely snow covered and I was a little nervous starting down Sandstone mountain...OK,I was a LOT nervous! I mentioned Sandstone before,if you haven't been across there it's a 5 mile 7% grade,speed limit is 45 mph for trucks,and it has 2 runaway ramps on it.I was easing down in the low side until about halfway to the first runaway ramp when it appeared to have been salted and you could see the pavement again.It was clear the rest of the way down,across the flat,and about 3 quarters of the way up the other side,then it was back to completely covered. When I got to the top there was a truck jackknifed on the westbound side,a pickup in the ditch on my side,and a car in the median in a distance of about a mile. I was trying to get to exit 161 where I was planning to stop for the night anyway.The ramp is at the bottom of a hill so I was still taking it pretty easy,running about 35 mph. A car was ahead of me about half a mile,so I wanted to keep plenty of distance in case I had to stop if he decided to slam the brakes on to see if the road was slick. Right about the top of the hill a Swift truck went by in the left lane and he must have been doing 60 mph.That's fine if you're by yourself,the hill was straight down and straight back up,but if something were to happen unexpectedly in front of him,like that car spinning out on the bridge at the bottom of the hill,there's no way he could have gotten stopped. So I finally made it into the fuel stop and parked.From Beckley to there I saw just one truck salting the road. I went on to Roanoke and unloaded Thursday morning,then by the shop for fuel,and went to Petersburg and loaded some beams going to Carnegie,Pa. Got up there Friday morning,and yep,snowing like he....uh,heck,snowing like heck. Took a long time to get unloaded because the forklift was spinning in the snow and he could barely get up to the trailer. Once he got a lift of beams picked up it was all right,then he could hardly get back from where he was putting them on the ground back to the trailer to get another lift. I finally did get unloaded of course,then went over to Galv-Tech in Pittsburgh to load coils for Handy,and by the time I left there it had warmed up and the roads were just wet,so I hammered down to Lynchburg,dropped the load at N.B.Handy about 9:30 last night and bobtailed home.Got the Cumberland County Christmas Parade Sunday. It's the longest trip of the year for the mixer,about 55 miles one way. At least they're calling for nice weather,with temperatures in the 50's!

I ended up adding a can of carrots to mine. Your recipe sounds better than my Mama's,but i'm not gonna tell her.

Yeah,I saw it up close-I went to Orville,Oh. Sunday and it was snowing Monday morning,unloaded in Fremont,Oh. Wednesday morning and it was snowing,this morning I unloaded in Carnegie,Pa. and went to Galv-tech in Pittsburgh to reload,and it was a real mess up there this morning.

Yeah...I love my job!

When I was coming from Macedonia Thursday night headed to Roanoke,running with " BB Brain",somebody started yelling on the radio when we were coming down Sandstone mountain on I-64,east of Beckley. Turns out it was a Swift driver,but it could have been any number of the company drivers you see nowadays. He said "get off your brakes,you're going to burn your brakes up,have to go in the runaway ramp,and never be able to get another job with another company".Then something like "get off your brakes,I smell brakes-you're gonna die in a fiery crash.I see your brake lights,just use your jake brake,or you'll die in a fiery crash,and never be able to get a job with another company-you should kick your trainers a**!- my trainer didn't teach me like that!". And this went on for a while and I was just listening-the Swift and the other truck,I don't remember the name,it was a something-or-other express, were both in front of me,and the other truck driver never answered the Swift driver,so I finally did. As I said,I was behind them,and I never smelled hot brakes.Smelling brakes doesn't really mean anything except your brakes are working-i've had to get on the brakes hard at a red light and could smell brakes when I got stopped.Now,if you can't see the truck for the smoke,and it looks like a burning brush pile coming down the mountain,that's a different story. Maybe the other truck didn't have a jake.Maybe he did and it wasn't working.Maybe he liked his job and didn't want to drive for a different company anyway,but I can see why a Swift driver might assume everybody else does,because he drives for Swift. Jake brakes sure are nice,but I remember when nobody had a jake-you might see one once in a while,but they certainly were not a common item like they are today. Many times I've loaded over 50,000 lbs. of coils at Armco Steel (now AK Steel) in Middletown,Ohio and ran rt. 60 from Charleston,W.V.over to Sam Black Church in an F-model Mack with no engine brake,no power steering,and an AM radio that didn't work-I-64 wasn't even finished,it ended at Sam Black Church.Rt. 60 was the only way you could go,unless you ran the W.V.Turnpike to Princeton,then 460 over to Christiansburg,and picked up I-81. The steel usually went to Harrisonburg or Buena Vista,and that was too far out of the way to go through Princeton,so going across "Hawk's Nest" was no big deal-I still go across there occasionally,just for the adventure.It's very steep,and crooked as a dog's hind leg.So,back to the Swift truck,I finally told him "I guess if you didn't have your jake brake and power steering,and GPS,satellite communication with dispatch,cell phone,and color TV,you'd just park it at the top of the mountain quit,and walk home,since you don't have any brakes except your jake brake".He said "oh no,I could drive this truck without a jake brake-or power steering". I kind of doubt that he could,if he had to run the old road,but it's all he's ever known,having all the modern equipment.That last curve at the bottom of the mountain going into Rainelle would probably be the end of him,like it's been for many others.

Yep,that's it!

Cheswick,Pa.-that's where I went. I remember now,since I've already been there and back. I called Tina,one of our drivers who had been to this jobsite before, and after I talked to her I was beginning to regret taking this load instead of the pipe going to Anderson,S.C. She said it was very cramped,they sat all day waiting to get unloaded because they were pouring concrete,and concrete trucks were in and out all day until 5 o'clock that evening.She also said you had to go down a steep hill and drive onto a barge to get to the island where they were unloading,then they had to be pushed back up the hill,and they had to pick the back of their trailers up with a crane and move them over to make the turn through the gate at the railroad tracks to get out. Geez,what have I gotten myself into here? Usually if you're expecting the worst,it's never that bad. I made it in,you had to cross the tracks and make a hard left after you crossed the tracks but you couldn't pull very far forward through the gate because a crane was set up there,then hug the chain link fence on the left,because then you had to make a hard right to go down the steep cut they had made in the bank,but again you couldn't pull very far forward to make the turn because of a pile of stuff they had on the ground,and there was a little green thing on the right-looked like a gas meter or something-that you had to clear before you turned. I had dumped the trailer air on the back axle and locked the power divider in at first,and made all the turns with inches to spare.When I got down the hill I had to get over as close to the air compressor parked on the right at the bottom to make the hard left onto the "bridge" which was actually barges side by side across the river.When I talked to Tina I thought they put the truck on a barge and floated over to the island,and I wasn't too sure about all that! But I felt pretty good about the bridge when I saw them drive a bulldozer across it before I went across. So I made it onto the bridge and went across and got unloaded,turned around,and went back up the hill OK,and made it back through the gate without having to pick the trailer up and move it over. I should mention that I had a 48' trailer,and the others had 53s, and like I said I had only inches to spare on all the turns,including getting onto the bridge. I reloaded at Macedonia,Oh. for Roanoke and unloaded there Thursday night. Yesterday morning back at the shop Todd gave me a choice of another load of piling to Cheswick or kyanite going to Orrville,Oh. I went with the Orrville.

I get that too,I'll be looking forward to reading it.

Just got my "Double Clutch" today.Good story,though sad,about the Procter Company.Just a great restoration of the B-813SX though.What a tough truck!