PeterMack

I took these pictures at least 10 years ago of what I think is an A model Mack, former Meyer truck. It was sitting out behind Maggio's for the longest time. I think the last time it was plated was the early 90's. The story I got was that is was from one of Meyer's Rockford yards and they used this truck to pull out stuck mixers. When the driver retired they retired the truck. I don't know if that story is true and I'm not sure where this truck went. It disappeared shortly after I took these.

Was in Meyer Algonquin the other day and saw an old Meyer R model. Looks like its an Ozinga yard dog now.

I bet your right. I would think they are saving something like that. I had a picture on my phone as I was a little closer to the tunnel. Pretty amazing how its put together and all the stone is running on a angle and then following the curvature of the tunnel. Some awesome engineering went into it for sure, especially for those days. I just wonder how it was put together, if they had to form the curvature of the tunnel with wood first or if was done another way.

I was out in Rockford today right down town on the river. Meyer Material's old batch plant is still standing. It is on top of a brick building and it looks like the trucks would load in the building under the silo. There was rail running to the plant so I'm thinking much of their material came in on rail. Where I was dumping was an old ComEd pump house with turbines that were connected to the dam. The Meyer plant, ComEd, and the old Ingersol Rand building are all right in a row on the river and are all being torn down or re-vamped for a 27 million dollar Rockford Park Dist project. Our tax dollars hard at work I guess. I had to drive through a narrow old opening to get to the job. The old rail line ran on top. Kinda neat. While I was in Rockford I see that Plote and William Charles are redoing rt2 into town. Saw a couple Plote mixers and a William Charles R-model. The one mixer looked like it took a hit on the drum.

Great article Paul. I think they hit it right on the head with that one. I like the statistic that 70 million people are on one drug or another. I thought so for years. Just watch the way people drive and shop, with no intent and no purpose, just lazily drifting through the day in their pajamas and flip flops, whether its 10 degrees or 110. I have worked with so many other drivers over the years that were pissed off at me, or jealous because I would get the new truck or new trailer, or the bosses would have me go do something special or complicated even though I didn't have the seniority, and the reason I got all that stuff was because I have always taken care of my trucks, whether I owned them or not, but the other guys could never figure it out. They did the absolute bare minimum but expected everything to be handed to them, and even when they did get the new piece of equipment it would only stay nice for about a month till they lost interest and then it would look like crap after that. Maybe its just a societal thing, gimme, gimme, gimme, but nobody wants to earn it. There is a definite lack of pride in America, there's still a lot of great people here but the slugs of the world are taking over.

Ahh Swift. See What I F-cked up today. Slow Wagons in fast traffic. I heard they were getting out of the tanker business because to many drivers drowned trying to put the load bars in.

I was thinking about heading down to this show but I totally forgot about it. That is a sharp looking cabover that Nanninga has. I didn't know they had that. They have really sharp looking W900's. I usually see a couple every week delivering hogs to a kill plant just a little ways up the road from me. Saw a two tone purple one today.

A friend of mine is on the Newport Fire Dept, which is basically the unincorporated part of Northeast IL, Wadsworth area, and he got me some pictures of their MR.

Saw a little red R model six-wheeler today.

Saw an RB and a R in the pit the other day.

The trucking industry could shut this country down in a couple days if you could get more than two truckers to agree on one thing, but instead the industry keeps letting the shippers dictate how things should be done. With the ever rising costs of operating a truck and the growing D.O.T regs there is no reason to put up with this 120 day payout garbage. Even for the large fleets. The industry is shooting itself in the foot once again.

I borrowed these pictures from Deluxe Towing's site of their R-model. They had more pictures of it in their gallery. I attached the link. http://www.deluxetowing.com/gallery.html

Saw CJ Drilling's MR (TOR) drill rig the other day. I think this is the same one I posted awhile back but it looks like they painted it blue. Formerly yellow. Not sure if TOR uses Mack drive line or not. The pumper next to this truck was a real MR though.

Great pictures. Plus they cleared the traffic out for you. That's 90% of the battle down there. Very cool.

Saw the Country Well and Pump RD six-wheeler the other day.

I agree. I say he better drive it himself or find somebody qualified to do it. If zero keeps hitting more stuff or gets caught off route or doesn't know all the ins and outs of heavy haul and all the different states rules for that business he could cause a lot of damage and headache for the owner and zero will shrug his shoulders and walk away while the owner pays for it all.

Saw the Snelten Well Drilling R-model yesterday. I've seen it behind there shop on 12 before, but not on the road. Was able to get a nice shot of it finally.

A friend of mine was at the Lilac parade in Lombard last Sunday and told me about a "cool" RS that was in the parade. I said I've seen that truck before, I think I know who it belongs to:) He sent me a couple pics of it and a neat army truck and the Zipprich trucks. I'm surprised that there was that many trucks in the parade.

You should have grabbed me, I'm sure I was just telling lies and bullshitting. I could have done without driving through the rain to get there, had to wipe the trucks off for a bit. Wasn't to many Mack's there, just Al's, mine and the little yellow B67 wrecker that was there last year. I didn't take a lot of pictures this year but for all the Brockway fans there was a cool one that came down from Wis and had a Holmes 750 on the back of it. I have pictures of the Diamond T and the Westcoaster but these were from shows in the past. Both of these trucks are owned by Patrick O'hare from Byron who is now our ATHS chapter vice pres.

Saw an A-Lamp RD yesterday and a new Ozinga Granite.

That silver R model looks like a long lost brother of a truck I have a picture of from an old Overdrive mag article. Possibly same truck with some cosmetic changes?

I was in Cordrays pit over the winter and in there the other day. They had a Mid-Liner sitting there. Don't see those much anymore. I think these guys have one of every truck and tractor ever made sitting in their pit somewhere. The place reminds me of a messier version of Gerharts. Lots of iron sitting around.

Yep, same building as last year. They do a corner every year. I think they have a bigger landscaping budget than I do

Looks like that first RD on 20 was a Christensen truck. Looks like you went through Elgin, possibly used the Elgin-Ohare. You went through my stomping grounds. Usually not to far from there. About 15min to the house from where you took the picture of the Christensen truck.

I just bought a gas 9hp Karcher, used from a friend for $250. So far I love it. It sells for about $1,100 new and it is in good shape. I figured at that price I couldn't go wrong. Its 3100psi and 3.1gpm. No heat which is why my friend was getting rid of it as he bought a new one with heat. Used it three times and it has worked great. Much better than pumping quarters into the machine at the car/truck wash.