RowdyRebel

I take it you drive that ole Mack most of the time everywhere ya go huh? You do better than me Rowdy, my Chevy loves to go through some gas, she ain't too bad if your easy but get up in her and you'll see the gas gauge go down to empty very quickly.

Best I ever got out of my F250 was cruising across Montana at 80 mph....saw 13.5 mpg. Usually, I only get 10 to 11...unless I'm having fun, then it's down around 6 to 8 mpg.

They say you must run a spring in order to bring the antenna to 108". I thought about getting one of them 102" but I'm quite happy with my Wilson to change. I don't want to smack everything and be faced with fines for damaging anything and I never expected anyone to run a 102 on a rig. I know ya can't run one on them new Cascadia's or 387's or T2000's cause they got that stupid cab mounted antenna so it would make a 102" way too tall.

Whatcha gonna damage? Hell, just keep on truckin'. Besides, you're in a pickup. I got a 102" mounted on a fat spring on the rail around the top of a toolbox in the bed of my F250. Stopped, it only reaches 13'6"...when I'm driving, the wind keeps it considerably lower. On the Mack, though, the way it's mounted, the wind doesn't affect it much since it passes through the hole in the top mirror bracket...holds it upright.

The Pete and KW debate is like a Chevy and Ford debate but KW and Chevy is gonna win every time in my book.

Wrong on both accounts. The Pete vs. KW debate is like a Chevy vs. Pontiac debate. Pete & KW are both Paccar, just like Chevy and Pontiac are both GM. Either way, though, they are ALL crap. Everyone knows Macks & Fords will run circles around the rest when it comes to doin' REAL work.

I used to mess around with old chevy's, constantly swapping out parts, turning 3 trucks into one. But I digress, I had kids and bought a semi...which is almost like a third kid. The time for messing around with stuff has passed and I bought 'new', an '05 Chevy doody-max. I change the oil and grease it and that's enough.

I don't drive my pickups enough to worry about 'em. Gassed up my F250 the other day for the first time since May. Prolly been 3 or 4 months since I put gas in the Ranger, too. For me, a couple old reliable trucks without a note attached to 'em are worth way more than a new one with a note.

Yeah man you can't destroy those 102" and for the price it's worth it. The good thing with the 102's and is you can mount them anywhere and pretty much have a flat swr unless you got a grounding issue. You running a spring on your's Rowdy?

yeah, but just to help reduce the shock to the mirror bracket when it whacks something...

I agree with Rowdy, your better off in an older used rig cause if you got to overhaul it and all that good stuff you'll have a new truck for half the cost and without the big payment. I guess people want a new truck to boost their ego or something who knows and then they wonder why they have to sell it cause they got greedy. I'm with Rowdy on the new pick up trucks I got a soon to be 20 year old truck next year, I got a 90 Chevy C1500 Silverado, while it may not be the best looking truck it sure holds up better than any new F150 or Silverado with those stupid cargo steps. I laughed when Ford came out with that stupid cargo step crap, c'mon now if you got to use a cargo step to put something in the bed of a truck your a sissy! Yeah I said it! The only thing major I had to do to my truck was a fuel pump (which didn't need replaced), pick up coil, water pump, lower radiator hose that goes to the water pump, oil cooler lines cause I broke that on accident, brakes shoes, brake drums, and brake pads. I say that isn't too bad for only having it a year! Other than that she is a solid good riding truck and actually rides like a truck. Only thing I got left to replace is all the shocks.

I bought my '96 F250 over 5 years ago. The money I've spent in maintenance & repairs (outside of what I knew needed to be done when I bought the truck) over the course of those 5 years combined don't equal what I would be paying EACH MONTH for a new truck.

I've had my '92 Ranger more than 3 years now. ALL I've done to it is change the oil. Haven't spent a dime beyond that.

I would be careful changing fuel pumps that don't need changing. When I was in college, my '86 Ranger was still my dad's and the fuel tank sprung a leak in their driveway. Of course they took it in to get a new tank...and while the tank was out, they put in a new fuel pump, too. 8 months later, I started having problems with it. Of course by then, it was MY truck. The pump would work fine for a while...and then it would quit. Let the truck sit for a while and it would work again. I guess it may have been overheating...just needed a chance to cool down. It was more of an inconvenience than anything...I rode my motorcycle 99% of the time, so it didn't really bother me TOO much...until I broke my collarbone and needed the truck to be reliable. I took it in (I'm not attempting to drop a 3/4 full fuel tank with only 1 good arm in a gravel driveway) and they changed the pump (of course after re-checking everything I had already checked...and TOLD them I had checked) and charged me almost 2 hours labor before they came out and told me what I told them when I brought them the truck 2 friggin' hours earlier! Anyway, they put the (NAPA) fuel pump in and it worked fine for about 6 months...then started doing the same exact thing. This time, I was healthy and pulled the pump myself and took it back to the shop and got a replacement (parts warranty...not labor) and went home to install it myself. About 4 months later, I got a deal on some parts...a guy was going to scrap his old Ranger and told me for $100 I could have anything or everything (except the transmission). I pulled the cab (mine was rotted out pretty bad), the rear axle (3.73 gear instead of the 3.08 I had in mine), and the OEM Ford fuel pump. When I got home, I put the Ford fuel pump back in my '86 and for 2 years after that, never had any further fuel delivery problems. That was when I cracked the head moving (pulling a 25' flatbed trailer behind my little '86 with the 4-banger, 5-speed, & 3.08 rears)...derned trailer weighed more EMPTY than I should have been towing LOADED...especially since I didn't have any trailer brake controller in my Ranger (and I rigged an adapter to the 4-flat on my truck to the 7-round on the borrowed trailer so I'd have lights). Yeah, I loaded the heck out of that trailer, too....still took me 4 trips to move all my stuff, though.

That '86 has been sitting in my garage ever since. I have a 289 from a '66 Mustang I'm going to build to throw in there...of course that means the spare axle will likely end up under the '92 (which has 3.45 rears now) since the '86 is going to require a completely new drive train to handle the V-8's power. I'll probably convert the old truck to 4 wheel drive, too, while I'm at it. Best part is, it's paid for. It isn't on the road, so it doesn't have plates or insurance. It isn't costing me a dime, whether it sits a year or 10 years before I find the time and money to get started on the build. That's the beauty of having a vehicle that is paid off, owned free & clear. You can do whatever you want with it...or nothing at all...and nobody can say a damned thing about it either way.

Well you know women find the UGLIEST things "cute".

Well, now...that explains a lot.

I could've opted for the radio with the freq counter but it was $100 more...

I don't know if I could handle the ginormous antenna though, the Wilson whip I have now is 4' and it takes a pretty good beating..makes me wonder if something actually hit the mirror bracket.

eh, you get used to the noise. It was funny...I was following a guy and we went under a 13'8" bridge. I knew I was going to smack it with the antenna...so when I did, I told him "I just hit the bridge" in as serious-sounding voice as I could muster. Of course he got all concerned...thinking maybe the bed was up a little....

I had to mount it on the lower mirror bracket...and held a couple of those plastic insulator things into the stock CB mount and passed the antenna through that hole in the top mirror bracket to keep it upright and not blowing in the wind. Like I said, for $15-$20, I don't worry about it getting beat up. I sure wouldn't want a $70 antenna to be getting into everything. This whip is the same one I had on a flatbed truck running OTR for 6 months before coming to this company...where I had it on the company truck for over a year and a half before I bought my Mack and moved it over onto it. The things been getting into everything for almost 4 years and still works as good as it did when it was new. Not bad for $15-$20.

Thanks man, I appreciate the input....It was a toss up between that and the General Lee...http://www.cbradiomagazine.com/ gave them both pretty good reviews but they dont really get into them in the truck world. I'm sure theyre both fine on a desk somewhere...how theyre gonna hold up in the truck is another story.

Thanks for everyones info..

In case you missed my review of the 29 w/ bluetooth....

"I also tried one of the Cobra 29's with the bluetooth, but it's sitting here at the house until someone (hopefully Astatic) comes out with a noise-canceling mic for it. The thing is like a dadgum speaker phone....picks up ALL background noise (including the person you are talking to...) so you have to turn the mic gain way down to talk on the phone with it...but then when you hang up and go back to using it as a CB, you have to turn the mic gain back up or people can't hear you too well. When I was talking to people who use a headset, they seemed to have more troubles hearing me than the people who held their phones to their ear...not sure if there's anything to that or not, just an observation. The OTHER problem I had with it is the stupid button on the mic to answer/hang up the phone...VERY easy to "accidentally" bump and hang up mid sentence. Would have been MUCH better if the button was on the CB itself (instead of on the mic) and if the phone was muted until you keyed up so that the background noise wouldn't be a problem for people on the other end. A true noise canceling mic wouldn't hurt, either."

I had both the 29 BT and the General Lee in the truck for a while...left the General Lee on 19, and used the 29 to go to whatever off-channel they were using where I would load or unload (I usually forget to go back to 19 when I get back on the road...and wonder why nobody will talk to me until I realize I'm not on 19 )...as well as being the "hands free device" to avoid looking like I was on the phone even when I was. It was a good concept, with poor execution in my opinion. Again, a TRUE noise canceling mic (like an Astatic) with the button to answer/hang up on the radio (instead of on the mic where it is easy to accidentally hit) and it would be a darned good radio and would likely still be in the truck...but when you have to turn the mic gain all of the way down whenever the phone rings and the person on the other end of the phone STILL can't hear what you are saying due to the background noise in the truck...and when you have to turn the mic gain back up so that you can be heard when using it as a CB, it just becomes more hassle than it's worth. It is out of the truck until I can find a good quality noise canceling mic...then I may try it again. Until the aftermarket catches up and puts out a GOOD mic, I wouldn't waste your money on the blue tooth.

And this is a very large part of the world economies problem. Credit is much too easy to acquire, operate, and exist upon. Young and old people alike tend to justify the cost of something by the amount of the monthly payment, rather than the true cost of ownership.

In our area even the fast food restauraunts and grocery stores are now taking plastic! Convienient maybe, but the lions share of the populace does not pay that card off monthly and no regards are given to the "true cost" of the purchase.

I can't speak for everybody but I don't reach into my pocket, pull out a lone five dollar bill, and spend ten!! I'm not a smart man by any means, but that just doesn't add up.

Another problem is the "expectations" of the populace or need. When is the last time you seen a new Mack, Pete, Kenworth, International, etc. where air conditioning, or power steering was an option at additional cost? You probably won't because it would be a hard sell to the manufactures. Even the vehicle corporations have been purchasing up the audio manufacturers and installing their systems for years.

There are deep rooted problems fueled by greed, credit, market share and the like, that need correction applied. The current democratic machine in power seems to enjoy throwing money at the symptoms rather than the cure. Now an out of work individual doesn't need to actively look for employment as his unemployment benefits have been extended yet again; Yet go to most any large retail establishment and attempt to find an employee that knows their ass from a hole in the ground! This type of job is usually "below them", (meaning skilled labor). Take that unearned compensation away, and that job at the retailer just might deserve a second look.

I think there is plenty of work out there. One just needs to be hungry enough to do it.

Rob

Yup. That's my problem with new pick-up trucks, too. They put so many extra bells & whistles on them these days as "standard features" that a person who NEEDS the truck to do actual WORK can't afford it, and even if he COULD afford it, he wouldn't want to use & abuse it like trucks are SUPPOSED to be used & abused because he just spent more than a year's salary to buy the stupid thing.

Just give me a 4x4 truck with a strong pulling motor, stout axles, a manual transmission, and a stiff suspension to handle heavy loads. I don't need the 2000 watt 8 speaker sound system. I don't need leather seats. I don't need power windows, door locks, leather wrapped steering wheel, air conditioning, carpet on the floors, anti-lock brakes, air bags, shoulder straps on the seat belts, GPS, back-up sensors, turn signals in the mirrors, tail gate steps, or any of the other stupid crap that makes the truck "feel" more like a car. If you want a car, buy a friggin car! If you are going to buy a truck, it ought to RIDE like a truck. You ought to be able to get in and drive it with your muddy boots still on your feet, and hose the damn thing out when you get back to the house. You ought to be able to wrap a chain around that stubborn stump, put it in low gear, and give a tug or two without tearing the back bumper off or setting off the air bags. You ought to be able to take it down through the ditch and between some trees to get where you need to work without worrying about scratching your $50,000 ride.

Stupid question Rowdy...does that General Lee have a weatherband on it??...The only reason I ask is because when I shop online, the other radios all make a point of saying the weatherband is a feature, the General Lee says "6 band positions". So I'm unsure if that is a feature that comes with it. Thanks in advance..

Nope. Don't need no stinkin' weather band sitting in a truck. Want to know if it's raining/snowing/sunny/windy/etc...? Look out the windshield. Want to know what the temperature is like? Roll down the window.

You get A,B,C,D,E, and F. D is the CB channels. You also have AM and FM. You have enough channels to find one nobody else is on if you are running with someone who has a similar radio. I'm pretty sure the General Lee is similar to the Connex...not sure which model...I'm thinking the 3300.

Only thing I wish it had was a freq. meter like my Galaxy 959. You can buy 'em to plug in separate, though.

I pulled a dump bucket for a while and was always afraid of tipping over, especially with a load of lime. It was bad about sticking and wouldn't come out until the body was all the way up. Sometimes, especially if it was a little wet, it wouldn't come out at all and you had to lower the body and get in and run a shovel a bit to loosen it up then try it again. Plus you had to take it directly to a field sometimes and it was hard to find a level spot to dump it.

Larry Wales, a friend who used to live in Massachusets, said he was hauling to Logan Airport in Boston and they used to back up and dump side by side and he'd seen one tip over and hit the next one and they'd turn over like dominoes. He said there are dump trailers under the runway they were building to this day that they just cut the tractor loose from and left there.

I won't dump next to someone...and if they back in next to me and start raising that bucket, I'll kick their a$$. Sorry, but the 2 seconds you are trying to save by dumping before I'm done ain't worth my dying over if you lay it over on top of me. It doesn't take THAT long to dump off...either wait, or find someplace else to dump. Luckily, around here most guys have sense enough not to do the side-by-side thing.

Me too. I love the old stuff-trucks used to have character. Now they all look alike, like cars. I can't identify most cars anymore until I see the name. You used to be able to tell at a glance what a '65 Impala was, or a Fairlane, or Roadrunner, or Chevette...I remember a guy from high school who was bragging that his parents were gonna get him a 'vette- and they did. A Chevette though, not a Corvette.

Maybe he should have been more specific when he was askin' his parents for the car

I do have a Nextel 2 way as well..but some of the guys that show up on a seasonal route...may not be showing up the next day, plus my Nextel is via Blackberry..which is almost ridiculous with the buttons and fussing. Its nice...but during leaves, Im in and out of the truck, getting dirty..I almost dont want to mess up the blackberry.

The CB is good because its in the truck, not the workers hands...which means its stayin in the truck!! (you get some interesting people on leaf route here in NJ)

I also used to go off road in my Jeep and before that had a K5 Blazer for mud. I had a G.E. in there that was pretty good, but lost the antenna constantly, even when it was screwed to my mirror it got snapped off. CB Radio was really good in that situation as well.

Get a steel whip antenna, not those junk fiberglass ones. I've used the Wilson 2000 in the past and got great use out of it...I just can't see paying $60-$70 for an antenna when I can buy a 102" whip for $15-$20 that works just as well. The nice thing about steel whips is that they can take serious abuse. My 102" whip mounted on my lower mirror bracket reached 15'6" when I first put it on. I've been under 13'7" bridges at 60 mph...and even a 12'6" bridge at 45 mph. Yeah, smacks the snot out of the bridge and keeps on working. After a while, the end starts to curl around and you can either straighten it back out or just leave it. Still works either way.

...and I just looked at the box for my Cobra 29 BT and it says "Made in China".

You ain't likely gonna find a CB radio made in the USA. If you do, let me know.

I got to watch a Beelman driver lay a trailer on it's side once. Painful to watch as it went over so slow. He told me, and I quote " you ain't a dump bucket driver till you put one over, doing what we do, you will put one over." I was surprised to see how little damage was done to the trailer. The yard up here is in Hammond In.(Chicago) and the equipment is tough looking. Brad

That guy is an idiot...and I'm sure he'll put it on its side again...and again...and again...until he learns how NOT to lay them over. Yeah, $#!t happens sometimes, but to cop that attitude that you HAVE to lay 'em over in order to be a REAL dump truck driver is akin to saying you HAVE to crash to be a REAL truck driver. Doesn't make much sense, does it? The goal is to deliver your freight and NOT tear up your equipment and NOT damage anything at your customer's places and NOT wreck anything else along the way. There is not much you can do in the event of a mechanical failure when you have the bucket in the air. Operator error is another thing...not finding a level enough or solid enough spot to dump in, for example, or not making sure the load is evenly loaded...not piled up on one side of the trailer.

...don't judge the company by the idiots you find up there.

Wow...barely a year old and nowhere near broken in for less than half price of new? I still don't understand why people buy new. I would never but I guess some people have to.

I would LOVE to spec a truck and have it built at the factory for me...get EXACTLY the truck I want & need and have a warranty to back it up instead of trying to find something "close enough" and hoping it was taken care of by the previous owner(s). The only way I'd ever actually BUY new is if I had enough saved up to pay a large majority (if not all) of it in cash...wouldn't want payments any higher than the ones I'm currently making. I just have no interest in OWNING a truck newer than 2002. I don't want EGR. I don't want DPF. I don't want SCR. I don't want ANYTHING those know-nothing bureaucrats in DC are mandating on these trucks for the sake of solving a non-existent (but politically driven) "problem".

So, since the government has pretty much taken me out of the new truck buyers market, I've got my "close enough" truck that will be modified and upgraded as time and money allow until it has the specs of the truck I would buy if I were to spec a new one.

I would LOVE to see how some of these old trucks and trailers would compare in a wind tunnel test against some of the newer trucks. The B model trucks with their sloped windshields and rounded edges I'm sure would do better than my CH...and the rounded nose on the trailer is making a comeback. Vantage has that as an option on some of their end dumps.

Beelman runs all over the place Gambi, my dad use to drive for them back in 00-03 when they had their Mack's before they switch to Pete and Freightliners. They also got a terminal in Indianapolis, Indiana and St.Genevieve, Missouri. I know when my dad pulled tanks for them he ran all over to Michigan City, IN; Ferdonia, KY; Missouri, Alabama, Ohio. I think the tank division is their only over the road division. I see some dumps with sleepers but I think that is mainly local stuff. Rowdy will be able to correct me on that.

They've got a terminal in Springfield, too...and working on building another one in Marion....and I think they even have one up in the Chicago area (but in Indiana). They go all over the place...both dumps and tanks. If they have a load going somewhere, they'll send a truck. They only have a handful of each of the other trailer types...I think the RGN's are mostly just used to move their own stuff around...whether it's their own loaders or moving stuff for one of the affiliated readymix company....or possibly to retrieve a wrecked truck or trailer...

I'm partial to the General Lee. I've got a couple of 'em and use Astatic noise canceling mics. I run 'em through 102" steel whips, too. In the F250, the whip is mounted on the tool box at the front of the bed. On the Mack, it is mounted on the lower mirror bracket. I used plastic zip ties to hold a pair of plastic insulators in the stock CB mounting hole and have the antenna passing through it to help hold it upright (instead of being free to blow in the wind). When I first put it on, I measured it at 15' 6"...but it's probably a little lower now. Being that high, it gets into EVERYTHING! Bridges, tree limbs, telephone wires, stop lights, etc...if it goes over the road, I've probably tagged it with my antenna at some point....so the tip is a little bent

In my Ranger, I've just got a Cobra 29...never really liked this particular radio because it's got that "nightwatch" lighted display. At night, it's great...easy to see what everything does...but during the day you have to turn the backlight way down or you can't see what anything does...and when you do that, you can't see what channel you are on. I also tried one of the Cobra 29's with the bluetooth, but it's sitting here at the house until someone (hopefully Astatic) comes out with a noise-canceling mic for it. The thing is like a dadgum speaker phone....picks up ALL background noise (including the person you are talking to...) so you have to turn the mic gain way down to talk on the phone with it...but then when you hang up and go back to using it as a CB, you have to turn the mic gain back up or people can't hear you too well. When I was talking to people who use a headset, they seemed to have more troubles hearing me than the people who held their phones to their ear...not sure if there's anything to that or not, just an observation. The OTHER problem I had with it is the stupid button on the mic to answer/hang up the phone...VERY easy to "accidentally" bump and hang up mid sentence. Would have been MUCH better if the button was on the CB itself (instead of on the mic) and if the phone was muted until you keyed up so that the background noise wouldn't be a problem for people on the other end. A true noise canceling mic wouldn't hurt, either.

I've also got a Galaxy 959 out in the garage somewhere...worked good for me for several years. Still works, I just prefer the General Lee.

brilliant

I like that setup very clean looking as well.also looks very funtional, and easy to change out. things I like to do with my Equipment.

I hate having things in my cab, things that will become deadly when in a crash or worse Rollover.. its amazing at what kinda damage things can do even small things inside your cab... I try to keep what Im driving as clan and clutter free as possible inside, even a thermos bottle can do serious damage inside a cab. things ya never really think about till it happens. Or you see what they have done.

Arctic

Best part was, no new holes in the truck! The 5th wheel is mounted far enough back that there was 1 set of holes remaining on the frame bracket the 5th wheel is bolted down to that I was able to use. If I had to drill the frame, it probably wouldn't have been put on there.

Trust me, there's STILL more than enough potential projectiles in the truck...but nothing near as bad as the pin. Most of the time, I'd have a duffle bag on top of the pin with my clothes in it if I was going on an overnight trip...the duffle bag wedged between the jump seat and the door. The dog's food & water bowls are on the floor in front of the jump seat along with a 1 gallon insulated jug with ice water. Then there's the dog...not to mention the hardhat and other stuff hanging on the gunrack in the back window...

...got a lot of stuff in this here daycab I TRY to keep most of it stowed where it ain't in my way...but there's only so much a person can do

I pull just about any trailer they need me to pull. I'm the only truck they've got that can drop & hook and run any of their trailers, and lately they seem to be taking advantage of that fact to "fill in" where they are short on trucks. Ordinarily, I pull a frameless end dump, so my 5th wheel has a pin blocking it...but when I hook to a framed trailer, the pin ends up on the floor of the cab between the jump seat and the passenger side door...something I've never really been too fond of doing.

I needed to figure out how to stow it securely OUTSIDE the truck.

Finally got around to it this weekend.

* Two 1-1/2" close nipples

* One 4' long 1/8" x 2" angle iron, trimmed down to 38-7/8"

* Two short (maybe 4") pieces of 3/8" x 2" angle iron out of the scrap barrel

* Two 5/8" grade 8 bolts, 2" long, with washers, lock washers, & nuts

Played with the welder a bit...a couple coats of paint...and this is what I ended up with

Works great, too

tanks...

dumps...

and now vans...

That 53 footer REALLY made my truck look small

They pre-loaded this HUGE trailer for me to hook to...sent me ALLLLLLLLL the way to Columbus, IN with it...and when I opened the doors, I almost busted a gut laughing. They had 6 tiny little pallets tucked away in the nose of the trailer. 4.5 tons.I could have rented a friggin' U-Haul trailer and pulled this load behind my F250

This company also has flats, liquid tanks, and RGN's....haven't had the opportunity to pull any of them....yet....

My truck just got heavier today

I FINALLY got around to fabricating a little bracket thingamabob to hold the pin for my 5th wheel when I hook to a framed trailer. ...up 'til now, it rode on the floor between the jump seat and the door.

I'm sure there's better info out there on the internet but here's the basic idea behind a power divider. The front differential has a set of spider gears directly behind the front yoke. This is what is called the inter axle differential or power divider. What it does is divide up the power to the front and rear axles. If both axles are on flat ground and there's no slippage both axles will get the same amount of power but if one axle is going over a hump or is slipping the inter axle differential will allow the axles to turn at different speeds. This setup allows everything to move smoothly without binding. The only problem is, the inter axle differential always likes to feed power to the axle that's easiest to spin. So if for example you were to put a jack under the rear axle and raise the tires off the ground the inter axle differential would put almost no power to the front axle and the back tires would spin in mid air but the truck wouldn't move. In fact all you really have to do is raise ONE rear tire because there is also a differential that divides the power between the left and right axle.

The "power divider" or inter axle differential divides the power between the front and rear axle equally but as the example shows when you have one axle with zero traction it will apply zero power to the other axle too.

When you flip the switch and lock the power divider a gear slides up and locks the driveline up so you send full power to both axles. Now, if you were to jack up the rear axle the front axle would get power and the truck would just drive right off the jack.

There's really no harm in locking up the power divider at any speed as long as all the wheels are turning the same speed but if you're spinning up an icy hill and either the front or rear axle is spinning faster the gear will grind and damage may result. The best bet in that situation is to let off on the throttle a bit so the wheels aren't spinning while you lock up the power divider.

Some trucks also have locking differentials that lock the left and right axles together. The same rules apply there except that locked axles will cause more binding when going around corners. This binding on turns will make the truck tend to want to go straight ahead. This can be a problem in icy conditions if for example you are trying to make a tight turn. The truck will start to turn well enough but as the binding increases the steering axle can sometimes break free and start to plow a bit. So you have to be careful and give yourself a little more room.

Using the regular power divider and most especially the locking axles will always cause a certain amount of binding on anything but straight roads so you try to only use them when necessary.

Jim

Most of the trucks I've driven that have had locking differentials, those diffs were locked with the same switch as the power divider....so you were either ALL locked in, or you were open all of the way around....all or nothing. The last company truck I was in before buying my Mack had the axle differentials on a separate switch from the power divider so that they could be locked in independent of the other. In other words, if I needed extra traction but still wanted to be able to turn, I could flip one switch and lock the power divider leaving the center differentials open to allow easy turns. If I needed forward bite, I could flip both switches and be locked in on both sides of both axles. I never encountered a situation where I'd want the center differentials locked without also engaging the power divider, but I suppose that was an option, too. I'm surprised that having the locks on 2 separate switches isn't more common...

That is exactly how I dress jeans around my waist with a trucking hat and work boots. I can't stand when people sag their pants! The white kids get mad at me cause I diss their favorite rapper cause they are talentless. I'm too a point to where I hate rap because of these wannabes as they dictate the market and the market as far as pop music goes is garbage these days!

I always wondered about that....

They sag their pants, trying to be "gangsta" while they are out committing crimes...

...and wonder why they get caught.

You ever try running with your pants around your knees? I'd imagine it'd be kinda hard to run when you have to hold your pants up with one or both hands...and even harder to jump fences, etc.

Even a fat, out-of-shape cop has no problems catching a person who's tripping over their own britches