TeamsterGrrrl

California sends more tax dollars to the federal government than they get back in federal spending. Thus if California, Oregon, and Washington secede the federal government will probably be bankrupted.

"Northern California" includes San Francisco and Sacremento as well as Silicon Valley... Not exactly bastions of conservatism! If a couple rural counties along the Nevada border don't want to join the emerging state of Cascadia, no big deal...

Are they able to pass the PBS stability standards with a long A-Train like this, or does the dolly have some steering capability to perhaps stabilize the trailers?

Florida allows heavy axle loads too, and the DM685SX usually came with higher rated axles than a "mere" DM685S.

A lot of railroads ran for hire trucking and bus operations, especially when the ICC still had some power and would force them to provide substitute truck and/or bus service when they abandoned a line. Even today the railroads maintain good sized private fleets- Couple years back when BNSF had to do a lot of rerouting due to flooding they had their "school buses" and even executive jet in use to shuttle crews around!

Might even get me to buy GM again, my family still hasn't totally forgiven GM for killing the Corvair...

May have originally been a "bruck" (bus/truck combination). NP and GN had a few of them to provide passenger and LTL freight service on branch lines where the freight volume was too low to support daily train service.

How old is it?

More infrastructure we need to catch up on... Floods don't care who you voted for.

Several Private Carriers do that, though sometimes not aimed at the consumer market- Schwan Foods does quite a bit of hauling for their suppliers to fill out empty backhauls. I had a brainstorm of doing something like Fastenal while I worked at Hostess back in the 80s- Drop off you parcels anywhere Wonder Bread is sold and we'll deliver within a day or three anywhere Wonder Bread is sold. We could have beat UPS, etc. on price and still made a profit, being as we were just adding more freight to trips we were already making. Like many of my ideas at Hostess, it went nowhere. Today UPS is hauling semi loads of bread for Bimbo, I suspect it's a "foot in the door" to put the store deliveries via step van on UPS trucks.

"Reliable Legend" (I heard it from a couple different sources) has it that back in the 70s Twin Cities-Fargo trucking bought a fleet of new Mack Western F series cabovers with Mack V8s. TCF was notoriously cheap and thought the V8s too powerful, so they yanked them and replaced them with 237 HP Maxidynes. Some or all of the V8s went to the Minneapolis IH dealer where they found their way into Transtar conventional gliders.

I suspect they're going for a 5 foot length increase because that's about the most they can go without having to add another axle and/or jeopardizing the structural integrity of the trailers. For the truckload carrier opponents with their 53 foot trailers, I suspect they're trying to get a little more use out of trailers they bought 20-30 years ago. Aluminum recycles well, better to move to the world standard 40 foot box in doubles configuration and catch up with the rest of the world. As for what type of doubles, a B-Train would be best unless they can make an A-Train work by stability control or a "smart dolly".

That'd cost money, and these carriers hope to get by with just splicing 5' into their 28' trailers instead of buying new. The degree to which all the carriers seem wedded to their trailer length amazes me- They behave like aluminum cultists!

The Truckload Carriers, in formal language, 'fess up that their undertrained drivers ain't up to doubles. Sorry, but you get what you pay for...

No problem! ("Cept Volvo won't let 'em build it).

Volvo needs to give truck buyers what they want instead of trying to tell truck buyers want they need.

Interesting that Renault brand sales are growing while Volvo brand sales are falling. The trucks are similar, so are Renaults selling because they're cheaper than the equivalent Volvo, or do buyers think the Renault version is a better truck?

Y'll makin' some pretty heavy use of your "alternative facts". Next thing you'll be screaming about the Bowling Green Massacre...

Looking up the parts list for a factory dual system will give you a "plan" to work with, but Mack probably doesn't have most of the parts anymore and they'll be pricey if they do. You'll probably have to go to an exhaust system supplier like Riker, etc..

No, he followed Ford Motor Company's high ethical standards, which have won Ford many awards. Certainly didn't hurt Ford sales any, look at the demographics and in the long run the "snowflakes" will spend much more on Ford mobility than you old "clinkers"!

Did your ancestors come here before 1890? Before 1890 "immigration" was a joke, residency and citizenship were conferred by cities and states with no uniform standards. If one state or city wouldn't let you in, you just went to another. So truth is, a lot of our ancestors would not have even been allowed off the boat by today's immigration laws.

How's the pension? Health insurance?

Problem is, Trump probably caught not a single terrorist in his net, but managed to keep hundreds of visa holding U.S. residents, students, doctors, engineers, seniors, and children coming or returning to the U.S. for work, education, medical care, or simply to reunite their families. Trump did us no favors, and only succeeded in ticking off the rest of the world at us.

In the 80s? That was the Reagan administration!