RowdyRebel

On 3/7/2023 at 3:09 PM, mrsmackpaul said:

 

Spot on, we have no idea how long this may of been since he got stuck, may of been only moments before hand

Article said he was only there for a few seconds before the train triggered the gates...not much time to do anything.

...and depending upon how good this driver's lawyer is, the railroad might just be cutting him a check for the damage to his truck, trailer, and load. I remember reading an article a few years back that explained it...gotta try & find it again. The tracks are not supposed to be more than 3" higher than the road surface 30' away from the crossing...and if they are higher, a sign must be present indicating a danger for low clearance vehicles. If the tracks do not meet this requirement, the railroad is liable.

On 3/8/2023 at 9:34 AM, mechohaulic said:

  possibly driver was trying to race  over the crossing as lights were on and gates were coming down but figured wrong. the lights and crossing bars  are usually working long before a train shows up. study video closely. he's on the track better then half way across , you can see lights are flashing with crossing gates dropping. I've sat at crossing wondering " Were's the train?" . realize under the -I fu---ed up situation , minutes go like seconds.

Standard is the gates are supposed to be fully lowered 20 seconds before a train reaches the crossing. If a lot of high speed trains come through, the gates will be triggered far enough away to ensure the lights flash, gates lower, and that they make it all of the way down at least 20 seconds before the train arrives. If the crossing is set up as a distance trigger based upon the speed limit of the line, a train moving slower will have the gates down longer than the 20 seconds.

Yup. Unfortunately it seems "Idiocracy" is following not far behind "1984" on a journey from fiction to reality.🤦‍♂️

"The 59-year-old pickup driver from North Chicago told investigators the last thing he remembered before the crash was opening a beer."

https://www.kfvs12.com/2023/02/28/deputy-seriously-hurt-crash-with-driver-opening-beer/

And here I am thinking we DIDN'T get enough snow! I mean, I've only had to throw iron on the work truck once this winter, and that was just to back up an icy hill about 40 feet to make my delivery, then I pulled them off again. Tire chains for my open diff "1-wheel-peel" Ford Ranger haven't even been needed at all this year. Hell, haven't even had to lock the hubs on the old Suburban, either.🤷‍♂️

On 2/21/2023 at 6:07 AM, mowerman said:

Well, California Nevada I have had the worst winter for a lot of years so it’s certainly not warming up much  around here furthermore, I don’t know what that coward was doing and Ukraine but then I’m sure he had 4 billion bodyguards around him….  Bob

Hell, I'm planning to ride the Harley to work tomorrow...going to be 70 & sunny here.😎

10 hours ago, 67RModel said:

At least two CCP balloons traversed US airspace during the last presidential administration we were never made widely aware of until now.🙄

This has been refuted by every member of the previous administration who would've been "in the know" ...unless, of course, there were some in the Pentagon who thought it was better to keep the Trump administration in the dark about these foreign incursions, thereby allowing the spying to occur unabated. This sort of action (or willful inaction) is addressed in Article 3 Section 3.

1 hour ago, Hayseed said:

Our Oldest Son recently Bought a New Toyota Hilux 4x4. It's manual...!!

BUT you HAVE to have the Clutch Pedal depressed to Start It.. He's tried to clutch start it down a Hill, But It Won't because of the stupid safety switch on the clutch Pedal..

Gunna Be interesting in a few years Time when the battery starts getting a bit Lazy...

The clutch safety switches used to only disable the starter unless the clutch is depressed...even my '86 Ranger was like that. You're saying it disables the ignition, too? I guess that makes sense given all of the electronics on today's vehicles. Friend of mine had a Nissan Maxima with a manual and it wouldn't crank one day...so his wife let it roll down a hill & let out the clutch. Got it started...and fried the computer. Guess there was a bad ground or something preventing it from cranking, and bump starting it defeated the anti-self-destruct nature of the vehicle's computer.

2 hours ago, Mark T said:

Coming to an intersection close to home a guy was blocking traffic. I noticed it was a guy I know, and something was wrong. Turned out his kid used the Dodge pickup and ran it really low  on gas.... so it was out of gas.  It had that rotating knob  shifter. Without it running there was no getting it out of park to even push it out of the way.  I had never known that, or if there is some way to do it.  All I could think was  " God.... what a dumb set up"

ROTFLMFAO...Dodge...so we got some sleet & ice around here (couple inches of sleet with a good icy crust on top for good measure), and at the farm where I've got my horses boarded there's a pretty good hill up to the barn. My little 2wd Ford Ranger (V6/5-speed) has been making it up there all week...sometimes a couple times a day checking on the horses & resolving any issues that have been coming up this week. Friday night, I was about to go down the hill when I saw a white Dodge Ram getting ready to start up....so I waited. He made it about 1/3 of the way up, stopped, and backed down. So I went down. Turns out, it was my friend's hired hand trying to make it up there to the dumpster. I asked if he needed a ride up.

"I only had it in 2wd. I would've made it if it was in 4wd." He says.

"I've only got 2wd, and I've been making it up there all week."

So he puts it in 4wd and tries again. I wait at the bottom. He gets about half way up & stops...then backs back down again, pulls off to the side, and waves me over. He takes the trash out of his truck, tosses it in mine, and asks for a ride up. So I drove him up the hill. Then I had to listen to him blame the traction control for his failure to get up the hill.🙄

Nope. It's because you don't know how to drive and the truck you're driving sucks.😂

Friend of mine's niece just had an issue with her Ford Focus...started & ran, but couldn't get it out of park. Turn knob computer controlled transmission. Haven't remembered to ask him what the issue ended up being. Had to have a wrecker go get it because there was no linkage to disconnect to manually shift it to neutral to roll it up onto a trailer. Stupid. You couldn't pay me to own a car like that.

On 1/28/2023 at 9:31 PM, mowerman said:

You can even keep it in manual mode and shift up and down manually with a switch 

Even then, though, it can & will override your decision to shift if it doesn't think it's the right decision...sort of like those run-away toyotas a few years ago. Push-button on/off (no key to physically kill the ignition) that wouldn't "allow" the car to be shut off while it was in motion, turn-knob fly-by-wire transmissions that wouldn't "allow" the driver to select neutral under WOT conditions, and a fly-by-wire throttle that was stuck wide open. My desire for a vehicle to override my decisions on when/where/how to shift is lower than my desire to have a vehicle shifting for me...and that was already lower than the wind chill on Mt Washington the other night.

2 hours ago, tjc transport said:

i have not adjusted brakes in about 13 years now. 

the boss goes over the trucks every night when they get parked. 

the T880's have self adjusting brakes. the 2016 had 125,000 miles on it when sold, the 2020 had 75,000. the tandem had 8,200, and the newest triaxle has 4600 on it. 

none of them have ever had brake adjustments...... mainly because we use engine brake and not foot brakes. 

Every truck & trailer built since '94 (I think...I'd have to look) has been required to have the auto-adjusting slacks. If you have to adjust them between brake services, there is a problem that needs to be corrected. DOT will ding you twice for any out-of-adjustment brakes these days...once for being out-of-adjustment, and once for a malfunctioning auto-slack.

4 hours ago, Joey Mack said:

Bob. it not 9/16" anymore, and it was 7/16",  but now it's disc brakes,  and I think it's 10mm...  or maybe it's just........   " I don't Know Why It Wont Stop Good"    jojo

Meh. Whuddaya need brakes fer? Alls they do is slow ya down!😜

4 hours ago, mowerman said:

Ha ha I can appreciate that although I didn’t think I was going to like the automatic …. Now I think it’s the best thing since sliced bread but I did shift trucks for around 44 years. Bob

I have yet to find an automatic that shifts the truck when/where/how I want it to shift...and it ends up aggrevating me more than it's worth. Either it shifts when I don't want/need it to, holds a gear when I want/need it to shift, or it selects the wrong gear & wastes time searching for the correct gear. The newer ones I've driven are too slow getting going, holding onto the lower gears far longer than necessary & revving the engine much higher than I prefer to run it...then they have to wait for the revs to drop before sliding into the next gear. Progressive shifting I can run a manual up through 4 or 5 gears before the automatic has completed it's 1st shift. The older 3-pedal ones I had the displeasure of driving for a couple months 2 years into my driving career (why I left the company I started with) would downshift until the point where it'd need the low range...then float in neutral until you gave it some throttle. Never seemed safe/legal to me, as you were coasting & not in gear. If you were trying to time traffic to make a left w/o stopping, when you'd get on the throttle to go it wouldn't...until it decided you should be in 2nd gear (I would've had it in 4th). Engine would rev to damn near redline, it would realize it screwed up & pull itself back out of gear to wait for the RPMs to drop before hitting 4th. Meanwhile, you're looking out that passenger side window eyeballing oncoming traffic hoping this thing gets its act together & finds a gear soon because you've still got 53' of trailer to pull across the lanes before that traffic gets to you. No thanks. I'll keep driving vehicles that are in the gear I need them to be in when I need them to be. If i can't, it'll be time to hang up the keys & do something else.

4 hours ago, mowerman said:

Like, why would I carry a 9/16 wrench? Oh I don’t know the scale might be able to tell you ha ha.

9/16" won't do you much good these days, unless you're pulling an older trailer that's still got manual slacks. Better off these days with a 7/16" socket on a ratchet or a 3/8" box wrench & either a claw hammer or flat screwdriver to pull out on the pawl...but then you'd better know what you're doing or you'll end up like that blonde chick on Ice Road Truckers who decided to adjust her brakes on the side of the road, tightened 'em down, and couldn't figure out how to back them off again...😂

On 1/26/2023 at 6:01 PM, The Rubber Duck 006 said:

Wanna Really Cripple our Nation more than it already is?? Bring back stick shift vehicles and cursive writing ✍️ lol 😆 🤣 😄 😂 😅 

You can have my stick shift when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.😎

Been slow up at the feed mill, so I've been helping out driving deliveries for the retail store. Folks at the store want to keep me there full time. Told 'em it'd be a cold day in hell before I went to work full time & had to drive automatic trucks all day every day. Feed trucks still have manual transmissions. Boss had me spec a new straight truck for him & corporate & the salesman tried talking him out of many of my specs. When he told me the changes they wanted, I explained why I spec'd what I spec'd, and why THEIR preferences wouldn't work. Allegedly, my boss stuck with my specs. We'll find out later this year. Truck's scheduled to be built in March.

On 1/26/2023 at 5:49 PM, other dog said:

😡 I'd still like to know why they needed a pre-dawn raid at President Trump's house, joe biden does the exact same thing- and it's no big deal 😡 

What's worse, is that Trump (as president) had the Constitutional power as top executive to declassify anything & everything he so desired, for whatever reason he wanted, at any time, with no formal process, no requirement to "notify" his underlings, and no requirement to remove markings indicating their former state of classification. It would be a prosecutor's job to prove he did not declassify those documents (impossible to do), NOT his job to prove he had.

Biden, neither as VP (or worse) Senator, had that power. Any & all classified docs he removed from secure facilities is a criminal act. Same goes for Hillary, as Senator & later SOS.

FBI raids where no crime can be proven, yet looks the other way when crimes are blatant. All depends upon whether the individual involved identifies as an "R" or a "D".

Nah...just gimme a 2-stack Mack with a window in the back & I'm good. If I need to spend a night out on the road, I'll stop at a Holiday Inn Express (or nicer) & be comfortable. If the run ain't profitable enough to house me comfortably outside of the truck, it's not profitable enough to keep me away from my own bed at home. Haven't slept in a truck in almost 20 years. Don't have plans to start again any time soon.

58 minutes ago, Joey Mack said:

Well that's a nice way of putting it..  I put up no trespassing signs one year on my 400 foot long road side fence, and one of my neighbors got pissed at me and shot two of them a bunch of times with his BB gun.. The law man told me there was nothing they could do about it..  This same neighbor shot my shop 3 times last fall, and the law man told me the same thing..  And I said to him,. Well it wasn't me who shot holes into my shop that earns my living..  He said he needed proof...    This neighbor has vandalized my property 6 times in ten years,. Same story from the law man every time..  anyway...  

I was out in the driveway wrenching on the Suburban several years ago...had the intake manifold off doing something (can't remember what). Anyway, I'd hear a shotgun blast...then I'd hear the little lead pellets raining down on my roof, vehicles, etc. So, I jumped on the Harley & took off toward where the shots were coming from. Start to pull into a driveway to head back by some grain bins (where the shots seemed to be coming from) and an old man steps out of the house onto the porch & asks if he can help me. I not-so-politely informed him that whoever was doing the shooting was doing so in my direction, and that I didn't appreciate the lead shower they were bestowing upon me...and that if it continued I'd be returning fire, but it sure as hell wouldn't be birdshot coming their way.

Shooting stopped & I've never had that problem again.👍

Psssh...🙄 Backing up is easy.