RowdyRebel

$5.83/gal?!?!?!?!?😱😱😱 Walmart has their store brand here for around 3-1/2 bucks for the good stuff (whole). The name-brand stuff is up there, but it all tastes the same. Sounds like you're a gallon-per-day house like we are. Sucks about the chickens...I've been wanting to get some, but my wife is opposed. Coyotes are a problem around here. One morning, back when Ol' Dozer was still around & riding shotgun with me every day, I was out pretripping my truck. Ordinarily, he'd be off doing his business during this time, but that morning he was laying quietly between me and the ditch, staring intently into the darkness. When I noticed, I shined my light over there & saw a coyote stalking us. Called the sheriff once we were rolling to see what options the law says are available to me in that sort of situation & was told "just shoot it". OK...good to know. About a year later, I was out checking the propane tank and got an eirie feeling like I was being watched. Turned around & saw one about 15-20 yards behind me creeping up on me. Pulled out my Governor & sent a load of 000 its way. Every once in a while, we can hear them off in the distance. Chickens in the yard would bring 'em closer for sure.

12 hours ago, Miami Cossack said:

When they tell you that you cannot ask questions about suspicious events at election places, that tells you all you need to know. Just wait til they take away the guns (try to take them away). Looks like the plan is to do it in little tiny changes to the law so people wont notice until they fall into some "prohibited class"

Illinois is doing this. Less than 2% compliance so far with the registration requirements on so-called "assault weapon" parts & pieces. I don't even own an AR and have been considering purchasing a 30rd mag just because they're "banned". Crook County (Chicago) dems don't have a clue how little respect the other 99% of the counties have for their laws. Hell, even before concealed carry was legal our sheriff's view was "just don't get caught by the state boys". As long as you aren't causing trouble, they don't care what you do.

Grandpa was in the Army during WW2, serving in Europe & N. Africa. The only stories he ever told were from his time with an anti-aircraft outfit, when he'd disgustingly say they'd hear the enemy planes, know where they were heading, but by the time word of the planes went up the chain of command and the permission to fire came back down, the planes were out of range. He didn't care much for bureacracy.

When he passed away, Grandma finally got his DD214 through the VFW. Come to find out, he was with anti-aircraft for about a minute before volunteering for a bridge carpentry unit because he knew how to swim...which makes some of the other stories we heard about what was in the letters he had sent to grandma...anti-aircraft likely wouldn't have been as mobile as the letters seemed to imply. She was always upset about how he'd use both sides of the page to write to her, and the gov't sensors would cut out any info they deemed "sensitive", meaning it wasn't just the sensitive content being removed, but also whatever was written on the opposite side.

Anyway, come to find out he had earned 4 bronze stars, but due to the fire at the NPRC in 1973, we'll probably never know what he did to earn them. We respected his wishes, though, and he was not buried with "full military honors"...no flag draping his coffin, no 21 gun salute, no taps...he said those honors belong to the men who didn't make it home, and he didn't want to diminish the meaning of those same honors by accepting them when he didn't pay that same price.

If your kids playground has more christmas lights than your house...🤦‍♂️

On 11/15/2023 at 8:34 AM, doubleclutchinweasel said:

Here in NC, we have class A, B, & C licenses...in both commercial and "civilian" forms.  Sounds similar in SC.

Yup. Same here in Illinois, even though few know about it. Law says you have to be licensed for the class vehicle you're driving. A farmer does not need a CDL to drive his own semi truck hauling his own grain from his own farm to the local elevator. However, he DOES need a class A license.

When my wife moved up from Texas, I told her "Before you leave the DMV, make absolute certain your license is still a class C." Texas doesn't have class D (under 16k) which is what pretty much everyone gets here in Illinois. Problem is, my F250 has 8k tags, and our gooseneck has 10k tags...so that combination is 18k. If she got stopped, she'd be driving out of class if she only had a class D license. Her Texas class C was good up to 26k...and that's what she needed to keep. For once, Illinois didn't screw up. She's still got her class C license.

Bottom line, here you need to be licensed for the vehicle you're driving. If you're not engaged in commercial activities, it doesn't have to be a CDL. There are exceptions for rental vehicles (u-haul, etc...) and RV's. Fire trucks get an exemption, too, because they figure you've been trained how to drive it by the department. School busses require an additional endorsement beyond the "P" ...and that requires a background check fingerprinting, and an annual classroom session that's only available if you're actively working as (or training to be) a school bus driver. And if you've already got the "P" and are just going for the "SB", you need to pass another road test.

Absolutely crazy how many ways there are for them to play "gotcha" when it comes to driving various types of vehicles on the road...and to make it worse, every state is different.

5 hours ago, mechohaulic said:

another advantage of the senior yrs (i guess) and retired. never had the brain power to run two logs(paper days), using a day cab and having the NJ run; would run 12=14 hrs straight through with the goal of getting through NY before traffic. had to show a motel layer over since I didn't want long wheel base sleeper. never stayed in a motel once except on paper. got the unit home on a friday 1=2 am ; spend Saturday redoing the book. had to take another book open staples to add more charts once. oh the fun times.

One of my favorites, I stopped off at the Houston yard to drop a load & grab an empty before booking it on down to Laredo. Got back to Houston where my truck took a break while I scrapped the trip to Laredo & continued on my way home. The truck caught back up to me the next day, and I made sure the logs matched what the company needed to see before sending them in. I only ever kept 1 book, and made sure whenever I was driving, it showed me legal. Slipped up one time, and wouldn't you know, that's the time I got busted. Hotel where I'd usually stay was booked up, so I slept under a tree in a field. Woke up, played with ol' Dozer for a bit, and was getting bored waiting for that ridiculously long 10 hour break to expire. I left after 8, which was all that was required when I started driving, and was only 5 hours from home. Turns out, I was 15 hours from home. Cop caught me about 30 minutes into the trip. So, I got a motel room and watched TV for 10 hours getting good & tired before rolling home in the evening when I'd be fighting heavy eyes the whole way home because obviously that was a lot safer than just letting me continue on my way home in the morning when I was fresh and alert after having slept all I was going to sleep that day.

I'm so used to going around scales, I was driving down the interstate in the Suburban with the family on board and hit the exit ramp. My wife says "where are you going?"

Yeah, there was a scale ahead. Old habits die hard.🤦‍♂️

See, that's where they get you. They used to sit at the exit before and the exit after and be on the radio with each other. If a truck got off at one & on again at the next too quickly, they'd be harrassed for going around the scale. There was also a fuel stop in between that the smart drivers would pull into, and either grab a bite to eat or top off their fuel...SOMETHING to have receipts showing they stopped for a legitimate reason. The smarter drivers were already off the interstate and stayed off another exit or two. I prefer to run the 2-lanes over the interstate, and so I just don't have to worry about many scales. If I do have to make a longer trip, I plan my route to keep away from any scales. They can't get you for dodging something that just isn't along your route.

6 minutes ago, mechohaulic said:

does anyone even go by axle weight any more.?? now that you brought it up, thinking about it most go by GVW .  haven't seen the portable scale trucks much lately. possibly enough money is made with other paper work being wrong .  yrs back CT was making money with the axle weight gimmick.  

Illinois still uses the portables. Got pulled over & weighed last year on 'em.

You're allowed 34k on a set of tandems, and 20k on a single axle (including the steers IF the tires/rims/springs/axles/shackles/etc are rated for it). Your weight might be limited by your overall length...the bridge between the steer and drives...but that doesn't affect what the individual axles can carry.

For example, the feed truck I drive has a 20k steer & 46k drives on camelbacks. There's a tag axle behind the drives, but it's only far enough back to allow 43k on the drives with it lowered. If there was a little more distance between the front drive and the tag, it'd be 45k. With the allowable axle weights of 20k steer and 43k drives, I can run 63k without getting an overweight axle ticket...but because of the overall bridge between the steer and tag, I'm only allowed 61.5k before I'm over on gross weight.

If you're a T/T, there's a nice little exception that allows 34/34 on the drives & trailer tandems for an 80k gross weight despite being a little short...allowing for 39 & 40 foot trailers to gross 80k. What a lot of folks don't realize is that those same 40' trailers that have a spread axle can only legally gross 78k because they don't have a pair of tandem axles as required for the exception. They have 1 tandem on the truck, and a pair of single axles on the trailer...so while they can legally put 40k on the trailer axles instead of the 34k allowed with a tandem, that means their drives are limited because they only have the distance to haul 66k on those 4 axles (drives & trailer) instead of 68k through the use of the exception.

The feds have a nice little chart, and a pretty thorough explanation:

https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/publications/brdg_frm_wghts/

Yes, my wife has a sister...but I hope to GOD she ain't your wife. She's married to a real dumbass. His name even sounds a lot like dumbass, which is why I only refer to him as "dumbass" instead of using his actual name whenever I have to mention him in a conversation. Funny thing is, it doesn't matter who I'm talking to...if they know him, they know exactly who i'm talking about.

Shit. 2023 has been the year of the heart attack 'round here. Jan 2, my neighbor had chest pains & tried driving himself to town. He was dead before the head-on crash he caused after drifting across the center line. Buddy of mine spent over a month in the hospital in the spring with AFIB...took that long to get his ticker back in rhythm. Another neighbor had chest pains late spring/early summer and got a ride to the ER. 95% blockage. Doc told him if he'd have gone to bed that night trying to tough it out, he wouldn't have woken up. I'm driving out of the retail store filling in because one of their drivers didn't show up for work last Wednesday. After not answering his phone, they sent someone to check on him...found him in his pickup in the driveway like he was leaving for work...but slumped over dead. I'm just ready for this year to end. Too many funerals. Too many close calls.

18 hours ago, mechohaulic said:

todays challenge would be to find someone that ==! knows how to check it:: 2= can figure out how to open the hood ;not the trunk; 3= doesn't say " I wait till the cute little  water  can shows up on the dash. or I hear a funny noise 

Back in high school, a girl in my class had parents with money who bought her a brand new car for her 16th birthday. 15,000 miles later, they were putting a brand new engine into that brand new car because she had no clue how to check the oil, let alone that she needed to. But to do that, she would've had to know how to put the hood up...which she didn't. Some people should just ride the bus.

When I first started trucking, I would occasionally be sent to deliver at GM's OKC facility. They'd have 20-30 trucks scheduled for 7:00 pm. Show up at 7:01 and you were reported to your company for being "late", yet they wouldn't touch a single truck (unless, of course, it had a part they needed...and then you'd better hope it's in the nose because as soon as they find it, they stop unloading you) until shift change. Around 2 or 3:00, they'd get started...and by 7:00 am everyone was unloaded & ready to roll out. One time, I pulled out my guitar, sat on the curb, opened the case, tossed some change in it, and started strumming. Security came by in their little golf cart & sat there listening for a minute or two I looked at 'em and said "Well I ain't making money any other way sitting here waiting on y'all to get to work..."

That was interestinly enough the last time the company sent me there with a load.😂

Well ain't that just a kick in the teeth. Before I left, I was told I could take 3 days paid for the funeral. Now, after taking the time off, I'm told it's only 1 day paid for a grandparent. Oh well...guess my check will be a little shorter than usual this week.🤦‍♂️ Guess I need to install one of these in the old Suburban... https://www.oreillyauto.com/flux-capacitor 😂

Lived to the ripe old age of 101-1/2, and the last few years she's been battling alzheimers, so she didn't know who anyone was anymore most of the time. Needless to say, it was time.

Anyway, I was up in the Chicagoland area for the funeral, and the people there are absolutely the most inconsiderate, disrespectful, and ignorant bunch I've seen in regards to funeral processions. Flashback to November of 2005 when my grandfather passed, I had to stop leaving the church to avoid being hit by a speeding HVAC minivan who blew right through the middle of the procession as we made the left out of the church. Yesterday, it was a gray Mack Vision pulling a 28' end dump that, despite traffic in the right lane being stopped as we made the left into the cemetary, I saw him approaching at a high rate of speed in the left lane & thought it best to wait for the asshole to fly by rather than try to make the left & get T-boned with the wife & kids on board (or I make it & my brother's family in the car behind get hit if they didn't see it and followed me into the cemetary). Even on the short 1/2 mile or so between the church and cemetary, we were in the left lane (because the cemetary was on the left) and traffic was passing us on the right.

Around here, and pretty much everywhere else I've been while touring the country in a truck, folks show a little respect by stopping & letting the funeral procession go on their way. Absolutely ridiculous how everyone up there seems to be in a big hurry to get nowhere. Hell, on the way up there, once we got past I80 we were doing 80 mph with eyes glued to the mirrors trying not to get run over. Even the trucks were cruising right along at 20+ the posted limit. ISP could've filled their annual quotas in a single afternoon if every trooper in the state had been there.

If I ever find myself in Chicago for another funeral, I think I'll rent a car & get the insurance...might not be so inclined to avoid the wreck. Only problem with that is I'd likely end up in jail for beating the fuck out of the stupid SOB that hits me. Guess it's best I just drive my own vehicles and not get 'em tore up.