RowdyRebel

damn...broke up a month before the wedding? Hopefully you hadn't spent too much non-refundable money on the shindig that ain't gonna happen. Hopefully it wasn't anything like this... My fiance is SUPPOSED to be moving up here...just as soon as she gets her job transferred up here....which she hasn't been very pro-active about pursuing. She finished school in June...and I've been waiting ever since. She wants a spring wedding, and I've teased her that she probably won't even be up here by then ...of course I thought it was funnier than SHE did I give her a hard time...lets her know I care Good luck on the whole college thing...probably better these days than the trucking thing anyway. Between the crappy rates and the increased police presence (gotta make up for the $11 billion deficit somehow)...just ain't as much fun out here these days.

Sometimes I'm lucky if I only have to cut it twice.... ....as long as I ain't gotta weld it back together before I can cut it again, I'm fine

Mighta been embarrassin' if'n ya put the stacks on in the shed and bent 'em when ya pulled out

...must be nice having that kind of money to buy something like that, use it for a day, then box it up and store it in the garage until you get sick of looking at it or find someone else who has a use for it I'd shorten 'em if I was you....'fore ya fergit and knock them things off. FWIW, I was cutting across a blacktop road taking a shortcut to my next pickup the other day...running down a 20 ton weight limit road (I'm 15 tons empty ) and came upon a 12' underpass beneath a railroad. I'm 10' now on the truck, and the trailer I can see out the rear window...made it with room to spare (measured the trailer when I got home @ 10'11"...good info to have). If I still had my longer stacks, it would have been REAL tight, and I wouldn't have been able to watch them as I went under...could have been ugly.

sure, why not? I second.

I'm tempted to start using that e-mail address and phone number whenever I take an online survey for a spam site

...almost forgot... since the passenger door only opened half way before the mirror bracket would hit the air cleaner, and because there was no heat shield on the exhaust, I also burned the heck out of my arm while climbing into the wrecker. Didn't look that bad yesterday, so I didn't think enough about it to snap a pic....but today

Funny thing is, these guys do more with this old, reliable wrecker than the guys at O'Hare Towing ("wrecked" on TV) do with their fancy 60-ton rotator. I'll take an old, reliable rig in competent hands over the newest, flashiest rig around lacking a competent operator. The guy driving the wrecker was new to towing, though...been a mechanic for a few years at Mack, but only got his CDL a few months ago. He was still learning...did everything right (besides not having all of the tools he'd need...borrowed a large pair of channel locks to disconnect the drive line at the slip joint) but he knew I'd have 'em when he recognized the name of the guy he was coming to get so I guess I'll give him a pass on that one ), and he was open to any advice I offered him (I used to drive wreckers myself) as far as hooking up. He knew how to hook to the truck...but running the air was what he had the questions about. What we did, we ran the blue line from his truck to my trailer, and the red line from his truck to a quick connect on my air tank so that my truck could supply the air to keep the truck & trailer's brakes released and suspensions aired up. Of course, they use lincoln-type air fittings in that shop...which I found out when I helped work on my truck there a few months ago...so I had a lincoln-type male quick connect fitted to a female universal to match the I/M that I use on my own tools, air lines, and truck. I also have a valve fitted with two male I/M fittings so that I can air up my truck tank from any supply line on a service truck or at a shop. Made hooking to my air tank quick and painless for sure. He did good, though...didn't even hit a curb as he made his way back to the shop When backing in to drop the trailer, he took his time to figure out how to back up the combination...careful the whole time not to tear anything up. He'll be a good operator as long as he keeps learning and never takes anything for granted...I've seen guys get lazy and start skipping stuff that they really SHOULD be doing....like chaining the front axle to the forks!

What else can you do? Anyway, I'm fixin' ta hook my Ranger up behind the loaner pickup to take their truck back to 'em in case someone else needs it and talk with 'em about the work to be done...I had HOPED to be there at 8 this morning when they opened, but after the way yesterday went...I just didn't want to get out of bed this morning. At least now, if another tire on their truck lets go, there will be someone at the Mack dealer to come out and help...I'm all outta spare tires on their truck

So they are working the bridge, so traffic is down to one lane...got a red light controlling the flow. It changed on me before I could get to the light, so I had to stop and wait for it to change again. When it did, I started easing out the clutch...but it didn't feel right, so I pushed the clutch back in and all heck broke loose...literally That's the clutch brake and pieces of the throwout bearing. Looks like the clutch is going to need to be replaced...so I called Mack to send a wrecker out to get me. When he lifted the front end of MY truck, the front end of HIS got reeeeeal light. I was loaded a little heavy, I guess Ready to roll...soon as the light changes! We got me dumped off, then towed it back up to the Mack dealer to get it fixed tomorrow...they loaned me a pickup to get me home tonight, but my troubles weren't over yet Danged lug nuts were on there so tight, I twisted the tire tool trying to get 'em off! Needless to say, I'm GLAD today is FINALLY over!

Not sure what you mean. What kind of truck? My CH, there is no hollow part facing front OR rear...looks like this: (here's a cross section view....it broke) The hollow section faces downward like this: Do you have any pics to help explain?

I'll be servicing it this weekend and I'll check. I had "low" jakes in the "high" switch position again...and nothing in the "low" switch position. You really don't realize how much ya use 'em 'til ya ain't got 'em no more

I got a welder. As long as it's steel, I can patch it. Heck, my welder is a wire-feed one, so if I were to buy the shielding gas and play with it for a while to figure out what I was doing, I could do aluminum repairs too. Plastic can be epoxy'd...fiberglass can be patched....it's them danged electronics that break me

Go figure...they say they didn't do anything but check stuff and it all seemed to work so they had nothing in it but time. They didn't charge me for that. I had 'em pull the charge air cooler and I took it to a repair shop...and while that was out, they welded the lower radiator mounting brackets (one was broke, the other missing) so that the radiator would be held securely. The repair place was supposed to call me for a credit card number for payment, and deliver it back to the Mack dealer (where the truck was) for me...but they billed the Mack dealer directly so of course they had to mark it up or the office would get pi$$ed. I never ask anyone to put their job in jeopardy to do me a favor. So, they marked it up a little and didn't charge any labor for anything they did. Total cost was around $350...I'd have to look at the receipt again for the exact amount. ...and to top it all off, the Jake IS working now. It is slow to activate until it's been run a few times...but then it works like it's supposed to until I shut the truck off again. Then it's slow activating the first time or two again before it works fine. Still not sure what was wrong...but I'm not going to complain.

Supposedly, they had the valve covers off and looked at everything in there...but I'll ask when I go back to pick it up. I ran the charge air cooler down to a place in Mayfield, KY to get repaired...2 bolts missing and another one broke...didn't take long for it to start leaking. They are also welding up the lower radiator bracket too...broken on one side and missing on the other...saves me some fabrication work next weekend. They ought to have the charge air cooler back today...need to call on that anyway, since they close in 2 hours and the place that was doing the repair was supposed to call me to get a credit card number instead of billing the Mack dealer...even though they were delivering it there. I swear, if it ain't one thing it's another...

'01 CH613 with an E7-460 and barely over 360K on the odometer. Jakes quit working last week...but not all at once. First, the high started acting like low and nothing would happen on low. Then a couple days later, it wouldn't even do that...nothing in either switch position. Had it in to the Mack dealer and they said the oil lines are clear and not plugged up, and the solenoids are getting power and seem to be working. They are claiming that every individual part of the system is working as it is supposed to, but that the system as a whole does not. That just doesn't sound right to me. One mechanic said that it might be due to low oil pressure...but I haven't noticed my truck's oil pressure being any lower than it's ever been when it WAS working. They say there's an update kit available...new oil lines or something like that...but that it's $2000 and just not worth the money. If it was a stronger jake, like the 3-stage that was on the 475 CAT I drove a few years ago (would hold 80,000 at 35 mph heading down Monteagle without ever needing to touch the brakes) it might be a different story...but for what it was, it just isn't worth dumping that kind of money into it. I'm stumped. I don't mind when things I never use don't work (i.e. the air conditioner hasn't worked for as long as I've owned it)...but for something that I use regularly, it just bugs me when it doesn't function properly....especially when there doesn't seem to be any real reason why it doesn't work.

I took about 2 feet off of these. I had been up around 12' for a clearance height. Now I'm a hair under 10'.

I used the old muffler clamp as a patch. Wasn't too tough welding around the bottom edge where the steel was still good, but the top where the muffler was rusty and the metal was thin...and the fact that all I had was a .35 gauge flux core wire...wasn't nearly as easy. Had to set it on a real slow wire feed rate to basically rapidly spot weld to build up material without burning holes through it...then once I had enough built up, I could run a decent bead on it. I really needed the shielding gas and a .24 gauge wire...would have made the job MUCH easier. I've wanted to shorten the stacks since I bought the truck...always liked the low-profile look...especially on a work truck. The passenger side was dinged at the top when I bought it, and I made short work of making the driver's side match at a shipper...danged catwalk wasn't quite over far enough... Anyway, tried doing the job last fall, but couldn't get the stupid stacks out of the top of the muffler. This time, I just cut 'em off even with the top, then used a chisel and a BFH to get that last few inches removed. While they were off, I straightened out the dings, then I marked 'em and cut 'em to the size I wanted. FWIW, the Mack dealer quoted me a price of around $150 just for one muffler. I don't even want to know what they'd want for the stacks. The one thing I find confusing, though, is that the passenger side exhaust (muffler, heat shield, etc.) seems to be mounted 1" higher than the left side Found that out when I was measuring to make sure both sides were the same. I ended up mounting the stacks relative to the mufflers they are inserted into, rather than to the ground in case there was just a low spot in the driveway that I was measuring to. I need to double check one of these days on a concrete pad...seems odd they would mount one side higher than the other...

in my grandfather's basement. He drove a 10-wheeler dump bucket for 27 years...ALWAYS in a They thought I should have them....now I just gotta figure out where I'm gonna put 'em

...wonder if it's got a title

here's a couple more....first is the fiance...other is grandma again

Work trucks is s'posed ta be huge! My grandma does a real good job showin' how big my really is

You won't get 25 yards of either in less than a 39' dump trailer. Topsoil at 2000 pounds per yard is 50,000 pounds for 25 yards. That puts me right at the 80,000 pounds weight limit in my '01 CH with a 39' dump. A shorter trailer would require more axles to meet federal bridge law requirements. I also just hauled a load of mulch out of Alabama on Friday...loaded nose to tail, side to side, floor to tarp, I was only able to get a hair over 12 tons in the trailer...which at 900 pounds per yard would figure to be a little more than 26.5 yards. Dump trailers are not wise to spread with...unstable and likely to tip over if you try it. Hate to say it, but you're going to have to compromise on something...

took the work right outta that truck If I wanted to look at a low-riding highway cruiser that was useless when it came to doing real work, I'd browse pics of Petercars. There oughtta be a law against doin' that to a