m16ty

As I said, the union leaders ( Casteel ) has nothing but praises to say, all the while the people I know that worked there tell a very different story. I don't disagree that $30 per hour could be considered overpaid for what they did but $10 per hr for skilled workers that had 15+ years with the company? Back during the '80s and '90s it was the typical big union plant. Overpaid workers that did absolutely nothing, having to call a electrician to plug in a extension cord, and having to call the janitor to pick a broom up that was left in the isle. The article alludes to that, 450 workers doing what it used to take 3,500 to do, so in a sense they did this to themselves.

Back during the heat of the last election we were doing some work in a TVA (big union) coal plant that was being closed directly because of the actions of the Obama administration. I talked to several that weren't at all happy about loosing their jobs and blamed Obama but you'd still be surprised at how many "union for Obama" bumper stickers you saw in the parking lot. That was then and this is now, I'm thinking when the layoff slips started getting passed out reality started setting in and they are changing their tune. We had a local Ford glass plant that sold out. A friend of mine went from making close to $30 a hr to $10. All the union would offer is to just be glad you still have a job (but keep sending in those dues). My friend walked. The worst part about it was before all this went down the company was offering $20K+ buyouts to people that would just quit but the union was telling everybody to just hold on and things would work out. Not only did he get the huge cut in pay, he walked with nothing because he didn't take the buyout when he had the chance. I have several friends that were once big union supporters and would vote a straight democrat ticket just like the union told them to. Every one I've talked to is voting Trump the time around and a couple are campaigning for him.

In the last few years the rank and file union members are getting screwed while the union leaders live high on the hog. For a long time the members fell for the crap the leaders are spewing but they are starting to wise up. We had a large local company go on strike a couple of years ago. The leaders talked them in to striking, they were on strike for 2 months, and finally went back to work for less money than they were offered before the strike. They lost 2 months of work and a raise, while the leaders never missed a paycheck. A lot of the rank and file still praised the leaders for their hard work but quite a few finally saw the light. All the union fat cats care about is to keep you sending in the dues.

Cruz should have stayed home. With all the bad blood that happened during the primary, he apparently is still sore about it. He would have been much better off to just have stayed home instead of asking for a speaking position and then not endorse Trump.

I tend to think this may be the best option. Swapping out to a 2-speed rear should be a lot easier and cheaper than trying to shoehorn a auxiliary box in there. A 2-speed rear should be pretty easy to locate fairly cheap.

Anybody here a member of The Truckers Report? I signed up there awhile back just to see what was going on. I've come to the realization that if the membership there is a snapshot of the trucking industry as a whole, we are in big trouble. I've never seen a bigger bunch of whiners and just downright idiots that claim to be professional owner operators. There are some people there that know what they are talking about but most you wonder how they have enough sense to get out of bed in the morning, much less operate a truck and stay in the black. I've gotten to where I just go there for comic relief and just shake my head at some of the stuff posted.

I think we have a winner. The IFS is the only down side I had with the Chevy. I have found straight axles to be much less problematic than IFS. Lots more moving parts on a IFS truck to wear out and break. as far as the big front ends, I think it may have something to do with trying to stuff bigger radiators in them. They've got them running awfully hot these days ( my Chevy runs at 210). It used to be that fuel mileage was paramount, now fuel mileage takes a back seat to emissions. While we are griping, what really bugs me are all the different tire sizes these days. My truck has 17" and the wife's Suburban has 20". What happened to the good old days where you just had small, medium, and large (14,15, & 16). I guess Chevy started screwing with that years ago with the 16.5. I once spent a couple of hours trying to get a spare tire mounted on a wheel I found, I finally realized I was trying mount a 16" tire on a 16.5" wheel. I threw the wheel in the scrap iron pile so to not run into that mistake again.

The Chevy listed is basically what I got. I think the sale price was $36K and change, was right at $40K by the time you added TTL. Even though my previous truck was a '98 Dodge Cummins and I liked it, I didn't even price a Dodge when I was shopping. My Dad had a Dodge Gasser and I wasn't impressed and the new diesels have too much emissions and electronics crap on them nowadays for my taste in a pickup. Lets face it, not many people buy a Dodge for the styling or the great body, they buy it for the Cummins engine. I'm not brand loyal, I've owned them all. After doing much research on all the brands, I decided that the Chevy was this best suit for me at the time, all things considered. While there is no denying that the powertrain and other moving parts are leaps and bounds better as far as longevity is concerned, they don't build the rest of the truck nearly as tough as they used to.

The corrosion properties of the aluminum Ford should not be overlooked. Aluminum will also corrode, just not as back as steel. Around here we don't get much snow but the state has gotten into the habit of dumping loads of salt and brine water on the roads when there is forcasted the slightest chance of snow, without regard to the damage they are doing to the vehicles that drive through it. Most people don't care as they trade every 3-4 years anyway but for people like me that keep them for 10+ years, I'd like for my truck not to fall apart around me.

I never was a fan of all the bells and whistles. I was shopping for a 2015 Chevy 2500, crew cab, 4X4. Price went from mid-30s to over 70K. All they had on the lot was 50K and up. I told them I didn't need all that crap. They ended up finding me one in the upper 30s without all that useless stuff that doesn't do a darned thing to help it haul a load down the road. At least Chevy does have a WT (stands for work truck) trim package offering.

I never understood why they always show 1/2 ton pickups in the work truck ads. If you are buying a work truck, you need 3/4 ton minimum. I guess the ads are actually aimed at homeowners that the most they will ever haul is garbage to the dump. It works with them because they think they are buying a actual work truck, they aren't. They are buying a modern day El Camino, a car with a bed.

Well I did a little bit of investigating and UPS claims liability, image, and secret tech in the trucks as to why they destroy them. I call a BS on all accounts. Anybody knows you aren't legally liable for a used truck you sell. I don't buy the image deal either because all you'd have to do is paint it or have that as a stipulation of purchase. And does anybody actually believe their trucks have secret technology? I also find it odd that they go to great lengths to remove any reference to the brand of the truck, although I've been seeing them slipping on this a little lately.

UPS is like this. Our local scrap yard gets some of the UPS contracts. I've seen them drive the trucks to the yard to be scrapped, good decent trucks with new tires. UPS's agreement states that not so much as a tail light lense can be salvaged. Many times they will have a UPS representative on site to witness the destruction. They take a hole saw and saw through the sidewall of the tires, some of them look brand new. I don't know for sure why they do this but a guy told me that it's a agreement UPS has with the manufacturers. They sell them the trucks at such a great deal and UPS agrees to destroy them when they are finished as to not flood the market with trucks. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me as it's got to cost UPS millions. My wife's uncle drove for UPS. He said they had a roll of duct tape and some black plastic in all the trucks. The directive was that if they were ever in a accident and not injured, they were to cover up all the UPS decals. Like anybody would be fooled by a big brown truck with the name covered up. They do have some strange ways.

I agree. This could actually more dangerous than a normal car. You'd be more prone to fall asleep or otherwise not paying attention if you are just sitting there monitoring the autopilot and not actually engaged in the driving. These things are just a novelty at this point. Just something you can brag to your friends that you have a car with autopilot. Tesla says they've sold 20,000 of these things. That's a whole lot of them running around to watch out for.

At the risk of getting flamed, I really liked the DC Autocar the best.

Filters are relatively cheap, if there were any question at all about them I'd trash them. Last thing I'd want is rust introduced into the fuel, oil, or air.

I just watched this movie for the first time in a long time today. I did notice the B and the DC Autocar, I never had paid that much attention before. There were also several DM and R. It got my curiosity up so I did a search and found this thread.

In the Spicer 1241, my problem bearing was where the input and mainshaft go together. I don't see how you could change it out with anything else without some major machine work. There just isn't enough room to put anything else.

I know of a couple of people that own AL Fords and I wasn't impressed with the strength of materials. Of course I own a 2015 Chevy and it's steel bed is pretty light also. Two days after I got it, I had a cooler in the back and had to get on the brakes hard. It bent the front of the bed almost into the cab. It bent so easily I pulled it back out (as good as I could) by hand. It's still not perfect but when I added the toolbox it covered it up. I guess the bottom line is they don't build anything like they used to.

We call them both tags around here. About the only time I hear pusher is on forums like this. It does make sense that a tag axle would tag along behind but if you say pusher around here people will just look at you funny.

Yep, I just got finished rebuilding a Spicer 1241c where that bearing was trashed and took the mainshaft and input shaft along with it ($1,500 for the two shafts, $20 for the bearing). Also, you'll notice when you take the top off that the OD gear is about half the width of all the others.

From what I've read, the whole filming of the movie was a disaster but it was somehow edited into a good movie. They wrecked a lot of trucks, some of them on loan. I read they they returned the destroyed trucks to the owners with nothing more than "sorry".

My brother has a B61 with the exposed radiator. It was ordered new that way.

We converted a '83 FL from Rayco suspension to air ride. It may have helped the ride a little but it wasn't enough to be worth the trouble. I think a air ride cab Would make much more difference. Our RD822 is rubber mount cab on walking beams, about as solid as you can connect your butt to the road. If I run accross a air cab setup, I'm going to put it on there.

IMO, 12v systems have been outdated for heavy equipment and trucks for years. I never understood why truck companies haven't swapped to a all 24v system. Only thing I can think of holding them back is all the 12v trailers out there that would need to be converted.