BillyT

Happy birthday Rick!

My dad bought me a Sears toolbox and a set of sockets and end wrenches when I was about 13. They were stolen out of my car when I was about22! Since my wife worked at Sears every time something went on closeout that I could use she got It for me! My last Sears gift is a heat senser. I had no idea what it was! One of the members mentioned that you could use it to see how well each cylinder was firing! Cool! Va patentman,I feel your pain! The "Vise grip" hasn't been an actual vise grip for decades! Vise grip style pliers have carried the craftsman and other brand names for years! Another example of a brand name indicating a style of tool was the Milwaukee "sawzall" indicating a reciprocating saw! Other brands have sold these saws,including Craftsman,which was a p.o.s.! Although some Craftsman power tools have been high quality, like my mitre saw and 40 year old 4.5" grinder,both made in Japan! Quite frankly, I think fewer Americans actually care where anything is made except a handful of old f..ks like me and many of our members! There may be hope,as I see Toyota and Mazda have a joint venture to build cars near Huntsville Al!

Missed a turn in Kansas one time with a dry van, (road sign bent around) rural two lane, so I go to the next intersection, go left,straighten out and back across the intersection was just breaking dawn and what I thought was the edge of the road was a snow covered ditch! My left tandem goes in the ditch! Had over 40k in the wagon, couldn't pull out! So I call a wrecker. This kid shows in a 250k tandem "hook" ( was the 90s!) He parks on the highway facing the same way as me about the middle of the trailer,and proceeds to throw the cable OVER the trailer!!! Wait a damn minute man, I want pulled out of the ditch, with the rig intact!,not squashed flat by the cable! So I have to train him how to hook a snatch block to his bumper and run the cable to the frame under the trailer came right out! Wonder how much this guy cost his company!

Freightrain about 20 years ago my wife gave me a "gift" of one of those sheds! The freaking nuts and bolts reminded me of the old "erector sets," if anyone's old enough to remember those! What a nightmare! How could anything that simple be such a pain to assemble! I did it with a screwdriver and socket wrench!

P and LE in McKee rocks pa we had to straighten grab rails and ladder rungs all time from when they rocked and hit an adjacent car!

Trains do pass very close! When I was a freight car repairman on the

OD,I talked my sister in Pittsburgh last, night was -1 Thursday so you musta froze your keister when you got there! Couple days ago our pipes at the well froze a little bit in Florida! Quickly melted when the sun came out! Coldest I've ever been was around 1990 loading conversion vans in Bristol Indiana,chains not straps! Was -25 in Chicago 100 miles away! Got minor frostbite on my hands! Couldn't count the "gelled up" trucks I saw on my way to Florida! What were they thinking!? Never heard of additive?

Truck shop that's awesome! My favorite is the Diamond T! My cousins first flatbed was a 38 ft Brown! FWD I like the Seagraves one almost missed the FWD, it being red!

The bridge across the Mississippi on the Arkansas side says "home of president Bill Clinton!

Freightrain, one of my short list of heroes just got elected to the motorsports hall of fame! ..."lil"John Buttera! Who else would qualify a car at Indy, with a 258 rambler block! Obviously not stock! Bob told me he drove his model A roadster from California to Cleveland,where he got to see it! There is a whole gallery of the cars he built on Google! Bob says hello by the way!

!,Hancock,ya' gotta' wonder about his employment status! When the Qualcomm truck computer came out there Must have been some accidents when drivers tried to read and send messages while driving, so some companies installed a device that prevented it from being used when the truck was moving! They should do that to a cell phone to prevent texting or even driving while talking! However you're dealing with private individuals not employees! I'm anti "big brother" as much as the next guy but you can't assume common sense will prevail!...ever? I consider  drls (daytime running lights) a good safety measure,  but I had a tractor where they wouldn't shut off when stopped! So I back into a spot at a t.s. and they are shining into a sleeping drivers window! It was 15 degrees so I didn't shut the truck off, I taped some cardboard over them!

Hayseed,Ez Rider, my cousin used to pull a dump trailer maybe 38 ft, he was dumping coal and there was an air pocket under one one of his trailer tandem! About halfway up, the tandem went down in the air pocket and the trailer twisted sideways and laid flat on the ground!, probably resembled the pictured wreck! As he wasn't at highway speed the Astro tractor sat flat and sustained no damage! It remained hooked up ! We all know the fifth wheel is an "overbuilt component,"but this proves it! The Astro was a single frame road tractor! Perhaps the fact that he and his driver never pulled out grossing less than 96000 (in the 73280 days had something to do with it!Lol the trailer had to go back to Fruehof and be straightened,sure wouldn't have wanted to see that bill!

Looks like a 9670 cab on the turbostar! KSB, was the solar turbine ever practical? I'm thinking of today's cheap efficient solar collectors on the top of both the tractor and trailer!

Very nice drawing, thought he just added the hump on the sleeper wasn't aware they actually made an F with that feature! European cabovers seem to be more imaginative, probably because Europeans are willing to drive them!

I learn something new every day on this site! I think the bulldog would die of embarrassment without a third pedal!,however there are a lot of mack fire trucks with Allison's!

Freightrain, before I forget my friend Bob asked if I had "talked" to you online, said I hadn't. On the subject of Jack stands when I was about 8,my dad gave me the safety talk which included always use Jack stands! One dude who was leased to the same company as me had a stainless steel cap on his skull complete with little Phillips screws all around it! Had a chevelle fall on him! His brother 5'7" 160 lbs lifted it up long enough for him to crawl out! Both of them were contractors, Bob was our agent. Another buddy of mine was in a junkyard removing a brake cable trying to save less than 20.00, car fell on him,he didn't make it! Fxfymn, my next door neighbor with a two story house was trying  to get the logs started in his fireplace........With gasoline! We heard this sound like a freight train, looked over to see a three foot flame coming out of his chimney! Somehow he managed to not burn his house down!Lol as for the coke bottle deal I've heard the surgeons have a high speed drill to put a hole in the bottom to break the suction,but doesn't do anything for the embarrassment!

Freightrain, before I forget my friend Bob asked if I had "talked" to you online, said I hadn't. On the subject of Jack stands when I was about 8,my dad gave me the safety talk which included always use Jack stands! One dude who was leased to the same company as me had a stainless steel cap on his skull complete with little Phillips screws all around it! Had a chevelle fall on him! His brother 5'7" 160 lbs lifted it up long enough for him to crawl out! Both of them were contractors, Bob was our agent. Another buddy of mine was in a junkyard removing a brake cable trying to save less than 20.00, car fell on him,he didn't make it!

Happy birthday Hobert!

Mrs,mack I'm guessing the Joey in question is the aux.. box behind the Clark main and not a boy kangaroo!Lol!

Ksb I'm glad China has "seen the light" environmentally, but I suspect it has more to do with global image than concern for their citizens welfare! I spoke too soon about the envision, a lady at my grand children's school has one! I'll bet she doesn't know where it was built! I'm not disputing its quality, but there are similar sport utilities of almost every make and price range built in America and in countries where the workers are properly paid,why would you buy one made in China?,don't they already have enough of our manufacturing dollars? Having said that, I support her right to spend her money any way she chooses she lives in America! But I am one of the apparently dwindling few who still look at the packaging of a product to determine its origin I bought a pack of Bic pens today made in Taiwan!

Forgot all about Art Bell! May have been him I was listening to about 3am near Uniontown Pa and he was talking about " The Republic of Texas" anybody remember that? According to some guy from Ohio, Texas never became a state "legally" and you could homestead someone's property because he didn't actually own it since Texas wasn't a state! Last I heard he tried to do that and was serving a little time!20 yrs lol

Frenchy, I have a 2" thick novel " The year of the French" that describes those events!

Dave, did you see the episode where Mike went inside the Mackinaw bridge with a maintenance guy to see how they maintain the plumbing and electrical lines that go through it! It never occurred to me the bridge was hollow!,but it actually is obvious!

The movie "Updraft" was based on ODs incident, Clint Eastwood wanted to play OD but Steve McQueen got the part!